Stonington CT

Dave rolled over and began to regain consciousness. Sleep had not come easy to him last night. The reality that he was soon going to be able to communicate with the whales was too exciting to allow him to quickly pass into the restful world of slumber. He remembered tossing and turning before sleep overcame his conscious being, but strangely he thought, he didn't dream about whales. No as he recalled, he dreamed about Claire. That confused him, but he erased it from his mind, he had important things to do.

He finally mustered enough strength to pull his still half asleep body out of his bunk, pick up his watch and focus in on the dial. "Wow, 8:30," he said to himself, "I guess I was really tired!" Rubbing his hands through his hair, he made his way over to the galley and put on a pot of water. Stumbling from the stove, Dave went into the bathroom to relieve himself. Standing in the small area, he looked at himself in the mirror and spoke out loud to his reflected image, "Well Mr. Richardson, it appears you may be on the verge of fulfilling your dream, whale communication is just around the corner." Pausing for a moment, he then added, "But how are you going to handle your new partner." He stood there staring at his image. It didn't answer his question.

Emerging from the bathroom, Dave walked over to the now boiling water on the stove. Taking two tea bags from the box, he placed them in his cup and carefully poured the boiling water over the bags. One spoonful of sugar was followed by a rapid up and down dunking of the tea bags. When satisfied that the brew was strong enough he flicked the bags into the sink, opened the icebox, retrieving a container of milk and an ice cube. Adding both to the cup, he thought to himself how his college roommates used to kid him and accuse him of being impatient because of his habit of adding ice to speed the cooling process of his tea. He couldn't remember when he started that habit, but it just made sense to him. After all the time you wait for the water to boil and the tea to seep, by the time it was naturally cool enough to drink, it could be time for a beer. A small grin appeared on his face as he amused himself with his own humor.

Sitting at the dinette table, he reflected on yesterday's events. Clearly he was now on the verge of a breakthrough. But the whole way home in the jeep he had wrestled with the notion that Claire thought she was going with him to test the system. For the entire two hour ride he debated with himself on how to try to tell her she wasn't going. He was a loner. He did his research in private. She would get seasick. There were no facilities on the boat for a woman. It might be dangerous; after all, sounds that he believed would be peaceful to a whale, might provoke an attack. He even resorted to the old mariner's superstition that women on a boat brought bad luck.

Well I might as well get this over with, he said to himself. Finishing his tea, Dave pulled on his jeans and a shirt. Walking up the companionway, he emerged into bright sunlight. The boatyard was already awake and active. Dave slowly walked over to the pay phone, organizing his thoughts as he went. I will just tell her she can't go, he said to himself, she just can't go. Pulling change out of his pocket, he carefully inserted it into the machine and dialed Claire's number. After two rings he heard Claire's distinctive hello. He responded, "Hi Claire, it’s me."

"Oh good," she exclaimed, "I've been waiting for your call. I checked with the school. We don't have the proper sound transducer, so I called a local distributor. They only had one in stock so I had it shipped to you at the boatyard,..... Fed Ex. You will have it by noon tomorrow. I also did some work after you left last night. I believe I can have all the programming changes done by Friday. Is that OK with you?"

Dave stuttered, his head was spinning, he wasn't prepared for all this progress at 9:00 in the morning.

Claire went on to explain how the computer and transducer had to be mounted, power requirements, etc.

After listening Dave thought for a moment then answered, "Well, yeah, that's great," he replied, "I guess I can complete the installation of the transducer on the boat within two days, and make some other minor changes to fit the computer equipment in the cabin. I figure the boat can be ready to leave next Sunday."

"Great, I'll arrange for leave from my summer projects at school and see you with all the equipment next Friday. Oh Dave", she exclaimed, "I'm really excited. I can't wait to see how it works."

He hesitated, then replied, "Yeah, me too."

Just then the operator broke in with, "That will be $1.25 for three more minutes."

"I have to go", he said "I don't have any more change."

"OK," Claire said, "call me Wednesday."

As Dave hung up the receiver he thought to himself, I sure handled that well. He then headed over to find Frank, the boatyard manager, to arrange to have the boat hauled out of the water so he could install the underwater transducer that Claire had ordered.

Walking towards the office he began to whistle. Maybe, just maybe, he really was pleased that she was coming along.

Dave had a lot to think about.