La Isla Bonita
The old Mexican man spoke no English, but no words were needed. The silence was what Tommy St. James preferred on the small boat this morning. As they left the shore, she saw Kelly standing near the dock with his blue windbreaker on and his arms folded across his chest.
This was something she needed to do alone. She clutched her mother’s ashes in their gaudy tin. After a few minutes, she turned to the old man.
“Are we close?”
He held his fingers to his lips and then to his ear, gesturing that she should listen. In the distance, she heard a clap of water, as if a giant tail had slapped down nearby.
She unwrapped the ashes and gently poured them over the side of the boat, close enough to the waves that they would not escape into the air.
“Here, mama. Now you can find peace. Nobody can ever hurt you again. The whales will protect your spirit and guide you wherever you need to go.”
She watched the ashes quickly dissolve into the water until they had become a part of the sea. A tear splashed after them. She quickly wiped the others away.
Then suddenly, the old man reached over and gently touched her shoulder until she looked where he gestured. On the other side of the boat, a giant gray whale had surfaced. A giant black eye looked right at Tommy St. James. Her breath caught in her throat. She was afraid to move. She didn’t want to startle the large, gentle creature. As she looked deep into that one eye, she felt as if the whale was trying to communicate with her. She was mesmerized. She had never seen such intelligence in the eye of an animal. It seemed as if the whale were telling her she was not alone. It was telling her it was not Tommy’s fault that her mother died. A sob caught in Tommy’s throat as an image of her mother filled her mind’s eye. Her mother told her it was time for Tommy to forgive herself.
Then, with what she swore was a glimmer of understanding, the whale slowly sank back under the sea and nothing was left but the smooth silky glass surface.
Her heart suddenly filled with love and joy, Tommy St. James turned to the old man and asked him to take her home. She needed to go back to shore and sleep. So she could dream.