The whale surfaced and blew out a big shoot of water. “It’s a gray whale,” the captain said, but I didn’t care. I was seeing my first real whale, one out in the ocean and free! He was the most gorgeous, unbelievable, incredible creature I’d ever seen in my life.
“Get a picture,” Bob cried out, and I remembered my camera at that moment, but I was frozen. I couldn’t look away from the beauty of the whale.
Perhaps beauty wasn’t the best description. The whale we were watching was saddled with hundreds of big patches of barnacles. I wanted to jump into the water and pull them off of him, one by one. It seemed so unfair that he should have to carry such a burden. The captain, when I asked about the patches, explained that the barnacles stayed on a whale for life. He told me that sometimes a gray whale had to carry hundreds of pounds of barnacles as he streamed through the water. And the nasty things never let go!
This particular whale remained on the surface for several moments of frozen time, then decided to go back down. He didn’t wave a fin at us or jump out of the water or anything. He seemed completely oblivious to us and to the other boats surrounding him, all at a considerable distance.
“That one’s an old male,” the captain said. I didn’t ask how he knew such things. The captain was an experienced whale watcher, so I just assumed he knew.
When the whale was gone, I sank onto our benchlike seat and drank the rest of my bottled water. Timothy sat down beside me. “Happy?” he asked.
That was the silliest question I’d ever been asked. I threw my arms around Timothy and kissed him fully on the mouth. Despite our audience, we enjoyed the moment. But then I suddenly realized that I needed to go to the bathroom. Urgently. I’d finished the bottle of water, and now . . .
“I gotta go,” I said, bolting up.
I would have been fine to walk there on my own. I knew where the bathroom was, since Kyle had told us, but Timothy walked me there anyway. The boat was stopped, and we were swaying with the ocean, rocking back and forth, so I was actually grateful to have Timothy by my side, holding me steady. As the captain had said, we didn’t have our sea legs yet.
After I came out, Timothy followed my example. Then Bob and Terry showed up just as Timothy was coming out. Apparently, the consumed liquid and all the excitement had hit us at the same time.
When we returned to our seating area, Kyle came around with a selection of snacks. He even had some half sandwiches that Bob grabbed onto. I swear that guy could eat more than a grizzly bear preparing for winter. But Terry also selected a couple of sandwiches. It seemed he he was hungry, too.
I chose a red apple, of course. Timothy took some black licorice. I laughed at that. Who could have pictured Timothy liking licorice?