Call of the Dolphin

       A little more than week ago, a teenager I’ve known since he was very young lost control when snowboarding and crashed into a fence. He’s been in a medically induced coma ever since. I read his family’s blog each morning and admire their strength. While Forrest was never in my class, our lives have intersected often. I taught his older brother Austin, who loved exploring the natural world. Their mother funded a summer ecology program I attended in Bermuda, including an afternoon spent at her dolphin project. And Forrest played Jem to my son Willem’s Atticus in a youth theater production of To Kill a Mockingbird.

    This morning on their blog, I listened to members of Dolphin Quest singing to Forrest. Dolphins sang on the recording, too. I have no doubt that Forrest has spent many hours in the company of dolphins at his mother’s facilities.

    Today, before I went to school to get ready for the coming week, I put on this pair of earrings. I think I bought them for myself in celebration of my favorite animal, but honestly I don’t remember. I wore them today for Forrest, hoping that hearing those dolphin calls might summon him back to his family.

    When I looked at this photo, at first I thought it was too dark. But I kept it, the dolphins circling, as if bathed in moonlight.