Don’t Let the Gravity Wear You Down
by Robin Bridges

        Sheila celebrated her fifty-ninth birthday by cleaning the cat box. The cat had kicked dirty litter all over the bathroom floor as its own special present. It was actually Harold's turn to clean it, but she was tired of waiting for him to get around to it. Harold was still in the bed snoring, with the cat purring under his chin.
        "Meow!" The lazy cat hopped off the bed and padded into the bathroom to watch Sheila. He hopped onto the sink, knocking a can of hairspray onto the floor
        "Shh! You'll wake him up!" she said, rather loudly. She swept the litter into the dustpan and dumped it into the garbage bag. And the cat hopped down to check out the garbage bag. Sheila got the bag of litter out from under the sink, and the cat's tail twitched excitedly. He knew the bag of Whiskas was kept under there too.
        Sheila hauled the dirty litter out to the garbage can in the backyard and decided she was going to celebrate her birthday by doing something fun. She decided to take her grandchildren to the aquarium. She went back inside to take a shower.
        Two hours later, Sheila had her daughter's nine and two-year-olds and her son's seven-year-old all buckled into the backseat of her Honda. She knew the baby had never been to the aquarium before, and Sheila couldn't wait to see her excited face when she saw the dolphins and the sea lions.                             
        Sheila realized she had picked the wrong day to come as she hunted for a parking space. Every tourist in town, plus four Girl Scout troupes and a church youth group had decided to visit Marine Life today. Sighing, Sheila pulled her car into a spot far, far away from the front door. Her older grandchildren scrambled out of the backseat while she lifted the baby out of her car seat. "All right guys, do not run off. I don't want to lose you in here," she said as they walked across the parking lot. The baby decided she didn’t want to walk and whimpered to be picked up. It was only a little bit after ten and it was already getting hot. Hadn't the weatherman last night said something about a 115-degree heat index? Oh well, Sheila thought to her, at least there's the breeze off the harbor.               
        The lobby was full of people. Sheila pushed through to the admissions counter. “Three kids and one adult,” she said, pulling out her wallet.                            
        "Thirty-three seventy-five," the cashier announced. Sheila planned on keeping the kids out of the gift shop.
        Sheila slapped the “I got kissed by a sea lion” stickers on the kids' shirts. “Why don't we start at the big tank? We can throw the balls and the dolphins will catch them and throw them back to us.”
        “I'm hungry,” the nine-year-old said. “We'll go to McDonald's for lunch, okay?” she said, herding them up the stairs to the top of the main tank. But there was no empty place around the tank to stand, for a trainer was showing how high the dolphins could jump and all the tourists and girl scouts were watching. Sheila walked around the tank until she found a spot where the two older kids could see. She stood behind them, holding the baby. The baby was enchanted by the seagulls swooping across the tank, hoping for some leftover minnows. She didn't seem impressed with the dolphins.
        But Sheila was. Even after all these years. She'd taken her son and daughter to Marine Life at least once every summer and she loved to watch the dolphins race around the tank and leap into the air, twirling and flipping and grinning. Sheila's refrigerator was covered with dolphin magnets she bought in the gift shop on every trip. Her favorite one was a female dolphin in a green bikini, but she had fallen off the door when Harold opened it too fast one day and half of her tail bad broken off.
        A hot breath of wind came off the harbor lifting the damp hair off her neck. Sheila closed her eyes, letting the sun scald her eyelids. The heat was smothering her and the kids and everyone else. She sat down on one of the benches under a crepe myrtle that was trying its best to provide some shade. The baby squirmed in her lap, wanting to inspect the gravel in the landscaped beds.
        The seven-year-old said she was hungry and wanted to play in the wooden ship building. Sheila sighed and slowly got up.
        The gravity ship was built so that the floor lay at an odd angle and you could roll a basketball and it appeared to roll uphill and a water pump appeared to pump water uphill. A large sign above the entrance said Don't let the gravity get you down.  A second sign said No children under twelve allowed without adult.  So Sheila had to go inside with the kids.                             
        The ship made her nauseous. The kids loved it. Even the two-year-old squealed happily when she tumbled down the floor and slammed into the wall. It was dark and hot inside, with only a fan blowing. Sheila leaned against the doorway while the older kids made faces in the distorted mirror. There was a bench against one wall but a sign above it read Sit down! See if you can get back up!  Sheila wouldn't risk it. She knew the gravity was already getting to her.
        How did she get here? It was her fifty-ninth birthday, and what had she done with all of those years?

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