WIDOWED MAMMALS IN AQUAVILLE

 

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Widowed Mammals in Aquaville

A Fairy Tale written by

Antoinetta DeWit

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ONCE upon a time in the hamlet of Aquaville, along the calm, clear, crystalline waters nearby, there were two widowed mammals in a pod of about twenty multigenerational family members.

Suddenly Muffin and Puffin jumped up together and descended with one huge splash, as Tulip, a bystander, stood at a distance and watched. She had often heard a lot of gargling and goo-gooing sounds coming from these two anomalies in the past, but this coming out behaviour along with the recently witnessed stroking and nudging, and smacking of fins on the glassy surface, was particularly novel and intriguing.

All of the other land based and aqua-mammals gathered together to watch a blooming, late in life, relationship develop right in front of them: touching, stroking, feeling, embracing, whispering, rolling round and round and, even motions that made the two seem like one.

Tulip, an autistic human mammal, has known Muffin and Puffin for quite some time, and has watched them grow from mothers to grandmothers and from caretakers to letting go of spouses and siblings. They have lived much happiness and endured much sadness. They have evolved through monogamy and polygamy, childbirth, still births and miscarriages. They have struggled most of their required lives doing what is expected of them, and have now finally broken free in favour of self reliance, self comfort and taking advantage of this opportunity to make their statement.

Watching them in a distance from their regular pod, in the sometimes unforgiving waters, their behaviour speaks to the power of will, optimism, pride and determination. They swim away a short distance from the mainstream pod to almost completely break free, but not completely breaking ties. 

Muffin and Puffin’s lives have evolved significantly over time and they are now constant companions who guard each other, protect each other and speak for each other, hoping the others will notice, listen in and celebrate their new found happiness. 

“Why don’t they just completely leave and live their shared dream of being together happily ever after privately without an audience?”, Tulip wonders.

At first the witnessed behaviour is novel and intriguing, but over time it becomes annoying and even obnoxious, creating judgements that nobody would like to hear. Tulip’s autistic mind brings her back to Darwin’s theory and some of Doctor David Suzuki documentaries about mammals.  They are profoundly groupies; they rely on each other; guide each other; help each other and protect each other. They thrive on attention and depend on togetherness through easy times and tough ones. Two stunning revelations are that they love an audience and they do, as humans know, sometimes need distance to bring a point across.

Tulip looks around and takes a step back. She sees some of the other mammals on the land and in the water, huddle together as observers. Others are a bit closer to the scene in front of them, some whispering, some giggling. A few are blind or deaf or indifferent. 

All of the easily witnessed behaviours between the widowed mammals are commonplace in both genres of mammal worlds: demonstrative aerobatic affection, frequent body rubs, pecks and gentle touches, squeaks, squeals and lots of happy bubbles … lots and lots of happy bubbles. The correlation is stunning.

Human mammals would simply ask: Take it to another cove!

Tulip turns her body and walks to an other vantage point, for a different perspective. Some of the people around her join up and even small groups of aqua mammals do the same. 

Muffin and Puffin suddenly stop co-tangling, look around and at each other, and finally realize they are alone but not completely alone, and that the statement they have been making is now clear to all. They have had a long and productive life, doing what the world expected and did it very well.  This is now their new happy time straying from the norm, but never far away. They don’t want to be far away nor do they want to be isolated; now is the time to close the straining gap.

Out of respect, and realizing their overt atypical behaviour in a public setting may have contorted the feelings of those close by, they both dunk deeply into the deep blue waters and prepare an incredible celebration for themselves and everyone watching. The show is both an apology and a jubilation; an expression of love and understanding. Their special performance is a declaration — a commitment to respecting and honouring social norms and basic social expectations when in common spaces.

Tulip turns to the audience and shouts:  

“As the song says: 

🎶 JUMP!, Let’s go ahead and jump! 🎶 

as together we celebrate an all around victory!” 

And so it was, in the beautiful and special community of Aquaville, two grieving widow mammals yearning to get the most out of the lifespan that is left, open their eyes, ears and hearts, as the once serene and glistening waters survive enraging waves. The pod of multi-generational mammals remain together stronger than ever, as do all that noticed, creating harmony and peace between all on that day and happily ever after.

🐋 THE END 🐋