Taryn awoke to the buzzing of the alarm beside her bed. As her eyes adjusted to the morning light, she saw the tacky flowered wallpaper and smelled that smell of a room that had been cleaned thousands of times with the same Lysol cleaner. At first she couldn’t recollect where she was. After a few moments, Taryn remembered, she was at the Seaside Hotel. Her mother, father, and she had arrived at the little lived in hotel the night before after a 4-hour plane ride from Connecticut. Taryn loved Florida. She loved the heat, the sun, and, most of all, the ocean.
The sound of Taryn’s mother’s voice brought her out of her sleepiness.
“Taryn! For god’s sake, get up. You are on vacation, a good child would definitely be up and showered and ready to go by now,” Taryn sighed at this remark. All through her child hood she had listened to that same phrase “a good child would…” It was just one of her mother’s ways to get her motivated, but it never worked.
“I’m going, I’m going. What is the rush anyway? I thought dad said we weren’t doing anything special, we were just going to be spontaneous today?” Taryn replied with a smirk. Her father always tried to make their family vacations more exciting, but it NEVER worked out.
“You’ll see.” Her mother said, with one of her own little smirks. “Now get out of bed!!!” With a melodramatic sigh Taryn rolled over the side of the bed and drudged into the bathroom for a shower. She wondered to herself what her mom was up to. It was probably nothing, as usual. Taryn shoved the idea out of her mind and finished her shower and changed. Her dad walked into the hotel room as Taryn was brushing her long brown hair.
“You ready yet kid?” he asked. He had a look on his face like he was up to something.
“Okay! Tell me what is going on!” she shrieked with impatience.
“Just get in the car and enjoy the ride,” he said, the look growing stronger. Taryn eagerly but cautiously obliged, throwing looks of curiosity at her father as they walked down the hall and got into the car. Her mother was already waiting, doing her makeup in the visor mirror. Taryn received another mischievous glance from her mother as she buckled her seatbelt.
They drove for about 15 minutes, looking out at the glistening gulf water. Taryn strained her eyes looking for any dolphins coming to the surface for air. As usual, she had no luck. Taryn sat back with a huff.
“I’m never going to see one up close!!” she proclaimed, to no one in particular.
“What, a dolphin? I’m sure you’ll see one soon, just keep looking,” her mother encouraged her. Taryn’s mother and father exchanged yet another smirk.
“Here we are!” her father announced. Taryn shot up and searched for a sign.
“Where! Where are we!” she frustratingly screamed. Her father pointed at a sign in the shape of a dolphin. It read –
Open Daily – 2 hour dolphin swim sessions Reservations required. “An experience of a lifetime!”
Taryn jumped out of the car, hugging her parents. She couldn’t believe it; she was really going to swim with the dolphins, real, live dolphins! She looked up at her parents. They were shaking their heads at her. She was acting like a little kid, but Taryn could care less. This was what she had always wanted to do.
About 10 minutes later, after listening to what seemed like an hour long lecture on safety in the tank by a worker of the aquarium, Taryn got to jump into the tank with the graceful creatures. She could feel their smooth, leathery skin brushing up and the whoosh of air coming out of their blowholes. Taryn was in heaven. She was so transfixed on the beautiful dolphins swirling around her that she didn’t even hear the worker tell her that time was up.
“TARYN!” she heard her father yell. “You have to get out now. It’s the next group’s turn.” Taryn slowly left the dolphins, looking back, wishing she could spend hours and hours in the tank. As she left the aquarium, Taryn turned for one last glimpse of the magical animal swim by.
