CHAPTER 56
Matthew’s lungs filled as if he was taking his first breath. Penny swam to him and he fell into her arms. No one said a word. It was as quiet as it could ever get on a ship at sea.
She turned and saw the crew’s faces, each lit up with a strange mix of horror and happiness. All but Andrew’s. He didn’t look surprised at all, and he was the only one who spoke. “The sea doesn’t often give back what she takes.”
“I need a moment with Matthew,” she said to everyone. “Please.”
Yet no one moved, and there was no answer until Chiffrey, who like the others had been stunned into silence, said, “What the damn hell just happened?” He brought up his free hand and ran it through his hair a few times as if to comb out the answer out.
Andrew turned to address everyone.
“Give them their moment,” He glanced at Chiffrey and said, “Let’s go.” Then he stepped down from the platform and walked away, setting the example, and the rest soon followed. Drifting off in different directions, they all looked back at least once, except Chiffrey. He left last, staring straight ahead.
About a half hour later, Becka appeared on the observation platform of the tank with some blankets. “I thought you might be cold. If there is anything…”
“You can get the others now. Leave the blankets. Thanks.”
With a long glance at them, Becka nodded and left. Penny and Matthew were still in the tank. He was looking around as if seeing everything for the first time, especially the stars above them. He gazed up, completely transfixed, and then suddenly looked back at her.
“I’m not leaving,” she said, just mouthing the words, knowing he would understand. He pointed to the blankets and, even though they were still in the water, she draped the largest one around his head and shoulders. It was dark gray, and he gathered it around himself like a shroud.
In twos and threes, the others were returning. Chiffrey, satphone in hand, went up on the observation platform, while most of the others simply gathered around the rim of the tank, where they could just see in. Becka, kneeling next to Chiffrey on the platform, had brought some bottles of water. Matthew smiled and took one, drinking it down as if he would never see another.
“Good to have you back,” Chiffrey said, as he cautiously lowered himself onto one knee. “You got one hell of a haircut. Not a hair left, and not a good look for you really.” Matthew didn’t say anything and Chiffrey’s reliable smile was failing when he began again. “Ah, sorry about the gun, didn’t know it was you. It is you, right?” He looked around the tank. “What happened to the…whatever it was you were in. Damn it, I just don’t see how you could be inside that thing and still…” His face suddenly went as white as a peeled egg.
Though he was staring at something behind Penny, the body has its own perceptions and the hairs on the back of her neck began tingling. Everyone was suddenly facing west, but not so much to see what was there as being seen by what was there. Even before she turned, she knew. It was holding itself upright amongst the swells, motionless and now as white as carved ivory. She had no doubt. It was Matthew’s whale.
As she peered into the one eye facing them, it was as if she were looking back in some impossible way upon herself. All secrets seemed sundered forever and time collapsed in defeat. Then words came, at first only faintly, but the voice from the whale got louder and louder, both inside and outside, and her heart began to sync with some unheard rhythm. Suddenly, a surge of power from the whale brought her into the absolute present and the force of its voice pushed her back like an enormous hand.
“MOOOVVVE AWAAAYYYYYY!”
The whale slid back under the surface and was gone. All the gulls and seabirds that had been following them for days exploded as one out of the dark water. They took to the skies, all flying east under the light of the rising moon, every feather as distinct as the fingers of the hand she held out to them. The sea began to luminesce, whether from phosphorescent plankton or something else bubbling up from below she could not say. In every direction it extended, so bright the deck lights were soon outshone.
Emory yelled down from the bridge.
“Captain! We got it on the scope again. The dome. It’s moving!”
“Which way?”
“Up! Right under us!”
Andrew came to life and vaulted up the steps to the bridge, shouting. “All ahead full! Follow the birds!” He half-turned on the steps toward those on deck. “Emergency stations! Now!” The spell broken, everyone scattered, even Chiffrey.
Penny remained with Matthew in the holding tank. Wavelets arising from the Valentina’s sudden acceleration lapped against the metal tank as if upon the shores of a tiny sea. Matthew floated upright in the middle, almost unmoving, as time again expanded and stretched out in every instant until all the action on the ship had receded into a far and distant fury. In that moment, she dropped into his arms as if into a waiting net, eager to be caught.
“I must…go,” he said.
“I know.”
A tear distinguished itself from the water on his face and slid down his cheek. He closed his lashless eyes and strained to find a way to speak. “You brought me back, and now to begin…I must go. There will be…a return to…”
“Yes, yes, I know, I really do, but don’t let me forget!”
After an embrace that seemed to last forever, he let his arms fall to his side and simply stepped back. It was as if he became a door that opened briefly.
“Matthew, wait!” she couldn’t help crying at the last instant as that door began to close in upon itself.
His eyes, now burning like molten gold looked back. She held out her hand as the space in front of her began to dance with a hue unbound by the limits of light and could only watch as he slipped away to a sea we do not know.