Ben Archer and the World Beyond

by Rae Knightly

  “All looked on in wonder and waited for Humblefin to recover his prize. Humblefin swam to The Edge of the Ocean, where the white ball had fallen, and discovered something very strange. The ball unfurled and turned into a beautiful, white orca-woman. They fell in love instantly.

  “Proudfin, whose spirit now inhabited the owl, felt rage at his brother’s success. “The white orca-woman will be mine,” Owl thought as he swooped down from the sky. He swept the white orca-woman and the black orca-man under his wings. But they were too heavy, and Humblefin fought back.

  “If the orca-woman cannot be mine, then she will not be yours, either,” Owl told Humblefin, and in a last effort, hurled orca-woman back into the sky, while he and his brother fell into the sea, where Owl drowned.

  “Humblefin was inconsolable. He swam in circles in the sea, while orca-woman watched in sadness from above. Yet, white orca-woman had left something with Humblefin. He was no longer pure-black. He became a beautiful combination of black and white. And Humblefin had left something with her. She was no longer a white ball in the sky, but a beautiful combination of light and dark. The other orca looked on at her in wonder and called her Lady Moon.

  “Many times, Humblefin tried to kick Lady Moon out of the sky, so they could be together again. But he had become old and did not have his former strength.

  “Today, still, the orcas leap out of the water in honour of Lady Moon. They say that, sometimes, when the half-moon touches The Edge of the Ocean, Humblefin and Lady Moon can finally be together again for a brief time. And that,” Auntie Jen finished, “is how the orca and the moon got their colour.”

  * * *

  Rain thundered on the roof. Kimi, Wilson and Uncle Pete remained quiet, watching the flames in the fireplace. Ben stared at Auntie Jen. Her eyes were set in the distance as if she could personally remember the time when the story had occurred.

  Ben sipped on his cup, only to find he had already emptied it. His mind flipped as he tried to make sense of the tale. “So, how…” he began, wondering what he wanted to say. His mind burst with questions.

  Auntie Jen smiled at him encouragingly.

  “So…” Ben tried again. “I don’t get it. How can the moon turn into an orca-woman or a spirit into an owl?”

  “You are looking at facts, Ben,” Auntie Jen said. “But that is not what this story is about. You should search for meaning instead.”

  Ben frowned and looked at Kimi.

  “What you want to know is: what do the orca represent, and what is the meaning of the owl?” Kimi said. She got off her stomach and sat cross-legged with her back straight. “Lady Moon is imagination, Humblefin is determination. When they work together, wonderful new things are created.

  “Proudfin is laziness. Owl is envy and greed. These are emotions that destroy creativity, and we should be wary of them.”

  Ben stared at her with his mouth open. “And you know this… how?”

  Wilson laughed and said, “You need to come out here more often, Ben-friend.”

  * * *

  The wind tore at his body, pelting him with thick raindrops. Night enveloped him. How was it that he now stood with his feet in freezing water?

  What am I doing out on the beach in the middle of the storm?

  Ben searched the darkness, panic gripping him. Had he not been talking about Auntie Jen’s story, just moments ago? He spotted a light from one of the windows of Uncle Pete’s house. Twisted branches lashed at it like giant claws, hiding it from view.

  Ben made to run, eager to return to safety, but found his feet stuck in the soggy sand. And his body felt heavy, so heavy. No matter how hard he fought to run towards the house, the wind and rain kept pinning him down. Cold sand grasped at his body like sticky fingers. Thick, black clouds swirled above. Waves crashed on the shore. Branches creaked.

  But above all that racket, another sound emerged: it was a grinding noise, like scratching metal. It came from somewhere in the darkness, from the sea. It came from something massive, something alive. It breathed, in and out, in time with the waves. And it approached.

  “Uncle Pete!” Ben cried, searching frantically for help. “Kimi!”

  What madness had sent him outside on his own?

  The beast ground its chains and snorted with hideous anger. Ben watched helplessly as the dark mass advanced towards him. Rain battered his face, drenching him.

  Lighting crackled through the sky, illuminating the terrifying beast: twisted black feathers and gleaming yellow eyes.

  The owl!

  “The owl! The owl!” he shouted in terror, willing his voice to carry to the coasts’ inhabitants, so they could flee.

  The owl rose from the waves and bore down on him, dagger-like claws grabbing his shoulders.

  “The owl! The…”

  Ben gasped and sat straight up. Wilson’s room. Uncle Pete’s house. Fresh, ocean air seeping through the half-open window. A beam of warm, morning sunlight illuminating the back wall.

  “Ben, are you ok?” Wilson’s voice came through to him. He let go of the boy’s shoulders.

  Ben blinked several times, trying to shake off the fear that clung to his brain. His ears rang as though he’d been standing next to loudspeakers in a deafening concert.

  I’m safe.

  It had only been a dream.

  “You had a nightmare,” Wilson confirmed. “And it sounded like a bad one, too.” He got off Ben’s bed and began putting on his t-shirt. “Must’ve been the storm. It sure shook the house a good deal. I’m on my way out with Pa to check if there’s any damage.” He put an arm through the strap of his suspenders, then froze in mid-action. His eyes filled with an incredulous stare.

  Ben lifted his hands to his hair to massage his throbbing head but stopped when he caught Wilson’s baffled look.

  What’s up with him?

  And then it hit him. Ben recognized the rushing sound in his ears, the silent whispers in his brain... Stomach roiling, he lowered his hands and saw the blue glow that hovered around his fingers.

  The skill!

  He clasped his hands together and shoved them into his lap in a clumsy attempt to hide them.

  But it was too late. Wilson had seen the anomaly. He stared at Ben, eyebrows squished together, then mechanically proceeded to adjust his suspenders again. “Auntie Maggie,” he said, deep in thought. “– Kimi’s mother – she warned my Ma and Pa about you. She said you were… special. Pa says you’re a Zeefluisteraar.” He nodded to himself as if that sounded about right. “Yeah,” he muttered. “You must be a Zeefluisteraar.” He picked up the car keys and shoved them in his pocket, then lifted his eyes to meet Ben’s and said, “It’s ok, Ben-friend. Your secret is safe with me.”

  They stared at each other. Then Wilson whirled and disappeared through the door.

  CHAPTER 9 Beaching

  Ben dressed in a hurry, mind whirling.

  What am I going to do about Wil?

  He wanted to run after Wilson, come up with some lame excuse to make sure the man wasn’t going to mention anything to anyone about what he had seen. But he had to wait several minutes because the skill played tricks on him. His hands glowed, yet he could not figure out which creature was trying to communicate with him. His mind filled with a confusing murmur, like static from a radio that struggled to connect to a radio station.

  Once he’d managed to absorb the skill somewhat, he put on his hoodie, stuffed his hands in its front pockets, and headed downstairs, trying to ignore the cold sweat on his forehead.

  He found Kimi at the breakfast table, Auntie Maggie bustling in the kitchen and Uncle Pete with a coffee jug in his hand. “There’s no coffee!” he complained, lifting the lid and peeking inside.

  There was no sign of Wilson.

  “Morning, sleepyhead,” Kimi said as Ben slipped into the chair next to her. She gestured with her head towards her uncle. “The storm knocked out the electricity: no coffee, no waffles, no lights.”

  “Poor dears,” Auntie Jen s
aid, ignoring her husband and serving Ben a bowl of cereal. “Did that storm keep you awake last night?”

  “I slept fine, Auntie Jen,” Kimi said, then glanced Ben’s way. “Not sure about Ben, though. I bet he still can’t make head or tail out of the Moon and Orca story.”

  Auntie Jen chuckled.

  Ben blinked at his bowl.

  “Aren’t you going to eat that?” Kimi asked, watching him curiously.

  Ben’s stomach flipped.

  “Pa!” Wilson’s warning voice carried from outside.

  The four of them turned toward the front door, which swung open.

  “Pa!” Wilson shouted again, rushing inside. “The workshed’s down!”

  “What?” Ben gasped, jumping out of his seat. He and Uncle Pete exchanged a glance, then hurried outside.

  And there it was, their beautiful new workshed: its walls and roof lying shattered on the ground under a fallen tree.

  “Oh, no!” Ben exclaimed, heart sinking. For a minute, he forgot about the rushing sound in his ears.

  We worked so hard!

  Uncle Pete and Wilson inspected the damage. Auntie Jen and Kimi commented on the broken branches and leaves strewn around the house.

  Throngs of shouting voices rose from the beach.

  “I wonder what’s going on?” Kimi’s eyes widened.

  Suddenly, a handful of people appeared next to the house, ushering each other down the path. “Hurry, hurry!” they shouted.

  “Pieter!” the last one yelled as he ran past. “We need your help. Come quickly!” The urgency in the neighbour’s voice made Ben’s stomach lurch.

  Uncle Pete sprang into action. “Something happened on the beach! Let’s go! Quick!”

  A wave of crippling fear gripped Ben’s mind as if he were thrust back into his nightmare in broad daylight. He scrambled after the man with an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

  The coastline was shrouded in a humid mist. The ground was littered with branches and garbage, like fishing nets and corroded metal plates from boats – things the ocean had tossed to shore.

  But the ocean had vomited more than garbage onto the beach.

  Ben watched in a daze as neighbours flocked to the shore. They ran past him, shouting and yelling. But Ben did not hear them. He heard something else, something that came from his mind, something captured by his senses like a well-positioned satellite dish.

  Kimi shouted his name from somewhere far away. He saw concern on her face as her eyes went from his glowing hands to the massive dark boulders strewn on the beach.

  Only, they weren’t boulders. They were alive, and they spewed air through their blowholes.

  Ben fell to his knees in the cold sand, his body suddenly weighing a thousand tons.

  “Ben!” Kimi yelled through the despair that assailed his mind. “What’s wrong? Ben!”

  He barely noticed as she tried to help him up. He managed to half-crawl, half-run to the first orca that had been thrust on the beach. He placed his hands on the thick skin of the black-and-white killer whale, absorbing its heart-shattering scream with his whole being. The force thrust him back into the sand in shock.

  Kimi tugged him by the arm.

  He struggled to his feet again and approached the next orca, and then the next, and the next.

  The sun rose, lifting the mist, revealing the extent of the catastrophe: not three, not ten, but fifteen killer whales, stuck in the sand.

  Ben grabbed Kimi’s arm and gazed at her with the eyes of a madman. “Pain!” he gasped. “So much pain!”

  The whale’s anguished cries crippled Ben. The human in him understood the urgency of the situation: immediate action was required. But his alien side had lost control of the skill. The door to his mind lay wide open, and the whales’ despair became his as if he were the one lying at death’s door.

  Get a grip!

  Mesmo had told him multiple times to watch out for this. He could lose himself to the skill, his mind and body becoming one with the animal, which could lead to a fatal end.

  He closed his eyes and focused on untangling his thoughts from those of the orca.

  I am Ben.

  He scanned his human body, feeling lighter by the second.

  “Ben?” Kimi said close to him.

  He opened his eyes and found tears streaming down her face.

  “We’ve got to get them back to the sea,” he gasped.

  “I know. But how?”

  “Come,” he said, taking her by the hand and running past a female orca. She must have been the biggest of them all because her tail stuck further into the water than the others.

  He reached out and touched the side of the killer whale, feeling thick barnacles under his hand. The orca’s black eye followed him.

  My name is Benjamin Archer. What is yours?

  I am Kana’kwa. Please, help! Help my pod!

  The voice boomed in Ben’s head, making him step back as if he’d been thrust aside by a gust of wind. Undeterred, he returned by the killer whale’s side.

  I will get you and your family back into the water, I promise.

  Hurry! We will not survive for long.

  Ben stepped back again, this time because helplessness gripped him, but he did not want the orca to know. He clenched his fists. This was no time to show weakness.

  Kana’kwa, tell me what to do.

  CHAPTER 10 Ticking Time

  “Get the strongest ropes and chains you can find. Bring your boats as close to shore as you can,” Uncle Pete barked at a large group of neighbours who gathered around him. “We’ll tie the ropes to their tails and try and drag them out.”

  One neighbour shook his head. “It’s not going to work, Pieter. Have you seen the size of those things?”

  “We have to try,” Ben cried, breaking into the circle. “We can start with the youngest one. In the meantime, the others need water and shade. Bring towels, blankets, anything that absorbs water, and lay them on the orcas’ backs. Get buckets and spray them with seawater!”

  He turned to Uncle Pete, ignoring the curious stares from the other adults. “We need to call in help from Tofino. Or better still, from the mainland. Maybe the navy can help. We need to get the orcas back in the water as soon as possible.”

  Uncle Pete reached for Ben’s shoulders and led him aside. “Jongen, jongen,” he repeated in amazement. “You are incredibly resourceful, but the storm knocked out our communications. Our phones are dead, and the road to Tofino is cut off because of fallen trees.”

  Ben’s eyes widened in alarm.

  “It’s ok,” Uncle Pete added. “This happens all the time. We already have a team of people in place whose task it is to clear the road as soon as the weather allows it.”

  “Pieter, so what do we do?” a man spoke up, calling them back into the circle.

  Uncle Pete straightened. “We do exactly as the boy says. Call all able-handed neighbours to the beach. Find your ropes and buckets and towels. Bring sunscreen, hats and water bottles for yourselves. This is going to be a long day. We can’t afford to deal with dehydration and sunburns as well.”

  Everyone nodded and headed off in different directions.

  Time wore on, and by late afternoon, with everyone’s aid and assistance from three fishing boats, they managed to drag the youngest orca into deeper waters. Only, once there, it began to thrash frantically as it tried to swim back to its mother.

  People risked getting seriously hurt by placing themselves between the young orca and the beach, but that only panicked it further.

  Even Ben could not reason with it. Every time he made a cautious attempt at calling forth his skill, the whale’s distress flooded his thoughts, rendering him useless.

  Can’t do it! I just can’t…

  “Enough!” Uncle Pete shouted. “It’s no use, we’re only making it weaker.”

  Everyone stepped back, t-shirts and shorts wet, faces haggard.

  And that had only been the smallest and lightest orca…

&
nbsp; Ben watched on, trying not to give in to hopelessness.

  Kimi locked hands with him and rested her forehead on his shoulder. Her hair smelled of sea salt.

  “We need more people,” Ben said. “We need trucks and stronger boats.”

  “But how?” she asked. “We don’t have any of that.”

  Ben puffed his cheeks, then said. “Come on, I’ve got an idea.”

  They ran to Uncle Pete.

  “There aren’t enough of us. We need more people. We need the tourists!” Ben said.

  Uncle Pete’s eyes narrowed. “Hm, that’s a smart idea. Only, the tourists are in Tofino, and we can’t get there.”

  “Aren’t the roads cleared yet?”

  Uncle Pete shook his head and squeezed Ben’s arm. “I’m sorry, son. We’re going to have to call it a day. We did everything we could, but as you can see, we simply don’t have the manpower to make a difference. We will try again tomorrow.”

  “No way! We have to keep trying. We can’t afford to stop now. We can dig paths in the sand behind the orca, maybe they’ll slide back. And we have to keep their skin wet…”

  “Son,” Uncle Pete said, taking him gently by the shoulders to stop his tirade. He waited until the boy was calm enough to look at him. “We did everything we could. But now we need to rest, so we can come back strengthened by sunrise tomorrow.”

  Ben’s throat welled. The orcas’ cries echoed painfully in his brain.

  “I’m sorry, son,” Uncle Pete said, his features downturned. “You worked hard. I’m proud of you. But it’s time to go home.”

  Kimi glanced at Ben.

  “No,” he said, head stooped. “I’m staying. I’ll stay here all night if I have to. I can’t leave them.”

  “I’ll stay with you,” Kimi offered.

  Ben sent her a grateful smile.

  After managing to swallow some spaghetti, cooked over a portable propane burner, Ben and Kimi headed back to the beach with sleeping bags swung over their shoulders.

  For about an hour after dark, they continued to hurl buckets of seawater at the orca, even if it barely covered a fraction of their gigantic bodies.