Whale Song (28 page)

My eyes teared when I read it.

In honor of Daniella Richardson, one of the Great Spirit’s own masterpieces, and a life well lived and well loved.

“
The schooner’s waiting,” Adam said after a quick call on his cell phone.

I hovered in the doorway of my old home and felt a draft of air breeze over me. It was warm and comforting.

“
It’s time to go, Mom,” I whispered.

It was a short drive to the docks and when we unfolded ourselves from the car, I closed my eyes and breathed in the familiar scent of saltwater and kelp.

Adam pointed to a magnificent schooner. “There she is.”

The boat must have been at least twenty-eight feet long. It was painted sparkling white with brass accents and a gold cedar trim.

“
She’s lovely,” I smiled.

My father tucked the box with my mother’s urn under one arm and took my hand, steering me toward the boat. “Did Adam tell you I helped him name this schooner?”

Without waiting for a reply, he practically dragged me down the ramp, toward the schooner.

Helplessly, I glanced back at Adam. “Save me.”

Adam grinned. Then he grabbed my other arm and I was carried to the boat, my feet barely grazing the ground.

“
Okay, you two,” I said suppressing a laugh. “You can put me down now.”

Adam pointed toward the back of the schooner and I gasped when I saw the name that my father had suggested.

Whale Song
.

Just like my mother’s painting.

“
It’s perfect,” I whispered.

We climbed aboard the schooner and Adam introduced us to Max, a friendly Australian skipper from ‘down under’. Then he eagerly showed my father the latest state-of-the-art echolocation equipment. Times had changed and the technology had greatly improved since my father’s day.

I sat down in a deck chair and listened while Adam explained how the new equipment worked. After a while, their murmuring lulled me into a light sleep.

Whale Song
headed out to sea and the gentle tossing of the schooner made me feel alive and carefree. The ocean’s surface was dotted with foamy waves while radiant beams of sunlight danced on the water like crystal beads.

I sighed, smiling contentedly when Adam sat down beside me. He pulled me close and I rested my head on his shoulder.

“
Why did you agree to name her
‘Whale Song’
?” I asked.

“
When I spoke to your father a few years ago, he mentioned your mother’s painting. The one she painted for you. He said that one day
Whale Song
would be yours.” Adam reached down, tugged my chin upward and kissed me. “And I thought that name would be perfect because I knew that one day you’d be mine.”

Twenty minutes later, Max cut the engines. Adam tossed a microphone overboard and cranked up the volume. We listened for almost half an hour, but all we heard were noisy fish.

“
The whales haven’t been coming in this close lately,” Adam apologized. “We’ll go out a bit farther.” He hauled in the microphone and waved to Max.

The engines roared to life and we headed farther out.

“
We should see something here,” Adam said after a while.

When the engines were silent, he dropped the microphone into the ocean depths. Twenty minutes went by and still there were no killer whales. Just the occasional school of fish.

My father and I grew increasingly depressed.

“
We could still empty Mom’s ashes into the ocean,” he said.

I shook my head. “It won’t be the same. Not without the whales.”

Reaching for the silver chain around my neck, I eased the wolf pendant from my shirt. I traced the wolf’s head with my fingers, pleading fervently with the Great Spirit to lead us to the whales.

Suddenly, I heard the plaintive song of a killer whale and I saw a plume of water shoot straight up into the air.

“
Look!” I cried, pointing toward the horizon.

We stood close together, hypnotized by the spectacular sight of a pod of whales coming up for air. As they drew nearer, my father leaned against the rail, one hand shielding his eyes from the intense sunlight.

“
It can’t be,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Adam smiled at my father. “It’s true, Jack. The pod took her in.” He laughed lightly. “She’s my special project, the reason I’m down here. I’m researching occurrences like this and I have to say, it is very rare.”

I was stunned. “That’s the same calf we saw?”

“
The one who lost her family,” my father murmured.

We watched the whales dive below, almost in unison, resurfacing twenty yards from the schooner. I recognized the killer whale that I had once seen, orphaned and alone. I felt an affinity with her. Both of us had been abandoned, left behind. And now we both had found our families.

“
She’s an adult now,” Adam said, interrupting my thoughts. “She just delivered. Two few weeks ago―a female.”

Holding onto his arm, I leaned over the rail. When I saw the calf, I chuckled softly, watching her glide next to her mother.

“
They look like the ornament you gave me, Adam.”

“
To remind you of your mother,” he said, nodding.

I hissed in a breath. “Quick, Dad! Mom’s ashes!”

My father opened the box. Reaching inside, he removed the cloth-covered urn just as the whales plunged into the depths and disappeared below

We waited, holding our breath.

“
Do you think they’ll come back up?” I asked Adam.

“
Look!” my father shouted.

The orca pod was visible a few yards away, but what mesmerized us was the sight of the calf heading straight for us. She circled in front of the schooner, no more than five yards away, eyeing us curiously. Blowing a mist of seawater high into the air, she skimmed against the side of the boat.

“
Unbelievable,” Adam whispered to himself.

We heard the whale crying―singing a soulful melody.

A Whale Song.

My eyes locked on her and I admired the calf’s beauty and daring. Stretching down toward the water’s surface, my hand dangled and she swam right up to me. I grazed her smooth skin as she passed slowly below me. My emotions overwhelmed me, my memories engulfed me and I tears welled in my eyes.

“
Do it now, Dad,” I said.

My father tipped the urn and emptied my mother’s ashes into the endless ocean. “Until we meet again, my love.”

“
Goodbye, Mom.”

A breeze drifted past us, carrying the ashes into the wind and over the water. My mother had returned to every corner of the earth―becoming part of every living creature. As we watched her ashes melt into the rhythmic waves, I thought that maybe―just maybe―her wish had come true.

Maybe she had become a whale after all.

I reached out my hand as the calf swam past one last time―her open eyes watching me…almost lovingly.

I smiled.

My mother had come to say goodbye.

It is said that death begins with the absence of life.

If this is so, then my mother died long before I did what I did. When she slipped into a coma with no hope of surviving or recovering, there was no life left.

It is her
life
that I remember―her laughing smile, her warm embrace and her extraordinary vision. I have learned to use that vision and the intuitiveness of an old but wise Nootka grandmother who once said,
“I may have lost my eyesight, Hai Nai Yu…but I have not lost my vision.”

I embrace my native name, understanding now that I am the
Wise One of the One Who Knows
. The wisdom of the Great Spirit has taught me that we all must do whatever it takes to resolve our past, so that we’re able to live fully in our future. I know that with life…comes death…and then life again. The eternal circle―the never-ending story.

But my mother taught me the most important lesson of all.

Forgiveness sets you free
.

Dear Reader:

This Special Edition of
Whale Song
has been dedicated to the memory of my brother Jason Anthony Kaye who was brutally murdered on January 23
^rd
, 2006. He was killed a week after his 28
^th
birthday.

When the police discovered his body lying in a cold dark alley, they immediately identified him and set out to track down his next of kin. First, they called a number of Kayes listed in the phone book. That led them nowhere.

In the end, the police tracked me down through this novel―
Whale Song
. When they asked Jay’s friends about relatives in the area, they said Jason had a sister named Cheryl who lived on the south side of Edmonton. They didn’t know my full name, but they were told I had written ‘a book about whales’.

The marvels of the internet eventually brought the police to
Whale Song
. And
Whale Song
ultimately, but sadly, brought two homicide investigators to my door.

Jason was my baby brother―a kind soul who did not deserve to die, especially in such a way. He had his whole life ahead of him and although he struggled with his demons, he had found peace and acceptance amongst his friends―the Porch Monkeys.

The homeless and downtrodden are people we pass on the streets of almost any city. People we see, but do not see. Those without faces or names. The forgotten and misunderstood.

The lost.

The forgiven…

“
Forgiveness sets you free…”

To read more about Jason and the Porch Monkeys, please check out the site in his honor:

www.jaysporchmonkeys.com

Check out Cheryl Kaye Tardif's terrifying thriller…

THE RIVER

How far do we go until we’ve gone too far?

The South Nahanni River has a history of mysterious deaths, disappearances and headless corpses, but it may also hold the key to humanity’s survival―or its destruction.

Seven years ago, Del Hawthorne’s father and three of his friends disappeared near the Nahanni River and were presumed dead. When one of the missing men stumbles onto the University grounds, alive but barely recognizable and aging before her eyes, Del is shocked. Especially when the man tells her something inconceivable. Her father is still alive!

Gathering a group of volunteers, Del travels to the Nahanni River to rescue her father. There, she finds a secret underground river that plunges her into a technologically advanced world of nanobots and painful serums. Del uncovers a conspiracy of unimaginable horror, a plot that threatens to destroy us all. Will humanity be sacrificed for the taste of eternal life?

And at what point have we become…God?

“
Tardif specializes in mile-a-minute potboiler mysteries.” ―
Edmonton Sun

ISBN: 9781412062299 (trade paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-9865382-3-0 (ebook)

Available in bookstores and online retailers, including Amazon, Chapters and KoboBooks.com

Book
1
in the
Divine
series by Cheryl Kaye Tardif…

Divine Intervention

CFBI agent Jasmine McLellan is assigned a hot case—one that requires the psychic abilities of the PSI Division, a secret government agency located in the secluded town of Divine, BC.

Jasi leads a psychically gifted team in the hunt for a serial arsonist―a murderer who has already taken the lives of three innocent people. Unleashing her gift as a
Pyro-Psychic
, Jasi is compelled toward smoldering ashes and enters the killer's mind. A mind bent on destruction and revenge.

Jasi's team, consisting of
Psychometric Empath
and profiler, Ben Roberts, and
Victim Empath
, Natassia Prushenko, is led down a twisting path of dark, painful secrets. Brandon Walsh, the handsome, smooth-talking
Chief of Arson Investigations
joins them in a manhunt that takes them across British Columbia―from Vancouver to Kelowna, Penticton and Victoria.

While impatiently sifting through the clues that were left behind, Jasi and her team realize that there is more to the third victim than meets the eye. Perhaps not all of the victims were
that
innocent. The hunt intensifies when they learn that someone they know is next on the arsonist's list.