Chapter Twenty-eight

“What is that?”

Alex was shaking. What was she going to do? She paced back and forth, searching for an easy way down the cliff.

“It looks like a whale. Is it dead?”

“No, it moved. I’m sure it did. I think…I think it’s Daredevil. He’s beached!”

“Your baby whale?” Rachel cried. “We should go for help.”

“You go,” Alex said, her eyes still searching for a path. “He could be hurt. I have to get down there. Maybe I can help him.”

She finally spotted a small crevice between two large boulders that didn’t seem too treacherous. Placing a hand on one of the boulders, she was suddenly dizzy. When she looked below, the rocks wavered in front of her eyes.

Rachel grabbed her arm. “You can’t go down there!”

Alex shrugged her off. “I have to. He’s been there for ages already. Rooftop was out there on our whale watch. That was hours ago!” Alex felt sick thinking that Daredevil had been in danger all that time. Her instincts had told her something was wrong with Rooftop’s strange behaviour. If only she’d made Gus check it out then.

“Let’s go get help,” Rachel said.

“That’s a good idea. You should hurry.”

“What? I’m not leaving you here.”

“I’m staying to help Daredevil. Someone has to go down there before it’s too late.”

“We’ll hurry back.”

Alex shook her head.

“Well,” Rachel frowned. “If that’s what you want…”

Then the decision was made for them. Fog wrapped around Alex and Rachel like a fleece blanket, only there was no warmth in it. It was even thicker than before. They stood still, paralyzed. It had happened so fast! Barely time to blink.

They huddled in the chilly air, and then just as quickly it was withdrawing again, a wall hovering just offshore.

Alex glanced down at Daredevil as he thrashed again in the shallow water. He could be running out of time. Whales should be in the water, not on land. “I’m going down there before the fog comes back in.”

“I’m not staying up here by myself!” Rachel squealed.

“You’re going to get Gus, remember?” Alex turned away, anxious to get down to Daredevil. If she was going to save him, she had to do something, and fast.

“No way!” Rachel pointed to the fog bank. “That could come back any second. Then I’d be lost and alone. Let’s go together.”

“No! If the fog comes back in, nobody will be able to come back here to help Daredevil.” Stepping gingerly on the first boulder, Alex yelped as it shifted under her weight. A few smaller rocks bounced away down the cliff. She pulled back and leaned against the big boulder, closing her eyes. Her bravery had evaporated with a teeny slip of her foot.

Alex sucked in a deep breath. “You can do it,” she whispered.

“What did you say?” Rachel asked.

“Nothing.” Opening her eyes, Alex saw she was level with patches of burnt-orange and grey lichens clinging to the rock—they looked like crusty mould. Tufts of tall, wheat-coloured grass sprang from the crevices, swaying in the breeze.

Please, make me strong, she prayed. Please give me a little of Adam’s bravery—just a little. She looked down at Daredevil’s lonely silhouette on the beach. His tail flapped lamely. She had to help him. Swallowing hard, she blew out the breath that she’d been holding, and stepped back onto the basalt rocks. Rachel followed closely behind her.

“Go get Gus!”

“He’s probably not there anyway. He does a whale watch in the afternoons,” Rachel said. “And even if your parents and Sophie are home, they’d have to call the Coast Guard or something, right? How long would that take?”

They both looked at Daredevil. He might not have much time.

“Come on, then,” Alex snapped. She figured it was more likely Rachel’s fear of the fog that kept her from going for help, but she didn’t want to waste another second arguing.

Grabbing at grass where she could, Alex inched her way down the rock wall. Before taking each step, she tested it lightly with one foot first, making sure it was stable.

It was hard. Sharp rocks scraped their arms and legs. Sweat dripped into their eyes as they baked under the hot sun. Alex almost wished the cool fog would return. It had retreated farther out into the cove and sunlight was sparkling on the water.

For the last several minutes, the rocks had been covered in seaweed. This made the going even more hazardous, as their feet and hands slipped on the slick piles. Puddles of warmed seawater rippled in the hollows of flatter rocks. Time seemed to stand still as their world became the next rock, the next foothold. It felt like it would never end. Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.

“Watch this big one beside me,” Alex called up. “It’s loose.”

“Okay,” Rachel gasped.

Searching for the next foothold, Alex glanced below her and realized she didn’t have to look anymore—they’d finally made it down to the beach. Sagging with relief, she reached up a supporting hand to steady Rachel as she jumped down the last few feet.

Alex gulped as she looked back up at how far they had descended. She didn’t even want to think about the journey they’d have to make back up the cliff. But she’d done it. Adam would have been proud of her, she was sure. Not always a wuss, am I, Adam?

As they approached Daredevil, the whale seemed to become aware of their presence. He thrashed around, his tail smacking loudly on the shallow water.

“He’s scared,” Alex said. Instinctively, she slowed her steps and spoke in a low voice. “It’s okay, Daredevil. We won’t hurt you.”

Rachel stayed close behind her.

“We’re here to help you,” Alex continued.

“Oh, poor guy!” Rachel cried. Her loud voice rang across the silent cove.

Daredevil twisted again, lifting his head off the beach.

“Shh, Rachel, not so loud. You’re scaring him!”

“Oops! Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Daredevil.” Alex moved forward to stand beside the whale. He was huge this close up. Alex guessed he had to be almost twenty feet long and taller than Alex’s five feet and two inches. Daredevil wasn’t anything like a baby. It quickly became obvious why he was beached, though. Several loops of fishing line were tangled around him, attached to two buoys that floated behind him in the water.

White crystals were crusted in his eyes and around his mouth. Sand and small rocks were stuck to his sides and underneath his jaw, caught in his throat grooves. Alex could see long dark marks crisscrossing his grey skin, which was dull and dry.

Tears welled in her eyes as she watched him writhing around. “Shh,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Shh.”

The back part of Daredevil’s body, past his tangled long flippers, was in the shallow water. His skin was wet and shiny there, coated from the spray each time he smacked his tail.

“Water! He needs water on the rest of his skin,” Alex said. “We’ll get him wet and then try and get this line off him.”

“How are we going to do that?”

Alex looked frantically around. It wasn’t as if buckets were just magically going to appear. What would hold water? “Pass me my jacket.”

Rachel looked puzzled as she untied the jacket from around her waist and handed it to Alex. “What are you going to do with that?”

“It’s waterproof. We can use it like a scoop.”

“You really think that will work?”

It has to, Alex thought. She ran to the water’s edge. “Help me,” she called out. “Hold the other side.”

They pushed the jacket under the water and pulled it back up. Water poured over the sides, but much remained in the middle. The splashing salt water licked painfully at their scratched legs.

They shuffled sideways to Daredevil’s head, trying carefully not to slosh too much over the sides.

Gently tipping the water out, they let it cascade over Daredevil’s side. As soon as the water touched his skin, Daredevil froze. Alex and Rachel moved the jacket from side to side as the water poured out, covering as much of him as they could. They couldn’t reach the very top of his body, but were able to cover most of his side.

Alex was thrilled it had worked. They raced back to the water’s edge. Again and again, they scooped up water and splashed it over Daredevil’s massive form. They tried to fling it high enough to cover his head, but it was hard to tell if it made it all the way over him.

Alex thought maybe the whale understood they were trying to help him. She hoped so. She kept murmuring reassuring words as they made their way to and from the water. She had no idea how much time had passed. There was only the motion of filling the jacket and pouring the water, filling the jacket and pouring the water.

The sun beat down from a now-cloudless sky. After a while, Alex noticed the splashes from Daredevil’s tail were getting smaller and smaller. She looked with frustration out at the fog bank hovering beyond the edges of the cove. “Fog! Come back in and hide the sun!” she cried.

Daredevil’s body jerked.

“Sorry.” Alex’s head was pounding and her arms ached. Her lips were cracked and dry.

“I can’t even lift my arms anymore,” Rachel said. She dropped the jacket.

Alex ignored her, smoothing water with her hand around Daredevil’s face. She rinsed away some of the tiny stones and sand. “There,” she soothed, “doesn’t that feel better?”

She thought about the damp facecloth she would soak in water to moisten Adam’s lips every day. She’d whispered the same things to him.

But it seemed like Daredevil’s skin was getting drier, not wetter. The sun dried the water as fast as they poured it.