Kirabo

by Ronnie Rowbotham

  They could hear the deep sad moaning once more. Brady looked out of the window. He gasped as he saw the huge shape of the thing coming down towards them. “That’s not a monster,” he said, looking at Kirabo. “It’s a whale, a giant whale. Look.”

  This time Kirabo saw the shape of the whale as it moved down towards them. They heard the moaning once more. This time it seemed to come from right in front of them.

  “It’s a whale song,” Brady said. “It’s the way they communicate with one another,” he said, sounding puzzled. “Only the sound seems to be coming from the shipwreck.”

  Brady moved the outside spotlight and aimed it at the sunken ship. Stuck under the ship was a smaller whale.

  “The whale must have swum up to the ship to have a look and its weight made the ship move, trapping it underneath,” Brady guessed.

  The giant whale slowly moved past the submarine and swam towards the ship. It pushed at the ship, trying to move it.

  “The whale must be trying to free her baby from under the ship,” Kirabo said.

  “She’ll have to be quick or the poor thing will drown.”

  “But it’s a fish, it can breathe under water, can’t it?” Kirabo asked.

  Brady loved reading about whales, they were his favourite animal. “Whales are mammals,” he explained. “They breathe air just like us. It’s just that they are very good at holding their breath. If the baby doesn’t go up to the surface for air soon, it will die.”

  “Oh, that’s awful,” Kirabo said sadly.

  They heard the deep moaning song as the mother whale tried to push the ship off her baby once more.

  “I know, let’s use the submarine to help the whale push the ship,” Kirabo said.

  To her surprise, Brady shook his head. “We can’t. Look how the mother whale knocked us out of the way. We were lucky the submarine stayed in one piece. If she knocks us again we could end up drowning.”

  Kirabo sat thinking about the problem. They heard the whale song once more. This time they knew it was the baby whale crying to its mother.

  “I have an idea,” Kirabo said. “You take the submarine and help push the ship out of the way. I’ll use the microphone to make the whale song. Hopefully, the whale will think we are another whale trying to help.”

  “But it’s too dangerous. I thought you of all people wouldn’t want to get stuck down here and possibly drown.”

  They heard the sound of the mother whale answering her baby. It sounded so sad and yet beautiful at the same time.

  “I just want to help,” Kirabo said firmly.

  Brady nodded. “Okay,” he agreed.

  The submarine slowly lifted off the ocean floor and moved towards the sunken ship. The large whale moved to block them, thinking that they might hurt her baby. Kirabo picked up the microphone inside the submarine and switched it on. She let out a long deep moan, hoping to sound like the baby whale they had heard.

  The whale stayed where she was, blocking the submarine from helping. Kirabo tried again, her long deep moaning carried through the water. The whale seemed to understand and slowly moved to one side, leaving just enough room for the submarine to squeeze in. Brady quickly moved the submarine up towards the hull of the ship.

  They looked so small next to the giant whale. Kirabo let out another long moaning sound as Brady turned the engine to full power and began to push at the ship’s hull. The whale pushed too.

  Great clouds of sand billowed up from the ocean floor as the old ship began to move. Inside the submarine, Brady and Kirabo heard the groaning and creaking as the wooden hull slowly gave way.

  From under the ship the baby whale managed to wriggle free and swam to her mother. Together they headed for the surface so they could both take in a big gulp of air.

  Suddenly the engines inside the submarine stopped and Brady and Kirabo felt themselves slowly sink to the seabed once more.

  Kirabo looked at Brady, smiling. “We did it,” she said, laughing.

  Brady didn’t smile back. “The engines have given out. I pushed them too hard,” he said.

  “I don’t understand, what does that mean?” Kirabo asked.

  “It means we are stuck.”

  Kirabo did her best to be brave. “Can we fix them?” she asked hopefully.

  Brady shook his head. “No.”

  The two sat in silence, hardly daring to think about what might happen. Slowly the lights flickered and went out.

  “We are losing all power,” Brady said in alarm. He jumped up and grabbed two torches from one of the lockers.

  “Oh, Brady,” Kirabo whimpered as she switched on her torch.

  Brady took hold of her hand and squeezed it tightly.

  There was a thud on the side of the submarine.

  “Oh now what?” Kirabo said.

  “Look,” Brady said, pointing to one of the smaller windows. A large eye was staring in at them. Outside they heard the moaning song of the whales.

  “They’ve come back,” Kirabo shouted excitedly.

  There was another thud from outside, followed by another at the other side of the submarine. The whales were rocking them from side to side, slowly lifting them off the ocean floor.

  Brady and Kirabo shouted and yelled with excitement as they felt the submarine lift off the seabed. The mother whale swam under them and began to push them towards the surface. The baby whale appeared in front of the main window as if she wanted to let them know they were safe.

  Kirabo took hold of the microphone and made her whale song again. The baby whale did a giant ‘loop the loop’ in the water, making Brady and Kirabo clap with delight.

  Beams of sunlight began to pierce the murky depths of the sea as they rose towards the surface.

  “When we get to the surface let’s open the hatch,” Brady suggested. “The whales may stay around and we can play with them.”

  Daylight suddenly burst through the window as they reached the surface. Brady and Kirabo raced to the back of the submarine and climbed up the ladder to the hatch. Brady turned the locking wheel and climbed through the round opening. Kirabo quickly followed. All her fears about water had now gone. She climbed out of the hatch and found herself back in the attic. Brady was standing at the side of the cardboard box looking as if he was about to cry.

  “I was going to jump into the sea and swim with them,” he said sadly. “We didn’t even get a chance to thank them for saving us.”

  Kirabo gave him a hug. “I think they were really saying thank you to us for saving the baby whale,” she said. “And who knows, now I’m not scared of the water any more, maybe we can go back and visit them again sometime.”

  Brady beamed at the thought.