Bestiary

Chancing Upon the Manatees

48 Chancing Upon the Manatees The journey’s tough: troughs or else shoals challenge each crossing. We navigate the Avenue: do we change course or simply sail the puddle’s ocean? —“Columbus” Steering children across the Millennium lawn, we hear drums’ rumble, the sirens’ caterwauling across Columbus, and we spy remains of the parade: a float decked with teenage girls, dressed in gowns. Our three explorers, step in time, rat-a-tat march, their first Columbus Day parade. The year 1493 when Christopher Columbus sighted three mermaids rising out of ocean, beyond the coast of Hispaniola. He noted the discovery of manatees, West Indian, from the species Sirenius, lumbering mammals sailors mistook for sirens waving. We pilot our crew away from the parade, seek higher 49 terrain and climb the bank to Plensa’s fountain. Our daughter, son, and niece become transfixed, then splash and wade, squealing as they discover water. We pull them from the shallows dripping from the calves down. Our son kicks off a shoe. Searching for manatees in Captiva, our daughter lost her sneaker, running to the harbor’s edge to spot a meandering creature. Land-bound, we don’t confuse the shy ponderous sea-cow for a siren. A shadow navigates between motorboats, a mistaken mermaid, on the brink of vanishing from sight. ...