Made in Australia: Part III

When experiencing things from awe, the memories remain in the compartment of the mind that has no patterns and nothing to relate with. These unique happenings bubble up in our backward looking thoughts in a way that makes us ponder if they ever actually occurred. This mystifying phenomenon gives Jebediah the continued impression that all of it is heavenly.

Together they head down to the docks. The day is grey and the sea is flat. The air is moist, but that doesn't matter anyway when the plan is to get wet. They are invited on-board a small ship that plans to find creatures of deeper waters. As the ship navigates through the waves breaking upon the barrier-reef, the members aboard instantly turn from sea-sideliners to oceanic-observers. Migration season places the blow-whole giants right before their eyes.  The sprays and silhouettes from shore are now showers and mighty-swims from lazy tails. On the open-ocean it is difficult to understand the size of these living submarines, especially with their slow rolling motions allowing only portions of their bodies to be seen at once. However, other happenings of the sea help to give a better perspective.

Soon the attention of the ship was on a fin darting around the boat and between the whales. As the fin grows larger the tail and body also emerge. The shape of a dark-sand colored hammer-head shark appeares. In the presence of the massive mammals the man-eater seems cute as it loops nearer to the onlookers.

Not awhile later two fins appear and produce synchronized flapping towards the ship. An oceanic manta-ray flutters briefly on the surface to give a glimpse. Its gaping mouth could filter through a body boarder and its smooth back could hold cuddling lovers. However looking like a mere stingray in the foreground of the landless elephants, the egregiousness of the whales becomes more apparent. The crew buzzes with excitement as the marine displays are so wonderful and it is still morning. The passengers and sea people begin to intermingle and the duo are in the captains perch with the skipper and his first mate. Once again in awe, they smile and share enthusiasm in short spurts of words. Suddenly the first mate began belting an obnoxious howl, obnoxious only until all eyes fixed half a football field in front of the boat. Side by side, head to tail, fins wide opened, two entire Humpback Whales raise them selves above the water. Their white speckled bellies face up with arches elevating their core. They suspend as if being hoisted to the grey skies until with a geyser of a splash, they are gone. The entirety of the ship wails with applause and at last the gargantuan Humpbacks are fully unveiled. The spectacular state of awe was now shared between all.

The seas' jewels are being seen from the boat, but the diamond they all set out for is yet to be seen. In rare parts of the earth an enormous fish rises from the depths for brief moments. They surface to feed then disappear to parts of the ocean that are un-documentable. The Whale Shark is a being that will never be fully comprehended with a superficial perspective, however in this moment, Rosetta and Jebediah slip off the stern of the boat into the waters awaiting the sight of the elusive Whale Shark.

The water is clear, but in the vast emptiness of deep waters there is no understanding of distance. From the turquoise mist of the sunlit water a wide, thin ellipse becomes visible. As it comes closer it spreads into an oval. The head of the Whale Shark comes into full view. Jeb and the fish, and Rose and the fish, are eye to eye; only a fishing rods length between. The beast's head passes them and they watch it sucking in water, taking only the plankton and emitting jets of water out its rippling gills. They swim along side in line with the front fins. The animal is so big and they are so close, all they can see is white-teal spots and gills fanning open gently over a grey-blue skin. The fish moves its body slowly but its immense appendages displace pods of water, propelling it quickly to feed. Jeb kicks hard to keep up.

Jeb looks to his side, and through dive masks, looks at the eyes of Rosetta which have taken on the full depth of the open ocean. Witnessing a familiar being in an unfamiliar place allows Rosetta to appear as a marvelous tropical creature. He watches her watch and swim with the Whale Shark and sees three eternities all at once. He sees his own inner workings ticking and winding this moment into the compilation of moments that creates the galaxy he lives in. He also sees that she is in her own galaxy, that he will never truly experience. The third eternity is the Whale Shark's simplicity of swimming and eating without the monstrosities of the human experience. In swimming with the Whale Shark Jeb and Rose pass through a glimpse of its peace.

Jeb stops swimming and stares to watch all eight meters of the care-free giant glide past him, like a stranger waiting on the sidewalk for a bus to roll by. Now behind, he can see the tail fin is, from top to bottom, a length taller than he is. Jeb can see the grace of the Whale Shark's entire body. The massive tail wagging side to side across his field of vision resonates a flow up her entire spine like the flow of a trailing cape. The side wings span out and glide over imaginary sea winds with ease. This creates within Jeb the image of a loving demon and leaves him in awe. The world's largest fish begins to dive down with a simple majestic motion. The oceans fog begins to grow between Jeb and the Whale Shark. A haze of darkened spots remains but only for a long moment. She disappears, then nothing is left. The massive creature came to gain food, and left without harming a single life more than was necessary. She moves on and takes nothing with her. It is the kind of world that Jebediah and Rosetta dream of living in and it vanishes far from humanities reach.

Only an empty dark blue remains in Jebediah's galaxy. In the lack of all else, for only a brief infinity, he lives in the neutral space where all the stars of every galaxy sparkle from. He is in the world of Rosetta and in the world of the Whale Shark. However, by the time he is climbing back up on the boat his understanding of these worlds is lost. The water begins to dry from his body, and the entire encounter slides away into that compartment of the mind that can barely be recognized as reality.

Again sitting with the skipper Jeb looks to land and sees deep into the cape-range gorge covered with land-life and filled with mist. The creatures that dominate the foreign environment he entered on this day were once able to swim through the landscape he is accustomed to now. The rocking of the boat helps to steady his mind and he thinks; How can this story be told? Do the Humpbacks preserve the tale of how they came from land to sea? Does the Whale Shark recall when the hills were ocean floor? The truest nature has no dramas; there is no perpetual thinking to link the events, to relate the conversation. There is no need to tell the story.

The Osprey opens her wings, the Roo falls from his bounce, the Turtle brushes you by and the beings are detached from the displacement of space. Everything turns to nothing the instant it becomes, and nothing is...

...The skipper cuts the engine and the new silence brings Jeb's attention to the swaying waters just beyond the bow. Deep blue suddenly turns to rapid turquoise and out of a white upsurge The Father Humpback erupts into the air. 

 

The End...