Page 28 of Big Island Moonlight
He chuckled. “No, it belongs to a friend. He lets me borrow it on the rare occasion that I make it over to this side of the island. Are you game?” There was a playful challenge in his voice as he stepped aboard and held out his hand.
“Let’s go.” She accepted his hand, her fingers barely kissing his palm as she leapt aboard.
He proved to be a skillful sailor, and soon they were racing across the water. The sun was already low, and she basked in the last of the day’s warmth as the wind whipped her hair away from her face. Keith turned north and sailed up the coast beneath a boundless blue sky.
Far in the distance, so faint she thought she might have imagined it, Emma saw the white spray of an animal coming up to breathe. She held her breath and scanned the surface of the water. Before long, she saw another.
“Dolphins!” she exclaimed, turning to look at Keith.
“Maybe not,” he said, his expression thoughtful.
It took her a moment to understand. “Do you mean whales? Humpback whales?”
“It’s the right time of year.”
“But they hang out around Maui, don’t they? They never come this far south.”
“They do sometimes,” he said, eyes on the water.
“Do they really? I’ve never seen them here.” She turned and looked again, waiting to see if whatever mammals swam up ahead would breach the surface. Keith kept going, running almost parallel to the distant sprays rather than charging straight at them.
Then, closer than she would have expected, an animal burst up from the water. Emma’s breath caught in astonishment as she watched the low, clumsy jump. Definitely not a sleek spinner dolphin, but it was close to the same size.
Just as she realized what she had seen – a baby whale! – she spotted movement beneath the water.
Keith dropped the sail and waited. He came up next to Emma and let the boat drift.
A full-grown whale, nearly fifty feet long, burst out of the water so near their little boat that a fine mist of salt spray blew past them after she’d crashed back down.
The baby jumped again a moment later, mimicking his mother.
Hand in hand with Keith, Emma watched in awe as they came up for breath, even closer now. They disappeared with a wave of their tails and she waited breathlessly, waiting to see if they would make another appearance. When the baby rose up out of the water again, farther away from them now, she laughed at his clumsy attempts.
“Imagine growing up as a mammal in the sea,” she breathed as they went under again. “He has so much to learn.”
“Luckily for him, he has a great mother.”
Emma grinned and met Keith’s eyes for the first time since they’d spotted the whales. He smiled softly and brought a hand up to her face, brushing away some of the salt water that had collected on her skin.
“Are you ready for some dinner?” he asked.
“I’m starving,” she replied, though she hadn’t realized it until the moment he asked.
Keith pulled out a simple picnic of island-grown food: starfruit, roast chicken, ‘ulu chips, heart-of-palm salad, and two perfect avocados.
“This is phenomenal,” Emma said between bites. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
They enjoyed the delicious food in the late afternoon sunshine, boat bobbing gently beneath them. Emma felt perfectly content, more present than she usually managed to feel outside of her garden. It seemed Keith carried that energy with him, the steady comfort of rich soil and growing things.
Just as he was cleaning up after their picnic dinner, the whales passed by again. With so much open water, Emma thought that the second visit must be deliberate. She moved to the edge of the boat, heart in her throat as she watched theirwhite tails rise up and disappear beneath the surface of the water.
“Want to join them?” Keith held out a pair of swim goggles.
“Seriously?” A thrill of fear went through her at the thought of swimming so far from shore… and so near these gentle giants.
“I’ll stay with the boat, but you can jump in the water if you’d like.”
