Whale Song Read Online Free PDF

I found it rather embarrassing.
    “ What are you doing tomorrow?” my father asked me.
    I told him about my plans to meet Goldie again on the beach.
    He asked my mother the same question.
    “ I’m not telling,” she said, smiling mysteriously.
    I went up to my room after supper and wrote a long letter to Amber-Lynn. I gave her a detailed account of the trip to Bamfield. Then I described my new house and my big bay window. I told her about the raft and swimming in the ocean. I even told her about Robert. But I never mentioned a word about Goldie. I sensed that Amber-Lynn might feel jealous of my new friend, so I told her about my father’s work, the new schooner and all about echolocation. I knew that would impress her.
    When I finished writing the letter, I crawled into bed.
    Sometime during the night, I had a dream that I was swimming in the ocean while a full moon ascended overhead. The water was warm and soothing, and I had no fear of it. As I floated on my back and looked up at the stars, restless waves gently nudged me back to shore.
    Suddenly, a whisper of movement under the water caught my eye. A streak of black and white rushed by me, just under the surface.
    A killer whale.
    Its gleaming body shone in the opalescent glow of the moon.
    I reached out a hand as it slid past me at a leisurely pace. Its smooth slippery skin was like the softest satin. It turned and swam past me again. Then the whale sank into the depths below.
    After that, I slept peacefully.
    I barely recalled that dream when I awoke the next morning, but many months later I remembered it and wondered if it was some kind of omen.
    I know now that it was.
     
    I met Goldie every afternoon in July and we became fast friends and confidants. She had a keen sense of adventure and a great imagination. She loved to tell me stories of her ancestors―legends from ancient times―and I was fascinated by them. From those stories, I learned to appreciate nature and the animals around me. We often saw bald eagles soaring overhead, and sometimes white-tailed deer would wander out from the forest.
    One afternoon, she invited me to her house to meet her grandmother. “Everyone says Nana is special. You’ll love her.”
    Nana was a wrinkled wise woman with the strangest hair I had ever seen. It hung down past her waist, thick and blacker than coal―except for one piece that framed the left side of her face. It was pure white.
    She had deep amber-colored eyes that always sparkled. And like a hawk, she never missed anything. She seemed to know things―things that no human should know.
    The first time I saw her, she was sitting in a rocking chair with her back to the door. She didn’t even flinch when we walked inside. I thought that maybe she was sleeping.
    “ Nana,” Goldie said. “This is―”
    “ Your friend Sarah,” Nana finished without turning around.
    Casting the old woman a nervous look, I sat down at the table. Goldie passed me a plate of oatmeal cookies and I took one.
    “ Take another one,” Nana said behind me.
    I peeked over my shoulder. She still wasn’t facing us.
    How did she know?
    Without warning, Nana looked at me and smiled. “Eat. You’re too skinny. I can always make more.”
    The rest of that afternoon, I felt her eyes burning into the back of my head. They seemed to follow me everywhere I went.
    “ Told you you’d love her,” Goldie said under her breath.
    I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. I thought Nana was a bit spooky.
    “ Hey,” my new friend said later. “I’ll walk you home.”
    As we strolled along the shore, she told me that Nana was a respected healer. Almost everyone in Bamfield went to her for natural homeopathic remedies. She was knowledgeable about every plant that grew on the island and she could heal cuts and bruises with a few leaves from her garden. Every morning, she made special teas from tree bark and other ingredients that induced sleep or calmed the nerves.
    “ And she has a special