Ted Getzel Works

Ted Getzel

Requiem for Rarata

Since the end of the Deep Cold ten thousand years ago , when Rarata’s and Tursia’s ancestors had come North and found the mouth of the  food filled delta five hundred generations of dolphins had feasted on the giant schools of mullet, menhaden, shrimp , redfish and a multitude of other species. The Great River, carried huge amounts of mud and silt that it dropped when it met and mixed with the salt water of the Gulf. The complex delta grew as did the sinuous circulatory system of brackish and fresh braided bayous and tidal creeks that provided more and more breeding area for the food the dolphins loved.

Rarata and Tursia were identical twins that bonded at birth and remained inseparable for the last 15 years. Each spring they traveled to the Great River’s estuary to find feasts and females ready to breed. They were both in prime condition, just over nine feet long and weighing about 600 pounds. Their backs were very dark grey and their undersides almost white. They had joined with a pod of 17 young females, and over the last six weeks they impregnated all 17 after driving off several smaller male challengers. Now they were along with the pregnant females hunting together to feed themselves and the growing babies within.

They had just come through a great shoal of dead striped mullets floating belly up. As they swam through the dead fish their eyes burned and they felt a pain in their blowholes for which there was no name in their language. They swallowed a few of the dead mullets. The water had odd rainbow sheen. Tursia felt another new pain in his stomach after eating the floating fish.

Then Rarata’s sonar sensed more fish – live fish. He called to the others to follow him. Soon they all could hear the echo of a great school of Gulf Menhaden being driven towards the shore by a school of adolescent Red Drum. The Redfish weighed about eight pounds. They would be a feast. The grunting of the drum made the dolphin’s echolocation sense superfluous. When the drum saw the approaching dolphin pod they broke off their attack on the mullet and headed out to sea to escape. When the redfish reached deeper water they dove to avoid the dolphins. Rarata, far in the lead headed to the surface to fill his lungs in preparation for a deep dive in pursuit of his prey. He was primed for the chase.

Where he broke the surface to breathe there was a thick brown coating that stank of death. . When his blowhole opened, a choppy wave sent a great glob of the death's brew onto his head just as he inhaled. He tried again and more poison and vapor filled his lungs. Finally he leaped up in to the air and got some air. Then more oil, then another leap and enough air for him to dive. His great fluke drove him down after the Red Drum. He caught up with them and swallowed one, then another and as he opens his mouth to snare the third he had entered a great petro- plume and along with his prey he swallowed great gob of brown stained. A pain stroke flashed through his body. He cried out to Tursia and the rest of the pod that they should break off the attack and flee. Rarata felt starved for air and headed back to the surface, the coating was thicker than before and he no longer had the strength to jump clear of the water. He gasped and rasped breathing in more fumes than air.

Tursia was suddenly at his brother’s side. Gently trying to push Rarata out of the slick into the clear water where the now terrified females circled and rubbed against each other to comfort themselves.

Go leave me Go! Go! Croaked Rararta.

No you are my brother I will push you away from this evil.

.No, no , no go I have a pain with no name, I am done for.

I will not leave you brother.

I am dying I can feel it I cannot breathe, this is of the men an evil gift from man Leave or you will die Tursia.

No! My brother, my brother, no

With the last reserve of his strength
Rarata flexed his tail and swam straight towards the beach.

Tursia followed until the sand scraped his bottom.

Rarata flung himself onto the sand and wriggled as far from the water as he could.

Lead the pod to a new place Tursia.

Then with a great shuddering gasp Rarata died.

Tursia turned back and rejoined the pod. They circled and sang the mourning song that was ten thousand years old. Tursia led the females, their bellies all ready swelling with new Life, away to search for a safe sea in which to feed. As they swam they sang the ancient death song and touched fins .