Grayson by Lynne Cox Page B

breath of air and spouted. Her
poof
echoed through the pier and her fountain of water was caught by the wind. It showered the people in the boats and they laughed with delight, in awe at her size and sweet nature.
    She slipped through the water as if the ocean were part of her being. As if they were one and the same. And as she swam, she made me think of Grayson, how he was a beautiful swimmer too. And how he must have learned from her. In that moment I realized how amazing life is, how filled with unexpected wonders, and how fortunate I was to be in the ocean that day.
    With one lift and push of her tremendous fluke themother slid through the water. Her footprints were enormous, maybe seven or eight feet wide. I watched Grayson follow her. His footprints were perhaps two feet wide.
    She suddenly swam right under me. I took a breath and looked down. All I could see was the gray top of her head. She was only three feet below. I reached and could almost touch her. All in the same moment, I was fascinated, thrilled, and scared beyond belief. I had never swum with anything as big as her in my life. My heart was pounding in my chest.
    With two or three thrusts of her fluke she was swimming fast, moving at four or five knots, but she was so big it took three seconds for her head, back, and fluke to pass under my body. She turned abruptly and swam very slowly two feet from me. She was right beside me. For a moment, I touched her cheek. It felt rubbery and rough where there were barnacles. She tilted her head and she was looking into my eyes. There was a glimmer of light in her big brown eye. I felt a connection between us, just as I had with Grayson. She looked at me. I looked at her. We held each other’s gaze.
    It seemed like she was saying thank you—at leastthat’s what I felt. I was so elated, hoping, barely able to believe that she was really there.
    She swam one more time around us in a circle with Grayson nestled against her side. She seemed to be showing us that she had Grayson now, and everything was going to be all right.
    She gently nudged Grayson and he swam closer beside her, up near her head. He made a soft grunting sound. She replied. He said something else; now, looking back, I think it was goodbye.
    As strongly as I could think, as strongly as I could feel, I thought and felt, Farewell, Grayson; farewell, Grayson’s mom. In a very short time you have shown me things I would never have discovered on my own. You have taught me how to listen and feel and understand without using words. Even if words could reach to eternity there would not be enough to express the way I feel about you.
    They swam under the boats and under me, and I just hoped they could feel what I felt for them: You’re going far away, but you will always be in my heart and in my dreams. When I think of you I will smile and always remember this day.

ten
    Grayson and his mother spouted, and the sun caught their heart-shaped spray just right. There were two rainbows in the spray, side by side, one big and one little. I could see how happy they were to be together again, how excited Grayson was, and how much his mother cared for him.
    They swam beyond the lifeguard boat north toward the jetty. Grayson rode in his mother’s wide and strong slipstream, and the lifeguards followed in their boat.
    Grayson was gone. It was all that I had hoped for. All that I’d spent hours believing could happen. I watched him swimming into the silvery water, cuttingeffortlessly across the cross currents, growing smaller and smaller by the minute as the sea expanded behind him. I knew I might never see him again. But I knew that there were experiences in a lifetime that no matter where you are, no matter what else happens, you carry them with you forever.
    Steve’s arms were resting on the pier railing, and his hand was cupped over his eyes to shield them from the blinding glare. He looked down at me and nodded confidently; his mustache curled when he smiled. He knew