The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold

The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold

Author:Hannah Gold [Gold, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-03-14T17:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Invitation

THE REST OF that boat trip, Marina and Rio had fun experimenting. What was the sound really like? Could he try and describe it to her? How far away did the whale need to be in order for him to hear it? Marina even made diagrams in her notebook to show the approximate distances.

‘This is us on the boat,’ she explained. ‘And the furthest whale was over here, which is about one hundred metres, I would guess.’

‘I only heard that one really faintly.’

‘But it’s still incredible!’ Marina turned to Rio with eyes that shone like stars. ‘I’ve been on the water since I was a baby and I’ve never heard the grey whales. But you can!’

Rio shook his head in disbelief. How strange to think he’d come all this way to the other side of the world to discover something so unusual about himself. He had only just begun to start processing it when the Spyhopper docked back at the jetty and Marina ran up to Birch and grabbed his arm.

‘Dad! You’ll never guess! Rio can hear the grey whales!’

Rio thought Birch was going to instantly dismiss it. The kind of reaction grown-ups gave a lot when they heard something that seemed far-fetched. But he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and chewed his lip thoughtfully.

‘I could tell there was something different about you the first time we went out on the water.’ He paused. ‘You’ve got the ocean’s ear, as we sailors would say.’

Marina glanced up at her dad and something passed between them. Rio wasn’t quite sure exactly what, but it was as if there were invisible words floating in the air and a conversation taking place out of sight.

Birch cleared his throat. ‘I have only ever heard of one other person in my lifetime who was able to hear the grey whales and that was a Mexican friend of mine from years and years ago who lived down in the lagoons.’

‘It must be because of the orchestra,’ said Rio. ‘That’s where I grew up. My mum … my mum was a violinist – is a violinist. M-m-maybe that’s why. I just hear things differently.’

That was the most logical explanation – the fact that he’d grown up around musicians – but something else nudged against his ribcage. Something that didn’t really make sense. Because he had the strangest sensation that he’d been born for this. Just as Mum had been born for the orchestra or Marina had been born for the ocean. Apparently, and for a reason he couldn’t yet understand, Rio had been born to hear grey whales.

Wordlessly, Birch disappeared back into the cabin before returning to the deck. He held out a familiar black T-shirt. On the front was a picture of a grey whale and the silvery, hand-stitched lettering of Spyhopper Whale-watching Tours.

‘Welcome to the Spyhopper crew,’ Birch said, offering Rio the T-shirt. ‘That is, if you would like to join us? We could do with an extra pair of eyes and ears to help us.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.