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thermos out to him as he sat down in the front passenger seat.
He shook his head, still smiling that not-quite-real smile.
“You okay?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “A little preoccupied,” he admitted. “So!” He
motioned to the boat. “Show me what she’s got.”
“You game for the ocean?” I asked as we pulled away from
the pier. I’d already cruised the sound and the Intracoastal
Waterway. I wanted to see how she handled in the open water.
“Sure.” He adjusted his sunglasses.“Got a name for her yet?”
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diane chamberlain
I’d thought about naming her Laurel. Seriously. I was such a
fool.
“Maybe Maggie,” I said.
“Cool,” said Jamie. “She’d love having a boat named after
her.”
In a few minutes, we were cruising through the inlet. I felt
a thrill, as I always did, when I saw the open sea in front of us.
So wide, I swore I could see the curvature of the earth. How
I’d survived four years in the mountains, I didn’t know.
As we sailed into the ocean from the inlet, a massive ship
appeared out of nowhere. Materialized from thin air. Steamed
past us with a killer blast from its horn. I tightened my hands
on the wheel as we headed straight into its wake.
“Holy shit!” I said, as we climbed the first swell.
“Hang on!” Jamie shouted. Like he needed to tell me.
We crested the wave, dropping like a stone on the other side
of it, and the next wave was on us before we recovered. It tore
off my sunglasses, blinding me with a wall of water and nearly
swamping the boat. I hung on to the wheel. Jamie let out a
whoop like he was riding a bucking bull.
Two more waves,and then finally,the worst was over.I turned
to see Jamie laugh as he peeled off his sopping wet T-shirt. He
took off his sunglasses,looking around,I guessed,for something
to dry them with. “I couldn’t see a damn thing,” he said.
“No shit,” I said, able to laugh now myself. “And I lost my
frickin’ sunglasses.”
He propped his own sunglasses on top of his head. Wrung
his T-shirt out over the side of the boat. “Well, your boat
handled well,” he said.
“Thought I might lose her there for a minute.”
before the storm
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We sailed into the sea, and I opened the throttle wide. After
a while, Jamie cleaned his sunglasses with his damp T-shirt.
Slipped them back on his face. Then he pointed south.
“Is that a whale?” He had to shout for me to hear him over
the roar of the engine.
“Where?” The surface of the water was calm.
“He’s gone under.”
“Can’t be a whale!” I shouted. “Not the season.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Sure looked like one, though.”
We soared across the water. “Is this baby smooth or what?”
I shouted.
“She’s great!”
She was dynamite. We were flying.
“There he is again!” Jamie pointed. “We’re practically on
top of him.”
I saw him this time. Couldn’t miss him. He breached just
south of us, a thirty- or forty-thousand-ton mountain shooting
straight up from the sea, then slipping back into the water.
“Holy…” I slowed the boat, and we scanned the water to
find him again. “I don’t believe it. It’s June!” You’d see hump­
backs in December or January as they headed south, and in the
spring as they returned north. But late June?
I heard the pop of the whale’s blow spout and turned to see
a fountain of water spray into the air not twenty yards away.
Then the massive tail rose in the air like a great bird, wings
spread above the water. The tail thwacked the surface as he
dove under again. I throttled back the engine until we were
simply drifting.
“Is he alone, do you think?” Jamie nearly whispered.
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diane chamberlain
“I have no idea,” I said. “Should’ve brought my camera. No
one’s going to believe this.”
The whale suddenly breached a second time, rocketing
toward the sky in front of us.
“Is that the same one?” Jamie asked.
“I don’t know, but damn! That’s one big Mama Jama!” And
too damn close for comfort. I’d seen whales up close before.
Close enough to scratch their backs with a net from a fishing
charter. This was different. This guy dwarfed us. Dwarfed my
boat. I could imagine Jonah setting up house in his belly.
“How can anyone see this and not feel God’s presence?”
Jamie asked.
I didn’t answer. I’d found my own higher power through
AA, but Jamie’s God and mine were not the same.
The whale slipped underwater again. We waited a few more
minutes, swiveling our heads left and right for the next sign
of him. He was gone.
I reached for the throttle. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]