Snow Whale

Snow Whale



A seeker of eternal life, Snow Whale was forever improving her health. She gathered rare herbs and roots from all around the world and using ancient wise texts as her guide, Snow Whale made potent, youth enhancing medicines and skin-plumping lotions.

Her fitness regime would have exhausted most soldiers. She started each day with a gut scouring breakfast at dawn. The ten kilometre run, through gnarled forest and up craggy mountain tracks, was completed by six thirty. Thirty minutes on a trampoline under the tall cedars invigorated her and swimming twice across the cold lake brought a tingle to her lithe limbs.

There were no chairs in Snow Whale's home. To sit was to miss an opportunity to stand. The rest of the morning was spent sweeping her floors and polishing her walls. The afternoon started with a meal of leafy vegetables and fruit followed by a business-like walk to the settlement. Here she traded lotions and essences for minerals, textiles, ceramics and periodicals. Snow Whale loved to do crosswords and this she justified by honouring the improvement to her mind the puzzles brought about. A healthy mind ensured a healthy body. Her greatest pride was that at her advanced age, she still had the body and mental agility of a much younger woman.

One evening, while rolling out her futon, Snow Whale was disturbed by the call of an unfamiliar voice. She was accostomed to the sounds of the forest and any irregularity immediately alerted her. Her head jerked up and her eyes darted left and right. She was like a quivering antelope, smelling cat.

"Snow Whale, are you there?" the voice called again. There appeared at the door a child. "I have come to ask for shelter and to become an acolyte," he said, in serious tone, using the language politely used to address elders. Snow Whale unfurled her body to full height. She turned her back on her visitor and stepped gracefully to the stove.

"I can give you stream grass and apple juice, but you cannot stay here." she replied in her bell-like dialect. The child bowed his head. He was silent for some time.

"I have brought you a challenging puzzle. Would you like it?" he said, suddenly offering a dirty paper with dusty hand.

"Where are you from?" she asked
.
"A sage beyond Settlement Seven sent me. He told me that you had asked for me." The boy appeared to be embarrassed. Had his tone been too casual?

"I ask none for anything. What's your name?" She snapped,

"Comfrey."

This was an auspicious name. Only the previous night she had dreamt of a stream edged by thickly foliated hairy plants with nodding pink and white flowers. It was a plant well-known for its healing powers. It was the herb, Comfrey.

"Come in. Give it to me." She used the language used to address slaves and although she had never kept a slave it felt comfortable to use the simple syllables to this boy. He seemed to relax and his tawny legs sprung into the house with elegant alacrity. Snow Whale took the scrap of paper and studied it. It was old and worn and something had been written on the back. She read quickly, "Teach him all you know and he will use it wisely." The puzzle read "The old woman was all wrong about how it happened. (2,3,4,5,2,6) " Her face prickled with resentment. She slipped the paper into her belt and handed Comfrey a beaker of juice. "Drink."

At first Snow Whale did not really notice the boy. He was silent, unless spoken to, agile and had the shimmering quality of a well-trained slave. Comfrey watched Snow Whale and seemed never to forget anything. From time to time Snow Whale would draw out the fragment of paper and stare at it. Her fingers twitched as she tried out words, her lips trembled and she'd push it back into the folds of her tunic. It was clearly a very important message.

"The sage who sent you here, how did you know him?" she asked Comfrey one day.

"He cured me of an illness." Snow Whale shuddered. The very mention of illness made her bones itch. Never once had she been ill. Was this boy ill regularly?

A few evenings later Comfrey was standing in the clearing to the rear of the house. He seemed to be playing some sort of game. He stretched out his hand. The lump at his elbow charmed Snow Whale as she watched him. A butterfly lit on his outstretched palm and drank from a pool of apple juice he had there. Comfrey did not know he was being watched. He smiled and drew his palm closer. He studied the insect; inspected the tiny cells of the wings.

"What are you doing?" asked Snow Whale.

"I'm learning"

"What use is a butterfly to you?"

"It is beautiful and although it is so delicate and it will be dead next year, it has touched me and I shall be alive with it inside me."

That evening Snow Whale rolled out her futon and became aware that Comfrey was doing likewise in his corner of the room. He was carefully mimicking her movements. She stopped and looked at him.

"Why do you copy me?"

"I like the way you do it, you are beautiful and you will be with me for the rest of my life."

"Do you know the meaning of the puzzle, Comfrey?" Snow Whale used the language reserved for a child by its mother.

"No "

That night Snow Whale dreamt of streams, butterflies, hairy plants and jumbled symbols. the words of the puzzle arranged themselves before her ,"The old woman was all wrong about how it happened" the letters danced and swirled and then fell into another arrangement, "TO MAD SNOW WHALE about how it happened".

She sat up, awake. The moon gleamed through the window. Comfrey slept. He was so exquisitely young and healthy, a talented healer. She could see that now as the moon stroked his tanned cheek.

She drew the paper from her belt and read the writing on the reverse side. It was the true message, "Teach him all you know and he will use it wisely." Her obsession had been the search for eternal youth. Her method was insane. No physical body can live for ever.

Comfrey gave the butterfly meaningful life by seeing it. To remain in perpetuity, she needed to touch the next generation. The child provided her immortality by learning from her. She survived in his memory and actions. Like a leaf on a stream, she would journey onwards, there to be seen by all who watched him.

Snow Whale looked down at her hands. There were white spots on the once caramel-smooth skin. Her back ached. She lay down and went to sleep.