Música del Mar

"Let's go to the aquarium."

Elena looked up from her sketchpad and stared at her brother. "Why?"

"It could be fun. We haven't been in years."

They hadn't been anywhere but hospitals, specialist clinics, and recovery wards for over a year. And hotels, lots of hotels, stuck in a faraway room waiting for someone to fetch her to the next doctor and the next surgery. Then back to a home that she didn't recognize and had to learn to navigate all over again. The beach house, unused for so long, was the only place that hadn't changed as much as her. Elena wasn't sure she wanted to test the waters somewhere else yet.

But Enrique wouldn't stop asking. "We don't have to stay long if you don't want to. We'll keep outside and see the dolphin show. You remember it, right?"

"Yes...." Elena trailed off. She remembered running to get outside ahead of her family, standing on her father's lap to see higher, balanced with one hand on her mother's shoulder, then jumping down the stands to get a closer look. Were her brothers even there? Memory was so fickle.

"Come on, I'll be cooped up in University soon without any liberty, help me soak in some freedom while I can." He got down on his knees and begged with his most pitiful eyes, imitating the latest heroine to grace the television. She couldn't help giggling.

"Alright, fine! Just let me change first."

Papá and Fernando were out doing there own thing, so it would be just the two of them. Enrique casually pressed the key fob while she backed to his car door, an expert at this maneuver by now, and he carried on conversation as if they weren't waiting for the lift to descend. "What do you think about the color?" he'd asked her after driving it back home for the first time. She had joked it was too bright and he claimed it was unpatriotic not to appreciate that shade of blue, only mentioning as if an afterthought that she wouldn't have to leave her chair when riding with him. This fact explained why he bought such a boxy vehicle instead of the sleek sporty ones he had once fantasized about, using his trust allowance to get it customized. As an awkward teenager struggling to regain her bearings, she had tried not to cry then laughed too loud, only hugging him fiercely that night when he apologized that the wheelchair couldn't fit in the front passenger space.

"Very good, señorita, we'll be there soon," Enrique announced in his best British accent, which was not very good at all.

"Pay attention to the road silly," she cautioned with a grin, and he winked at her while backing down the driveway.

It was a hot summer day and the tourists were out and about in droves. Elena wasn't sorry they had her handicap sticker to grab a better parking spot. "Maybe I'll steal it for the semester, I'd never be late for class," Enrique teased while waiting for her to descend.

"You could always try getting up earlier." Elena smiled sweetly, her delivery upset when she moved too soon and got a wheel stuck.

"Need help?" Enrique lightly touched one of the chair's handles but waited for her say. When she shook her head, concentrating, he continued as if nothing wrong had happened. "I guess I'll learn to wake up somehow, even if a more selfless sister would gladly help her poor brother get through University."

She righted herself and rolled away from the car, turning around in triumph. Only a few months ago she couldn't have budged out of that situation. And Papá wouldn't even let her try. "So poor! Come on, there's already a big crowd, let's not waste time."

They kept side by side until the front door, when Enrique helped her navigate the thick line and paid for their admission with his new updated credit card. "Show off," she told him while pushing into the large atrium past the entrance.

"I have to learn to use it properly, how will I become a proper médico if I don't get the hang of spending money?"

"As if you need to learn," Elena huffed while progressing up the ramp. "Where do you want to start?"

By mutual agreement they found the penguins, then admired several tanks of fish, keeping an eye on the time ahead of the show. The shark display looked bigger than she recalled. A little girl nearby pressed her face against the glass before leaping back in alarm when one passed close. Elena tried to capture the sight in her mind, intent on drawing it later, the childish innocence and the looming predator, it would make a great charcoal. She didn't notice how long she'd stared until Enrique squatted down and rubbed the knee that often bothered her. A counselor claimed the pain was psychosomatic. Her paralysis began at the waist, there was too much nerve damage farther down for her to feel an ache, it was a symptom of her inability to control things. Maybe it was all true. She preferred when one of the hospital's nuns gave her a pendant for St. Giles and taught them how to massage the limb.

"It doesn't hurt," she told him, putting a palm down to still his fingers.

"Good," he said softly, squeezing her hand before standing. "Let's find a good spot to watch outside."

Of course they had to sit in the handicapped seating, but she craved anonymity even as her adolescent mood swung into desperation for attention at the same time. They munched on candied nuts and swigged down cola before Enrique stood and whooped like a goal had been scored at the sight of the first splash into the water. Anyone looking their way saw him first, not the chair, but then he leaned down and pointed out something truly exciting. "Recognize that tune?"

She strained to hear over the hubbub of the crowd and make out the music playing over the loud speakers, even as everyone reacted to each arc and trick performed. It was familiar, so familiar, and she gasped in recognition. The large pool in front of them blurred with the memory of a mirror and their mother playing her favorite old record while leading them in a joyous dance, no form but their feelings, arms waving, feet stamping. Their childish singing from yesteryear morphed as some in the crowd picked up the chorus, "La felicidad ha ha ha ha ...."

With a jolt she shook off her self-absorption and looked to Enrique for reassurance. Her appreciation for the game ebbed and flowed with each birthday but dance was the special thing she knew Enrique had shared with their mother long after the rest of them dived into other pursuits. It was such a happy song. It was such a tender, maybe raw reminder of the past. Was he truly as glad as he pretended right now, clapping along and shouting the refrain, " ... ha ha ha ha...."

The finale was spectacular. Still, Elena kept an eye on her brother while the general excitement died down. He was smiling but not clowning around like before. They waited for most of the spectators to leave before moving on, and in the growing stillness she hummed the melody again. Usually he would pick up at once but he didn't, watching the water with a thoughtful expression, for all the world carefree but possibly just as uncertain about discussing their tangled past. "I sing again today, thanks to love," she breathed the words while taking his hand again.

He brushed a thumb across her's. "You forgot the ha ha has," he correctly with a soft smile.

"They get in the way," she bantered lightly, releasing the brakes on her chair and swiveling to face him.

"What? That's the best part!"

"No it's not."

"You will not convince me otherwise."

"Prove it then."

So they had to sing to each other while heading back to the parking lot, drawing odd looks occasionally, and some people who joined in the chorus, including a little boy who shrieked out his own "ha ha ha" from a stroller that followed them down the exit ramp. The family happened to be parked nearby and the boy continued his loud babbling even after the door was shut. The young mother started to apologize for the disturbance but Enrique shook his head. "I'm glad he's got so much felicidad, no reason not to share it!"

They turned on the radio for the drive back and sang along to more contemporary hits, their own felicidad bubbling up and spilling over. Whatever might haunt in the depths of time, they were high and dry, thankful for their love.