The road toward the beach was quiet with the noise of summer nights – crickets, tree frogs and the rustling of critters in leaves and trees.  But no man-made sounds were heard that night.  Diane sat in the back with the children and the dolphin-nanny, Stella.  Stella occasionally made clicking noises, comforting the children through her own fear.  The children cuddled up next to her taking long slow breathes, occasionally diving back under the water to get a break from the labor of having to breathe air instead of water.

Diane glanced down at Darwin.  His nearly translucent skin gleaming in the moonlight – it looked like he was sparkling.  Her sparkly boy she thought.  She smiled remembering what it was like when he was born.  Two very sick children already at home – Diane refused to be genetically tested for this one.  She knew, in her soul that he would be different.  She opted for a water birth, hoping that it would ease his transition into this world – even if only for a bit.  She would use the salt water pool that was Brynn and Leo’s therapy playground.  When he was born with the tell-tale large nostrils, her heart sank a little bit. Unlike the other children, his skin was so pale it was practically translucent.  But something inside of her whispered, “leave him under the water.”  When the midwife went to raise him up and then cut the cord, Diane said no.  The midwife looked at her in horror – she must have thought that Diane wanted to kill him.  But Diane knew that he would be special, that he would be ok.  They cut the cord with Darwin remaining under the water, and with his first breath, under the water, he pinked right up and opened his eyes.  Darwin’s differences didn’t stop with his skin though.  One day while she was teaching him his letters, Diane heard him say, clearly, in her mind, “I know how to do this mommy.”  But his lips never moved.  Darwin was telepathic.

Darwin changed everything.  Instead of making him adapt to her world, Diane realized that she had to let him exist in a world that was foreign to her.  And in letting Darwin be who he was, she realized that she would have to let go of Brynn and Leo too.  Of course there were challenges at first.  How do you nurse a child who remains under water all the time?  But she soon became adapt at nursing in the therapy pool.  As the children got older, she realized that they would have to make the pool bigger.  Home schooling adaptations included ways to get computers to work under water, and writing utensils that could work while submerged too.  Soon, word began to spread, that there were Saline-Sensitive, Hyper-Cystic Fibrosis (SS HCF) kids who were thriving by living completely under water in salt water pools.  When Time magazine came to do an interview, Diane knew that things would never be the same.  Her little family had created a seismic shift and there would be no turning back from it.  She was leading the way for children and families like hers.

The decision to leave the pool and go to the sea was one that Darwin brought up himself.  He was 13 when he first brought it up.  “Mom, you can’t keep me in this pool for the rest of my life.”  He was right and she hated that.  Darwin drafted out the plan.  It was genius really.  The only problem was how much she was going to miss her children.

It was nearly 3am when they pulled up to the dock.  The team of friends, doctors and teachers all helped to lift the children and their dolphin nanny into the water.  Darwin smiled and told her, “It’s ok mom, we’re free now.  We’ll be ok.”  Diane let the tears roll down her face as her three children swam off into the dark.