The crew yells for us to grab our face masks and go to the dive platform at the stern. I very courteously shove several people out of the way and am the first to get to the platform, put on my mask and drop down on my belly. I stick my face in. She is there, no more than 30 yards below, her back to me, aloof. She hears me and pirouettes, weightless on the tip of one fluke.
Humpbacks are the most articulate of all baleen whales.
But this whale just out of reach is communicating telepathically. You're embarrassing us all. An enlightened man would now swim down to the whale for a pectoral pas de deux. Or at least hang motionless for a moment and om in mammalian harmony. Not me, stupid human.