A Dolphins Dream (42 page)

Sinaca stood quietly while he pondered yet another Fijian paradox.

"How did you get away? Moses said you were being carefully watched."

"They must sleep, eh. When they sleep, I run, swim."

Sinaca's face radiated in the lantern light, her full mouth open slightly. There was confession in her breaths. Under curling lashes her eyes spoke to Compton in undertones of desire and he put his arm across her shoulders and lifted her mouth with his hand so that he could kiss it. The salttaste of her lips combined with the sweetness of her mouth was an aphrodisiac eagerly swallowed. She yielded to his kiss and freed herself from the towel and put her arms around him. He expected her body to be cold from the damp clothes but it was hot and steam rose from her armpits and between her breasts. Compton lost himself in her heat and was filled with a passion that was a mindless and exotic thing that rendered his sense of touch acute and wondrous. Sinaca's breasts were both hard and soft and where her nipples rose and pierced his palms, were both smooth and rough.

She led him onto the sand where she lay in the moonlight at the edge of the slipping shore. Compton lay beside her and began to kiss her again. He rolled onto her and kissed the sea salt from her neck and undid her blouse as she wrapped her arms around his back and pulled at his skin, turning it to fire. He knelt over her and removed her blouse and dress and with each article she became sleeker, more fluid, as if her flesh were turning to molten carbon. He fumbled clumsily at his own clothes as if his hands were meant for her body alone. She lay naked and black against the white sand. The sudden contrast aroused him further and he reached his hand down as a child might and stroked her legs, his fingers brushing the tight curls between her legs. She gave a small shudder, caressing his leg and running her hand up and over his stiffening member. They both watched it enfold from its whiteness as if it were an exotic shell the sea had washed up and made magic.

The spell was broken when a large wave crashed and caught them by surprise. Sinaca held him and they rolled in the sand and water, across the flat rock that was covered by the incoming tide and into deeper water. No thoughts of danger entered his mind. His only desire was to hold her and not lose the bond of her warmth.

Dreamlike they floated through the coral maze in water as warm as a womb and came to the small canyon of deep water that was protected from the current. She turned to him and, with both arms around his neck, kissed him again. He did not know how they stayed afloat nor did he care and when they kissed again and sank beneath the surface he did not leave her mouth. Their hands slid over each other like anguished eels. Wherever they touched became a heat that conquered the coolness of the water. He felt no need for air or sense that he was under the water or that he was rising or falling in the sea. Sinaca's body was strong and at times she seemed to carry his full weight under the water and could lift him to the surface in a way he did not know. He penetrated her and her legs locked around his hips. In the wild water they thrashed and sank and rolled, having lost any notion of where they were. In great shrieks of animal sounds they reached their peaks of desire and spent them, lost and storm-tossed, orbiting in spirals to the sandy bottom twenty feet below.

When they returned to the surface they floated next to one another in the manner of lolling whales, their hands resting on the other's breast as if to feel the heart beat. They lay in the undulating water, their breaths in perfect harmony, communicating in the way of animals, without thoughts and words. Then Sinaca took Compton's hand and led him back to the beach where they sat on the sand and let the night breeze waft them dry.

"I leave soon," she said softly. "I must be in the bure before the light comes."

Compton turned and placed his hand on her breast again and looked at it for a long while.

"I can't let you go," he whispered. "Something has happened to me. I've never had such feelings. They're so strong."

Sinaca placed her hand on top of his and held it.

"I must leave. It be very bad if I stay, eh."

"I know." Compton's voice whispered in disheartening acceptance. "Moses says that for me to get back in the good graces of the village I must give a gift. But he won't tell me what it should be.  Do you know?"

"To honor the village, you bure bethink like Fiji man. The answer will come."

"And if it doesn't. What about us?"

Sinaca lowered her head and did not answer for a long moment.  "I don't know such things. I know that if you go to the far reef you will find what you want."

"The mackerel, yes, I know it, too. I can feel it. It's a strange thing."

"Be careful, Keli. It is very dangerous water. You could also die."

She stood and picked up her clothes and walked into the water leaving him before he could respond.

He shouted after her, "Io, vinaka, Sinaca," and then softer so that she could not hear, "I love you."

 Moses arrived two days later with a boat cleaned of its clutter and outfitted for the voyage.

"We have fresh water, plenty of coconuts and tools and fishing gear to catch the fish to eat. Also buckets for bailing and cloth for the wood to fix if the seams split and we leak."

Compton brought tea to the table.

"You make it sound like we're heading out into the North Atlantic. I thought this was the South Pacific?

"It is a very strong ocean, brother. Break up our little boat like it was a bit of straw in a hurricane.

"You sound worried, Moses. I've never seen you worried."

“The unknown is worrisome, eh. I can feel this Qamea water when it is ready to do something. That outside water has currents that can push my small boat wherever it wants. I have no feeling for its moods. There are reefs out there that no one knows. They come up high and the waves build very big and give no warning."

"We'll be fine," assured Compton. "I know it."

"Has the voice spoken to you?"

"No, not really. What about you?"

"No, and it is troublesome, eh."

In the silence of the moment Moses caught Compton’s eyes and then nodded. “There is something, eh. What is it, Keli?”

Compton smiled, never quite used to the employment of Moses’ gifts. "Sinaca came two days ago. We went out into the water at night and made love. As you can plainly see, I am still here. No Sea God ate me. She is a beautiful woman who the village is afraid of simply because she can spear fish like a man. Come on, I want to hear you admit you were wrong."

Moses cut a piece of meat from an opened coconut and chewed rapidly, not speaking until he had swallowed.

"You made love in the water, did you?"

Compton was mildly surprised at Moses’ inquiry.

"Yeah, and it was incredible!"

"When you touched the dolphin the last week I began to think. Very dangerous for me to do that but soon I am understanding what is the liking between you and Sinaca."

"Well, what's this theory of yours. Let's hear it."

"You might not like what is it. It will disturb your ideas."          

"I doubt that. I'm so in love with her nothing will disturb me."

"Do you understand that if Sinaca is of the Sea God then she can only fall in love and have sex with a dolphin?"

"Moses, this might come as a shock to you but I am not a dolphin. I am a man, flesh and blood."

Moses worked his jaw muscles and licked his lips while glancing at the sea. Finally he returned his gaze directly to Compton. "It is known among the old ones that the creatures of the sky and earth and sea visit our homes and villages to know what it is to be human by dreaming a person into life."

"What do you mean, ‘dreaming them into life?’"

"At a time when a human is near death a creature can dream them back to life. You say you almost died before you came to Fiji, eh."

"Yes."

"It was in that time that a dolphin dreamed you back to life."

Compton was staggered by the absurdity of Moses’ declaration.

"That's incredible! You're telling me that I'm actually the dream of a dolphin! Compton dramatically pinched himself on the arm and then slammed his hand down on the table. "I'm as real as this table!"

"Keli, you dream are not the people and the things in the dream real while you are dreaming? You feel them and they bring fear or joy, eh. The dream only lasts a short while but while it lasts, they are as real as this table."

"Yeah, I suppose so," conceded Compton, still agitated. "But that's got nothing to do with this. This is real life," sweeping his arm to the entire panorama.

"Do the people in your dreams know they are being dreamed?"

Compton cast a disconcerted look at Moses, then stirred the shells on the table. 

"This is bullshit. You're saying that I'm being dreamed by a dolphin."  

Moses remained impassive.

"How do you know it's a dolphin?" asked Compton, now feigning mild amusement.  Moses looked out to the sea again and licked his lips, then turned to Compton, his countenance changing to a deeply resolved man who had a task before him. “Esther saw it first. She and Mariah have the gift of seeing those who are dreamed. Since Mariah was a little girl, the people whose lives are confused come from all the islands to find out if they are dreamed and to get a reason for their confusion. You are the first white man she has ever seen who was being dreamed. Esther has the gift as well but did not know what to do with you when she saw. She wasn’t sure with the white people. So she sent you to Qamea for Mariah to have a look. She see that the dolphin dream you but still she did not know what to do. ‘He is not a full man’, she say, ‘and he will not believe if we say the truth.’ She say, ‘Moses, you make him a Fiji man so he can hear the truth. If you do not do this then we send him back and the dream will soon end and he will die.’  So I say yes and then we trick you. We bring Abraham who tells you that you will meet a man. He knows nothing but the sea, but he knows the man you meet will be yourself, a Fiji man once the sea change you. I tell you what to do, get you on Orchid Beach so you can become Fiji man but also the dolphin has been with you, each time to help keep you here. So you come to Orchid Beach and become a man, not just a Fiji man, but a true man. The creatures pick the special people, they do not dream anyone to life who is not worth visiting. That was why we never see a white man before. They are no longer men, their lives are false, they are confused and frightened and who wants to have a dream like that?”

Compton slowly stood and took in the surroundings as if he were unsure of the beach he was standing on, like someone who had just awakened and was between two worlds.

“This has all been a trick? It has been you this entire time, staging this whole affair?”

“There was no other way. Would you have believed me when you first came? No! Your pride was too great. You would have laughed at us, believing that we were ignorant and superstitious people. You would have felt greater than us, maybe even sorry for us, and then you would have left. You would be dead by now. The only way was to trick you. You believed that you were a man and that you had a worthy life and that you understood the world but you know now that you did not. You understood nothing, you had no life and you were not a true man.”

Compton shook his head and collapsed on the table staring at the collected shells, fingering them, then picking one up, turned it slowly in his hand. In the turning, he shook his head again, then looked directly at Moses. “No, I am not a dream! I have not been dreamed into life!”

Moses came and put his arm across Compton’s shoulder. “It is not a bad thing. In one way we are all dreamed. The father dreams his son into life. The mother dreams her daughter into a better life. The parents were dreamed by their parents. The ugly one dreams the beautiful one. The foolish dream the cautious. The ignorant dream the wise. White skin dreams dark skin and dark skin dreams white skin. The incomplete man dreams God. We all dream each other. Only a few can step out of the old dream and into a new one. You are in a new dream that is all. Enjoy it.”

Compton grabbed his chest. “Are these scars a dream? I have never felt so real in my life.”

“That is because you are. Do not judge everything by the physical part of life. The flesh is frail, hardly more than a dream itself. There is a man in the village who has touched a turtle's head and is also being dreamed. It is the same thing when a wild bird lands on a man's shoulder or a snake crosses the foot but does not bite. They are creatures that are dreaming that person. It is an honor for the man to have the creature give him new life. But it is a different life than the one he had before."

"What do you mean, different? "

"He is apart from his brothers and sisters. The pettiness and troubles of the world are not his. Have you not noticed a difference in yourself?”

Compton clung desperately to the last vestiges of the reality he once knew and believed in like a drowning man might cling to a leaking inner tube. 

"I've changed because I've been living in this incredible environment and hanging around you. It's you and the natural world that has changed me."

"What made you so ready for the changes? No white man could have changed as quick as you."

"Well, I think that depends on the white man, doesn't it? And who is this man that is being dreamed by a turtle?"

"You know him, Aprosa. If you watch him, he does not drink kava or spend time with the people of the village. He is of the water and must make love to the sea."

"Aprosa?" Had Moses named anyone else, Compton could have argued his case but Aprosa was different than the others. And it was the truth in this simple declaration that nudged him over the precipice of his old reality and into the valley of doubt. Sighing he asked, "So, what happens when the dolphin stops dreaming me?"

"Sometimes the dream lasts the life of the creature, sometimes a week. When the dolphin decides it has visited enough, it ends the dream and your body just disappears."

The idea of being dreamed had ramifications that were frightening to consider. Compton, with rational options closing down and nowhere to go, glanced at his hand that still held the broken shell, squeezed it tightly, smiled. “You had me going there with Aprosa but I still don’t buy it.”