Build Me an Ark by Brenda Peterson
Author:Brenda Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2012-03-12T16:00:00+00:00
AND WHEN MY mother called to find me floating in my own bathtub I did not tell her that, for a wild beluga, living out her days in captivity would be like me living inside my own bathtub all my life. I never told my own mother about giving a grieving whale my hand and in return feeling both her sadness and my own. I didnât tell my own mother that we also shared an inexplicable joy in our meeting. Nor did I say that Iâd discovered that Mauyak had been first captured with two other belugas in Hudson Bay, in Manitoba, Canadaâsince Mother well knew that a branch of my fatherâs family was once part of the Hudson Bay Company. She certainly wouldnât understand me claiming Mauyak as a distant mammal relative.
But back in 1992, when Mauyak had just lost her very first calf and I was trying to speak my motherâs Biblical language to engage her in this whaleâs story, I wasnât yet having nightmares of belugas dying in captivity. I was still freshly elated from my meeting with Mauyak and the whaleâs tenderness at taking my hand, the whole world of me, in her great self.
âMom,â I tried to explain, âDo you remember that Jonah and the whale story you used to read us all the time?â
âOh, yes,â her voice was excited. She is always so happy when I remember my Bible stories. âIt was always your favoriteâthat and Noahâs ark.â
âWell, that mother beluga I met after she lost her babyâshe was like Jonahâs whale, the whale who took him to the place God wanted him to be all along.â
My mother was quiet suddenly, suspicious of where I might be taking her with my story. âWhat do you mean?â she asked, and there it was, all the distance of different beliefs between usâa whole continent, a lifetime.
I knew better than to push her into territories outside her chosen dogma, so I simply said, âWell, that whale was Godâs will, wasnât it?â
She hesitated, then tentatively agreed: âYes.â
âAll Iâm saying is that in the Bible a whale took an unwilling prophet into her belly and kept him safe until he could be delivered up again on dry land. So that whale was like Godâs way of working in the world, of teaching Jonah . . .â
âJonahâs whale is just a symbol, honey,â Mother interrupted, and I could tell she wanted to get off the phone. This is rare; usually I am the one to disconnect. Again I could hear her shaking her head, those eyes bright with bewilderment. âSometimes I think you believe that God is some kind of whale!â
âWell, Mom,â I said, âGod does work in mysterious ways . . .â
â. . . His wonders to reveal,â she finished, delighted that I could remember a Bible verse. âLove you, honey. And God does, too.â
Within the next several weeks I received a number of religious tracts and articles from my mother, well underlined with pink highlighter. But I also
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