On the Rocks by Eric Walters
Author:Eric Walters
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459823662
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2019-10-31T16:00:00+00:00
Some time later, back at the cabin, I was startled by the front door opening. I looked up from the table. My grandfather had an easel over his shoulder and a canvas in his other hand. I had thought he was quietly working away in his studio. He nodded his head slightly. I was going to add that to our word count for the day. I was now ahead one to nothing.
He leaned the easel against the wall, put down the canvas and removed his coat. Underneath was a white knit sweater that was stained with paint. The stains weren’t new. He wore this sweater all the time.
He came over and looked at the books scattered in front of me. “You’re interested in orcas?”
I could have just said “yep” and stayed four words ahead, but I didn’t.
“I saw a school of them today. When I was kayaking.”
I had just put him in the lead.
He nodded. “A group of whales is called a pod. You found the kayaks in the shed.”
“Yeah, I cleaned one of them up.”
“And you were out kayaking when you saw the pod?” he asked.
“They sort of surrounded me.”
“Were there about ten of them?”
“I think so. It was hard to tell. Fins just kept popping up and then disappearing.”
“Come and I’ll show you something.”
He walked toward his studio. I got up and followed. The door to his studio was sticking a bit too. Maybe the next time he went out, I’d try to fix it.
He was fumbling around, searching through a series of stacked canvases. He found one and pulled it out. The painting was a side view of six or seven dorsal fins. Two of the whales had their backs out of the water. In the background was the cove.
“Do you recognize any of them?” he asked.
How was I supposed to answer a question that stupid?
“It’s not as stupid as it sounds,” he said.
Had he read my expression?
“They have distinct dorsal fins. Do you see this one?” he asked, pointing at the painting. “He has a notch close to the bottom of his fin, and the white patch around his eye is—”
“I saw him!” I exclaimed. “He came up close to the surface and turned to look at me.”
“I’m not surprised. He’s the youngster in our resident pod.”
“I don’t know what that means,” I said.
“We have a pod that lives around here. I can recognize them all. In the late summer, when the salmon are running, we often get a superpod, as other pods come for the feast.”
“So this is a fish-eating pod instead of one that hunts and kills seals or other mammals.”
“You know about orcas?”
“I know some,” I said. What I knew was what I had just read.
I looked at the painting again. It was so realistic. So good.
“I did a series of paintings about this pod. But I haven’t been out on the water for a while…years, in fact.”
“I got the other kayak out of the rafters. I could clean it up and we could go out together,” I said.
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