Page 2 of The Mer-Mate
Unfathomable.
If I wasn’t so fucking cold, I’d laugh at my own shitty humour.
A wave batters the side of my research vesseland sends me sprawling across the tiny deck. I spit out a mouthful of seawater and turn my eyes up. The sky was a flat iron-grey when I set out before sunrise but has morphed into an angry purple.
Cumulonimbus.Thoseclouds I know. Tofino’s storms are full of them. Heavy, dark, and dangerous. I squint to where the shore should be, but even if the clouds weren’t obscuring the horizon, the shore would be miles out of sight. There’s no telling where the ocean ends and the sky begins.
The roar of the wind almost drowns out the sound of the rain hammering my boat. If I work fast, I can still get these lines in before returning to shore.
I scramble to my feet, sliding across the slick deck. My life vest restricts my arm movements, so I unbuckle the top straps. Even I'm not so reckless that I’ll fully take it off.
A movement just off starboard catches my eye. A fin breaks the surface, then a dolphin breaches. And again.
What the hell is a dolphin doing out here? Without a pod? I encounter more dolphins than anyone I know, but never in conditions like this. I scan the waters around it, still cranking my line up.
The dolphin jumps again, releasing a strident series of chirps. I can’t help but feel it’s trying to tell me something.
Get the fuck off the water, you stupid humanwould be most likely.
“I’m almost done,” I grunt out, bracing myself against another wave.
The handle slips from my grasp and a high pitched whir screams as the line releases. I lunge for it, but at the last second remember if I grab the handle now, my arm could break with the force. I slam my hand on the emergency brake instead, and the line stops with a sickening jolt.
“Fuck!” My voice is a choked sob. An hour of work lost with one mistake. Every minute counts at sea, and I just lost sixty of them. Even if I can get it up in time, I stopped it so hard I could have damaged my equipment.
Sweat and tears burn my eyes. I’m so close. The deck pitches under my feet with growing swells. The wind is an angry roar, slapping the wet tendrils of my hair against my face and thick rain jacket. Telltale sheets of grey in the distance mean the full force of the storm is closing in. Fast.
“Don’t quit now.” I force my frozen fingers to close around the winch. The muscles in my arms are on fire as I crank. Minutes tick by, and when my hundred meter flag breaks the surface, relief floods my system.
Almost there.
This could be it.
The dolphin breaks the surface again, closer, almost like it wants to jump in my boat. Close enough for me to look into its eyes.
Dolphins lack the muscles needed to make facial expressions that humans can understand. Even still, it looks like it’s laughing at me as the next wave smacks into my boat and sends me overboard.
The frigid Pacific water tears my life vest from me the second I go under. Fear doesn’t have time toregister before the current sweeps it out of my grasp. The cold stuns me with its assault, and what little warmth my body had is leached away in seconds as the water finds every opening in my waterproof coveralls.
I’m fucked.
Now terror clutches my throat. I have seconds, not minutes, before hypothermia sets in. Even if I can get to my boat, I’m not sure how I’ll get in.
Don’t quit. You can’t stop now.I kick, praying I’m facing up. Something shoves me from below, and miraculously I break the surface.
I pull in a mouthful of half air, half water, spluttering, flailing for my life vest, but the waves have already carried it out of sight.
Brine stings my eyes. The sky is so dark I can’t tell which way is up. My boat was anchored. It can’t be far … if I could just see it, I could get to it … but my muscles are seizing from the cold. My legs spasm as I give a panicked attempt to kick with my waterlogged boots and I go under again.
My lungs are on fire. I can’t feel my face. Even my bright yellow rain jacket is dim underwater.
Another bump from below pushes me upwards.
Why is there a hand on my ass?
I break the surface, but my mouth isn’t working. Rain as hard as hail pelts my face. It’s so cold I can’t feel the difference between the air and the water, and both enter my lungs as I suck in as hard as I can.
The pain disappears as the fight leaves my body. Dimly, I feel the waves drag me below,but I don’t have the energy to care about anything other than what I just lost.
