Fluke

32: Symbiosis

After we finished our whale trip and seal watch, I sat down at the kitchen table (with coffee and Logan, of course) to identify the whales we had seen that day.

I studied a couple potential suspects for the first fluke on our list, but neither of the whales already in the system seemed to match the one that we had seen earlier.

"Hey," Logan said, then pointed at the screen.

"You find something?" I asked.

"Not really, but that one is named Fighter. I desperately need to know the story behind that," he said.

I let out a sigh, but I clicked on the whale anyway. There wasn't much information on him, but I read it for Logan. "He's about fifteen years old, and he attempted to knock over the boat when he was being photographed."

Logan laughed. "He lives up to the name, then.

I nodded without a verbal reply, since there was still work to be done, and I continued scrolling through the whale photos.

"You know, there's always the possibility that the one you're looking for hasn't been identified yet," Logan said, and I looked up from the screen.

"Huh. I guess that's true," I said, then flipped back to the fluke picture I had taken. There were spots that lined the outside of the fluke of the humpback whale, and I hadn't seen any pictures with the same pattern.

Maybe I was the first to find that particular whale. It wasn't a huge accomplishment, but my heart still warmed up with pride.

"So what do you know about it?" Logan asked.

"Well, since it was by itself, I want to guess that it's a male, but that's not definitive. I can get a better idea once I figure out how large the whale was, since the females are a little bigger, or if I can find a picture that goes just below the tail fluke," I replied, and when I looked up at him, I noticed that he was already looking at me.

"Can I name it? I mean, you named my fly trap, so it's only fair if I get to name your whale," Logan asked, and I laughed.

"Sure. You can name it after we determine its sex."

Logan took the laptop from in front of me and tilted it in his direction. "How hard can that be? You took at least ten thousand pictures of it, and—" He trailed off as Darrell entered the kitchen.

"Are you busy right now?" Darrell asked.

Logan looked back at the computer screen. "Well, I'm trying to find a whale penis, so kind of."

"You're not going to find a penis. It's not really good for hydrodynamics for it to just be out in the open like that," I said. "It's just like a seal in that regard."

Darrell nodded. "Maybe you should just leave the whole whale thing to her, since she is much more competent than you'll ever be, and instead come with me. We have some gull recordings that need to be taken, and—"

"What about Jia?" Logan asked.

"She's a bit under the weather right now, and I need someone to carry all of the equipment that I need, which is normally her job," Darrell replied.

"Wow, no wonder she fucking hates you," Logan said as he stood up.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"She said that she's fine, but she's curled up in a little ball that she refuses to move from because she can't stand up," Darrell said, and I shut my laptop.

"That doesn't sound good." I stood up. "I'll go check on her while I wait for you two to finish up your bird thing."

Logan looked over at Darrell. "I'm not going to just carry all your stuff. I'm too qualified for that kind of disrespect."