Excerpt from “Port Spencer”

I fell, as I so often did, into the role of an observer. In those first moments, I was unable to do anything besides think purely of the wonder of it all. Its slick, rubber, skin was bone in color and wet from the water. Sand stuck to its body in the same way it would cover my legs after some time on the beach. The creature’s breaths, for it did breathe air, were strained and jagged like a whisper escaping a leaky ball. 

It must be a type of whale, one of the others said from somewhere along the perimeter of the laundry room.  

But look at its face, said someone else. They didn’t sound scared, no waver  to their voice, no fear. A simple observation. I watched as the others moved closer to its body that shivered on the white tile floor, the bright white bulb hanging above. I’ve never seen anything like it, he said in awe.