Of Poseidon

nothing fascinating about getting rejected.”
    Dr. Milligan smiles and pulls some brown pellets from his pocket, scattering them on the floor for the impatient duck. “This fellow just knows about my treats. Listen, how about we visit the penguins?”
    “Aren’t penguins birds?” she says. “I mean, I know they can’t fly or anything, but they’re still birds. They wouldn’t respond to my Gift, would they?”
    Dr. Milligan nods. “Aquatic birds. And there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
    The penguins love Emma. They waddle around, dive in and out of their pool, call out to her. She laughs. “They sound like donkeys!”
    “Maybe you can talk to donkeys, too,” Dr. Milligan smiles.
    Emma nods. “I can. Sometimes Galen can be a jackass.”
    “That hurts my feelings, Emma,” Galen says, trying to look hurt. She throws him a saucy grin.
    Dr. Milligan laughs and leads them back into the hallway. The square windows punctuating the interior wall reveal three dolphins keeping pace with them. They shriek at Emma, eager to meet her acquaintance. Next to a sign that says DOLPHIN SHOW , Dr. Milligan points up a set of stairs. “Shall we?”
    The top level is an open deck. Galen’s seen the show before. The wooden bleachers facing the tank aren’t quite far enough away that the front row won’t get wet. Which delights the nose-picking miniature humans, especially in the heat of summer. Galen’s glad they came after closing.
    Emma walks to the edge of the tank and peers down. She tickles the water with her fingers. Three gray heads poke up and shrill their enthusiasm. Giggling, Emma leans over, cupping her hand over her mouth. The animals draw closer, as if to hear a secret.
    The heads disappear. When they emerge again, there’s a toy in each mouth. They bring their treasures to Emma. A black ring the size of a hula hoop and two soccer balls. She hands the balls to Galen, then accepts the ring from the smallest dolphin. “Throw the balls in the middle, Galen. Let’s see if they’re good at basketball.”
    Chuckling, Galen complies. Emma holds the ring over the edge of the pool. The dolphins shriek in anticipation. “Shhh,” she tells them. They quiet down, hold still. “Try to put the ball through the hoop.”
    Two of the heads disappear. The third one stays behind and squeals at Emma. She quiets him down again, just as one of the balls pops off the surface of the water and through the hoop she’s holding. Then the second one pops up, but this one misses the mark, grazing Emma’s hair instead. “I almost got a black eye out of the deal!” But she laughs and rewards the animals with a nose rub.
    “It’s your turn,” she tells the smallest dolphin. Retrieving both soccer balls from the bleachers, she tosses them back in the center of the pool. “Go on,” she says, making a shooing motion with her hand. The animal stays put, it’s mouth slightly ajar as if smiling.
    She turns to Dr. Milligan. “Looks like he doesn’t understand,” she says.
    He snorts. “Oh, he understands, all right. He just doesn’t listen.”
    This doesn’t seem to sit well with Emma. She splashes water at him. “Go on! What’s the matter? You too chicken-of-the-sea to play?”
    Still, he stays, thrashing his head around like he’s arguing. His squeals sound contrary even to Galen’s untrained ears. The poor creature doesn’t realize how close to foot tapping Emma is, but Galen recognizes that stiff stance of impatience. It’s the same one she directed at him when they first met on this very beach. The same one she directed at Toraf when she informed him that Rayna could live with her. The same one she directed at Rachel when she booked the honeymoon suite for the two of them.
    Just as Galen decides to intervene, the tension leaves Emma’s shoulders. “Oh,” she says softly. She steps out of her flip-flops and hoists herself onto the cool blue edge of the concrete tank.
    “Emma,” Galen warns, though unsure of what exactly he’s warning against. He and Dr. Milligan exchange a look.
    “I’m fine, Galen,” she says without looking back. She dangles her legs in the water, kicking in a slow, soothing rhythm. The two biggest dolphins come to her immediately, nudging her feet and creating choppy waves around her. But it’s the smallest dolphin who hoards her attention from across the tank by doing nothing at all. Hesitant, he inches toward her. When she reaches out to him, he submerges and shoots