Morka the Orca (full story)

Stumbling over a messily placed pile of pool equipment, in a drugged and oblivious state, Freddie Delaney made his way to the other side of the massive whale tank. Ever determined to find the curvaceous whale-trainer he wished to take advantage of, he tripped and wavered along the edge of the water. He was heading towards the equipment shed, where their rendezvous’ often took place. Almost to the shed, he hopped clumsily over a feeding bucket of chum. The bucket handle caught his foot, causing his head to propel violently towards the pavement with a wet slap as it struck the ground. His body fell limply into the water.

Just ten years ago Freddie had been a simple car salesman for a small lot in the downtown area. After his boss went bankrupt from his ever-increasing gambling debt, Freddie bought the business and altered its business strategy. With hard work and increased benefits for his employees Freddie was successful in expanding his business to five more lots placed throughout the city and soon became a successful investor. His father’s influence led him to donate a significant amount of his money into a number of different charities. After a few years his net-worth grew to more than a million and he fell madly in love with his secretary, a young lady named Susan.

Susan came from a wealthy family and moved to the city as soon as she turned eighteen. Her family gave her monthly allowances to support her appetite for luxury, but she was forced to keep a full time job or else she would have to obey orders to come home. But it didn’t take too many battered eyelashes, coy smiles or walk-me-to-my-car-darling’s to bait poor Freddie. Freddie obsessed over her subtle lines that deepened her face with every smile. He was in love, beguiled and frighteningly obsessed. They were married after only three months and Freddie, to the delight of Susan’s parents, paid for all the expenses.

Not long after the honeymoon, a vacation in France and a few expensive cruises, Susan’s once vivacious eyes lost there youthful shine and turned the pale blue hue of a snake shedding its constrictive skin. Susan began to cheat with the more rich and powerful in the Delaneys’ social circle and Freddie caught whiff of her infidelity. For three more years they continued their marriage of deception. Freddie took to drinking and found cheap thrills in taking advantage of his mistresses in dangerous places. His favorite place was on the road. Only the nicest, most expensive cars would house his euphoric weekends of hundred-mile-an-hour sex-parties.

One of these parties came to an abrupt end when an unexpected party guest, an eighteen-wheeled semi-truck with a full load of Chicken of the Sea tuna-fish, sent the party toppling over a median directly into a telephone-pole. When Freddie regained consciousness, he found his consciousness itself to be clouded by a considerable amount of morphine. For the next month the morphine flowed through his veins at all hours of the day as he lay naked, strapped to a hospital bed. Susan took advantage of this by having him sign divorce papers, car titles, closure statements on charity accounts and investments over to her name. To add insult to injury, she had him sign a final document investing the majority of his assets into a theme park entitled “An Endless Sea”, a deteriorating knock-off of Sea world, she thought would certainly rid him of his fortune.

Susan’s plan failed miserably as the heroin-addict who owned the failing theme park turned his life around, as well as his business, in reaction to Mr. Delany’s overwhelming generosity. The park became very successful and expanded into a major chain of theme parks with most of there profits rising from there locations in southern Mexico and Canada. His new fortune paid for his father’s extravagant funeral and soon Freddie moved from morphine to pills to heroin while furthering his sex addiction within his new realm. As the primary stockholder in his company, Freddie used his company status and empty lies to sleep with an endless supply of female employees. An Endless Sea became an endless party until one fateful evening in mid-July.

Freddie had just bought a large bag of Acid Rain (his drug-dealer’s affectionately-named blend of marijuana laced with a strong grade of acid and PCP) and smoked two bowls of it before falling into the whale tank. The blood from his head stained the surface of the tank’s corner and the water that rested above him. Freddie woke up a few seconds later, submerged in a mixture of amnesia, bloodied water and a drug-induced haze.
No time to recollect, Freddie attempted to surface, but his arms and legs were too numb to move. Panic ensued. He thrashed his head violently against the water’s weak resistance, but it made no difference. A sudden reminder of mortality flowed slowly, chilling as its taint sank deeper into his chest. His eyes grew faint as the will to survive drained from his body.

A disturbance in the water awoke him. Through dimly lit water a black and eerie form drew closer from below. Fear numbed him further as the great whale approached his blood-clouded body. The whale floated cautiously until its massive head hovered only three feet from Freddie’s sickly face.

“I am Morka the Orca” the great creature boomed. Its words shook Freddie with each rattling syllable.

“I am Morka the Orca” the whale continued. “I rule these sparse depths and venture to the sky when called upon by surfacers who worship me. I am a captivator of the air-brood. Your kind travel far and wide to be mused, enlightened and even splashed by the blessed water that encompasses my kingdom. Your arrival was an unexpected awakening of my slumber. Usually I am hostile to such an intrusion but I am curious as to why a surfacer would dare disturb my waters.”

“My name is Freddie” Freddie gasped, astonished by his ability to speak underwater.

“And why have you come here Freddie of the surface?”

“I can’t recall… right now. Its hard to think.”

“Do you not recall your origin, the surface, your arrival to my depths?”
Freddie thought hard but couldn’t recollect a thing beyond his own name. “Uhh…no.”

“So you come bearing nothing? Interesting… Be you a pilgrim of mine? A follower who seeks enlightenment?” The whale stared stoically and spoke not through its mouth, but seemingly from the water itself. The sound waves penetrated Freddie’s entirety and with each word a comforting warmth filled his body more and more.

“I don’t know” Freddie said worriedly. He didn’t want to offend his friend.

“A declaration of ignorance! Morka himself cannot muse more honest words… Freddie the Humble, you… intrigue me. Do you have a request of the great Morka, Freddie the Humble?”
Freddie thought hard about his answer but knew almost nothing to base his answer upon. “How do I get out of here?” he asked hesitantly.

“How to leave you ask? Hmmm… Depends on where you wish to go. To the light you’ll find darkness and through the darkness light will come. I can send you to either realm but cannot bring you back. It’s your choice Freddie. Do you wish to break the glass of drying sky or seek greater purpose deep beneath beyond?”

Freddie struggled again to answer. His recollection had not returned and the cloud around him grew darker and redder. Below the whale, at the bottom of the tank, a glimmer caught his eye, but the moment his eyes could focus upon it a sharp pain coursed through his blood and the light disappeared.

“Down. Send me down” he said painfully.

“What’s that? You seek greater purpose?” Morka replied.

“Just send me down, please!” Freddie’s body clenched in pain “Down, please!”

“You seek greater purpose?” Morka repeated.

“I seek greater purpose!” Freddie screamed in pain. His words boomed deep through the water like the voice of Morka.
“So be it! I shall maneuver in preparation for descent. Clutch tightly to my tail-fin and I will bring you the enlightenment you seek.”

The great whale thrusted its sleek body with great amour as it turned round to extend its tail-fin. Freddie reached with his once immobile arms out to grasp Morka’s majestic tail. His hands locked together on the fin as if glued there by a magnetic force. The whale started its descent. “Prepare for enlightenment!” He boomed.

And with these words the memories came back. First childhood, then school years, then adulthood, passing memories were stripped like loose shackles of his mind by the descent’s forceful current. A vision of Susan passed before his eyes, and his love for her was drained from him and digested by the water. His hatred for her became useless and he let it drop from mind to be lost among the water. Morka fastened his pace as he barreled towards the bottom of the pool. Freddie felt great pains in his arms and watched in horror as chains emerged from the surface of his skin. A great feeling of dependence and misery strengthened the chains grip all around his body. As Freddie struggled to shake the chains away, he caught glimpse of the bottom. He saw the light that he’d seen before but this time it stayed. The claws of the chains ripped from his skin, cleansing him of all addiction. The whale pulled up, but flung its tail towards the bottom. Freddie embraced the light as is touched his eyes. No thrill, no pleasure, no desire could equal as the last few inches between Freddie and the floor disappeared into a consuming light.