Chapter Four

Gus leapt from above like some kind of superhero and landed on the deck with a thud. “What happened?”

“Over there.” Alex pointed a shaking finger. “There’s something in the water!”

“Is that right?” Gus grinned and walked over to take a look.

“Watch out!” Alex couldn’t help but cry. The thing was huge. What if it tipped their boat over? Or jumped up and knocked them into the water? She checked the ties on her life jacket to make sure they were still tight.

Gus started to laugh. “Well, well, we’re in luck.”

Alex thought he must really be crazy. He should be trying to get them away from this thing.

“Thanks to Alex, we have our first whale sighting.” Gus beckoned everyone with a wave. “Come on over and say hi to Sockeye. He’s a humpback, and he’s one of our long-time visitors here in the bay.”

The woman whizzed by Alex and leaned over the side of the boat. “Oh my,” she gushed. She looked up at Gus and batted her eyes. “Are we in danger? It looks like he’s under our boat!”

“We’ll sue if anything happens!” her husband whined, striding over to stand beside her. He pointed at the water. “That doesn’t look like much. How can you even tell it’s a whale? Aren’t they supposed to jump around or something?”

Gus finally lost the hold he had seemed to have on his temper. “Good grief, man, will you button that flapping trap of yours!” he roared.

The man twitched and ducked behind his wife. Alex watched him fiddle with his camera. He reminded her of a yippy chihuahua that had been barked at by a bigger dog and then turned tail and run.

When it became clear the whale was no danger to the boat, Alex’s panic receded. She felt the apathy seep back into her limbs like a drug. It was as if the cold fog had crept inside her and was spreading through her body, numbing her.

Sockeye apparently didn’t feel like putting on a show, either. Maybe he felt as lonely as she did out here. He kept coming to the surface briefly and then vanishing into the depths again.

The fog had finally vanished from around the boat, too. It was there, and then it wasn’t—like it was alive, toying with them. But it hadn’t gone far. Alex could see it just off in the distance, waiting. It looked solid as a wall. Could it be a portal to another world? She wished.

They decided to move on and see who else was around. As the boat zigzagged around the bay, they came across a basking shark and a sunfish. There were tons of birds, too. Gus was rattling off their names—northern gannets, different kinds of shearwaters, and northern fulmars.

Suddenly, the boat jerked forward and they were steaming across the choppy surface. “Blow holes at ten o’clock!” Gus shouted, pointing to his left.

The couple whipped their matching binoculars up to their eyes in perfect unison as Aunt Sophie grabbed her camera.

What was all the fuss over more whales? Alex wondered. It seemed like they’d been out on this floating freezer for hours. Cold ocean spray from the speeding boat matted her hair and coated her skin.

“There they are!” Aunt Sophie cried.

“Try and get pictures of the flukes, would ya, Soph?” Gus asked. “We’ll get them posted on the tracking website.”

“Tracking what?” asked the woman.

“Each tail is unique,” Aunt Sophie explained, grabbing a reference book. She opened it and pointed to one of the pictures. “See here? The different patterns, shapes, and markings on the tails are like fingerprints for whales. So, by photographing the tails, the flukes, we can identify the whales and track their migrations.”

“That’s extraordinary,” the woman said.

“I know,” Aunt Sophie replied. “Researchers all up and down the East Coast post photos to log sightings. It’s a very effective way to track the whales. For instance, we know Sockeye has been coming to the Bay of Fundy since 1984.”

“But we didn’t see his tail back there, or much of anything, for that matter,” the man said. “How do you know the name of it? Or even if it was a whale at all?”

Gus let out another menacing growl and the man twitched again. It was much more entertaining watching this show than the whales.

“Sockeye might not be the best example. He got his name because of his unique underbite, not his tail. It makes him look a bit like a sockeye salmon. One of a kind, that fella. We know him very well,” Gus said. “Now, get ready. I think that’s Rooftop and her calf.”

An enormous black form exploded from the surface. It seemed to hover for just a second before crashing back into the water, followed almost immediately by a smaller whale mimicking the same move—a baby whale. Despite her bored expression, Alex could feel her pulse quicken.

The baby jumped and flipped and slapped and rolled, smacking its flippers on the surface, all actions Gus had mentioned they might see if they were lucky. He had also talked about spyhopping, when whales poked their heads out of the water to take a look around. But spyhopping was a much quieter activity, and the baby whale seemed too excited for quiet, continuing to explode high into the air.

Alex leaned against the railing and watched the show. Rooftop, the mother, eventually seemed to get tired of all her baby’s antics. She moved farther away from the boat, resting quietly on the surface.

“What’s the baby’s name?” the woman asked.

“He doesn’t have one yet,” Gus explained. “The humpback calves are about seven months old and won’t get an official name until they return to the bay on their own.”

“Rooftop’s calf is a real daredevil, though,” Gus added. “I’ve never seen anything like it—disappearin’ from its mother’s side all the time. That’s dangerous behaviour for such a young whale.”

Daredevil. That’s what Mom had always called Adam, too. Mom would laugh when she said it, though. So would Adam. Then Mom would ruffle his hair while he tried to squirm away. Her brother had always gotten into trouble, and that had usually meant trouble for Alex, too. He’d get her dragged into his mess every time. She felt a lump form in her throat and sucked in a deep breath.

The ocean was so calm now that she wasn’t nervous of the water anymore. Stretching her arms out, she could almost touch the surface. Thinking of Adam, Alex let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes, her heart aching for things that couldn’t be.

Alex jumped as something wet and smooth brushed against her outstretched hands. She gasped as she opened her eyes. The baby humpback’s head was raised out of the water and it was totally still, watching her.

Holding her breath, Alex slowly ran her hands over its wet skin. The whale didn’t move. This was the spyhopping Gus had talked about. Was the baby whale checking her out? Sounds faded away as the baby pushed its head gently up against her hands. The moment seemed to last forever.

The railing dug into her ribs, but she ignored it, leaning even farther. She kept stroking the baby’s head—its skin was dark grey and it had a white shape like a sideways question mark over its right eye. Eventually, it sank back silently beneath the surface.

Alex stayed perfectly still, staring intently at the water until all the ripples had disappeared.

“Bye, Daredevil,” she whispered.