Surfacing Read Online Free PDF Page A

was the human response: limited in its phrasing and context, direct and to the point.
    I and Deep Swimmer are shy. We will not play with humans. Instead we will pretend we are hungry and vanish into deep waters .
    The boat lurched as a swell caught it at an awkward angle. Water splashed over the bow. Anthony deployed the drogue and dropped from the flybridge to the cockpit. He tapped a message into the computer and relayed it.
    I and Two Notches are pleased to greet ourselves. I and Two Notches hope we are not too hungry .
    The whale’s reply was shaded with delight. Hungrily I and Anthony greet ourselves. We and Anthony’s friend, Air Human, have been in a condition of conversation.
    Air Human, from the flying yacht. Two Notches went on.
    We had found ourselves some Deep Dwellers, but some moments ago we and they moved beneath a cold layer and our conversation is lost. I starve for its return .
    The words echoed off the cold layer that stood like a wall between Anthony and the Dwellers. The humpback inflections were steeped in annoyance.
    Our hunger is unabated , Anthony typed. But we will wait for the non-breathers’ return .
    We cannot wait long. Tonight we and the north must begin the journey to our feeding time .
    The voice of Air Human rumbled through the water. It sounded like a distant, throbbing engine. Our finest greetings, Anthony. I and Two Notches will travel north together. Then we and the others will feed.
    Annoyance slammed into Anthony. Philana had abducted his whale. Clenching his teeth, he typed a civil reply:
    Please give our kindest greetings to our hungry brothers and sisters in the north.
    By the time he transmitted his anger had faded. Two Notches’ departure was inevitable in the next few days, and he’d known that. Still, a residue of jealousy burned in him. Philana would have the whale’s company on its journey north: he would be stuck here by Las Madres without the keen whale ears that helped him find the Dwellers.
    Two Notches’ reply came simultaneously with a programmed reply from Philana. Lyrics about greetings, hunger, feeding, calves, and joy whined through the water, bounced from the cold layer. Anthony looked at the hash his computer made of the translation and laughed. He decided he might as well enjoy Two Notches’ company while it lasted.
    That was a strange message to hear from our friend, Two Mouths , he typed. “Notch” and “mouth” were almost the same phrase: Anthony had just made a pun.
    Whale amusement bubbled through the water. Two Mouths and I belong to the most unusual family between the surface and cold water. We-all and air breathe each other, but some of us have the bad fortune to live in it.
    The sun warmed Anthony’s shoulders in spite of the cool air. He decided to leave off the pursuit of the Dwellers and spend the day with his humpback.
    He kicked off his shoes, then stepped down to his cooler and made himself a sandwich.
    *
    The Dwellers never came out from beneath the cold layer. Anthony spent the afternoon listening to Two Notches tell stories about his family. Now that the issue of hunger was resolved by the whale’s decision to migrate, the cold layer beneath them became the new topic of conversation, and Two Notches amused himself by harmonizing with his own echo. Sings of Others arrived in late afternoon and announced he had already begun his journey: he and Two Notches decided to travel in company.
    Northward homing! Cold watering! Reunion joyous! The phrases dopplered closer Anthony’s boat, and then Two Notches broke the water thirty feet off the port beam, salt water pouring like Niagara from his black jaw, his scalloped fins spread like wings eager to take the air…
    Anthony’s breath went out of him in surprise. He turned in his chair and leaned away from the sight, half in fear and half in awe… Even though he was used to the whales, the sight never failed to stun him, thrill him, freeze him in his tracks.
    Two Notches toppled over