Henry and Tom: Ocean Adventure Series Book 1: Rescue (Ocean Adventures Series)

by Michael Atkins

  Most of the objects that floated on the water were very large, much bigger than whales. Henry knew that these objects took no interest in whales, but he also sensed that they should be avoided. His mother had been killed by an object like this, whether the object intended to kill her or not. On this journey, the larger floating objects paid no attention to the whales. This was normal and the whales simply kept their distance from them.

  About halfway to their tropical destination Henry’s cousins chose to dive down in search of a meal. Two periods of light and darkness ago Henry had been able to feed, so he was not interested in diving at the moment. As the other bulls headed down, Henry continued on his journey west but at a slower pace. The bulls would catch up with him after they fed and then they would then continue moving at full speed.

  He wasn’t sure why, but Henry sensed something. It was almost imperceptible, but it was a strange sound. He thought it was a sound made by a land creature, but Henry was sure that none of the objects that floated on water were nearby. It was during the time when the light in the sky was absent. Naturally curious, Henry swam towards the sound to investigate.

  The whale popped up near a very small object floating on the water. Many times before Henry had found small objects floating on the water, but this one was different. A land creature was on top of this object. He was making noises too. Not loud noises, but Henry could hear him. It seemed to Henry that the land creature was calling out to another land creature, but there were no more floating objects nearby.

  Everything about this small floating object and the land creature on top of it was odd and interesting. Henry had never seen a land creature on such a small object so far from land. There was something about this land creature too, something different, yet something familiar. During that first night, Henry popped up numerous times around the small floating object and listened and watched. The land creature was not moving much and Henry sensed that the land creature was in distress, perhaps great distress.

  The next day Henry decided to explore the sea around this small floating object. He wanted to see if perhaps more floating objects were in the area. He found some more floating objects, but they were even smaller than the one the land creature was floating on. He approached them and noted their position and then returned to the where the land creature was floating.

  As the light disappeared in the west, Henry surfaced near the small floating object. The land creature was making sounds again and Henry got close so he could hear them. He did not know what the sounds meant, but he heard, “Jessica… Jonas… Sydney,” over and over again. Henry was close to the land creature now and could see and hear him very clearly.

  Just as the light was disappearing, Henry went back down. The land creature heard or saw him, or so he thought, but he could not be sure. After swimming a short distance away, Henry sat almost motionless in the intense moonlight. He’d heard a coda from his bull companions a short while ago. They had eaten their fill and would be rejoining him soon. Henry sent back the message, “I am here”.

  Henry replayed the sound he heard the land creature make. It was familiar to him, but he had to play it over in his mind many times before he was sure. When he was certain, Henry returned to the small object floating in the water and surfaced.

  Getting as close as he could Henry again looked and listened. The land creature wasn’t moving or making any noises. Was it who Henry thought it was? Then the land creature made a loud noise, a sound of “Ahh!!!!” which Henry immediately understood meant that the land creature was in great pain.

  It was him! The land creature Henry trusted, the land creature that had helped him so long ago! Henry was sure it was the same land creature because they had the same voice. Henry knew that creatures all made unique sounds. That’s how he could tell them apart.

  Henry could sense that the land creature that he trusted was in danger. He had no way of knowing for sure, but Henry had the thought the land creature might not be out in the water by his own choice, something else might have happened to him. Henry thought back to the time when his mother was struck by the large floating object. Maybe something like this had happened to the land creature he trusted. Perhaps a large floating object had struck him and now he needed help.

  More than anything else Henry felt joy at the prospect of seeing and hearing from this land creature again. As he hovered just under the surface of the land creature’s very small floating object Henry replayed in his mind what happened to him so long ago and how this land creature had made sounds that comforted him and had somehow moved him from the sand back into the sea.

  When the light came from the east, Henry saw the land creature slip into the ocean. He was sinking fast and Henry knew that the land creatures, like him, needed to breathe above the water, not below it. So Henry surfaced underneath the land creature he trusted and took him above the water.

  Then Henry had an idea. He would take the land creature to the objects he found floating in the water near here. Maybe these objects could help the land creature.

  All Henry wanted to do was help.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Tom busied himself with the tasks required to stay alive. Henry was moving slowly to the southeast, not fast enough to jostle Tom from his back.

  After drinking more water and eating two energy bars, Tom thought it might be safe to swallow three aspirin tablets. It was definitely a risk. Tom did not like the idea of his stomach revolting and cramping and puking, but he desperately wanted some relief from the agony.

  Finding the sunscreen and aloe vera in the packs was like discovering a bag with a million dollars in it sitting by the side of the road. When Tom put the aloe vera lotion on his blistered skin, the soothing sensation was literally beyond words to describe.

  Henry kept moving southeast. Tom kept working.

  There were two emergency blankets, one in each of the back packs. Using a length of cord he removed from one of the backpacks, which he cut with a utility knife, Tom fashioned a makeshift cape. The blanket was bright silver. As a bonus, he thought that it might reflect the sunlight enough to flash in the eyes of a passing search plane. He tied the cape around his neck. The blanket covered his back completely with room to spare.

  Tom took the second blanket and cut it up, creating a two foot long head scarf. He punched holes in his headgear so he could secure it. Then he weaved more cord through the holes and tied it around his forehead.

  As he was doing this, Tom began to feel less pain. The aspirin was kicking in. While what he really needed was a hospital bed and an IV drip of morphine, he was very grateful for the aspirin.

  Oh, and by the way, Tom thought to himself, I’m riding on the back of a fully mature, bull sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

  To his surprise, Tom did not have to struggle to stay on Henry’s back. Where he was perched it was almost flat. Somehow Henry was moving at just the right pace. It was kind of like riding on an enormous cow that had wet rubber skin.

  Then Henry stopped. Tom thought it must be mid or late afternoon. They were miles and miles away from his fiberglass raft now. Henry did not dive, but Tom was almost deafened when the whale released a series of loud blasts directed to the deep. Henry was telling his whale buddies something, but what? Tom was still in tremendous pain, but the wonder and awe of what was happening to him was fast becoming the most powerful feeling he was experiencing.

  Henry sent the coda, “Go on without me, go on without me.” His bull calf cousins asked him to repeat the coda, which Henry did. Then Henry remained motionless in the water.

  The whale could sense that the land creature he trusted was now experiencing joy and was no longer afraid. Henry had only one thought about what to do next. He would return the land creature he trusted to the place where the land creature had saved him. Henry thought that this place on the sand must be where the land creature wanted to go.

  With a gentle but powerful kick of his fluke, Henry took off on a new course. He was stil
l headed southeast, but now slightly more south than east. He moved faster now but not fast enough, Henry hoped, to cause the land creature distress.

  Tom tied both of the emergency packs together into a bizarre whale saddle bag type configuration. Keeping his legs apart behind him for balance, Tom lay down on his stomach on the remnants of the second emergency blanket that he had placed between the two packs. While he did not fall asleep, for the first time in three weeks Tom was almost calm.

  He had no idea where Henry was going or even if he would survive the day, but Tom wanted to rest so he could to be as fully present as possible for whatever happened next.

  ^^^^^^

  “Yes, Mrs. Campbell. This is Lieutenant Watkins. We spoke a few days ago. We have not heard anything from your husband yet.”

  Sydney took a deep breath. Her patience had reached it limits. “Yes, I’m sure you would have called me if you’d heard anything. I need you to begin a search and rescue operation immediately.”

  “Yes ma’am. I understand your -.”

  “Commander Robinson… he’s the officer in charge at your station, yes?” Syd asked, already knowing the answer to her question.

  “Yes ma’am, he is,” the Lieutenant acknowledged.

  “Have you discussed this matter with him this morning?”

  “No, I haven’t but… It seems as if he is trying to reach me as we speak. May I ask you to hold for a minute or two?”

  “Please. I’m not going anywhere, Lieutenant,” Syd said.

  Lieutenant Watkins put Sydney on hold. She knew that this was Commander Robinson’s day off so if he was trying to find her something was indeed up.

  “Sir,” Watkins said as she punched in the correct line.

  “Lieutenant, initiate a full scale search and rescue operation immediately for Thomas Campbell. Have you loaded SAROPS yet?”

  “No sir,” Watkins said. “Mr. Campbell is not sufficiently overdue. As you know, winds were unseasonably light in the area and we -.”

  “Initiate SAROPS, establish a search grid. Air resources and cutters, everything we’ve got.”

  “Yes sir. May I ask why we are taking these steps, sir? Protocol would say that -.”

  “I have received two phone calls this morning, Lieutenant. One was from the Chairman of the House Oversight committee for the Coast Guard; the other was from the senior Senator from California. Do I really have to waste even one more second explaining this to you?”

  “No sir. I’m on it.”

  “Full blown search. All resources deployed. Do I make myself clear Lieutenant?”

  “Perfectly clear, yes sir.”

  “Good. I’ll be in the station in an hour. I expect a full report when I arrive.”

  “Yes sir.” After Watkins acknowledged the order, the Commander ended the call.

  “Mrs. Campbell?” Watkins said as she reconnected to Syd’s line.

  “Right here, Lieutenant,” Sydney said.

  “A full scale search and rescue operation has been initiated for your husband. Until further notice, I’ll be handling the operation personally. You can contact me at any hour of the day or night and receive progress reports.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Sydney said.

  “We will do everything we can to find and retrieve your husband as quickly as possible.”

  When Sydney hung up the phone in her home office, she saw Jonas standing behind her. He had heard every word she said to the Coast Guard.

  “You were going to tell me about this when, Mom?” Jonas said.

  “Right after I made this call. Sit down, Jonas.”

  “So this is why all those people were calling you last night. The lady from the Senator’s office?”

  “Yes, son.”

  “Where’s Dad?” Jonas asked.

  “He’s overdue. I… the Coast Guard is sending out people to look for him. That’s what I’ve been arranging.”

  “I should be with him. You wouldn’t let me go and now he’s out there all by himself with no one to help him.”

  “Jonas, I… look, the truth is I’m the one who is probably panicking. He’s not that overdue, barely a week. I’m worried, I need to do -.”

  “He wouldn’t be out there right now if you hadn’t divorced him.”

  Sydney didn’t say another word. She looked away from her son and started to cry. Jonas didn’t try and comfort his mother; he turned and left the room.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  When night fell, Henry stopped and floated in the water. Tom was feeling better, but he was by no means in anything close to good shape. His ribs were on fire and his skin, while vastly improved by the aloe vera treatments, was blistered and bleeding. He had eaten five of his fifteen energy bars in one day and drank nearly half of his water. Now he was more exhausted than he had ever been before in his life. All he wanted to do was sleep.

  “Can you hear me, Henry?” Tom said, almost shouting at the whale. “How did you find me out here? Where are you…?” Tom stopped talking, took a deep breath and said simply, “Thank you, my friend.”

  Henry had no idea what the sounds coming from the land creature he trusted meant, but he remembered the tone, the inflexion of the land creature’s voice. It was the same tone the land creature used when he helped Henry on the beach. Henry had come to believe that this tone meant, “You are safe, you are safe”. So Henry clicked back, at a very restrained decibel level, “You are safe, you are safe”.

  Tom couldn’t believe what was happening. He and Henry were communicating, at least as much as that was possible! He knew better than to assume that a whale thought like a human did, but Tom was sure that a core message of gratitude getting through; both gratitude and friendship, a connection.

  There was also no doubt in Tom’s mind that Henry recognized him and knew that he was the same man who helped save him on the beach all those years ago. Now more rested and rejuvenated, Tom’s brain was working again. Over the past couple of hours he tried to recall everything he knew about sperm whales. At one point in his life Tom Campbell was a walking sperm whale encyclopedia, but over the years some of that information had dissipated or had been replaced with more pressing concerns.

  But Tom was able to focus on a few key facts. Sperm whales were highly intelligent creatures. Was this whale capable of recognizing him after two decades? From visual appearance alone almost certainly not. Humans often can’t recognize other humans after such long periods, particularly if they had only limited contact with the other person in the past. But whales were auditory creatures. They sensed the world primarily through sound.

  “You recognized my voice, is that it?” Tom said as he gently stroked the whale. “Okay, I can buy that. But what led you to me out here? How is that -.”

  Interrupting himself, Tom thought about his question again. Why would a sperm whale be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean mid-summer? He might be here if he was headed to the Hawaiian Islands to feed. This theory made sense. As far as Tom knew, his position could be just right for a whale to run into him if he was traveling from Central California waters westward.

  “I guess I’ll just have to leave the rest up to my imagination…” More thoughts and ideas were invading Tom’s brain, but he knew that he had to turn them off.

  “Alright big guy, I need to go to sleep. I’d rather not wake up floating in the ocean holding on to my emergency packs for dear life. You won’t leave me out here, will ya?”

  Henry didn’t respond this time, but he remained stationary.

  “I wonder how much you know,” Tom asked aloud. “Anyway my friend, try not to knock me off when you start moving. I’m passing out now.”

  Using his cape as a kind of blanket, Tom laid down on his stomach like he’d done when Henry was moving. Within seconds, he was asleep.

  ^^^^^^

  “Report,” Commander Robinson said as he sat down in his office chair. Lieutenant Watkins, two other officers and three NCOs were waiting to brief him.

  “S
AROPS analysis of Campbell’s likely position resulted in a search grid of over a thousand square miles. We have deployed two C-130 aircraft to begin visual search patterns. A cutter is also moving to the general area to search the most promising SAROPS target area.”

  “How soon until the C-130s reach the grid and begin their search patterns?” Robinson asked.

  “Within the hour, sir,” an NCO answered.

  “Tell me about Campbell,” Robinson ordered.

  “He’s fifty years old, in excellent physical condition and an experienced sailor. His sailboat, Sydney, is a thirty foot Rawson sloop. According to the outfitter in San Francisco, the boat is in mint condition. I have the outfitter’s report here. It was written the day before Campbell left San Francisco. Would you’d like to review it, sir?” Lieutenant Watkins asked.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Robinson said. “A thirty foot boat, okay… communications on board?”

  “Ship to shore radio, cell phone and an EPIRB,” Watkins reported.

  “I assume that we have checked all of the EPIRB frequencies and continue to monitor them?” Robinson asked.

  “Twenty four seven, sir. Standard protocol,” Watkins reported.

  “How overdue is Campbell?” the Commander asked.

  “Eight days plus, sir,” another NCO answered.

  “He’s probably out there safe and sound just taking his bloody sweet time… Ah well. We live in the world we live in people. Campbell’s ex-wife is a famous author with some serious ties to the Hill. We’re being watched on this one, so let’s shine. Find this guy soon and preferably in one piece, please. Dismissed.”

  ^^^^^^

  “Hi Gabe,” Syd said as she opened her front door and let Gabriel Campbell in. “Where are your bags?”

  “I’ll stay at Tom’s place, Syd. Easier for everyone that way. I assume that Harold’s here?”

  “He is, but he’s not a problem. Harold only wants what’s best for the kids and he sure as hell doesn’t want their father to be lost at sea.”