Seconds later the plane flipped over once, then once again.... and all the while Rocko Sardini's voice could be heard belting out the theme song from "Love Boat". Soon after, the plane careened downwards and dived nose first into the Aqua Velva blue sea.
Yolanda now looked about her as she drifted downwards, the wind tugging her along ever further from the glimpse of Key West which could be seen on the far western horizon. She searched her brain trying to remember where the "edge" of the Bermuda triangle might lie... Could it be that she was inside of it now?
Drifting ever closer to the ocean, she had hoped to, at the very least, spot a fishing boat or yacht, but no such luck. The odds certainly weren't looking too good for her. If the parachute didn't trap and drown her, surely the sharks would soon find her. What had she done to anger the gods so that they put her on the same flight as that accursed Lounge Lizard?
Her thoughts were cut short as she splashed down into the waiting waves. She struggled to free herself from the parachute harness. Luckily, she was a strong woman, and very scantily clad as well, so she slipped out of all of her encumbrances and dived beyond the furthest edge of the chute which was now beginning to sink beneath the lapping waves. The possibility of swimming for land was too fantastic to comtemplate, and so Yolanda just turned onto her back and began to float with her face turned to the sun. This wasn't such a bad way to meet the hereafter... at one time, she had paid good money to float in a tank of warm salt water while meditating....only this time, someone wouldn't come and kick her out after her hour was up. However, just as she began to savour that thought, she felt a nudging against her side...
"Damned sharks!" she thought angrily. Bad enough to be eaten by them, but couldn't they have let her have her hour in the sun first.
But then, to her great surprise, a large porpoise nosed up beside her and did a tail stand while singing out, "I am Flipper, King of Atlantis! Who might you be Stranger?!"
Yolanda was momentarily speechless. Flipper... didn't he retire a while ago... and then, wasn't he reported in the celebrity obituaries... as the victim of an illegal drift net? Could it be that he was THAT Flipper?
The great porpoise, wearing a be-jewelled golden crown on his head, noted her confusion. As he was telepathic, this was no great feat. He replied without being asked, "Yes, I shed my mortal fins and fillets years ago... and now I am the Spirit-of-Flipper-That-Was.... but I am also King of Atlantis now... Prepare yourself Yolanda... for we will go where no mortal woman has been before. And with that, the Yolanda slid onto the smooth back of the spirit porpoise and was whisked away across the swelling seas...."
Meanwhile, back in Havana.... |
