There is a whale that watches the beach every day. He wonders to himself what will it feel like to lie upon the sand in the sun. He sings to the shore, to the sun, to the bright unknown.
His mother once told him "you cannot go there. The shore is death. There are beasts upon the shore. They will cut you into pieces. They will carry your pieces off and you will be the smoke in their chimneys, the light in their hearth, the fire that warms their bodies in the winter. You will be the food on their table."
A sand shark watches the whale, settling himself on the sandy bottom. "You sing to the shore. If you were smaller I would eat you myself. The shore is death. The sun will melt your skin into decay, the birds will peck at your lifeless eyes. They will land upon your rotting corpse and pick you clean. Then the sun will bleach your bones. The storm waves will break you into tiny pieces for crabs to carry on their backs. The land beasts will place your bones on their mantle, an ornament from the ocean's forgotten dead. Swim away whale. Swim away from the darkness of the shore."
A dolphin chases the shark away. The whale sings to the shore. The dolphin smiles. "do you wonder what it feels like to lie upon the shore, to be an air-breathing beast of the land, to have not flippers but hands? I have spoken to the land beasts but they do not know the meaning of my words . Some are large and kind but many are mean and small. They bring darkness every time they approach. We stay away, but one day they will come for us all. Swim away whale. I would chase you like the shark but you are too large, so heed my call- swim away and end your song. Death awaits upon the shore."
The whale sings to the shore. The whale swims to the shore, to feel the sun on his skin, to live on the land with the beasts called man. He hits the beach and knows he has arrived to a new life. Then he hears the words of his mother in the bright sunlight. "The shore is death" He hears the words of the shark, "The shore is death". He hears the words of the dolphin, "Death awaits upon the shore." The sun is hot. A hungry bird lands nearby. And then another. And another. And another.
A man beast appears. And then another. And then more men beasts and women and children too. They chase away the birds, they throw buckets of water onto the whale. They lay wet towels upon his skin. More and more land beasts appear and they begin to push him and roll him, to drag him and pull him. He feels the hands upon his skin. They are large and kind.
More man beasts arrive in small boats- they wrap ropes around his body and then all the land beasts work and strain together and slowly, so slowly they pull and push him back into the water...back into his ocean home. "Swim away whale", they say, "Swim away. The shore is death. Go dive down into the darkest depths. Go back to the ocean where you belong."
The whale sings to the shore, to the sun, to the approaching darkness, to the bright unknown.
