Category: Writers Block
This is a little story I wrote a while ago. It's about a captive killer whale in Miami, and the story is through her eyes. Hope you enjoy it.
Lolita
My name is Lolita. It’s the name my human captors gave me. To most humans, I’m just a thing that people pay money to see. My only purpose is to splash water on people and make them laugh. I should be living with my family, in cool blue water, catching fish, and enjoying life, but that isn’t the case. Sadly, I live alone in a small pool, the size of a hotel swimming pool. I should have been swimming 80 miles a day, with my mother, grandmother, and other family members, but on one horrible night, my life would change forever.
On a clear day, my family and I were swimming peacefully, on are way to a family gathering. For hundreds of years, orca pods have come together in a gathering, to mate, play, and enjoy being together. Unfortunately for me, I would never make it to this gathering, and I would never see my family again. As we swam, a group of boats started to heard me and my other family members in to a group, by throwing large sun balls at us, wich made a loud boom in my ears. I watched in relief as my mother, and other elders tried to lead the hunters on a chase, away from me, and my young family members. As hard as they tried, they couldn’t chase the hunters away, and before long, several others and me were trapped in a net. I called out to my mother, and thrashed in the net, but there was nothing she could do. I watched in horror as five members of my pod were lifted from the water and taken away. Their cries of anguish and fear hurt my ears. With my heart full of fear, I watched as three members of my pod got tangled in the nets, and drowned. All to soon, I to was lifted from the water, all the while, calling to my angry, and distraught mother.
I was put on a truck, and sent to a park. I missed my mother, and wished with all my heart that I would be taken back to her, but instead, I was put in a small, cramped pool. I watched as people surrounded me, and started saying the word “Lolita.” I learned very quickly, that I was to respond to this name. I had to perform stupid tricks to make my trainers happy with me. That night, as I floated at the surface, I was overjoyed to hear a familiar call. As I heard the trainers talk to the new caller, I heard them call him “Hugo.” He was from my family, and we talked constantly, and he took away some of the fear I was feeling. Ten years later though, he died, and I became a loner. After Hugo’s death, the only companionship I had, was a rubber toy, and some black and white dolphins, that I really wanted to bite in half, when I got angry with them. I love it when my trainers give me attention, but at night, and in between shows, I sink lifelessly to the bottom of my pool, and think about my family, and wish that I was with them.
For 31 years, it has been the same old thing, two shows a day, in a small run down tank at the Miami Sea aquarium. Thousands of people rush in to the park, to watch me breach, push a trainer with my nose, and watch a trainer ride on my back. I hate it,I’m unhappy, and I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. Often I see people come to my tank, carrying big signs. I don’t know what it is about, but I wish at times, that they could get me out of this awful place.
I’m not just an animal, I have feelings, and a family that loves me, and misses me. I think I should be allowed to return to them, and pick up where I left off. I have so much more to live for, and give to my species, but I can’t do that in a tiny tank, alone, and miserable.
Orcas, like humans although very different, have one thing in common, we all live on earth, and should all be respected. I have been through a lot in my 37 years of life, and I still have a long rode ahead, but if I keep my will to survive, then maybe, some humans will have the heart to fight for my freedom, and send me back to my family and away from this nightmeare. We all have a destiny in life, and mine is to go home. Maybe someday, for me and others like me, we’ll be able to leave our prison, and return to the ocean, where we belong.
beautiful, Whales should not be kept in captivity.
aua that was so beautiful.
That was fine Orca
Christ that almost made me cry I hate seeing animals locked up.
Stevie