Chapter Seven

Dylan had stripped off layers of clothing as the day went on and the sun got hotter. But he kept his life jacket on. It and the rope tied to it kept him safe. His arms were tired. His whole body was tired. It had been over two hours of hard work. He wanted to stop, but he knew he couldn’t. Oreo needed him.

Over time, as Dylan collected and poured water, the little orca became calmer and calmer.

“See, Oreo? I told you I was going to help you.”

Dylan was glad the orca wasn’t so upset. Oreo was quiet now. That was good. Wait. Was it? Was Oreo calm, or was he...was he...? Then Dylan heard Oreo breathing, exhaling through his blowhole, and Dylan felt like he could breathe again too.

“Take the hose!” Grandpa yelled.

His grandpa was now standing on the beach. The water had receded enough that he was able to stand there below the rocks. Dylan reached down and grabbed the end of the hose his grandpa had held up to him.

The other end of the hose was attached by duct tape to a bicycle air pump.

“Let’s hope for the best,” Grandpa said.

He waded into the water and started to pump the handle. It was supposed to send up ocean water…but at first there was nothing. It wasn’t working! But then water started coming out.

“It’s working!” Dylan screamed. He sprayed water along the whole length of Oreo’s body. This hose gave him much more water than the bucket had, and it was so much easier!

After a few minutes Grandpa stopped pumping. The pump had done the work of dozens and dozens of buckets of water.

Dylan was hungry. All his hard work—and excitement—had given him an appetite. His grandpa had passed some food down to him earlier—he’d eaten apples and a sandwich and some granola bars. It was time for another apple.

He sat down, his back against a rock and right beside Oreo’s head. The whale followed Dylan’s movement with his one eye. Oreo still looked unsure, but he was calm.

“I wish I could share this apple with you,” Dylan said to Oreo. “But you’ll have to wait until you get back in the water. You know you’re going back into the water, right?”

The whale was silent, but his tail rose ever so slightly.

“In a few hours you’ll be able to use that tail again. Just lay still now. Don’t move around.”

The pod members called from the deep water. The outgoing tide had forced them farther away. Oreo replied to the calls. Both sides of the conversation seemed calmer. Maybe they all understood that Dylan was there to help.

“We’re friends now,” he said. “The next time I’m out in my kayak, you better come up and say hello.” He smiled. “You can even splash me a little bit to make up for me splashing you.”

Again Oreo raised his tail and then slightly opened his mouth.

Did he just smile at me?

Dylan finished his apple and then stood up and looked down at the beach.

“How much longer?” he yelled.

“The tide is starting to come back in. I’m going to have to move in an hour or so. I think it’ll still be about four hours before the water gets up to your level. Are you going to be all right?”

“I’d be all right even if it was another forty hours.”

“I knew you would be! I’m going to start pumping again in a few minutes.”

Dylan stared at the back of the whale and adjusted the sheets, making sure there was no skin exposed to the sun. The sun was right above them now, and it was bright. It was hot and getting hotter. He made sure Oreo’s blowhole was free. Then he placed his hand on the white patch by Oreo’s eye. The orca’s skin was wet and cool. So much cooler than it had been when all of this had started. Despite the rising temperature and the sun getting higher in the sky, he was managing to keep Oreo cool.

Dylan looked directly at one of Oreo’s eyes, which was looking up at him. Dylan was amazed at how small the eye was compared to the size of the whale. It wasn’t that much bigger or different than Dylan’s—just darker.

And then he realized they had something else in common. He could see that the whale was thinking. Maybe about Dylan or about the situation or about his pod. But he was thinking. And more than that. The fear was gone, and Dylan thought he saw hope in the eye looking back at him.