Page 29 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
There was no trail, but she was prepared, using the compass app on her phone. If it weren’t such an absurd situation, she might’ve felt kind of cool.
It took ten minutes of carefully creeping through the forest to reach the back of the whale stadium. Under the cover of the trees, Sheila set the bakery box down and took out her supplies, pulling on the ski mask, the gloves, and looping the rope and rappelling gear over her shoulder.
She knew from the security guard that there was a chain-link fence in the back that was ten feet high, and in his eyes, far too easy to climb.
A few lights were still on at the stadium, and she could see clearly. Sheila crept along until she reached the fence. All she had to do was throw the rope over and –
Hang on. She stood from her crouched position, squinting. Were her eyes fooling her? Or was the gate standing ajar?
She moved closer, listening for the sound of voices or footsteps. After a full minute, she hadn’t heard anything, and she dropped the rope and rappelling gear onto the ground. With the sound of her thundering heart in her ears, she quietly slipped through the open gate.
She didn’t make a sound, and no alarms rang out.
She kept walking, reaching the back of the tank beneath ground level. There was a large viewing window where she could see inside. Lottie had already taken notice of her. She swam over to the window and paused, hanging in the water as Sheila stood in front of the glowing blue window, her mouth hanging open.
“Hey girl,” she whispered, putting her gloved hand up to the window.
Lottie stared back at her with the eye Sheila remembered so well – even then, she seemed old and wise. They watched one another for what felt like an eternity.
Then, without warning, Lottie swam off.
“Wait!” Sheila yelled, then sucked in a sharp breath, chastising herself.
She still needed to be quiet. There could be someone here.
She stood and listened. The only sound she heard was Lottie taking a breath at the surface of the water.
Sheila crept around the tank, walking past the trainer area, past the rows of plastic buckets, and jumped over a small barrier to get to the side of the tank with audience seating.
Here there was tall plexiglass siding, and Lottie returned, gliding by the glass once, then spinning around with stunning grace to return.
Sheila laughed. “Do you remember me?”
It occurred to her how ridiculous that question was, not only because she was talking to a whale, but because she was wearing a ski mask. She looked over her shoulder, then, convinced she was alone, carefully pulled the mask up to the top of her head. “I’m bigger now, but it’s still me.”
Lottie came closer.Shewas so much bigger, the length of a two-story house. The size her mother had been.
Sheila walked along the side of the tank and Lottie followed. She hopped a barrier and easily got into the trainer area, standing at the water’s edge.
Lottie came to the surface, her black skin shining in the moonlight. She was close enough for Sheila to reach out a hand and touch her…
Not that she dared. “I’m going to play something for you, and I want you to listen.”
Lottie stayed, patiently waiting with her head out of the water.
Good. She understood.
Sheila pulled up the file on her phone, the one she’d gotten after emailing an orca researcher. It was a recording of orca calls from the three southern resident pods.
Sheila had never known how complicated orcas were. Each of the three pods had a distinct dialect, and the researcher said she could differentiate them based on recordings alone.
“And the orcas know who they’re talking to, too?”
The woman had written back with an enthusiastic, “Of course! They recognize one another just as easily as you and I would!”
Sheila hit play, the sound from her phone filling the empty stadium. Lottie turned onto her side and gently lifted her flipper out of the water, holding it as though she was reaching out.
Sheila played three one-minute clips. Lottie had no reaction to the first two, but with the third, she immediately started whistling and clicking.
