SWIMMING

Two days from now I’ll be swimming with manatees. This was Nick’s mantra standing at the front of the church marrying Sestina Rogers. Two days from now I’ll be swimming with manatees. Sestina nearly forced Nick to marry her, now that she was pregnant with his baby, and Nick felt trapped, desperate for a way out. Two days from now I’ll be swimming with manatees, he thought, knowing his “I do” was nothing more than “I don’t.” Who was she to corral him up to the altar?

“Be a man,” she said over an IHOP breakfast when she found out she was with child. “Take some responsibility.”

”I am,” he said. And in truth, he was taking some responsibility. Not for Sestina, no. Nor for his unborn child. Of course not. He was going to be responsible for the manatees. He was going to move to Florida (Sestina knew none of this) and take up a volunteer position with the Save the Manatees Club. He was going to help people learn about manatees and their plight! He had already found a house to rent, right near the wintering manatees in the Crystal River, and had already told club members that he would do whatever it took to save the manatee. He loved the manatee. More than Sestina, obviously. Much more than unborn child. Sure, no doubt. He knew the manatees were on the decline, a rare and endangered species and felt in his heart, deep in his heart, that he could do something about it. He didn’t know what really. He just knew that if he was immersed in the club the world of the manatee would change for the better. More than that, the world itself would change for the better. And, really, how would the manatees get better if he was in Duluth married to Sestina and fathering a tow headed kid?

No. No. That would not do and so he made some phone calls, diverted some funds from his bank, and set up everything so that he’d marry Sestina and then leave her the next day (perhaps leaving early morning from the Comfort Inn where they were spend their honeymoon night) for the manatee rich waters of Florida and never come back. Never ever.

Why come back? There were no manatees in Duluth and Nick knew the manatees needed him. They were CALLING to him. Come, Nick, the manatees said, come.

After the wedding service everyone was at the reception at the YMCA conference room. Sestina was holding Nick’s hand and looking at everyone looking at her in her beautiful brocaded yellow wedding dress. “We’re so happy,” Sestina said. Then she saw her aunt Mildred in line for the buffet before everyone else. “Look!” Sestina growled to Nick who was thinking about manatees. “Look at what Mildred is doing! You see that cow?”

Sea cow, Nick thought, and smiled as Mildred piled cold cuts on her plate. In two days I’ll be swimming with manatees.