Penny G. The Tween Marine Biologist by SAM Gordon

PENNY G. THE TWEEN MARINE BIOLOGIST By SAM Gordon

For Penny I <3 You Giant. SAM Gordon 2

Chapter 1 Ready To Go?

I couldn't believe I was stepping onto that boat. It was a research ship heading out to track and observe humpback whales on their migration from the mainland to Hawaii. And it was all for me. A freckle faced little twelve-year-old girl. I was given a staff of the most recognized and acclaimed marine biologists. All I brought was my backpack full of personal belongings, everything else we needed was already on the boat. I had just stepped both of my feet onto the boat when the captain of the ship yelled down to me, "Penny are we ready to go?"

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Hi, my name is Penny Gordon and I've got a pretty unique story that I want to share with you. I guess it all started right after I turned eleven. I started to have a hard time sleeping so my dad got me this cd of whale noises. They were really, really weird. If you don't believe me Google it. It kind of sounds like a heart broken moose, crossed with a helicopter, crossed with a trumpet. I am sure, like me, you are thinking that sounds like the worst possible noise to fall asleep to EVER!! I know right. But… it worked. It worked really well. For some reason those noises made me feel calm and safe and cozy. After a while, I started to have dreams about whales and I kind of started to understand what their noises meant, and then I started totally understanding the sounds that were on that cd. I decided that my imagination had just convinced me that I could understand the noises. That silly imagination of mine gets me into more trouble.

But the next day I Googled "whale sounds" and I started to listen to different recordings of whales and I swore that I could understand what they were saying. It may sound really exciting but they weren't exactly giving away the secrets of life. Whales seem to talk a lot about which direction to swim, why humans keep sticking microphones into the water near them, how they need to lose 100300 pounds before mating season, and other silly stuff like that. On one recording I heard a young calf fighting with his mom about swimming too far ahead of the pod. He explained that he wasn't a little baby anymore and she should worry about him so much. I thought it was kind of cool that even whales in the wide-open ocean still have to put up with their parents telling them what to do.

So after listening to about ten different recordings and understanding what they said I had to decide what to do with this new found talent. I knew if I told anyone they would think I was crazy. I mean how could I prove that I really have the power to understand what whales are saying. So I convinced myself once again that it was probably all made up in my mind. I had an extremely active imagination. Sometimes I like to go to the world inside of my mind and explore what is in there. When I am inside my own mind I have amazing adventures, meet really interesting people, and have ridiculous amounts of fun. But the problem is, sometimes I can't remember if my memories are for real, or if they are from my adventures in my head. My usual test is to ask my sister Quincy. Quincy is my big sister and she is pretty awesome. We have a lot of fun hanging out with each Â

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other but neither of us will ever admit it because that wouldn't be very "cool". If I tell Quincy about a memory I have and she gives me the "why does my little sister have to be so weird" face then I know that it just happened in my mind. If it were a real memory Quincy usually tries to correct it and retell it from here point of view. So usually I can use her as my craziness tester. But this one was too crazy to test. I mean who wouldn't give a "why do you have to be so weird" look to someone who just claimed that they can understand whale language. I know I would.

I had to quit listening to the whale sounds to go to sleep, it was like listening to two people have the same conversation about where to eat every night. So I decided to try listening to a soundtrack of manatee. It worked perfect. I fell asleep quickly for a couple nights, and then… I started to understand their conversations too. Now I knew that I was going crazy. I thought maybe the whale thing was a fluke (get it… "a fluke", like the tail of a whale, … well I guess you had to be there). But now I was understanding manatee too. The manatee's talked sooo slow. I would get impatient waiting for them to finish their words. Listening to manatee talk was a test of my patience. I was frustrated because I had nobody that I could share my frustration with.

The next morning at breakfast I decided to test the water a little bit and said to my family, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could understand what whales are saying." My dad said that would be cool then they 6

could tell us all about why they love swimming so much. Quincy just said, "You know what would be cool for us to be able to understand?" Everyone at the table knew the answer but I was obligate to say, "What?" "Your Face!!! boom that just happened," Quincy said. The whole “Your Face” thing was a family joke that had gotten annoying, then funny again, and then back to annoying. None of us knew if was going to come back to funny again or if had found a permanent home in the town of Annoyanceville. "Well I think it would be really cool if we could understand animals. That way we could know how to take care of them better," I said. My Step-Mom Smiley (we called her that because she was always smiling) said, "Penny that is very sweet of you. You have a really kind heart." Then Quincy said, "You know who else has a really kind heart…"

Chapter 2 Ocean World

Early in that summer we went to Ocean World. I had been to Ocean World before and my favorite thing about Ocean World was the Orca Show. If my family stayed long enough I would watch it three times in one visit. As soon as my family got to the park I went and checked the times. I was bummed because we had just missed the first show of the day. One of the trainers was leaving the Orca Stadium when he saw me looking at the show times. He said, "I wouldn't count on that next show, Luna is not in a very good mood." Luna was my favorite orca. She was the oldest of the three orcas at Ocean World. There was Luna, a young female named SuSea (that is what you get when you let the public vote online for the orca's name) and the male Drew. Usually only one of them would perform per show. That is why I liked watching all three shows so I could see each one perform.

We had some time to kill until the next show so we all decided to go to the jellyfish room. It was also one of my other favorite spots. It was a really dark room at the center of the aquarium building and one complete wall was just pink jellyfish floating up and down. It was soothing and people always whispered when they were in that room. I don't think there was a rule against talking loudly, it just seemed to have a calming effect on everyone. I could have stayed there all day, but my little sister Elle wanted to go see the penguins. She is obsessed with penguins. She loves penguins, dreams about penguins, draws penguins, and writes stories about penguins flying to the moon. I kind of like penguins too. I like to watch them swim underwater. I used to wish I could swim like them, but then I would Â

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have to walk with a funny waddle, so I guess I am good with the legs I got. My dad had to drag Elle out of the penguin building because we had to make it over to the Orca Show to make sure we got good seats. We got there just as they were undoing the chain and letting people into the stadium. I raced to the front row in the splash zone, my dad and Smiley sat a couple rows behind us with my littlest sister Amelie. She was sure if she liked the idea of being splashed by a giant black and white dolphin sounded fun, so she decided that Daddy's lap was a safe place to watch the show.

We had to sit for another 15 minutes before the show started. I couldn't see them but I could hear the trainers and the orcas behind the stage. It didn't sound to promising. I heard a lot of splashing and the trainers saying "No Luna, No!" several times. After a while, the music came over the speakers and the trainer walked out onto the stage. She announced that she 'thinks' we are going to have a show but Luna is in a bad mood so they may have to cancel. She explained that at Ocean World they never force animals to perform. Just then Luna swam into the stadium pool. Usually the orcas swim in super fast and jump right in front of the splash zone, but Luna just kind of floated in with barely a ripple of water. She swam over to where the trainer was and rested her giant head on the side of the pool. The trainer made a motion with her arms and blew into a whistle. But Luna didn't move. The trainer did it again, still no movement from Luna, but she did make a noise. I was startled. I looked around at all the people in the stadium. There were at least 1,000 people watching 10 Â Â

and waiting for Luna to do something. Then Luna made the noise again, and I understood her. But what was I going to do. The trainer tried blowing her whistle again, still nothing. I still don't know where the courage came from but I stood up and shouted, "She doesn't like the ball trick, it is too far from the cameras. She likes the hoop trick better because she likes to see herself on the jumbo TV."

My courage was met with laughter. If you haven't had 1,000 people laugh at you before then you have no idea how small it makes you feel. The trainer chuckled to herself and asked me, "Just how do you know that young lady?" So I shyly replied, "Because I can understand what she is saying." Again the entire stadium laughed at me. Quincy and Elle's faces had turned bright red and they started to scoot away from me, trying to hide that they were related to the crazy little girl in the front row. "Well then, I guess we better do what you say," the trainer said sarcastically. Then the trainer made the motion and blew the whistle for the hoop trick, and Luna took off. I had never seen her swim so fast. She started to circle the pool like a race car on an oval track while the trainer made her way out onto a stage that hung over the water. The trainer held out a large hoop and Luna soared into the air and went right through the hoop. I think I saw Luna take a look at the jumbo TV on the stage just as she was about to go back into the water. The splash from her jump totally drenched the splash zone and went all the way up to the row where the rest of my family was sitting. It was awesome. Luna was fine the rest of the show untilâ&#x20AC;Ś the trainer tried to get her to do the ball trick again. She got the same Â

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response from Luna, nothing. The trainer smiled at me and winked and said, “I think that little girl might be on to something.” The audience laughed again. I decided to not let it bother me because I knew what the truth was and I wasn't going to let anyone make me feel bad about my special gift. Luna swam back to her holding tank and the show ended with a standing ovation for the trainer but more importantly for Luna.

My sisters and I walked up to where the rest of the family was sitting. We were all dripping wet. My Dad asked me, "How did you know she didn't like the ball trick, did you notice last time we were here?" I explained to my Dad that I could understand what whales, dolphins and manatee were saying. Quincy and Elle laughed at me, Smiley smiled, and Amelie asked, "How do you do it Penny?" I just shrugged my shoulders, it was a gift, and no one knows where gifts come from. Just then the trainer from the show walked up behind us. She introduced herself, "Hello, I'm Carol Shielding the head orca trainer her at Ocean World. How did you know Luna didn't want to do the ball trick?" I had wondered what it would be like to let other people know my secret and now I was finding out and I said, "I can understand their noises and what they mean. I can understand orca." Carol Shielding smiled in disbelief and looked at Smiley and my Dad for some validation. They both just shrugged their shoulders because they didn't understand it either. Carol said, "So you are telling me that you understand the noises and language that these orcas speak?" I nodded yes and explained "Well, not every noise is a word, just like 12

us, they make laughing sounds, crying sounds, they growl when they are frustrated or angry, you know stuff like that." The trainer went on to explain that if it was true I would be the first person in the world to ever be able to understand orcas. She said some people have spent their entire life studying those sounds and they had never found any consistency or proof that the sounds meant anything at all. I didn't know what else to say, I didn't know how to explain how I did it, I just could.

Carol asked my Dad if it would be ok for us to all go back to the holding tanks so I could show her how I understand what they are saying. My Dad was curious too, so he agreed. First she took me to Luna's tank. Luna looked up at me and made some noises and clicks. Everyone looked at me waiting to hear what she had said. I was embarrassed to tell them at first because it kind of sounded like I was bragging. I told them that she thanked me for explaining to Carol that she didn't want to do that dumb ball trick. Quincy was quick to let her pessimism show. "No way, you just made that up," Quincy said. Next we went to SuSea's tank, and SuSea made some different clicking noises and low groans. Then I explained to Carol that SuSea told me to be careful if Carol makes food for me because she always tries to hide medicine in it. Carol laughed, because it was true but she still didn't believe that I was really understanding them. Then we got to Drew's tank and we heard SuSea making a bunch of noise and then Drew replied back. I told everyone that SuSea had said, "I think this little person understands us." And then Drew said, "Don't be Â

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ridiculous people can't understand orca." Quincy did a little dance and said "See there, even the orca's don't believe you can understand them." By the time she got to the end of her sentence Quincy realized the flaw in her celebration. If I could understand that Drew had said that humans can't understand orca then I did understand orca to hear him say it.

Then Drew started making a bunch of noises they were loud and fast. After he stopped I told everyone that he had said, "Hey little person, if you can understand me ask Carol if I am ever going to get to see my brother again. We were separated after we were both caught by a fishing boat. I miss him." I watched the disbelief fall out of Carol's face. She explained that there was no way I could have known that history. Drew's origin was kept secret so that fishermen wouldn't know where young orca calves are born. Some fishermen would catch the baby orcas and sell them on the black market. As Carol explained to us the secret the disbelief fell away from everyone else. Well, there you go. That is how the world came to learn that I could understand whales, dolphins, and manatee.

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Chapter 3 Catch

Carol the Orca Trainer was truly excited that I was able to understand the orcas. But she was kind of sad about Drew and his depression about missing his brother. She asked me if I could ask Drew if there was anything we could do to make him happier. I had to explain to Carol that I understood the orcas but I wasn't capable of making the noises that they made. I couldn't speak orca, I just could listen and understand them. Elle and Amelie both started trying to make orca sounds but they sounded more like a fire truck at the front of a parade. I was sad for Drew too, I asked Carol if they knew where his brother was. Carol walked us back to her office to see if she could find any paper work on Drew that might have some clues about where his brother was sent. After she found a couple found documents and my Dad searching the internet on his phone we discovered that his brother was at a marine park in Argentina. My Dad explained to me that was pretty far away from California.

Carol asked me if I could come back and visit with her and the orcas so I could tell her what they needed and wanted. So she gave my whole family a season pass to Ocean World and we I went almost everyday. It was fun getting to know Luna, SuSea, and Drew better. SuSea was a prankster, Luna was a bit of a diva, and Drew loved to do athletic tricks that showed off his strength. Once the orcas figured out that I understood them they talked and talked and talked and talked. Even when I couldn't make it to Ocean World Carol would send me recordings that she made and I would email back to her what the orcas had said. It was fun, and awesome. Carol had me and 16 Â Â

my family come down to her office one afternoon. Once we all got there she invited my whole family to join her in Mexico for the International Marine Mammal Conference. She showed us the brochure of the hotel we would be staying at. It was right on the beach. It looked amazing. Carol was excited to announce to the whole marine mammal community that I was able to understand the orcas. Carol had put together a fancy presentation showing how she had used what she had learned to improve the orcas environment, schedule, and health. When she told us about presenting at the conference she said that Ocean World was paying for all eight of us to go. I did some quick math and realized that there were six of us in my family and only one of her. That just made seven. Smiley asked who the other ticket was for. Carol said, "For my son Abe."

Just as she spoke his name this scrawny little guy came into her office, threw his backpack onto the floor and said, "Hi Mom, bye Mom." Abe never looked up to notice the room was full of six other people, he just walked straight to a door at the back of Carolʼs office. As he opened a door I got a quick look inside. There were parts of computers and gadgets and gizmos everywhere. And just like that the door closed again. "He's a real people person," Carol said. We all had a little chuckle. We only had two weeks to get ready for the conference so I was spending a lot of time with the orcas. Carol really loved her orcas and was using everything they had shared with me to make Ocean World the best possible place for them. One day I noticed Carol's son Abe sitting out in the Orca Stadium all by himself.

I guess I starred too long because we made direct eye contact. I didn't know what to do so I just waved, he shyly waved back. I asked, "Are you excited to go to Mexico?" Abe just shrugged his shoulders. So I asked, "Have you ever been to one of these conference before?" Abe nodded his head yes. So I asked, "Are they any fun?" Abe just shrugged his shoulders. Then I asked, "Why are you sitting out here all alone?" Abe once again just shrugged his shoulders. At that point, I gave up on Abe.

The trip down to Mexico was exciting, we flew in a plane with a orca painted on it. Wow perfect was that? At the airport the conference had prepared special transportation for us, I guess we were kind of a big deal. For thousands of years we have wanted to communicate with animals and for some odd reason I ended up being the first one to do it. Once we actually got to the hotel where the conference was I started to get nervous. There were hundreds of people checking in. I was worried about having to go up on the stage in front of them all. But I knew that Carol would be with me and she would do most of the talking.

I knew that we were at the conference to present our research and my gift, but I had another goal. It was a crazy goal, probably an impossible goal. But when you one-day wake up with the gift to understand sea mammals you start to believe the impossible might be possible after all. My goal was to catch the trainer from the marine park in Argentina. I kind of knew what he looked like from his profile 18 Â Â

on the marine park's website. I also knew his name was Jesus Fernandez. I saw the check-in lines were split into alphabetical groupings. There was A-D then E-G and so on. I hung out around the E-G line hoping to catch Mr. Fernandez. Smiley wanted to get all of our bags up to the room and then go find something to eat but I was stalling and looking around the crowd. Smiley asked me, "Penny what are you doing?" I said, "I'm looking for Jesus." We both started laughing really hard. It was that kind of laugh that is so big it hurts, but in a good way. Just then I spotted him. The guy from the marine park profile. I walked right over to him and said, "Excuse me, are you Jesus Fernandez?" He nodded yes. I said, "I am Penny Gordon and I want to talk to you about one of your orcas. I have reason to believe he is the brother of one of my friends." Jesus knelt down to be just as tall as me. He kindly patted me on my head and said, "I so hope what you say is true, I would love to learn more about my dear Antonio's orca family. Perhaps we could talk more over dinner. I come to this hotel all the time and I know a nice little cafe down the street." Smiley quickly chimed in, "If you know where some good food is we are happy to talk about whatever you want."

We dropped off our bags in our rooms and met up with Carol and Abe and the rest of my family and went down to cafe. It was really good food, and a really great conversation. Carol and Jesus discovered that they had several friends in common and my talent to understand the orcas fascinated him. Jesus insisted that I come to visit him and Antonio, Drew's brother, after the conference. But my Dad thought Â

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that would be a little too much time away from home. We did confirm that Antonio and Drew were indeed brothers and the wheels were set in motion to have them meet somewhere, somehow.

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Chapter 4 And Release

The next couple days were a blur. All the science journals wanted to interview me, the trainers wanted to ask me how they can do a better job with their animals. I felt really important, but kind of overwhelmed. That is probably why my Dad made me have "mandatory kid time". Most of that time was spent at the hotel pool. My sisters and I would go down the water slides, invent games, and have my Dad throw us as far as he could in the pool. We all loved the hotel, but I don't think Abe liked it that much. I think he missed his gadget workshop. One day out of nowhere Abe came and sat down next to me at breakfast. He said, "You don't know how to talk to the orcas, but you can understand them right?" I said, "Yes, that is how it works." Then he said, "Would you like to be able to talk to them too?" I said, "Of course, it is very frustrating to have one sided conversations all the time." Then Abe said, "Cool." The next ten minutes we sat in awkward silence, until he got up and went back to his hotel room. Abe was weird, but that cute kind of weird. It is the kind of thing that not everyone would find cute but I guess I did. He was different and so was I. He had his computers and I had my orcas.

Carol and I gave our presentation, and it went great. We received a standing ovation that lasted for three full minutes. We were called, “The greatest breakthrough in animal science in the last one hundred years.” I felt special, I felt proud. Immediately after we finished our presentation Carol got a call from one of the other trainers at Ocean World. Drew had jumped out of his holding tank up onto the trainerʼs platform. They thought he was trying to get into SuSea's tank but he 22

didn't quite make it. It took four trainers to push him back into his tank. Carol was explaining the situation to me and I told her to ask for them to put Drew on the phone. I could hear him making urgent and serious noises. Carol asked me, "Well what is he saying?" I explained that Drew said he wanted to go back to the sea, he wanted to be back with his brother. My heart broke for him. He hadn't asked to be a performing orca. He was separated from his mom and brother at a very young age, he just wanted to be back in his natural habitat. SuSea and Luna were both born in captivity. Ocean World was the only home they had ever known and they loved it. They were fed, taken care of, and they got to perform for the applause of the crowd. But Drew was different. Ocean World wasn't his real home. Carol could tell by the look in my eyes that I wanted to help Drew get back to the ocean. She nodded her head in agreement and we went to find Jesus.

Jesus liked the idea but was concerned about Antonio and Drew having the survival instincts they would need out in the ocean. They had been living very sheltered lives. Carol agreed and told me that maybe them being free would be more cruel than where they are now. Jesus said, "It would be different if you could talk to them, then we could teach them what they need to know." We all looked at each other with frustration and helplessness. Just then Abe showed up and said, "You can talk to them." I explained again to Abe that I can understand them but I am not capable of making the noises that they make. Abe said, "I know, I know. But what we can do is take what Â

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they say and create a database that matches the sounds with the words. So we record them saying the word 'fish' then whenever we need to say 'fish' to them you just type it in and it plays back their own voice saying 'fish'." It was genius. I gave Abe a giant hug and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Abe turned bright red, his embarrassment made me suddenly feel embarrassed too. Jesus said, "Get back to California and build that database with every word you can think of, and send it down to me. Then I can also train Antonio and we will have them ready for the wild in no time."

So that is exactly what we did. Abe and I spent hours building the database. He would record the sounds and I would tell them what they meant and he would add them to the list of words. The more I hung out with Abe the more I realized that he was a pretty cool kid. He had a really dry sense of humor. He didn't talk much, but when he did he always said something interesting. We must have split one hundred and twelve pizzas on the side of the orca tanks in that first couple of weeks. Abe became a really good friend. Someone I could count on looking out for me. When you have a gift like the one I have there are plenty of people that try to take advantage of you, but Abe always had my back.

After about a month of intense training for the wild Drew and Antonio were almost ready for their reunion. The last piece of the puzzle for both of them was catching live food. At the marine parks they were fed already dead fish that were literally dropped into their mouths. It 24 Â Â

was a totally different skill to chase your food and capture it. It was funny to watch Drew the first couple times. He said some pretty bad things. He even added a few swear words to the database, but eventually he got the hang of it. Then the day came for us to move Drew to the ocean. We had a truck designed just to move him the 38 miles to the coast. Carol and I rode in the back with him. I had a translator box that Abe had made for me that I could just speak into and it would translate what I said into orca language. It was tuned just to my voice. The whole ride I kept reassuring Drew that it was going to be all good. We successfully got Drew off the truck and into the water. It was so exciting to see Drew swim and Jump in the great wide open ocean. He looked so happy. The next part of the journey Carol took a boat and traveled with Drew down to Mexico to meet up with Antonio and Jesus.

I so wanted to go on that boat trip but I needed to spend more time with my family. My schedule was getting a little crazy. Caretakers of marine mammals everywhere were sending me recordings to translate for them. My Dad said I needed to spend a little bit more sister time with the family before school started back up. Carol was kind enough to make a recording of Drew and Antonio's reunion. Carol said once they got to within three miles of each other she could start to hear them chatter to each other. Then when they were within one mile Drew swam faster than she had ever seen. When they finally met together they rolled over each other like little puppies fighting over and old shoe. Carol said in an email she sent with the Â

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video, "It was a beautiful moment. A magical moment. And it is a moment that couldn't have happened without Penny Gordon."

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Chapter 5 Just This One Time

It had been a very strange and busy summer. After we helped Drew find his brother and a new life in the open seas, things kind of settled down. I still did a lot of translating from recordings that trainers from all over the world sent me, but I also had time to go to the pool and hang out with friends. My parents decided that there would be no more traveling until winter break. They were a little worn out from chasing me all over too. I still went down to Ocean World a couple times a week to visit Luna and SuSea, and… Abe. I was actually kind of getting mad at Abe. He was soooo cute, and sooo nice, and helpful, and smart, and funny and … Well you get the point. I liked Abe. I mean "like" liked him. I hadn't ever felt this way before and it was kind of weirding me out. I was so careful to keep it cool around Abe, I didn't want him to find out about my crush, at least not until I was sure he had a crush on me.

One evening I was coming back from the pool and I saw my Dad getting some luggage out of the closet. I asked him, "I thought you said we weren't taking any more trips." Dad looked a little flustered and explained, "Well the scientists working on this study were very, very persuasive. They wanted your help so much they offered to let us all go on the trip with you.” I didn't know if I was excited or exhausted. I asked, "Where are we going?" Dad bent down to talk to me at eye level, "Just this one time. Just this one time we are going to bend the no traveling rule because we are going to Hawaii.” My Dad and I giggled with joy. Then we broke into a spontaneous hula dance.

We flew out to Hawaii the next day and the scientists met us at the airport. They showed us the shipʼs workers loading the ship and explained the issue they were studying with the humpback whales. They had been tracking their migration patterns and noticed that each year the whales were going further and further away from the islands. They had tested everything they could think to test and still hadn't found a reason for the change in their migration. So they set up this special expedition for me to go have a listen to the whales. The scientists encouraged me to go get a good nights sleep because the research ship would be leaving early in the morning.

It is a good thing I went to bed early because it took me forever to fall asleep. I had never communicated with animals in the wild before. Eventually I did fall asleep, but the next thing I knew my Dad was yelling at me to get up and get ready because we were already late. The hotel shuttle took us down to the docks. I couldn't believe I was stepping onto that boat. It was a research ship heading out to track and observe humpback whales on their migration from the mainland to Hawaii. And it was all for me. A freckle faced little twelve-year-old girl. I was given a staff of some of the most recognized and acclaimed marine biologists. All I brought was my backpack full of personal belonging, everything else we needed was already on the boat. I had just stepped both of my feet onto the boat when the captain of the ship yelled down to me, "Penny are we ready to go?" I nodded yes and we pulled away from the island.

The group of scientists had done everything they could to make me feel at home on the boat. My family had a whole floor to ourselves. They had filled the rooms with with toy whales, and whale sheets, and whale pillows. There was no forgetting what we were there for. After a couple hours we arrived at the spot where there was a report of humpback whales made by a freighter ship. One of the scientist dropped a listening device over the side of the boat. They gave me a set of headphones so I could listen to what the whales were saying. I heard a little something but it was very quiet and very far away. I asked the captain if we could get closer to the where the sound was coming from. The Captain said, "It is your boat sweetheart, we are all hear to give you whatever you need." I responded, "Really if I asked for a bowl of butter noodles they would just appear." The Captain had a good laugh with me. Others thought he was a little on the grumpy side, and he did have a grumpy side, but if you could get him to turn and show his sweet side he was a pleasure to be around. As we approached the source of the sound I started to pick up some words from the whales.

"I'm telling you we should be more towards the big rock," one of them said. "No way! This is the exact route we took last year and we saved at least two days. If we don't get there before your mother I will never hear the end of it." As I told the scientist what the whales were saying their jaws collectively fell to the floor. They had spent thousands of dollars researching why their migration path changed. They tested the water for pollution. They did a study on if it might have been the 30 Â Â

streetlights along the coast, or freighter ships, or subtle changes in the magnetic field of earth. They had flown my entire family out and rented this ridiculous beautiful and well-equipped research boat. But it was just a whale wanting to get to their nesting home before his mother-in-law. Slowly the scientists began to laugh at the randomness of it all. I think in a way it was comforting to know that we aren't the only species that has issues with traveling. Just then the captain walked up to me with a bowl of butter noodles, and we all laughed a little harder.

We went ahead and followed behind the whales for a couple days. I worked hard at translating what they said to each other. There were nine humpback whales in their pod. We learned that they don't like rainy days, they love rainbows and most nights they like to slow down and look up at the stars and imagine how different life is on other planets. We were trying our best not to disturb them and we kept what we thought was a safe distance, but then they started to talk about us. One of them said, "They are so obviously following us. And they keep sticking the black box (the listening device) down under the boat." I giggled it was kind of silly for us to think that they wouldn't notice us. Sometimes I would take a break and go talk to the Captain. I told him all about the different devices Abe had made for me. The Captain said, "I think this Abe kid sounds like an alright guy." I agreed. "Maybe you should go try talking to them there humpback whales then. Ask them if they like it when I play music out on the deck?" I had never used the speaking device that Abe had made me Â

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on a wild animal. I didn't know if it would work or not. I decided to give it a try and the scientist excitedly help me set up a speaker underwater so I could give it a go.

"Hello, nice humpback whales. My name is Penny and I am on this boat that has been following you," I said. Then we all waited for a response, and waited and waited. Smiley said, "Well ask them a question or something." So I said, "Do you like it when the captain plays music loudly on the deck?" Then again, we waited. But this time we all heard a noise coming over the speakers. "They said they LOVE it, they want you to turn on some right now," I shouted up to the captain and he obliged. When he turned the music on the whales came closer and closer to our boat until they were only feet away. I had a long conversation with the matriarch of the family. I explained how I found out I could speak to marine animals and she thought my story was really amazing. I told her how the scientists on the ship were really worried about them and their change in migration routes. She laughed and said that people worry too much. I had to agree because just then my Dad came out with a jacket for me and told me I could only talk to the nice whales for ten more minutes. You can't get much whale talk in during just ten minutes, it goooooeeeessss pretttttttyyyy slllllloooooowwwwww.

We had finished our research and said our goodbyes to the nice humpback family. The Captain reminded my parents that our flight back home wasn't for two more days, and we still had the boat rented 32 Â Â

out. So we spent the next two days traveling around to all the beautiful islands of Hawaii. We surfed, snorkeled, and sunbathed. It was the perfect trip to break our no-traveling rule for, but just this one time.

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Chapter 6 We'll Be Right Back

News of the research we did in Hawaii made international news. The entire world found it amusing that whales bicker about directions just like people do. I guess I was also part of the coolness of the story, but I felt weird for taking credit for it. It wasnʼt like I had to work hard to get my ability to talk to sea mammals, it just sort of happened. And there was no way for me to communicate back to them until Abe came along with his invention. So really I was the one who should have been receiving the least attention.

There were all kinds of shows calling to have me on as a guest. The Today Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, even Saturday Night Live. I loved SNL and I wanted to do that one so bad. I begged and begged my parents. I asked them, “When will I ever have a chance to be on SNL again.” They agreed it was a very unique opportunity, so they decided that I could go do SNL and then weʼll come right back home. It was just going to be a weekend trip.

I couldnʼt wait to tell Abe. We would always talk about our favorite sketches from SNL the night before on Sundays. Abe had an awesome sense of humor. Sometimes his favorite sketches werenʼt my favorites until I would watch him reenact the scene. He could have totally grown up to be a comedian. Abe and I were getting closer and closer. We had seen each other everyday since I got back from Hawaii. After getting done working with the orcas sometimes Abe and I would go walk around Ocean World. Abe knew where all the cool stuff was since he was practically raised there. My favorite thing to do

was ride the ferris wheel in the middle of the park. When you were at the very top you could see all the different animal stadiums and shows, you could see the rollercoasters, you could even see the orcas swimming in their holding tank. One day we decided we were going to ride both of the rollercoasters ten times each. After the fourth round I started to rethink our goal. But Abe kept encouraging me. After seven rounds I had enough and sat down on a bench. Then it happened. Abe grabbed my hand and pulled me up off the bench, but after I was standing he didnʼt immediately let go of my hand. It felt electric and amazing and special. I kept pretending like I didnʼt want to go so he would keep holding my hand to pull me along. Eventually he let go and I realized he wasnʼt feeling the same magical feeling that I was. And I was too embarrassed to tell him how special it was to me.

But I wasnʼt too embarrassed to tell him about my trip to New York to be on SNL. I ran to the orca stadium and found him in his back room working on a new electronic contraption. I immediately told him, “I have some really exciting news.” He said, “Me too.” “You go first,” we both said at the same time. We laughed and he told me his news. He had entered all of the words I had translated for the orcas into a orca voice recognition system. We went out to the orca tanks so he could demonstrate it. He typed “Hello, SuSea, How are you today?” onto the keypad. The speaker he dropped into the tank played the message for SuSea.” Then SuSea made some clicking sounds with a loud whistle. Abeʼs translator showed on the screen what SuSea had 36

said, “Iʼm sleepy but I am hungry too. I am trying to decide if I want a nap or a snack.” Abeʼs translator worked perfectly. I told Abe how awesome and smart he was. He explained that he was making one for whales, and dolphins, and manatee. He said he was excited about it because I wouldnʼt have to travel as much to do translations and we could hang out more.

That kind of put a bucket of water on my news but I had to tell him anyway, “I am flying to New York to be on SNL this weekend.” He smiled and said, “Wow that is great.” I was expecting a bigger response from Abe. It was a big deal but all I got was, “Wow that is great.” Abe was acting kind of weird. He was so happy when he was showing me his new translator but now he seemed sad. I couldnʼt figure it out. Then I saw something hanging out of his back pocket. I recognized it from the flyers that were all around the park. Ocean World was having a fundraising dance this weekend. Was Abe going to ask me to be his date? Was I over thinking why he would have that flyer in his pocket? I wanted to know, I had to know. That is when my mouth took over and said, “Abe, you have invented machines that can translate orcaʼs speech, but can you invent a machine that can translate how my heart feels about you? If you could it would say, I think youʼre awesome. It would say, my favorite place to be is wherever you are. It would say, youʼre an amazing friend and the funniest person I know. It would say, you get me and that is hard for some other people to do. It would say, I want to be your girlfriend but I donʼt know how to ask.”

I was going to have to have a talk with my mouth about that outburst later, but for now I was trying to figure out how Abe was going to respond. I was getting worried because he wasnʼt saying anything, he just started typing on the translator. When he hit enter on the translator I heard the question that he asked SuSea. He asked, “SuSea, tell Penny what I was telling you last night.” Then SuSea replied, “Penny last night Abe and I talked for a long time about how special he thinks you are. He likes your jokes and your smile and the way that you are really brave. He wanted to ask you to the fundraising dance but he didnʼt think he would have the courage to do it.”

I had never been so happy and so bummed at the exact same time. I was so happy because Abe liked me too. But I was bummed because I wasnʼt going to be able to go to the dance with him and be on SNL. It was Abeʼs turn to read my reaction. He was happy to see me smiling but then he saw me frown. Before I had a chance to say anything he said, “I would have loved to go to the dance with you. I would have been the proudest person in the whole place. But… You have to go be on SNL. But I do have one condition.” I wasnʼt shocked that Abe was so understanding, he always was. “What is your condition?” I said. “You have to agree to be my girlfriend,” Abe said with a confidence I had never heard from him before. I shrieked out, “Yes!” and gave Abe a giant hug. It felt amazing and right. The weight of my crush had been lifted and the joy of having the best boyfriend in the world made me feel like I was floating on air. I told him I had to go pack for New York with my family, but weʼll be right back. 38

SNL was everything I hoped it would be. They created a skit for me where I was a whale who had discovered that she could understand people. The entire cast was in silly whale costumes, it was perfect. I even got to keep my costume and they made one for all of my sisters too. It was easy for all of us to know what to be for Halloween that year.

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Chapter 7 The First Date?

When I got back from New York I was dying to go see Abe but he was busy volunteering at a film festival. Abe loved technology but his second love was making movies. He always had his laptop, camera, and recording device with him everywhere he went. He told me how he volunteered at the film festival every year. He would put up posters, help sell tickets, even clean the theatres between showings.

The only communication we had since we had become Girl Friend/Boy Friend was a text he sent me after he saw me on SNL that said, “U R AWSUM! <3” I giggled to myself and blushed. We were still on the set of SNL when I got the text and Quincy and Elle read the message over my shoulder and started singing, “Abe and Penny sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G..” I didnʼt care at all I was too happy that he had sent me a less than 3.

I sent him a text asking him where he was and he texted back that he was going to busy all day but he could come by my house in the evening and we could walk to the film festival together. I sent him another text saying “Cool : )” I thought to myself, did I just asked out on a date? No, we had made plans like this all the time before, but now that he was my boyfriend it was a little different. That afternoon I was busy working on some walrus recordings some one had sent me to translate and the time flew by. I didnʼt even notice it was evening until I heard Abe ring the doorbell.

I swung open the door and realized this was definitely a date. Abe had on some nice pants a colored shirt and a purple tie. I was not dressed to be walking next to a kid with a tie on. I was flustered and said “Iʼll be right back.” And I ran upstairs to change. I had bought a new dress to wear for the presentation at the Marine Mammals Convention and it just happened to have some purple in it to match his tie. I checked myself in the mirror and casually walked back down stairs. Abe smiled at me as I came down the stairs. His smile made me feel good about being me. Even before we were dating he had a way of making me proud to be Penny. I said, “Letʼs Go.” and we walked the couple blocks down to the festival. We held hands the whole time and I felt so special.

As we got closer to the main theatre I noticed there was a lot more press at the event this year. All the local TV stations were there but there were also some national stations like CNN and Fox News. I thought it was strange but didnʼt really think anything of it until I looked up at the marque on the main theatre. It said, “Penny G. The Tween Marine Biologist, A Documentary”. Then I noticed there was a literal Red Carpet leading up to the doors. I asked Abe, “Who made this?” He said, “I did.” I asked him “What is in it?” Abe said, “Youʼll see.” He explained how he got permission from my parents to make a documentary about my recent adventures, they had even given him footage that they had from the times the Abe wasnʼt around.

Abe escorted me down the red carpet. There were people taking pictures, shouting questions, even wanting my autograph. It was nuts. I saw my whole family waiting for me at the door. Even Quincy had on a pretty dress, although I could tell by her face that she wasnʼt loving it, or maybe her face was about me getting all the attention, either way I was happy Quincy didnʼt get changed by all the weird stuff happening to me. We all walked in and had a seat in the theatre. I had never been so nervous to see a movie in my entire life.

It started with video from that very first time I told Carol the Orca Trainer that Luna didnʼt want to do the ball trick. Then it gave a little bit of my family background and talked about how my dad gave me the whale noise cd to go to sleep to. Then it showed our trip to Mexico, the releasing of Drew and his brother, me and Abe working on the sound database. It included the those photos that they take in the middle of the ride from our roller coaster challenge. It had some footage of Abe building and explaining his translator machines. It even had my SNL skit at the end (that must have been a last minute addition). But the best part of the whole movie was Abeʼs narration of my experience. He talked about how I was so brave, and smart, and kind, and willing to help the scientific community even though I was just a twelve-year-old little girl. It was perfect.

After the movie ended the audience gave it a standing ovation. Abe certainly had talent as a moviemaker as well as a gadget maker as well as a comedian. We spent the rest of the night giving interviews to

the press but I insisted that we do all of the interviews together. It was more fun to go through that process with someone I liked and someone who clearly had my back. It was an amazing night but Iʼm still not for sure it was a date. Was his tie for the movie premier or me?

Chapter 8 Baby Sister Say What?

After the documentary was picked up for a national release I knew that my life would never be “normal” again. I was blessed to have a gift that I also loved to use. Even though Abeʼs latest translator machine enabled other to have conversations with their animals it only worked for words that were in the database. I was constantly getting emails of new sounds that I hadnʼt translated yet to add to the database.

Over the next couple months I found that my talent did have limitations. For some reason I could only understand almost all of the marine mammals. For some reason I had no idea what sea otters and platypus were saying. I tried but I got nothing. My talent also didnʼt transfer to other mammals, or fish, or birds. My sister Elle was hoping and praying that somehow my talent would work for penguins because like marine mammals they evolved back into the water. But no luck for Elle and her passion for penguins. Ironically my skill didnʼt transfer over to other human languages either. I had to study my butt off just to get a B- in Spanish for the first semester.

Things with Abe were going great. The local university actually hired us both to continue building translator devices and adding more words to the database. It was something that Abe and I liked to do anyway, so getting paid for it was just bonus. I did feel a lot of pressure on me from the science community to do non-stop translations. They didnʼt know if there would ever be another person like me to do this work. But Abe always was there to remind me that I 46

am just a freckle faced little girl who needs time to do little girl things. The Jr. High had a dance in the fall and Abe asked me to go to it like a whole month in advance so I wouldnʼt schedule anything else and miss it. The dance was fun but a little awkward, Abe made me feel like I was the most special girl in the whole gym. Some of the kids at my school didnʼt like all the attention I got. Maybe they were jealous or maybe they just hadnʼt found their talent yet. But Abe was always the first one to stick up for me if there was any trouble. Abe always called me brave, but he was the one that always was there to protect me and make me feel safe.

With my secret talent being revealed and my work primarily with captive orcas, some of the scientific community thought it was bad for me to waste my time with captive animals. They said my focus should be on wild animals. There were all kinds of stories written and news analyst debated it on TV. So I decided that I should be part of the conversation too. Ellen had kept reaching out for me to come be on the show. I thought it would be the perfect place to share my ideas about “captive” animals. Ellen was so excited, because in Finding Nemo her character believed that she could speak whale. When I was on the show she asked me question in a funny slow voice. I told her that I know English at regular speed if that worked for her. She asked me what I thought about captive animals and I told her and all the people watching on TV that there are all kinds of personalities in animals just like there is in us. Some animals have personalities that they want to be alone most of the time. Some animals like to be in big

packs. Some are shy, some are very curious and silly. I said that the orcas that I work with the most, SuSea and Luna love being where they are. They are fed, they are safe, they are given medicine and most importantly they are given an audience. I explained that being in a Animal Show was like being on TV. Some of them thought that was really cool. I explained that now that I could communicate with the orcas we made several changes to their holding tanks and daily schedule to make it more fun for them. I also admitted that there are some animals that do not like the spotlight. I said nobody or animal should ever be forced to do something that they donʼt want to do. That is why the work I am doing is important. Pretty soon we will have the technology to put out a casting call in the wild ocean for any orcas that want to come and be performers at marine parks. We will also be able to ask all of the captive animals if they would rather be free in the wild. If they choose to be wild then we should give the training and skills to be successful. The audience applauded and I felt like I had done my job as the animals advocates. I had let the world know that animals are people too.

The next day my family came with me to visit Luna and SuSea. Abe teased me about my Ellen appearance, he said I got all preachy on them. I told him, “I did not”. Quincy said, “You know what else got all preachy?” We all in unison said, “Your Face.” Even Luna and SuSea knew that joke was coming.

Then I heard SuSea say, “I thought you did a great job Penny.”

Then Amelie said, “Me too.”

I said, “Thanks Amelie.” Then I paused and thought about it for a second. There wasnʼt any translator turned on at that time. Then I said, “Baby sister say what???”

Amelie said, “SuSea said you did a good job and I agreed with her.”

I was shocked and surprised and other words that mean shocked and surprised, I asked Amelie “Baby sister are you telling me that you can understand what SuSea said like I can.”

Amelie shrugged her shoulders and said, “I guess so, can we go get some funnel cake?”

The End…

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