It all started on the beach. An orca pup had washed up on the shore. I found them and tried to help them back into the ocean. Unfortunately, they had been out of the water for too long and I felt them expire in my hands, just as I had gotten them into the ocean. The mother was inconsolable but somehow grateful and rubbed into me as I delivered her the body. I hugged her goodbye and she swam away.
Later that night I was out on the beach meditating. The moon was at its peak and I was making an offering to nature in honor of the calf that had died in my hands. Clouds rolled in and a ray of light struck me in the forehead. I blacked out and found myself in a dream.
The dream was peaceful. I was an orca in a pod of several dozen others. We were swimming and singing to eachother. The song was a somber memorial of the calf that had fallen. The grieving mother was at the head of the pack, her cries forming the core of the rhythm that we all built on top of. Suddenly we came to a stop and the pod circled around me. I felt like I was being empowered somehow. After a while I was bumped in the head by another’s tail fluke and I woke up in my hotel room.
“Oh thank god you’re finally awake.” My partner was relieved. He must have brought me inside our rental house.
“How long was I out?”
“16 hours. I was about to call 911. You woke up just as I was reaching for my phone. How do you feel?”
“I’m exhausted. My back feels weird too.”
“Yeah about that…take a look at this:”
My partner handed me their phone and showed me a picture of a single black spot in the middle of my back, and as I flipped through the pictures I saw it get larger and a dorsal fin start to form as the black spot grew larger.
“Is that…an orca fin?”
“It seems to be one. Your skin around it feels really soft too. It’s gotten to cover your entire back now. Get up, let’s take a look in the mirror.”
I stood up and almost lost my balance. My gait was thrown off balance by these changes. Eventually I made my way over to the mirror and took a look, pinching myself a few times to make sure that was me. There was a little nub above my butt that looked like it was going to become a tail.
“I’m awake, right?”
“You are as much awake as I am.”
Thirst and hunger suddenly struck. “I think I need to get something to eat. I’m starving.”
“Taco Bell?”
“Taco Bell!”
It was good.