It was picture perfect 
Scots Magazine 
Full colour
Front cover
Celebration of a West Coast day

Towering white clouds had polished the sky a gleaming blue
Mirrored by the sea on whose wind clipped tips
We caught glimpses of water's white flesh

We were making good progress 
Out through the Sound of Sleat
Sails filled
Six knots over ground
Light to the helm
A half hour to the next tack

One seasoned skipper 
Having checked for ferries and fishing boats
Decided all was well
And went below for a snooze

Then…..

“There!” cried one of us

They came

A flash of grey and silver bounding along from behind
Descending upon our port quarter
Like a pack of racing smiling collies with ears flat

They came

And then we were among them
Our unbidden escort

The boat gently pitched 
As their bodies pulsed
Behind us
Beneath us
Beside us
Ahead of us

Heads briefly breaking 
The surface to breathe
Lithe and strong
They rode on our wake

I went forward 
Lay down
Leaned over
My head and shoulders
Thrust through the bow rails

Watched as they took turns 
Surfing on the advance of our bow

We were one 
A squadron in tight formation

There was a communing in this moment 
A shared exhilaration
Minds from two worlds united in the common purpose of play

We with our opposable thumbs and fire 
Hammers and levers
Needles and blades
Had crafted this vessel
Come to where the edges of our worlds meet

This point where the birling blue marble 
Drags the complaining airs with it
Building those great rolling systems
From whose powers we snatched
The most infinitesimal pinch of
And shared with them

Our hull breaching their world which was once ours 
Their dancing breaching ours which was once theirs

Given a century of millenia of millenia 
Might their turn come to paint on cave walls?
Farm crops and beasts?
Then one another?
Perhaps also become too clever and face being shaken off
Like a fly landed on a horse's shoulder?

They came

And then

Were gone

The moment hung in the air 
We were silent
Smiling
Savouring the moment

A moment marred by but one thing

At their arrival one of our number had raced below 
Shared the news with our skipper

Bid him –

Quick! Quick! Come see!

And he responded loud and clear –

I told you!

Do not

Wake me up

For bloody

DOLPHINS!

By Colin McEwan

colinmcewan

MLitt Creative Writing. Background in Community Arts as musician and storyteller.