I can’t breathe. My stomach is churning. I am just standing here, waiting for it to start. This is my first show of the summer, and I am not looking forward to starting a whole new year of doing the same thing every day. I have to work for food; it makes me feel like a slave.

“Good morning everyone. Welcome to our show,” Zack, my trainer’s, voice boomed in the speakers. I gave my best dolphin friend, Jamie, a look to say, “Here we go again,” and he gave me a nod of encouragement.

“Please welcome,” the announcer paused for a drum roll, “Calvin the dolphin!”

The gate opened in front of me and all I saw was open water, bright blue, artificially salted water with fake waves. I swam out to center pool to do my first trick. The crowd roared. I looked at the faces the audience and saw their excitement. I remember how happy it used to make me feel to see the children smiling because of me, but I just don’t feel the rush anymore. I’ve always wondered what it’s like to swim in the endless, ocean water.
Jamie was rescued. He talks about the ocean sometimes. He says the water is filled with magnificent creatures, all living in peace. Once, he even described what it sounds like.
“It’s as if you’re in a bubble, hearing only the echoes of the whale songs, and the moving water,” Jamie had said. One day, I’ll swim in the ocean. That one day could be today.
I watched as Jamie reached into the bag. He threw me a big, juicy salmon, and I quickly gulped it down in one, delicious bite. I couldn’t leave Zack. He had raised me since I was just a small calf. He loved me like a son, but I can’t spend my whole life in this prison.
I made my decision, and I knew how to escape. Jamie would help me.
The next day, I put my plan into action. Jamie found some grime on the bottom of the pool to make it look like I had a broken flipper. I limped over to Zack and started to fake cry from the pain. He fell for my whimpering, big-eyed, puffer fish face.
Just like Jamie had predicted, they took me to the recovery center that was right on the beach. Now was my chance. All I had to do was leap out of the tank, try not to hit the jagged edges on the cliff, and fall safely into the ocean. All these years that I have been jumping out of the water and doing tricks in front of hundreds of people leads up to this. It’s just one jump.
I finally worked up the guts to make the jump. I swam down to very bottom of the tank, and then I shot up like a bullet. I flew over the cliff. I was so lost in the fact that I was flying, that I didn’t look down at the rocks below me.
“Ow!” I felt a burning sensation in my left flipper. I watched as a long, slender creature with no appendages squirmed away from me. Then, I looked up and saw her, the most beautiful dolphin I’ve ever seen. She had the cutest little heart-shaped birthmark on her forehead.
“Hi I’m Sammie,” she introduced herself and shook my flipper. “Sorry about that, it was an eel. I needed something to wake you up,” she explained. Sammie paused, waiting for me to say something. I tried to talk but the words wouldn’t come out. It was as if my heart was stuck in my throat. Her mouth was moving, but the world was muted. It looked like a spotlight was on her face, and everything else was a blur.
“Hi,” I blurted out.
“I said, what’s your name?” she repeated, giggling.

“I’m uh… I’m...” I couldn’t believe I forgot my own name! “CALVIN! I’m Calvin,” I continued. She waited for more. “Hey look a fish!” I shouted, trying to change the subject.

She giggled again. Why is she laughing so much? “You’re new here aren’t you? I’ll show you around,” she offered.

She showed me the reef where she had found the eel. Sammie stated, “This is where all the little fellows live, like the clown fish, crabs, and octopuses.”

After a long day of exploring the ocean, Sammie showed me her home and told me I could stay for the night.

Laying in the sand, I thought about what Jamie had told me, right before I had limped over to Zack, “Everything isn’t always what it seems,” I remembered. What did he mean by that? Hmmm.

Eeek! A scream woke me up early in the morning from my deep sleep. The sun hadn’t even woken up yet. It’s so early! What was that? I looked down and saw a mangled dolphin body. A piece of skin floated up towards me. It had a small heart shaped birthmark on it.

“SAM-,” I didn’t even have time to finish crying her name when it dawned on me that she couldn’t have just passed out. I felt warm water flowing on my neck, and I slowly turned around, to see two rows of razor-sharp teeth almost surrounding my head. The mouth belonged to a giant, great white shark. It was a large male, which had obviously been in many fights. I swam as fast as I could away from the scarred body, but I knew I couldn’t swim forever. It caught up to me, and devoured half my tail with those huge jaws. Then, it showed me its massive smile.

Suddenly, I heard a motor. I knew that sound, it was a rescue boat from my park. They came for me! The boat stopped near the shark and I. A huge grin grew across my face.

“Aw, you poor thing!” a woman exclaimed. She put something in the water to lift me up in, but it was too big just for me. It took a while for it to set in, but I realized that they weren’t there for me. They took the evil shark instead.

What do I do now? I have half a tail, no one to help me, and I don’t even know how to get food. I need to survive. I can do this; I can survive on my own.

I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t after what I just saw. How could I sleep when there are killer sharks everywhere?

I got up again and swam to search for food. I spotted a small, helpless tilapia. Perfect target. I charged at it, but it swam away. Who would’ve thought catching a fish could be so hard?

I spent the whole day searching for food, but it all resulted in the same failures. I finally slept. By then, I knew I had a better chance of starving to death than getting attacked by a shark.

I woke up on the beach. I could barely move. My eyes could only open enough for me to have a small line of sight. I fell back asleep, knowing I may never wake up again.

“We got him!” a female voice hollered. Bright light flooded my eyes.

The next time I woke up, I thought I was in heaven. I had my own tank, not too big or too small. It had the beauty of the ocean, but with the safety of the park. I saw new people every day, but I didn’t need to do tricks. Just looking at me mesmerized them. Children tapped on my glass, and I would swim by them. I even saw people with t-shirts, necklaces, cups, ice cream, and hats, of me! I was finally home.