This was not the day
I'd planned or expected.
How so?
I had in mind the usual--
a little float on the surface,
warming in the sun;
breeching with my buddies,
seeing who could make the biggest splash;
a few deep dives,
straining for krill through the ol' baleen.
Sounds like the perfect day.
Yes, until, on one of my deepest dives,
I rose to a world suddenly, inexplicably changed:
descending--
watery sunlight sparkled above me;
ascending--
I rose into grayness and chaos.
Instead of the rays of the sun,
flashes of lightning;
instead of gentle swells;
thunderous waves;
instead of blue skies,
sheeting rain.
All, it seemed, in an instant,
in the blink of an eye.
How bizarre.
Oh, it gets stranger.
Say more.
I saw, above me,
the underside of a ship,
a ship in trouble,
the keel creaking,
the deck dipping below water.
I could hear the shouts of men--
frightened men.
And then, one man overboard,
plunging into the sea
in front of my nose.
Involuntarily, I gasped,
and you will not believe what happened next.
Yes?
My gasp sucked him in!
What, now?
Yes! I swallowed him--
into the mouth,
down the throat,
into the stomach!
I felt him struggle,
arms and legs thrashing against my insides.
Just when I thought I might up-swallow,
he grew still.
He's dead, I thought.
So whales eat people? Just curious.
No! Okay, rarely.
I never have.
And I didn't eat him, did I?
I just swallowed him whole.
Ah, right.
Still not the strangest part of my tale,
because, within a minute of my man-gulping,
out came the sun,
down calmed the sea,
away sailed the boat.
I hung suspended near the surface,
not sure what to do.
I felt sorry for the man,
certain my digestive juices were turning him to mush,
when I heard, faintly and from within...
singing.
The man was alive, inside of me,
and singing.
Singing?
Singing.
Singing prayers.
I don't know a lot of man-words,
but I understood "God"
and "help"
and "sorry"
and "please."
This went on for quite a while,
and the more he sang,
the more peaceful I felt.
I thought things through:
If he's to survive this ordeal,
it will be in his interest
for me to head toward man-country,
toward shore.
So I did.
He sang on.
The song moved me.
I cried as we approached the shallows.
I puked.
Oh, my.
Sorry--that was a bit abrupt,
but it happened that abruptly.
I simply spit him up.
I watched him crawl his way to the sand.
He rolled over, sat up and looked toward me.
He waved.
Man waving to whale. I like that.
Me too.
I believe it was a thank-you sort of wave.
A remarkable story, to be sure.
One more remarkable addition:
His song is still with me.
I can hear it even now,
and I've learned to sing it myself--
"God...help...sorry...please"--
and it brings me joy.
I did not realize whales sang.
We didn't prior to this,
but we do to this day.
Text and image © 2023 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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