After an hour and a half without a single find, we continued through the ocean. Not a single one of Robbie's boat friends gave us a lead, and we hadn't found anything by ourselves. There had to be some whales somewhere, but they all seemed to be where we weren't.
Sneaky little weasels.
Nastasya stood up and headed over next to Robbie. As tempting as her seat looked, I didn't want her to get mad at me like she did with Emma.
Emma sat with her legs crossed and without a distraction, and I also didn't want to sit next to her very much. There was something about her that rubbed me the wrong way, but if I wanted to be rightfully labeled as un-sketchy, I just had to deal with it.
"Is this how long it usually takes to find a whale?" Emma asked.
I kept my sigh internal. I was her distraction now.
"Well, it depends. Some days we have really good luck, and other days, we don't find anything. We can't really control it," I replied.
"At least in an office job, there's always something to do, even if it's nothing," she replied, then gave another bray-like laugh.
I didn't know why she thought she was so funny, but I chuckled anyway.
"What's in that case right there?" Emma asked and pointed to the one in my hands.
Dammit, I thought we were done talking.
"It's just a crossbow-type thing for taking blubber samples. I only have a permit to use it in the US, so as long as we're in American waters, I just shoot them, then the sample floats above the water, so we can collect it. We send it back to the Atlantic Coastal College for testing, and then I add the health report to their profile in the database," I replied.
"But doesn't that hurt them?" Emma asked.
"No more than a vaccination," Nastasya jumped in. For some reason, it was a favorite conversation topic of hers.
"Plus, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. It really helps to know what their general health is, so we can remind ourselves just how much we've hurt the precious babies," I added. "It's actually kind of upsetting."
"You seem to really care about this," Emma said.
For once, something smart came out of her mouth. It was a Christmas miracle.
"I really do. I gave up a lot to do this, but I've gained a lot more in the process," I said. "It reminds me that there's a lot more in this world than just me and that I'm not nearly as horrible of a person as I once thought I was."
She didn't ask me to elaborate, so I didn't. We didn't really need to get to know each other like that, since we would probably never speak again.
At least, I hoped we wouldn't.
When she didn't look to continue our conversation, I headed out to the back of the boat. While there weren't any whales visible, there were plenty of other cetaceans around. A few dolphins swam through the water in the wake behind the boat, and I smiled at them.
"Hi guys. You're all doing great, and I love you," I said, and although they didn't speak English, I was sure they knew that they were, in fact, doing great.
This lifestyle was the one for me, and even though I knew I'd move on to bigger (but not better) things, I already knew that there would always be a knife in my heart. I'd never be this happy again.
The temperature wasn't nearly as warm as a West Virginia August, but I had grown accustomed to the coolness, and shortly, that would turn into a short autumn and a harsh winter. Of course, that meant living inside a classroom once again, but I just couldn't learn like that. There was a large difference between reading and doing, and now that I had gotten my feet wet, how could I ever go back?
I headed back inside the cabin of the boat to see if we had any leads on a whale. There were days that we didn't get anything, but I didn't want Judge Judy on our boat another time in the future.
"So far, there's still nothing," Nastasya said.
I gave a small nod. Shit.
Emma's presence was probably scaring them away. It sure scared me, and I didn't want her there anymore, but I couldn't just throw her off the back of the boat. There were laws against that.
We continued to cruise through the Atlantic, and as the sun shone down on us, I realized in all the madness of the day, I forgot about sunscreen.
Gingers and the sun were the worst combination ever, and I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or reality, but my skin began to burn.
That just made my day even better.
There was nothing I could do besides avoid the sun's rays, so I tucked myself into a corner of the boat and hoped the radiation would just ignore me. It wasn't my most rational plan, but there wasn't much else that could be done.
Besides, I had thrown rationality out the window a long time ago.
Robbie looked over his shoulder at me. "You good, Reagan? You're not gonna end up like your boyfriend puking all over my boat, are you?"
I held up a thumbs-up. "I'm good. I'm just gonna be covered in sunburns."
"You poor thing. You don't tan at all, do you?" Emma asked.
I shook my head.
"You know, you can always get a spray tan. That'll fix all your problems," she said.
"My paleness isn't one of my greatest concerns, unfortunately," I said.
If something that minor was my biggest problem, I would be one happy camper. Besides, a spray tan would just look stupid on me.
"Well, I suppose not when you live on an island where no one can see you." Emma laughed again.
"Maybe you should refresh your spray tan and sew your lips shut," Nastasya said.
My laughter replaced Emma's, whose face scrunched into a scowl.
"I don't know who hired you, but you're not the type of person we're looking for in this institute of higher education," Emma replied.
"I'll live with that," Nastasya said, then turned back to Robbie and the boat.
She really wasn't making my job of impressing the official box-checker any easier.
Emma shook her head. "There aren't enough young people in the world like you, Miss Winebrenner. It's a tragedy."
I laughed at Nastasya's comment about sewing her mouth shut, so I wasn't sure if I was actually someone to be admired, but I smiled anyway. "That means a lot. Thank you."
"What do you plan on doing after you graduate? Where do you see yourself going?" she asked.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I still have a couple more semesters to go, and I don't think I'll ever be able to find something that's more perfect for me than this," I replied.
"Hm. It's difficult to find someone who is willing to live this life. God knows I wouldn't want it." She laughed again. "There's not a single person who's doing their senior project at Paradise City who's interested in the whales. Can you believe that?"
Not even Logan Two? I thought for sure that I convinced him to follow in my footsteps.
All I wanted was for someone competent to begin where I was going to leave off, someone who cared just as much as I did. As much as I hated to admit it, Darrell was right about Logan Two.
I put my head in my hands. "Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit."
"Oh, Reagan doll, don't take it personally. I'm sure there's another reason no one was interested besides the sample that you gave them," Emma said.
How could I not take it personally? I invested all my resources for the day into grooming Logan Two into the perfect heir, and he picked something else that wasn't nearly as cool. What kind of fuck you was that?
Whatever. I didn't need or want his negativity.
"Reagan, for what it's worth, I don't think anyone else can live up to what you bring to the table. You're charming, sweet, and caring," Robbie said.
"Thank you, but I wanted someone to do this job next summer. It's so rewarding, and I don't understand why no one wants it," I replied.
"It's especially sad because we're really looking to grow this program. It brings us a lot of positive attention," Emma said.
I turned to her. "That's not the reason to grow the program. What about the whales themselves?"
Emma nodded. "Well, yes, but this is a business after all."
"Maybe to you, but to the rest of us who don't spend all day in an office we hate, it's so much more than that," I said.
The world was bigger than just us as individuals and us as humans in general. But the problem was that humankind had eyes for catching prey, and we were blind to just about everything else. We were blind to the consequences of our frivolous lifestyles, and until I got away from society, I didn't realize what it did to me. I got stuck in a dichotomy rather than realizing that the world was one cohesive unit.
Spray tanned lives didn't see the world the same way sunburnt people did.
I definitely cared too much, but that had to be better than the alternative.
"Look, the reason I mentioned that was because we need someone to carry out this research. You've got a fire inside of you, and that's what it takes to make a difference. If you're interested, there's a spot on Dr. Steven McCann's team for someone like you. It'd be a full-time thing after you graduate, but it's yours if you want it since you have some experience," Emma said.
I didn't have a fire inside of me; it would have been put out by the seawater that ran through my veins.
This had to be too good to be true, right? It had to be.
"You're not serious, are you?" I asked. "You didn't laugh right after, so it seems a little fishy to be another joke, but—"
"Of course, I'm serious. We have the same goal in mind, Reagan, but we have different reasons for it. I want this program to be just as successful as you do, and Dr. McCann especially wants his research to be the best it can be."
Sudden surprises seldom worked out for the best, but who could stop me from taking this chance?
"I want it. You can tell him I'm on board, no questions asked," I said.
-------------------------------------------------------
Thank you so much for reading! We're inching closer to the end, and I have to say that I'm getting a little stressed out about it. I have a few ideas, but nothing is really set in stone yet.
Is this the opportunity Reagan needs? Of course, Emma doesn't seem like the most wonderful person, so is it worth taking? What about what she'd have to leave behind?
And for my next question, since I asked you guys about music last week, let's discuss movies and TV series this week. What's your favorite thing to watch?
For me, I like to watch the exact same movies as I did when I was a little kid. I loved Barbie's Princess and the Pauper, Beauty and the Beast, and Cars, but now I'm 100% on board with Marvel as well. The Guardians of the Galaxy is by far the best in my opinion. For TV, I like to watch nature documentaries, sports, reality competitions, and The Office. Other than that, I don't watch much. I'm boring.