"HOPE"
By Cherie J. Gierak
CHAPTER ONE
The morning was cool and clear with the dew settling upon the decks and railings of the ship and the sun was about to make another glorious entrance over the horizon. It was a cool 63 degrees and once the sun began to rise above the horizon the coolness would soon disappear. At first it was just a sliver of golden orange on the horizon lighting only the immediate area around it and then the pinks, purples and oranges of a perfect sunrise began to expand from this golden sliver. As it rose higher it began to cast this cascade of colors upon the waves of the sea, about eight miles off the coast of Acapulco. The sun was turning the sea into a shimmering mirror of the colors of the rainbow. With each inch, it rose, Dawn could feel the coolness disappearing, being replaced with the warmth and clarity of Mexico's new day.
As Dawn, a woman closer to 50 than she cared to be, proceeded along the promenade deck, she found her step a little slower than it had been on the dawn of the day she had encountered her first Dolphins. In her heart she still carried the altruistic dreams born on that fateful day. Turning her head, her once golden brown hair, swirled around her face and partially covered her, inquisitive and expectant, brown eyes, which became moist with the surge of anticipation and expectations of the fulfillment of her dreams. Glancing at her watch she had to smile as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her glasses. She had not yet accepted that she needed them to be able to see that it was only 5:46 AM.
As she made her way to the dining room for her first cup of coffee, a few of the passengers, like faceless gray shadows in the early dawn, were starting to come up on deck not fully understanding what would happen to them today. So far what had been offered to these hopeful, curious passengers, on this most significant of days was that if they joined this venture they would play an important role in uncovering a new pathway toward the promised fulfillment of peace and joy on Earth, this day of Christ's birth.
As yet the general public aboard this vessel had little information about the activities of the day, and were only told that a general announcement over the ship's public address system would be made at 8:00 A.M. and that the days' schedule would also be posted at that time. Dawn felt like she should tell the restless and anxious to relax, but then they would all know who she was and that probably would mean a great deal of questions at a time when solitude felt much more apropos.
As she found a seat in the dining room, she ordered coffee and her mind began to drift back in time remembering the events that lead to this day. This venture had happened so quickly and unexpectedly that looking back on it, Dawn wondered, if perhaps they were all too anxious and expectant. It had been so long since any of the group had an opportunity to work directly with Dolphins.
CHAPTER TWO
Five years earlier a film producer had contacted the Institute that Dawn's husband, a man six foot in stature with piercing chameleon like eyes and silvering hair, had founded. The producer was producing a film about the extraordinary abilities of Man and he had heard about the research done by the Institute and was interested in documenting the type of interspecies communication they had done. Arrangements were made between the film producer and the Institute with continuous documentation by the film crew for over three months in preparation of this endeavor.
As the research team flew into Mexico City there was a mixture of excitement and apprehension. Apprehension for they all remembered far to well what had happened the first time they had tried to film a documentation of their work with the Dolphins. It was nothing as grand a scale as what they were about to do this time.
That first project had been supported by volunteer group members who paid their own way and the donation of a brand new 30' motor home. It's a wonder after this trip that any further tries were ever made. The entire trip was underlined with one mishap after another. It all began not 50 miles from home, when a passing motorist warned them of something being amiss in the boat trailer. The problem had been that the boat was so heavily laden down with scuba and research equipment the tires were rubbing on the trailer. This was easily taken care of by the removal of the fenders.
The next problem came when they stopped in San Diego to fuel up the motorhome. As some of the researchers stood up from the dining area they sank through the floor, it seemed that the main water tank in this brand new unit had a leak and the whole 30 gallons of water had leaked out and soaked into the particle board flooring. After fixing the leak and finding a piece of plywood to reinforce the floor they were on their way to the border. Arriving at the border they had problems with the visa papers for one of the members, which took what seemed like hours to clear up. All seemed well until several hours from their destination, when they had a flat tire on the boat trailer. Once this was fixed they were sure nothing else could go wrong but oh how wrong they were, this was just the beginning of their troubles.
Since they were going to a very small community it was decided that they should add to the communities' income by purchasing as many goods from them as possible the largest item would be gasoline. What the group didn't know, however, was that the roads into this tiny town were so bad that the gasoline supplier had stopped delivering gasoline until such time as the roads would be repaired! Not knowing this the group had just enough fuel to make the last 200 miles with just a few gallons to spare.
Of course their first stop in town was the gas station where they were told there would be no gasoline for at least several days. This meant no fuel for the boat to go and meet the Dolphins the following morning and no fuel to run the generator to keep their two weeks of foods fresh. Not only that but at the same time they were told there was also no fresh water available. Someone the night before had stolen all the water from the desalination plant. Thank God they had found and fixed their water leak in San Diego. Being a determined group they found themselves a place to set up their base camp and decided to make the best of things. Not that they really had much choice, at least until they were able to secure enough gasoline to make the trip home.
The next morning they had set up their camera's and trained them on the area where they were supposed to meet the Dolphins, but from their vantage point they saw nothing like what they expected for the first day but they did see what appeared to be the planned maneuvers for the second day? Later in the day they would talk to some fishermen who would tell them of strange behaviors they had seen the Dolphins do the morning before. What they described was exactly what the researchers had expected that morning. From what they had seen and what they had been told they realized that somehow the timing had been messed up and the Dolphins were going through the planned events one day ahead of schedule. Not that it really mattered since the group lacked a way of meeting them for these prearranged events. All they could do was sit in the 120+ degree sun and watch through telescope and binoculars as this first attempt slipped through their fingers.
Had they been more proficient at what they were doing or trying to do, maybe they could have rescheduled the events. But at that time they were not very good at what they were trying to do, and the number of trained persons there was not sufficient to make contact with the Dolphins to rearrange the events.
This had been a filming crew that had gone down to act as witnesses to what had been done by the trained group back in Northern California. Only three of the seven had been trained in telepathy and in those early days it took at least 4 working together to begin to understand what they were being told by the Dolphins.
The trouble continued on this trip until finally three of the group got so discouraged they hitchhiked home, they would have gone with the rest of the group but the rest of the group was going nowhere. As it happened the day that they were told their especially ordered gasoline had arrived and that there was fresh water in town they took the motor home in from the base camp to fill up and celebrate. Once again, disaster struck and before they had even gotten back to camp the motorhome again began to self destruct. On the way to get the water a fire under the dash took out the ignition system. Which they bypassed and jury rigged and no sooner had they fixed that but the blender in the kitchen caught fire. This one they never did figure out for the blender had never been turned on. But they handled this too and were happily singing and planning the rest of the time they had when they lost something that they thought at first to be the transmission but later proved to be the lock nuts on the rear axles. This is when the three decided they could take no more and it was time to hitchhike home, for they feared they might never get home in this wonderful self destructing motorhome.
When the remaining four group members did make it home they endeavored to make amends with the Dolphins for not having kept their prearranged meetings. However, the Dolphins had also thrown a monkey into the mix, it seemed that they had intentionally moved up the schedule of events by one day thereby making everything rather dubious anyway. They explained that they would someday make it up to the researchers but at the time just couldn't resist having just a little fun with the group. This was the first of many times the researchers would be the target for Dolphin humor. Could the Institute expect that this time the Dolphins would forsake their humor and maintain a sense of scientific decorum?
CHAPTER THREE
Before leaving for Mexico City the Group had contacted the Dolphins one last time and the response from them had been skeptical at best for as the Dolphins had pointed out, this was a film producer who was producing a film that was at very least tongue and cheek about some of the unusual things Man could do. They had left the Institute members with a kind of,"We will wait and see attitude."
A hectic day in Mexico City and the Group then flew to Vera Cruz where the actual filming was to take place. The night before the event a tropical storm began to drift south-west into the Gulf of Mexico, possibly threatening Vera Cruz. As they, awoke, the following morning, it was a strange sound that greeted these Californians, the wind howling, like the mythical Banshee of Ireland. The Tropical storm was whipping up the sea, throwing spay and foam everywhere they could see. The captain of their ship refused to even board his vessel, let alone venture outside the protection of the harbor, and they could see this effort slowly slipping away from them. The Group contacted the Dolphins who had indicated that they were forced to seek deeper waters as the shallow waters they were to meet in were extremely agitated.
As the film producer assessed the situation it was obvious that nature had stepped between them and the Dolphins, and the project would have to be abandoned. With the tight shooting schedule of the film crew it was only a matter of hours before they had their gear repacked and were on their way to the airport for a flight to South America for their next segment. The producer offered his apologies but pointed out that Lloyds of London would reimburse their expenses since nature had stepped into the scene destroying months of preparatory work. The Group left Vera Cruz with shattered dreams and broken hearts as this was the first occasion in all their years of Dolphin/Human research that full funding was available to properly document their theories and applications.
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Email:rgierak@inreach.com