As the sun rose in the distance, I tried mustering some positive thoughts to fight this intense terror that had kept me awake throughout the night. How exactly does a 200-pound tortoise swim? It’s a scientific fact that we can’t. Pinta Island isn’t exactly a tourist hotspot like many other islands in the Galapagos region, so a random boat ride was unlikely. The sun continued to rise in the sky, filling me with warmth for the mission ahead. I knew that I needed to eat as much as I could before I left and warm my cold-blooded body as much as possible before climbing into the frigid Pacific waters. I had seen the black spiny marine iguanas do this many times before, but they had a tail for swimming and a more streamlined body than this old tortoise. I couldn’t likely walk along the bottom of the ocean back to the research station.
I decided that my best course of action would be to head southeast to the coast and see what I might be able to figure out along the way. Looking to the east where the sun was rising I headed due south. I knew that would be the best place for me to ‘swim’ to the next small island of Marchena. I knew that Marchena was southeast from Pinta and that the Charles Darwin Research Station was due south from there. My thinking, depending on how things went, was to try to take a straight shot to Santa Cruz Island, but I could always head toward another island if I stayed toward the center of the Galapagos island cluster. I had no intention or desire to float out to sea. I mean I was already going to hold the world record for the longest tortoise swim, but I didn’t need to overdo it.
I started my slow and steady descent toward the southern shore. I could be there in a few hours. As I walked under some dried plants, I looked for something that could help me float. The shrubs I found were mostly thin, cracked sticks that had no chance of supporting my girth. I saw many larger prickly pear cacti, but I had no idea if they floated. I knew I’d only get one shot on this trip. Maybe I could walk down to the shore and stay there for a few days. I didn’t know whether it was better to risk a trip now and possibly sabotage the whole mission, or stay here on Pinta Island and do my best to direct the others.
While I trudged southward I figured I’d check in with Stella who was just getting ready for her long 20 day swim to meet me at Pinta Island. She was back in good spirits.
“Thanks for the pep talk last night George. I’ve decided that I am going to go where no Steller's sea cow has gone before…to the Open Ocean!” Stella exclaimed.
“Well have fun with that. I guess that I’ll be seeing you on day 23 then. Maybe you can even set a Steller sea cow speed swim record. Do you think you can hit 11mph?”
“I’ll see what I can do George. No promises though. I don’t want to pull a muscle. I’m not a dolphin,” she said.
“Do you have any pointers for a beginning swimmer? Maybe something your mommy taught you?” I joked.
I knew it was a rhetorical question, but it livened both of our spirits. I told her to be careful and that I’d check-in at the end of each day before going to sleep to see where she was. I didn’t tell her my thoughts about waiting for her to arrive to carry me across the ocean. I didn’t want to dissuade her from what she was doing. Astuto’s words about not telling everyone everything came to mind, and I was beginning to see what he meant.
I quickly checked in with the Southern Triad, and they were still attempting to get to their rendezvous point. It seemed like things were coming together very smoothly for them. Stephen had found a bottle half-buried outside the lighthouse, and Moana didn’t have much to say, as usual. Benjamin was still on the boat, full of unshakable confidence. If all went well they might be here as early as day 27. It almost seemed too easy; five of us making it to Pinta Island within 27 days.
After talking with Eldey and Astuto, I decided to get in touch with the last two members of the mission who I had not yet spoken with, “Martha and Boomer, can you hear me?” I said sounding like a scientist on his radio back at the research station. “I was wondering how the first three days have been for you two.”
To my surprise, I could hear them and see them. I knew that if I asked, I could speak with more than one creature simultaneously, but I didn’t know that I could actually see them. In my mind, I could see each of them from the other creature’s eyes. It seemed perfectly natural, but it was an eerily strange feeling at the same time. Maybe this is how that chameleon thing felt seeing the world.
“We’re here George. We say we’re here because we’ve been together since the first day. Our old ranges overlapped quite a bit more than we remembered. It’s nice to be back here again and see so many people. You see George we sometimes have trouble sitting still for a long time, and we get kind of restless,” Martha said rapidly unloading her thoughts of the past few days.
“Really, Martha? You are having trouble sitting still? I just can’t imagine that” I laughed. Boomer echoed my laughter.
“Oh George, you are such a joker. That’s one of the things we love about you. We can’t deny the facts. We definitely have a little trouble focusing and staying still, but we don’t think that will be an issue. You see George, we’re passenger pigeons and the cities are full of pigeons. Sure we look a little different, but people haven’t seemed to notice me or care that we have a slightly different colored body than the pigeons around me. As female passenger pigeons, we’re also a little more ‘blendable’ than if we had chosen our flashier orange and blue male counterparts.” Martha rambled.
Martha’s pluralistic talking made communicating confusing, so I was glad I could see she was actually with someone else while rambling on and on about we this and we that. I had a theory that I wanted to test for my sanity. I asked her to fly away from Boomer just for fun so that I could see exactly where she was. As she flew up into the air, I could see Martha taking flight from Boomer’s perspective on the ground while simultaneously seeing the world below the flying passenger pigeon.
In the distance was what appeared to be New York City, whose skyline I had seen on tourists’ shirts over the years at the CDRS. I asked her to fly toward the city, but once she left Boomer’s visual range my ability to see through their eyes faded; leaving me only with the ability to hear each of them. I asked Martha to fly back to Boomer, and after a few moments, my vision grew less and less hazy until I could see both birds clearly.
I decided not to let them know about this shortcoming in my communication, but I carried on with the conversation about how they were doing.
“How is everyone else doing? How’s Eldey and Astuto and Stella…” Martha began.
Trying not to appear rude I cut Martha off, “Everyone is on the move now. Things are going well. Eldey says he expects the Northern Triad to be here by day 20 of the mission. You might be the first to meet me on Pinta Island.”
Realizing that Martha could talk to me for the entire 37 days left in our mission, I decided to redirect my questions toward the heath hen, “Boomer, how have you and Martha been doing with your part of the journey so far? I was just wondering how you were feeling about the next leg of your mission? Any idea of how you might cross 2,500 miles of land to reach the Pacific Ocean?” I asked trying to get him involved in this so far one-sided conversation with Martha.
“I’m doing fine with things so far. I know that we will have Eldey with us which is very reassuring. He is the main reason that I signed on for this mission. As I said back in the Garden, I believe that the people can change and they did try their best to protect us heath hens long ago. I want to make sure that I repay their attempted kindness and set things right. Plus I can’t wait for them to see some new dance moves I’ve put together since I last danced in my lekking grounds in Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve had eighty years to work on these new moves, you know.” Boomer said bending over and inflating his orange neck pouches while doing some kind of backflip.
“Yeah, I’ve been working on my dance moves too; all three days I’ve been extinct. I was going to do a head bob to the left, another to the right, and then spin a full circle in under two minutes. What do you think?” I asked.
Being fast-moving birds, Boomer and Martha laughed at this thought.
“I realize that Martha can search around and be the eyes for our team since Eldey can’t fly, and I can only fly a short distance. I will have to stay out of sight and save my passion for dancing until our big moment with you on Pinta Island. As far as how we’ll travel, I haven’t given that much thought. Eldey is the thinker of the group, so I’ll just relax and listen to his advice,” Boomer stated rather humbly.
“George, do you know when Eldey will make it to us?” Martha asked excitedly.
I told them that Eldey had hoped to join them near the mouth of the Hudson River sometime today. They were both elated about this and asked me if I could talk to him to find out his location. That seemed like a very good suggestion, especially since I had now ventured down to the beach of Pinta Island and wanted any reason to stall what needed to take place for me.
“Eldey can you hear me? I’m talking with Boomer and Martha, and we were all wondering how close you were to the Hudson River?” I asked with expectancy.
“Hello, George. I figured that I would be hearing from you soon. I should be arriving near where the rest of my triad is in about three hours. The swimming has gone rather smoothly. It is the long walk ahead of us that will be more of a challenge. Martha and Boomer, I would like you to make your way toward the Hudson River to meet me. Martha, you can probably fly a little more freely than Boomer and me. For one; I can’t fly at all, and Boomer and I don’t blend in well with the current animal population,” Eldey explained.
“Oh Eldey, we can’t wait to see you. We’re on our way right now to find you. Boomer can hide somewhere close by and we’ll keep an aerial lookout for you. How has your trip been? We can’t wait to talk to you about it. Tell us. Tell us,” Martha said excitedly.
“How about we do this Martha? I will tell you all about the past three days over the next 27 days while we’re traveling. Right now I’m eager to get back to swimming so that I can be with you and Boomer,” the great auk said panting slightly from apparently swimming all morning.
I told them that I was going to go try to figure out my long distance trip. I ended the conversation, and everyone was upbeat and sounded confident which added to my confidence.
Then I looked out at the ocean. It was a long way to Santa Cruz Island, and I couldn’t muster up the courage to start swimming yet. I placed one toe in the cool water and a shiver ran up my spine; partly from the temperature and partly because this water might be the undoing of my species. It could be the second time I went extinct in three days. How many other creatures could say that?
Comments
Post a Comment