Orca boy Chapter One "Pepper"

Orca Boy

Chapter One – Pepper  

 “It’s okay guys,” says Josh, trembling, his heart pounding, “we’re not going to hurt you.” He stops rowing and slowly drifts towards the bigger killer whales snout. 

“My name is Josh; this other fellow is my Uncle Charley.  We live in that big old house up on the hill.  Over there, on the dock, is my Aunt Maggie with the camera, and Sammie and Sadie.   Sadie’s barking brought us to you.”  Josh’s constant patter is supposed to calm the huge animals and bolster his own courage.  So far, the orcas appear to be in control of their emotions.  

The two killer whales have brought an exciting nervous calmness to the cove, and then they both spout—ending the tranquil spell.   They exhale a foul smelling steamy mist high into the air. Their breath erupts for ten long seconds from fist size blowholes.  Everyone is caught by surprise. Charley swallows hard and dry; his neck muscles knot and won’t cooperate.  Their guttural inhales sound like the earth herself is drawing breath.

“Hi momma,” says Josh, still shaking a little, “that was impressive up close like that,” his voice barely above a whisper.  “Like I said, I’m Josh, this was your idea to come here, wasn’t it?  Do you have names? What do you call each other?  Has anyone ever told you your black and white outfits look formal? You know, like a penguin looks. This conversation is totally one sided, but I need to talk.  I know—you both look like salt and pepper, I’m calling you Pepper, and mom, I’m not calling you salt, you don’t seem like an old salt, you tell me what to call you?”  Josh pauses for his own deep breath; the quiet moment is Sadie’s cue to whimper her concern.

                 

Pepper moves her flipper fin in a circular motion pushing her blowhole and eye back above the surface. She is half resting, half perched on momma orca’s outstretched six foot fin. Without constant swimming or her mother’s support, the heavy net and weights tangling her body will pull her to the bottom.  She calmly watches the rowboat drift closer. 

Fifty feet away on the dock, Sadie whines, Sammie rubs her neck soothing her, maybe Sadie senses something, maybe dog and orca have somehow connected.  Sadie was certainly drawn to the cove, bringing Sammie and Josh running.

The puny little boat offers no protection should the two orcas suddenly thrash about. Josh rows directly in front of Pepper; with one eye, she watches him pull the oars in, and reach for his hiking stick.  Her left eye is dark blue the other is dark green.  Above each eye is a white eye-patch, nature’s subtle disguise.  She is black on top and white on her belly.  The black and white markings are duplicated on her mom.  Like mother, like daughter, Pepper is a ten-foot version of her twenty-two foot mother.

“Well Charley, so far so good,” says Josh, “It’s okay Pepper, I need to keep from banging into you and your mom so I’m going to touch your mom lightly with this stick, that’s okay with your mom—right?”  Charley holds his breath, he squeezes the edge of the boat with white knuckles.  Josh exhales slowly through pursed lips, and reaches the stick out to momma—he gently pushes. 

 “Oh jeez,” says Josh trembling all over again, “this is scary—pushing on her is like shoving on a piling or dock covered with old truck tires.  This momma is definitely a serious animal.”  The boat rebounds backwards.  Momma’s eye follows them; ever so slowly, she strokes her fin on the far side.  Under water, she flexes her broad tail fluke—Josh freezes while holding the stick hovering over her.

  “It’s okay momma, Uncle Charlie and I are your friends, I’m going to rub this stick over here on Pepper’s back.”He lightly touches the tip of his stick on her back between her blowhole and pectoral fin.  “Would you like me to scratch your back, Pepper?”

He rubs the stick back and forth, and wonders what to do next. 

“You really are a big girl Pepper; let me scratch you a little bit over here by your big back fin.”

Josh slides the stick over the ropes that are cutting into her skin and scratches in front of her dorsal fin.

 “What the heck is that noise,” says Josh, “Pepper, is that you squealing? No, you’re whistling—you sure are.  You like this scratching, don’t you?”  Josh lifts the stick and raps it in one spot like when Sammie smacks Sadie on her haunches as part of a good-dog back rub.  Pepper’s whistles continue with an occasional click sound.

“Josh, I think that whale likes you,” says Charley, loosening his grip on the boat while the strange almost unbelievable sight unfolds in front of him.  “If I didn’t know better I would say Pepper is purring.” 

“Uh, I hope not, I once had a cat that purred when I rubbed its back, but then it bit me.”

The scratching, whistling and clicks continue while momma orca supports Pepper on her extended fin.  Her gentle fin movements  hold their position opposite the floating dock.  His courage showing, Josh experiments and rubs the stick on different parts of Peppers body.  He carefully shoves and manipulates the area where the ropes are cutting into her thick skin. Except for the clicks, she shows no preference nor displays any pain or displeasure; she tolerates his touching and doesn’t mind the boat bumping against her.  Momma orca is motionless just a few feet away, and except for the occasional tail and fin adjustment, she could be asleep.

Josh and Charley lock eyes, Charley shakes his head, “Josh again—you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes I do, Uncle Charley, now more than ever, I can’t not help them.” He clenches his jaw and with his hand, gently rubs the white patch above her open eye, comforting the small orca.  With his other hand, he wipes his own wet eyes.

 Using the hooked pole, he reaches into the water underneath Pepper and snags a piece of net.  He pulls the snarled mass to the surface.  With his Leatherman tool lanyard securely looped on his wrist, he slices into the netting.  He saws the serrated blade through seaweed-encrusted line. He hooks more gobs and cuts through fifteen or more lines before coming to an extra heavy rope holding a lot of weight. It takes both him and Charley to pull the taught rope to the surface.  Josh braces himself up on one knee and leans out over the ten foot orca.

“This is horrible Pepper, how the heck can you swim with all this junk hanging from you?”

The knife cleanly separates the stretched rope and hundreds of pounds suddenly sink to the bottom of the cove.  When the weight falls, Pepper, Charley, Josh and the rowboat all rebound at once.  Big momma’s huge supporting fin snaps upward like a catapult unleashed, lifting and tilting the boat.  Charley falls over backward in the middle of the boat and rides it out, but Josh’s precarious position is impossible to recover from, and he sails over the side flopping onto Peppers back.  Her dorsal fin trips him up and he slides into the water between mother and daughter. Sadie jumps to her feet barking her alarm.  Sammie pulls her down clamping a hand over her muzzle quieting her. Maggie yells Josh’s name.  Charley with the boat hook still in his hand pulls himself up and looks for his nephew.

“Oh my god,” says Charley, eyes wide, fresh adrenalin replacing stale fear.

“It’s okay Pepper,” says Josh, “It’s okay momma, just a little mishap—everyone remain calm.”

Josh has slipped between the two killer whales, one arm resting on Pepper, the other forced upward over the much higher mom. 

“Charley, you aren’t going to believe this, I’m kneeling on her fin.  I’m going to climb over Pepper and get back in the boat.” He crouches, ready to stand and straddle Pepper, but when he stretches for the boat, he doesn’t quite make it and falls on her again.  With both arms, he pushes off ungracefully rejecting sitting on her.  He lands with a flying crash back in the rocking boat.  The two orcas watch but remain motionless, unlike Josh and Charley their emotions and fear are still in check.

“Oh boy,” Says Josh, able to breathe again, “I thought that was going to do it, and we would be smashed to bits, or big momma’s tail would toss us over the dock.”

“Are you okay,” says Maggie, “what happened, did the big whale hit you?”

“No, everything is fine,” says Charley, “we just got off balance.”

Getting back to work, Josh says. “That last cut released a ton of weight, but it didn’t loosen these two tight ones around her body, we have to keep fishing for hanging lines.” 

In the next fifteen minutes, Josh and Charley manage to make another dozen cuts, removing a lot of netting and line but no more significant weight like the gob that threw him into the water.

“Okay, we’re almost done, this is the one digging in, I’ll slice—what the!!    This rope has a wire inside of it, it’s dulled my knife, I can’t cut it.”

“I should have told you, some of these fishing nets are made with a thin wire cable in the top line.  It’s ultra strong and doesn’t stretch,” says Charley.

“It’s also killing Pepper, we have to get it off somehow, but I can’t cut it or even reach it without cutting into her blubber.”

Chapter Two - Sammie

Yesterday—

“Hi!—Hellooo...... I said Hi!—”

“Oh . . . you’re talking to me?” Oh geez, you dweeb, what a dumb answer.