Blackberries and Whales? (Part II)

Now we’ll get to do some whale-watching! What a thrill!

Ruthie took her turn with the binoculars. “I see something but it’s hard to make out.” She passed Rich our pair because Cec was using theirs. “You look, brother-dear.”            

Suddenly bouncing around, he yelled, “Yeah, I see them! Those are adults with their young ones! There, I see one rolling over!”

Born and raised here, Cec knew about the ocean and what swam through it. Lowering the glasses, she snickered to Ruthie, “I think our whale boys are hallucinating!”

Rich and I drew a crowd with our carrying on. Using their own field glasses, they too started hollering; “They’re right! I see them!”--”Yeah, there’s at least a dozen of them!”--“Wow, one came way up out of the water!” (Every word of this is true).

Eyes now used to the distance, I saw more clearly and lo, those whales were beginning to look suspiciously like low-lying rocks with waves breaking over them and shooting spray in the air.

The light also dawning on Rich, he muttered, “Hmm, on second thought…”

Meantime assuming we two clowns knew what we were talking about, everyone else was gathered around us.

I whispered, “Rich, we better sneak out of here.”

He whispered back, “And quick! They come to their senses, they’ll toss us in!”

The following week we were at Seattle’s airport and waiting to be checked through the security gate. We’d had a great time, especially the three days spent gobbling blackberries. Ruthie and Cecelia had made scrumptious cobblers and pies, we had heaped the lovely things on cereal and ice cream, and between meals we had scooped them from serving bowls to munch as is. By all rights we should have been heartily sick of them by now.

But no, as we stood in line for the security check, I carried a large storage box crammed full of them to keep enjoying once home. The box being transparent, I figured the NSA guard would see just berries inside and no problem.

When I stepped up to her, she was amiable at first. “Sorry, but I need to look inside that box before you bring it aboard.”

She didn’t sound all that serious. It having somehow slipped my mind that NSA people are never anything but with carry-on parcels, I kidded her by pulling it closer. “Nope, can’t have them-they’re mine! Ha-ha!”

Now feeding me a cold stare, she went curt. “What’s inside that’s so important?”

I thought-Me and my big stupid mouth! Now I’ve done it!

Having a lot more sense, Ruthie smiled, “We’ll be glad to open it if you want. They’re wild blackberries we’re hoping to take home to Wisconsin. During our visits here we go totally crazy over them!”

The guard broke into a wide smile. “I’m nuts for them too! I’ve lived here forever and still can’t eat enough of them! Don’t you have blackberries in Wisconsin?”

Laughing, Ruthie shook her head. “Not like these we don’t! Your wild ones are the biggest and tastiest we’ve ever had. We couldn’t resist bringing some home.”

Now all grins our new-found pal patted the box and jerked her thumb toward our gate. “Go on through, Wisconsin, you’re cleared!”