Love, Lucas by Chantele Sedgwick Read Free Book Online

Jo has some aloe for later.
    The sky is still a little cloudy, but the water is calm and gorgeous as Jo sails us into the middle of nowhere. I admit I’m a little claustrophobic, or . . . I guess the opposite of claustrophobic, since I’m in a huge monster ocean with too much space. I pull out my cell, surprised to still have service, and look up the opposite of claustrophobic before I lose it. Agoraphobic pops up. Fear of open spaces? I think that works.
    In spite of feeling really small and vulnerable in the huge ocean, it really is beautiful out here. Tranquil, peaceful. I could get used to this, I think. After I get over the whole agoraphobia thing. I lean against the side of the boat as my hair blows in the wind. Waves splash against the side and I feel a few drops on my arm.
    “So, what kind of animals do you work with?” I ask Jo. I have to talk louder than normal since the boat engine is so loud. “You do work with animals, right?”
    Jo looks back at me, the wind flying through her mess of curls. “I work with all kinds of sea mammals.” She slows the boat down a little and looks back at me. “I work at the Save Sea Life rehabilitation center. We rescue injured and sick seals, sea lions, and cetaceans.”
    “Ceta-what?”
    She must see the confusion on my face because she smiles. “Whales, dolphins, and porpoises.”
    “Oh. I didn’t know they had a group name. For some reason I thought you swam with sharks and stuff. Or sat at a desk all day doing marine biology research.”
    She laughs. “Nope. Although, I’ve been swimming with sharks a few times.”
    “Was it scary?”
    “Not really. I stayed pretty close to the surface and was very careful.”
    I shiver. You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to do that. “So, what have you rescued lately?” I’m intrigued and impressed at how cool my aunt is for rescuing sea animals. Seriously. How many people can say that?
    “Well, we rescued a few sea lions this month. And a dolphin that managed to beach herself. Our most interesting rescue was a baby gray whale a few years ago. We named her Mae. We searched the ocean for her mom for a few days, but never found her. Took us forever to beach her so we could get her the help she needed. I grew really attached to her. We had to transfer her to a different facility because of her size, so that was a hard day, but for the best. She’s doing great now. We’ve seen her every year since we released her back into the ocean.”
    “Cool. Do you do anything else besides rescue?”
    “We help make sure the mammals out in the ocean are thriving. Keep them safe from . . . well . . . us. Humans are the ultimate predator as far as sea life is concerned. Litter, oil spills. It’s pretty bad.”
    I stare out into the water, thinking of all the problems the world has. The ocean, especially. I’ve seen some documentaries on oil spills and what it does to the animals who are unfortunate enough to get caught in them. Fish, whales, birds. It’s awful. And then those fishing nets that strangle dolphins and other sea creatures is sad to think of too. I’m so proud of Jo for saving animals like that.
    “Did you know blue whales are on the endangered species list?”
    I shake my head. “I don’t know a lot about them. All I know is that they’re really, really big.”
    “Largest mammal on Earth.” She looks around for a second and steers us to the right. We pass what looks like a tour boat full of people and she waves at the captain. She looks back at me. “People started hunting them in the 1800s, along with several other species, but the blue whales were the biggest prize, obviously. They’re fast and tough to catch, but whalers got the best of them. They killed hundreds of thousands of blue whales for over a century, until the International Whale Commission finally banned whalers from killing any more of them in 1966. But of course there were still poachers for a few years after that. Even after people stopped