Jump

"Jump!" The Child commanded the whale with a trembling voice.

The whale bucked, and for the second time that day, it rose above a wave coming at them.

"Good job, Mr. Whale, good job," mumbled the Child and held on to its dorsal fin.

Where oh where is The Prophet?  The Child thought.

The Prophet's vanishing seemed like ages ago, and the Child, desperately fighting the waves that continuously attacked, wanted some kind of reassurance about the path chosen.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whooooooooooosh," shouted the wind.

The Child looked in the direction of the loud roar. A third wave had picked up momentum and was heading in their direction.

"Oh my, Mr. Whale. How I wish The Prophet were here. This one is the worse I've seen."

Frightened, the Child's eyes filled with tears.

"Don't you see I can't do this?" The Child bellowed out into the wind.

The dark, ugly, mean-spirited wave began its approach; the Child, angry at the Prophet's silence, shouted above the whoosh of the wind, "Jump, Mr. Whale, jump!"

The whale bucked upward and jumped over the wave and dived down, head first, into the ocean, with the Child holding on to the dorsal fin. When it came up out of the ocean, both were wet; the Child was gasping for air. 

The Child turned to look behind. The mean-spirited wave had dwindled into nothing and become a part of the ocean.

"I did it Mr. Whale," The Child muttered softly. Tired and exhausted, the Child fell asleep, mouth wide opened, as she hung on to the whale's dorsal fin.

Shalom,

Pat Garcia

Initiative

"Initiative," whispered the wind, "initiative."

"But, what if I do the wrong thing?" The Child yelled back at the wind and cried out, "Prophet, where are you?"

The ocean, vast and wide, The Prophet was nowhere in sight; the heaven, blue and sprinkled with white cumulus clouds, echoed the Child's voice. Alone, yet not alone, unable to see or hear the beloved friend, emotions of helplessness flooded the Child's soul.

"Initiative," repeated the wind.  "Take initiative."

"Prophet," yelled the Child, "Where are you? Please, come back and tell me what to do."

The wind grew stronger; the ocean stirred, and the whale lay asleep with the perplexed Child on its back, frightened.

Suddenly, the largest wave the Child had ever seen began to grow in the shape of a funnel.

"Where are you, Prophet?  Where are you?"

"Initiative," whispered the wind, "take the initiative."

The wave rose and began to spin, gathering speed as it turned.

"Okay, Mr. Whale, either I win or lose, succeed or fail, but I am going to show that wave it can't scare me away," said the Child.

"Initiative," sang the wind, "Take the initiative."

The Child crawled behind the whale's dorsal fin and hugged it, and with legs stretched out, the Child let them down forcefully and struck the whale on both sides.

The whale awoke out of its sleep and bucked up in the air heading directly toward the woven spindle of water coming at him.

And the Child knuckled down, holding on tightly to the whale's dorsal fin.

Shalom,

Pat Garcia