For most outsiders of the water Dusty used to be little more than a dorsal fin and photographs of her were at best the last tip of it on her course to submerge, due to the focus lapse most compact cameras require. Not anymore. Of recent the dolphin has massively increased her public profile by swimming right underneath the Doolin Pier whereby she unveils her entire body in the elegance she displays in the water.
Only sometimes the visibility through the water and the boat blocking the view hinder the eagerly clicking cameras. Isn't it funny how much value people attach to capturing the dolphin on film. After all, watching her through a viewfinder or on a monitor provides such a poor alternative for seeing her 'live'. The only fruit cameras yield is that afterwards you can see what you actually missed on a precious tiny picture. Yet people scramble on the pier and the steps to the landing for a fluid bliss that merely leaves them with the stills.
But it's great fun all the same. Dusty's there for everybody and excitement and marvel fill the breeze. And for the more daring who are willing to risk a freak wavelet to wet them to the waist Dusty comes to the bottom of the landing steps to accept the reach and touches with true royal grace. But not everybody is happy with her presence. To the local kids she's rather a nuisance as she gets in the way of their boisterous romping and jumping from the pier and to some the local history of the sea as a source of infinite peril makes her more like an avenging angel.
To me the aftermath of my maiden swim was far from kind either. The hassle it took to get into my suit seemed to knock out my entire energy, but the walk-down revived an eagerness to get into the water that I had lost landlubbering about for so long. My preparation ritual was final-touched by George who just left the water and attentively tucked some jutting out hair into my cap. My feet found their way around my two-litre dialysis belly into the monofin with surprising ease and I was waterborne. An enormous relief took possession of me. The water temperature was negligible and it seemed that all my worldly weight just served to become one with the water again.
Dusty gave me a fly-by and left me wondering if she had recognised me at all. But shortly after she was there again and this time it was for to stay. Science maintains the dolphin's smile is an immobile feature vacant of the human interpretation. That maybe so, but her eyes give it light and with these she spoke to me, open wide in rapture and dreamy in expression. No more yearning or expectations. We were there, in the moment of bottle green silver, in an ultimate splendor, an infinite sharing of selfless friendship.
I must have stayed in for over an hour and only left the water because my caution told me to. There a grim gravity instantly threw me me and I staggered up the slipway, dazed by fatigue and a chill that marred me to the bone. I took my refuge to the softness of my bed and the warmth of my sleeping bags, but to no avail. Is this what healthy kidneys keep you from? I drank a cup of coffee to help my body heat, only to throw it up after a series of suppressed convulsions. That night I did not sleep, drowned in discomfort, every ache screaming for attention. But the day after healing came in rapids and the next I was in the water again. Four times in total now and counting. The kidney freak has gone dolphin again!