A Whale's Tale by R.U. Kidding One fine morning during whale season on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, the water was particularly calm and my friend Terry and I were watching whales way offshore. Terry and I meet many mornings and await anxiously for the dolphins to appear. This day we were hopeful to finally swim with a whale. We swam much further than we usually do and waited and listened for the whales. Treading water we were getting tired and cold so we swam back to shore listenning to the whale songs as we swam…. After warming up Terry swam back out but I was about to leave when two new friends appeared. They wanted to swim out and I was not sure of their swimming skills so I joined them…..We swam and swam. To me the whale songs seemed more and more distant and as we awaited I said " I don’t think we will see a whale today." Well, the exclamation point on that sentence, ten feet behind my head, was the swooshing sound of a whale blowing out its spout. We were all stunned as the whale stared at us with it’s huge eye and then it slowly submerged. Looking at it under the surface slowly heading towards us about 15 feet deep, the scene resembled the docking sequence in the beginning of 2001. More surreal than real; I wondered what I would do if it were to suddenly surface? It was so big and seemed to mysteriously propel itself without moving its huge body. We were all speechless as it departed into the depths. Here we are years later and on most mornings one can find at least one of us on the beach waiting. That's how I plan to start Earthday '99................