The Blue Whale

“I wonder what it would be like to be a Blue Whale..”

Jack and Mack walked back into their room, their new watch still lying on top of Jack’s bed. Through an unspoken conversation both boys understood that this watch was special, and something that they couldn’t tell anyone else about.

“But how do we use it?” Mack questioned, but Jack didn’t know either.

Jack picked the watch up again and turned it over in his hands, the beam of the sun coming through the window, and reflecting on the metal back. His head tilted to the side as he examined it closely, realizing that there was something carved into the back.

“Didici quantum discere potui,” he whispered to himself.

“Come again?” Mack said, startling Jack who had become distracted by his ease of speaking a language he did not know.

“Didici quantum discere potui.” Jack repeated in his normal tone.

“Did you hit your head again?” Mack asked, reaching for the watch. “That’s not English.”

“No,” Jack started, pulling the watch closer so his brother couldn’t take it. “I don’t know what language this is, but it’s written on the back. What do you think it means?”

“I don’t know,” Mack said. “But we aren’t going to find out by doing nothing.”

Jack nodded and began putting the watch onto his wrist, hitting the button on the side to turn it back on. The screen remained blank.

“Well do something!” Jack demanded. He was starting to worry that he had really gotten hurt at the zoo, and that this really was all inside of his head.

The boys waited for ten, twenty, and then thirty minutes before giving up. Jack slumped down to the floor rubbing his temples, frustrated and convinced this was all a nightmare he was living through while still lying in a hospital bed.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Mack asked, sitting down next to his big brother. “Better?”

“A little I guess.” Jack said, “I never really felt bad, you know,” he turned to look at his little brother. “I just don’t really remember what happened. I know I was looking at the whales and imagining how cool it would be to be able to swim around all day, and how sad it would be if they went extinct. I must not have been paying attention and tripped on something.”

Jack had been replaying the day in his mind for what felt like every second since it had happened. He could remember walking into the “Hall of Conservation” building, and the intense draw that he had toward the Blue Whale panel, but he didn’t remember tripping or falling to the ground. What he could remember was the feeling of lonely darkness and the sound of someone calling his name in the distance, but he couldn’t figure out what direction they were in or how to get there. The next thing he knew he was opening his eyes to his worried parents faces, his middle brother trying to share his bed and the blanket a nurse had put onto him, and his baby brother asleep in his mom’s lap unaware of where they were. Every time he closed his eyes since the accident the voice came back, never louder, clearer, or easier to detect.

“I bet swimming around all day is really cool.” Mack said, interrupting Jack’s train of thought. “I wonder what it would be like to be a blue whale.”

The watch screen on Jack’s wrist lit up and the boys looked at one another, eyes wide in a mixture of surprise and, maybe, a tinge of fear. The watch began beeping; slowly at first but became progressively quicker with every passing second until it couldn’t go any faster. Then it abruptly stopped.

“What wa-,” Jack began.

“Blue Whales, also known as Balaenoptera musculus, are currently endangered. Let me show you.” The watch said.

The voice, Jack thought to himself in shock. That’s the voice that’s been calling me.

“Balaen, what?” Mack questioned. “And where did that voice come from?” Mack lowered his voice to a whisper, “Is someone listening to us?”

Before Jack could answer his brothers inquiry the window above his bed flew open, causing the boys to jump closer to one another. Their room was filled with a gust of air that lifted their pillows and blankets into a swirl that surrounded the two. Jack could feel his breathing become rapid and uncontrolled, his heart rate beating in sync. His arm quickly shot down to try and grab Mack’s hand, but his fingers felt fused together. When they looked to one another, they realized their bodies were no longer their own. Legs replaced with tails, arms replaced with fins, and if they squeezed hard enough, they could make air come out of the new blowholes on their back. Suddenly the boys were no longer human and were no longer inside of their bedroom, but instead swimming inside of the ocean. Everything around them looked clear but vast and bigger than they could have ever imagined. They were in a large body of water but did not feel wet, and best of all, they could breathe just the same as they did when they were humans on land.

“Jack?” Mack panicked, bubbles arising from his mouth and toward the ocean’s surface above them.

“I’m right here, Mack.” Jack said as he tried to maneuver his new body toward his brother.

Mack must have had the same idea as the boys collided into one another with a large thud.

“Ouch,” Jack groaned.

“Woah,” Mack gasped suddenly. “You’re huge, Jack.”

“I’m huge,” Jack replied, a laugh shaking through his body, “you’re huge.”

Mack giggled and spun his body around in the water. “This is so cool,” he exclaimed with glee.

“Yeah but,” Jack began as he looked at his new fins and craned his neck to look at his own tail.

A tail, he thought, I have a tail.

“I don’t think we’re anywhere near home.” Jack said.

“How did we become whales?” Mack questioned, ignoring his brothers rightful worry.

“I don’t know, Mack.” Jack responded. “It must have been this watch.”

Jack looked down to where his wrist was now replaced with a fin and he could feel his new body tense, his heart racing with a thudding he couldn’t describe.

“Oh no!” He exclaimed. “The watch is missing. How will we get back home without the watch?”

Mack froze mid ocean spin and fear spread throughout his new body in reaction to his brothers words. His mind began to process the thought of being a blue whale forever, eventually growing into the largest animal that ever lived on this planet. The idea of eating krill and fish all day made his stomach do a small turn, and the silence of the vast ocean suddenly felt deafening. Especially when he realized staying this way meant they’d never see mommy, daddy, or Coco again. They’d never see Zack again. Although truthfully Mack didn’t think he knew Zack well enough to decide if he’d miss his baby brother also. But mommy, daddy, and Coco? No, that wouldn’t do.

“I’ll never see Coco again,” he cried out. Could he cry? He couldn’t tell if he was able to; everything was just wet. There was no way to distinguish between water coming out of his eyes and the water that was surrounding them.

“I’ll get us back home, Mack, I promise.” Jack said, but he knew the promise was empty. He didn’t know how to get back home any more than Mack did, and without the watch he didn’t even know how to begin trying. All he definitively knew was that he was Mack’s big brother, and big brothers kept their little brothers safe no matter what.

“Come on,” Jack said, beginning to swim toward the surface of the ocean to try and get an idea of where they were. “It’s dark down here. Maybe the surface will give us some answers.”

Mack began to follow his brother until he felt a small creature near his snout. He tried to see what was around him, but in deeper levels of the ocean, visibility dropped drastically. Mack could feel that something was near him but could not see it, and although he was now physically a whale, his human instincts of fear of the unknown took over. His body began to back away from where the creature was and he swam in a different direction than where his brother was headed.

“Jack there’s something in the water,” Mack yelled to his brother, emitting a loud, low pitched whale sound in fear.

Jack turned quickly toward the direction he could hear his brother.  Hearing in this body felt tremendously different than in his human one. The sense didn’t feel like it was coming from ears, no, instead it felt like he could feel vibrations rather than sounds in a much more internal way. It allowed his brain to pinpoint exactly which direction Mack was yelling from so he could follow.

“Mack, I’m sure it’s just a shrimp,” Jack said with a huff as he began swimming toward his brother.

Mack was heading toward the surface but in a more diagonal direction that led him further than where they first landed.

How is he going so fast? Jack wondered. He remembered from the panel he was reading that blue whales typically enjoyed swimming at leisurely speeds of about 5 miles per hour, but Mack looked like he was swimming more than quadruple that speed.

“Mack, slow down.” Jack tried to call out, but suddenly his face encountered a large canvas of mesh lining with small holes. Instinctually, Jack tried to roll and frantically swim away from the netting, but that only made his body become even more entangled. The ropes of the netting wrapped tightly around his body, encasing his tail and making him feel immobile.

“Mack,” he yelled out. Though they had begun swimming toward the surface with more light, he still could not see well into the distance.

“Mack,” he tried again, but there was still no detectable being.

How am I going to get us home safely, he thought to himself.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to hone in on the same sense that allowed him to find Mack the first time. He needed to feel the world around him to be able to know if anything was coming toward him. Jack could feel small creatures around him, most likely fish, and he could feel rocks and hard surfaces below. After a few moments he could feel a large being coming close and his eyes shot open.

“Mack?” Jack questioned.

“Boo,” Mack yelled out with a laugh at his attempt to scare his big brother.

“Ha, ha, you scared me,” Jack said, feigning fear to not elicit anxiety in his little brother.

Mack laughed confidently, the feeling of being able to scare his little brother feeling like a major accomplishment.

“Hey, Mack,” Jack said softly. “I seem to be stuck.”

Jack sighed and tried to wiggle his body free one last time, but that only seemed to further tighten the ropes around his body.

Mack quickly rushed over to his entangled brother and tried to see if there was anything he could do to get him free. He looked to his fins as a mixture of fear and a bit of anger spread through his body.

I need hands, he screamed to himself, not fins!

He knew he couldn’t get out of here without his big brother.

“I don’t know what to do, Jack.” Mack said, his voice evident of the fear he felt. “I can’t grab the rope, I don’t have hands.”

“It’s okay, Mack, we’ll get back home.” Jack said reassuringly, giving him the biggest smile he could muster. He knew that Mack couldn’t concentrate when he got scared, and that he needed to be calm if there was any hope of him helping Jack get free.

“We can’t get back home if you’re stuck,” Mack began to whine.

“Hey, what does mom always say when something bad happens? At least we have each other, right?”

“Yeah,” Mack nodded his head slowly. “Jack, I want to go back home,” he cried.

“I know,” Jack said softly, but he could feel how tired his body was growing. “I’ll get us home Mack,” he said as his eyes began to slowly close.

“I’ll keep you safe, Jack,” Mack whispered. “We’ll stay together.”

Jack felt too weak to speak. He let out a short clicking sound to assure his brother he was still awake.

Mack rested his head against his brothers through the netting and tried to close his eyes, hoping if they both fell asleep, they’d wake up back inside of their bedroom and this would all be a dream. In the distance the boys could hear quiet, low-frequency grunts that sounded like a mixture of barking and squeaking. The sounds began growing louder, closer, and more intense as the seconds passed by. Mack quickly turned around in the direction of the growing noise, panic for his and his brother’s safety washing over his body. He tried to focus his eyes on the direction of the sounds, but he could only make out a small shadow moving up and down with the waves of the water. Mack could sense long, sharp objects being thrown into the water in the distance, and that something large was coming toward them. He knew that they needed to find a way to get back home.

This is just a nightmare, Jack thought to himself as he felt Mack’s fear through the net he was stuck within. Just a nightmare.

The saying, Jack. A voice filled Jack’s head and his tired eyes shot open. The saying on the back of the watch.

Okay, that’s it. I’m going crazy, he thought to himself.

I have learned as much as I was able to learn. That’s what it means Jack. You’ve learned how Blue Whales went extinct. They were hunted to the brink of extinction and many were caught in nets and couldn’t get free. You’ve done it, Jack. Say it to go home. The voice held a sense of urgency and Jack could feel his body frozen and unable to process what was going on.

“Didici quantum,” he began softly, but he felt so weak from trying to escape he couldn’t get the rest of the words out.

“What?” Mack asked.

“Didici quantum,” Jack tried again.

“Jack speak English.”

Focus, Jack, the voice said again. You’re stronger than you think you are. Remember.

Jack closed his eyes tightly. He knew that it was his responsibility to get Mack back home safely. The boys were only twenty months apart and even though the memories of those first few months were fuzzy, he could remember sitting on a hospital bed with his mom as she held his new baby brother.

“This is your baby brother, Jack,” she said as she held Mack over Jack’s lap to give him the impression he was also holding the baby. “You’re going to go on so many adventures together as you grow up. Never forget how important you are to one another.”

Jack’s head flooded with blurry blips of the day that their mom had brought Mack home from the hospital. The car ride home, mom reminding dad to be quiet because the baby was asleep, Jack trying to sing “Old Macdonald” in an equally as sleepy voice, and the quiet pull in of the car into the driveway. The animals were flooded into their front yard just the same as they had been when Jack had been born, the only caveat was that his parents were no longer startled by their appearance. He could remember watching one reach out to the car seat, a sleeping newborn grunt sounding from within it. Suddenly he felt like he was transported back into his small toddler frame, standing in the walkway watching his mom and dad bring his brother up to their front door.

Mommy and Daddy have a new baby, he could feel himself thinking. Through the eyes of an almost two-year-old this felt like a knife through the chest. A type of betrayal that left Jack feeling frozen in a fear that life would never be the same again. There they were standing in his front yard with his animals, but they weren’t here for him that day. It felt like his body was stuck in an earthquake, his mix of emotions – an exuberance for the arrival of animals mixed with a grave sadness for the feeling of loss for his previous life – shifting and fighting together like tectonic plates in the small space of his toddler being. He could feel tears streaming down his face. He could suddenly feel the eyes of not only his parents, but of all the animals that graced their yard focused on him.

His mom rushed over to his side, calling his father to follow as she knelt down beside him.

“Oh, my Jack,” she said as she held him in his arms. “This is a lot of change.”

Dad came quickly behind, placing the car seat next to his mom so that Mack was looking up at his big brother. “You’re still our boy, Jack.” Dad said, now kneeling at eye level with the toddler.

“Always,” Mom added, pulling the car seat closer. “Just because you’re a big brother doesn’t change that.”

Jack looked down at his baby brother, getting a more detailed look at his new sibling compared to when sitting in the hospital bed with his mom. He could feel his hand reaching down to touch his brother, his tiny finger poking the baby’s cheek. At only two days old Mack smiled in his sleep to his brother’s touch. That was all Jack needed.

We will be there for you always, Jack. The voice filled his head, but this felt much more like a memory than a current thought.. Had he known this voice in the past? A lost memory from the transition of toddlerhood to becoming a kid. Becoming Mack’s big brother doesn’t mean you lose us.

“Remember what mommy said in the hospital,” his mom began softly. “Never forget how important you are to one another. Be each other’s protectors.”

He blinked and his parents were gone. The walkway was lost to the hue of blue from the ocean and he was suddenly re-aware of the net his body was entangled within. However, Jack could feel an unexplainable peace wash over his body, even amid the current danger.

We have always been there, Jack. The voice began again, drawing him out of his thoughts. We have always known you and your brothers would be our protectors. And now you know it, too. Now say it, Jack. Say it together.

“Mack,” Jack said, a new sense of resilience and strength in his voice. “Repeat after me.”

“What?” Mack asked.

“Repeat after me. Didici quantum discere potui.”

“Jack, I can’t-,” Mack protested.

“Repeat it, Mack.” Jack said sternly.

“Okay, Okay,” Mack huffed. “Didici quantum discere potui.” As he spoke the words his eyes increased in wideness, shock of the ease his mouth could speak this unknown language.

“Now, together.” Jack said, nudging his head to touch his little brothers through the netting.

“Didici quantum discere potui,” they said in unison, their eyes shut tight as the water around them began to chill with the air crashing beneath the surface. They could feel their bodies spinning with a speed that made their breath feel hard to grasp. Fins splitting back into fingers, a tail splitting to become legs and feet, and a crash as their bodies landed back on the ground of their bedroom.

“Jack you’re free!” Mack exclaimed pulling his older brother in for a tight hug.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “And we’re back home.”

Jack reached a hand to the wrist he had originally put the watch on and could feel the band back in place.

“You know you did a good job protecting me,” Jack said to Mack as they pulled apart from their hug.

“That’s our job, Jack,” Mack said with a smile. “We have to protect each other.”

Jack smiled and chuckled to himself. “That’s true,” he said. “But now we have a lot more to protect.”

“What do you mean?”

“Boy do I have a story to tell you.”

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