Chapter 32
BECAUSE OF HIS SIZE, GRAY COULD NO LONGER use the crack in
the hull of the tri-level landshark wreck to get inside, so his friends widened
a back entrance that was rotting away.
"Don't take this question as an insult," Barkley said after they were
inside, "but how much more do you think you're going to grow?"
"And less fatty fish taste almost as good as the, umm, fatty ones," Mari
added.
"Not really," Shell said.
"Yeah, about that," Gray began. "I don't know how much bigger I'll
get, because I'm not a reef shark."
"What do you mean?" asked Striiker. "You said you were."
"Because that's what I thought. I'm actually…I might be…wow, this
sounds crazy—"
Barkley slapped him on the flank with his tail. "Spit it out!"
"I'm a megalodon."
There was silence. They all just stared at him. "Velenka took me into
the prehistore cave, where there was this skeleton…. My teeth matched…
and, uh, I actually kinda look like it."
"That's so cool!" said Snork. "I thought all megalodons were extinct,
though."
"They are extinct!" said Striiker. "But I've been to that cave, and I gotta
say there is a resemblance. Gray is definitely as ugly as that thing." The
great white gave him a good-natured smile. "Maybe even uglier!"
Mari swam close, looking into his mouth. "Open," she instructed, and
he did. Pretty soon everyone was crowding around for a better look.
"Wider!" Now Gray couldn't close his mouth because Mari's snout was
actually in there.
"His teeth do match. They're smaller, but they're the same curved
shape," the thresher told everyone. "I love the prehistore cave. I've been in
there twenty times."
"By the way, you have a bluefin head stuck in your back row," Snork
told him.
"Even if him being a megalodon is true," Shell began, "how can it be
true?"
"Umm, hahh-loww?" Gray said as best he could while the others held a
conversation practically inside of his mouth. "Could ya pluhs back
awahhhh?" They did, and he closed his mouth. "Private space, anyone?"
Barkley was the only one who hadn't said anything. Gray could see the
look on his face. He got that expression when he was thinking hard about
something. Then the dogfish nodded to himself and broke his silence. "This
makes sense. It really does."
"Please, enlighten us," Striiker said sarcastically.
"Velenka knew it. Knew it right away, somehow," Barkley explained.
"She wanted Gray all along. She pulled the strings to get Goblin to find the
reef, to make sure we were homeless, everything."
"So Velenka's smart," the sawfish said, "but in a really bad way."
"That's exactly right, Snork. And Gray," the dogfish said evenly, "I
don't think she's done with you."
"Neither is Goblin," Striiker added quietly.
"Then I'll leave. It'll be safer for all of you."
"No, Gray," Mari said. "Striiker means Goblin isn't done with any of
us. Neither is Razor, for that matter." Gray looked over at the great white,
and he nodded, agreeing with the thresher.
"Another one of your jelly-brained ideas," Barkley said with a chuckle.
"But we have a better plan."
Striiker moved to the front of the pack. "You should lead us."
"No," Gray said. "This is your shiver. I couldn't."
"You can and you will. What you did at the Tuna Run showed me how
much I have to learn about being a real leader."
Gray looked at Barkley, Mari, Shell, and Snork. They were all in on it.
Gray was touched. He'd told them he was a megalodon and they didn't
think he was a monster. They still wanted him as their friend. And they
trusted him to lead them.
"Would you be my first?" Gray asked the great white. Striiker grinned.
"Can you two fight or yell at each other now?" Barkley asked. "I liked
it better when you were fighting." This brought out a round of good-natured
laughter—something they all needed.
Rogue Shiver was reborn! There were many problems, to be sure, but
for some reason Gray felt hopeful.
"Group rub!" Snork shouted. Soon they were all yelling, laughing, and
scraping against each other. It was a great ending to an absolutely terrifying
day. But not perfect. On the way back from the Tuna Run, Barkley and
Gray had talked. Neither had seen any sign of his mother or anyone else
from Coral Shiver.
Or Indi Shiver, which also bothered Gray for some nagging reason. And
what was Onyx's connection to a shiver from another ocean? That was a
question to be answered later. For now they could take comfort in the fact
that Coral Shiver was alive. They were out there somewhere. Gray would
never stop searching until he found them. Barkley and the rest of his new
friends would help. All in all, it was the best Gray could hope for right now.
Tomorrow was another day to find the answers he was looking for. And his
mom.
No one noticed Takiza smile and swim away from the greenie-covered
porthole.