A sample story from

 Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Teenage Soul

Author - Arielle Ford

"Dolphin’s Kiss

Robert Parker

Billy had been resident in our therapeutic unit for challenging adolescents for eighteen months.  It was easy for everybody to see why Billy had been referred to our unit.  He was clinically depressed at the age of sixteen; he inhaled solvents at an extremely dangerous frequency; he mutilated his own body; he was aggressive and showed no respect for himself or anybody else; he stole cars for the "buzz"; he hardly ever smiled.  In short, Billy was in a mess, an apparently hopeless condition.  No previous placement had been able to control his behavior or to address even his symptoms, never mind the underlying causes.

After eighteen months of struggling, we asked Billy a very fundamental question: Billy, what would it take for you to change your life?  You can imagine doing anything with any member of Bryn Melyn’s staff anywhere in the world.  You imagine it, and we’ll make it happen if it’s legal. He didn’t need long to think and surprisingly he came up with an answer in minutes.  He knew of another of our young clients who had been swimming with a wild dolphin in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Ireland.  This had been a wonderful and life-change experience for her.  He said, however, that he didn’t want to go anywhere cold.  If we could fix it for him to swim wild dolphins in a warm place then he would go and accept the control of his guide, who turned out to be me, for the duration of the program.

Quickly, because as a staff we were desperate to connect with Billy before he might hurt himself, we arranged to go to Eilate in Israel on the Red Sea.  There was a new program that we had agreed to develop with some workers at the place called Dolphin Reef, and Billy was to engage in that program for one month with me as his guide.

At the reef his duties were menial at first.  He was detailed to cup up fish, which were used to feed the seven simi-wild dolphins who were being rehabilitated after rescue from various traumas.  Billy too had endured much trauma in his life.  He had been sexually abused, beaten, abandoned by his family, passed thought the public care system lie an unwanted parcel and had learned to give up wanting to life.  In his own words, his life was "a crock of shit."  On the odd occasion that he had shown any care at all it was to young, helpless animals, and with the dolphins he was excited to be "caring" fro them.

Each day he cut the fish a horrible job, which he unexpectedly endured three times daily.  Gradually he spent more and more time in the warm Red Sea water with the seven dolphins.  At first they paid little attention to Billy, but he saw other people come out of the water as though something magical had happened to them.

The place, too, was magical.  It was always warm, the red mountains of Jordan guarded the deep blue coral waters of the Red sea, and the staff of the Dolphin Reef had PhD’s in kindness and patience.  Billy hated the fish-cutting job but he loved being in the water several times each day.  Gradually the dolphins got to know him, and eventually he was allowed to go out to a remote platform and feed the dolphins, delighting on looking tourists whose admission fees funded the project.

Billy gained confidence day by day, but still the "big" experience eluded him.  He was coming to the end of his stay when one day an unannounced VIP turned up at the project.  Chaim Herzog, the president of Israel, had come to visit amid incredibly tight security.  I spoke with the president and his wife about Billy and the project.  I sat in the autumn sun sipping tea with the president and his first lady, and he asked if Billy would take him to the platform in the middle of the reef to feed the dolphins.  The director of the project looked surprised, the bodyguards looked uneasy and the Jordanian fun-boat half a mile across the bay looked on.

Billy helped the president into the little boat, accompanied by the director.  There was no room for bodyguards, and the guards didn’t look at all happy about that.  Billy pulled the start cord on the little engine and off he went with the president.  It hadn’t gone more then 10 meters when the engine stopped.  Six bodyguards simultaneously unbuttoned their suit jackets to rest their nervous hands upon their concealed handguns.  Billy nonchalantly restarted the little engine fight three or four energetic pulls.

When the president, the director, and Billy got to the platform, the dolphins came round to the familiar call of feeding time.  As Billy competently demonstrated to the president how to feed a dolphin, Sophie, his favorite, leaped majestically up to claim her lunch.  And then, before the president picked up his slippery morsel, a strange thing happened: Sophie re-launched herself into the air, craned her head, and kissed the stooping Billy full on his lips.  Magic had been done.  Not only was Sophie’s intent clear, but her timing was immaculate.  The president as Israel was envious of Billy . . . and Billy was beside himself with previously unknown joy.

Since that day he has not stolen a car, he has not inhaled solvents, he does not abuse or hurt himself.  He doesn’t pick fights and life is worth living.  He also smiles frequently.  Magic!

Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Teenage Soul