gasp from the growing crowd of teachers on the beach.
“Dad!” Clay said. “You’ll scare the whale.”
Kent Buckley glanced at Clay before turning back to Tina with a lower, even more threatening tone. “You can’t divorce me.”
That’s when Babette stepped up next to Tina. “Sure she can.”
And then I stepped up, too. “She absolutely can.”
Alice stepped up after that, and then Coach Gordo, and then, one by one, the rest of the teachers. A silent army of support.
And the last person to step up—and wasn’t it just like him to appear just as soon as I’d stopped looking—was Duncan.
That’s when Kent Buckley decided he was outnumbered and stepped closer to grab Tina’s hand and pull her away from the group. In response, Clay ran up to break his grip and push him back—though Clay was hardly strong enough to do it.
Kent Buckley shoved his son out of the way, and Clay hit the sand.
In a flash, Duncan was between them. “Hey,” he said to Kent Buckley. “Take it easy.”
“Back off, pal,” Kent Buckley said. “This is not about you.”
“Why don’t you take a walk—and a few minutes to calm down?”
“I don’t need to calm down!” Kent Buckley shouted.
He was definitely upsetting the whale. The crowd hummed a little louder.
“Kent!” Tina said. “Just go home.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Kent shouted.
“Okay, buddy,” Duncan said, stepping closer. “That’s enough.” And Duncan was putting his arm around him, presumably to lead him to the seawall steps for a little distance, when Kent Buckley turned around and slugged him right in the gut.
I was standing a few feet away when it happened, just one in the still-humming crowd that had shifted its attention from the whale to the real-time divorce happening before our eyes.
As soon as Kent Buckley’s fist connected, Duncan doubled over and hit the sand.
All questions—of whether Duncan had freaked out over my seizures, or whether he had let me down, or whether or not we were even still friends—disappeared. I ran to him without thinking, without deciding to, just as two of the cops from the harmony section grabbed Kent Buckley and cuffed him.
Something Kent Buckley didn’t take too kindly to.
“What are you doing?” he bellowed.
“That’s assault, pal,” one of the officers said. “We’re taking you to the station.”
And with remarkable efficiency, they maneuvered Kent Buckley to the seawall steps and up to the squad car. Tina watched them go, not protesting, as they pushed him into the backseat and then drove away—no siren.
I don’t want to say it wasn’t big news for Max’s daughter to demand a divorce from the chairman of the school’s board, and then for that chairman to punch the principal before getting hauled off to the slammer. On any other day, it would have been the biggest news we could imagine.
But today, it barely registered. Before he was even off the beach, we’d turned our attention back to the majestic creature in peril before our eyes. We had work to do. A rescue attempt to complete. And let’s not forget Christmas carols to sing. Everyone turned back to the whale—all except me, and Chuck Norris, who was now on Duncan’s other side, licking him.
Duncan was still panting and coughing.
“Did he get your scar tissue?” I asked.
Duncan gave a wry head shake. “It hurts like hell … but I’m fine. He’s stronger than he looks, though.”
“Can you get up, do you think?”
“Only if I have to.”
I helped him to his feet, and he tried to look into my eyes, but I turned away. I stepped closer to the water, as if to say that the whale needed all my attention. Which felt, actually, kind of true.
The rescuers were still in the water, still working on the last section of net.
The water levels were lower with each roll of waves.
The sun was rising, and we were running out of time.
I watched Duncan move past us all, out toward the rescuers, and pull out a utility knife of his own to get to work, helping.
I told myself to stay focused. That my personal heartbreak could wait.
It was not looking good for the whale. And I didn’t even realize I was crying until Alice showed up beside me and put her arm around my shoulder.
There wasn’t anything left I could think of to do, so I prayed.
I’m not even a praying person, but I prayed for the whale. I stood right there, ankle-deep in the waves, and I just prayed like hell for something good to come out of this