To Earn a Name

The whole village followed Sophia down as she held her daughter aloft in the air, the singing buoying them up with ecstasy.  Rhythmic singing, like the flowing of ocean waves, the ritual songs were not just tradition but also appropriate, even though there were no words.

The pod of dolphins broke the surface when they approached, adding their own sounds to the singing of their people, their other halves, their partners.  They splashed and danced in their own way, frolicking in the water deep enough to handle it, letting the people come to them.  One in particular was at the front, barely able to contain her excitement and energy, only doing so to spare her own young child the chaos of it, and to guide her.

For the joy of this day to Sophia was not just that her child would finally find the other half of herself and gain her name, but also that it was the daughter of Sophia’s own partner, Orina, who was of the proper age and untied.  They would have a bond closer even than mother and daughter, one shared through both halves of the pair independently and made all the stronger because of it.

The rest of the village waded into the tropical waters and swam deftly out to meet the pod, catching the fins of their partners and being pulled out into deeper waters.  Sophia did so as well but slower, behind everyone else.  The unnamed always came last when the ritual finally began, and so it was that Sophia turned around and swam on her back, letting her daughter rest on her chest where all the air would keep her safe, until she felt the warm slickness of Orina’s skin against her outstretched hand, and she grasped it to let it pull her gently after the others. 

Now and then, the tiny head of Orina’s daughter would poke above the surface, to peer at the two people, especially the tiny one, and make a small sound of curiosity before shyly diving below the waves again and swimming in her mother’s wake until she felt brave again.

The rest of their pod had already formed a circle that they lazily swam around in an ongoing circle, creating a barrier not just with bodies but with current as well.  Orina pulled Sophia and their daughters into the center, swimming along the inside of the circle just a little faster than the others, so they would pass each of them in turn.  Each person reached out with a wet hand and touched a part of the unnamed human child, whispering praise or well wishes, even as each dolphin nudged the young calf, urging her forward to the next one, encouraging her in their own way which was more body language than sound.  Sounds were worth less under water.

The circle tightened slowly as they spiraled their way inward.  Finally they stopped in the middle, and the calf surfaced, seeming to understand that this was an important moment that she could not remain hidden for.  Sophia released Orina and balanced herself upright in the water, one arm still supporting her unnamed daughter.  Orina nudged her own daughter forward, and Sophia pulled her daughter from the crook of her arm and supported her upright in the water, too, so she could blink owlishly at the dolphin in front of her.

After she got over her confusion, she held out her little toddler hand and happily exclaimed, “Door!” as she tried to touch the calf, oblivious to the fact that the word meant nothing in that context.  Sophia couldn’t help but smile.

Instinctively, the calf moved forward so the toddler could reach her, and their first physical contact was made.  The humans broke away from their dolphins and swam on their own, inside the ring of animals, and they all tightened in on the young pair, connecting for the first time.

“Dora,” Sophia announced to their pod proudly as the newly named girl splashed happily even as she exuberantly patted her new life partner’s head.  Her first word didn’t have to have anything to do with her name, of course, (Sophia’s own had been ‘cup’, for example) but her timing was perfect enough that Sophia felt inspired.

The calf’s name was more complicated, as it had to go through a filter with Orina before it could be settled--it was the dolphin’s daughter, after all.  “Dora and Malinda.”

The whole pod repeated the names, the dolphins in their own way as well.  The dolphins dipped below the surface, then rose up as one, blasting sprays of water into the air and misting everyone in the area.  Sophia gently released Dora, and Malinda moved forward and underneath her, to hold the toddler up.  She didn’t really know how to move in such deep water well enough, let alone with a small dolphin underneath her, so it only lasted a few moments, but that was all that was needed for now.  They would have plenty of time together to learn.