Ice Whale (19 page)

“P
ull this white parka over the one you have on‚”
Agvik said to TJ. “It makes it harder for the whales to see you.” He tossed the garment to TJ and donned another. “They're wind- and waterproof. We might get splashed.

“I'm hoping that Siku will be coming back. He comes here about this time every year.”

“You mean you've seen him‚ the same whale our ancestor saw being born?” TJ asked.

“Same one! Siku's one big whale‚ probably weighs a hundred tons‚ and changes the sea level when he breaches!” Agvik laughed. “And today I hope you'll see him too.” They were going to paddle out a ways in a kayak to search for the whale.

After the seismic ships had gone‚ a group of whales took the northeastward-flowing current at Point Barrow and swam close to the last of the land-fast ice. Moving like an armada‚ these magnificent swimmers occasionally rose out of the water to breathe and spy on the land-fast ice. To
this day‚ the ice was too silent . . . no birds‚ no barking seals‚ just stillness. Then he heard hunters whispering.

“
.”

Siku warned the other whales away. But he didn't swim with them. There was something about these hunters that made him stay.

looked through the water but could not see them. He swam closer to the land-fast ice and was able to make out their shadows. They were blue‚ in the light cast by the orange midnight sun.

dove deep. The other whales had turned abruptly when Siku warned them. Instead of joining them‚ he swam to a large ice floe not far from shore. It had been a long time since he had seen a descendant of the people with the kind eyes. There was another boy with him. They were above him.
swam under the ice shelf and pushed up a breathing crack.

He took a breath‚ swam out from under it‚ and surfaced not far from the boys. They gasped as he breached forty feet in the air. The Eskimo dancing figure shone out‚ and the fallback wave rose ten feet high and raced toward them.

“Siku!” Agvik gasped.

Agvik's voice sent a ringed seal lumbering off the edge of an ice floe into the crest of
's wave. She swam through a swarm of Arctic cod that
had stirred up with his thundering tidal wave of a splash. She did not try to grab one but streamed on.

Agvik‚ unlike the seal‚ found the wave from this wild world a physical challenge. He turned the kayak‚ with TJ in the back‚ headfirst into it and rode it out without upsetting the craft.

“Close‚” said TJ.

“Paddle‚” Agvik hollered. “Siku is here.”

They skimmed over the sea like king eiders and paddled toward Siku's footprints.

Not far from them
‚ who was now very old‚ came swimming by. The seismic disturbances still irritated him. He turned from his group and swam toward the boys. Their blue shadows on the water told him where they were. When he was close to them‚ he breached‚ thrust his hundred-ton body backward‚ and sent an Arctic tidal wave over the kayak. Bubbling and frothing‚ the water rushed back to the sea.