Stingray City. Ellen Prager

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СКАЧАТЬ Coach Fred gave us plenty of these,” Hugh noted.

      “Yeah, and since we’ve been using the new ones, I think I can stay underwater longer,” Tristan added.

      “Me too,” agreed Sam.

      “Yeah, and my slime is better than ever,” Rosina noted, smiling sweetly at Tristan. He quickly looked away.

      One at a time, the teens slipped into the water at the top of the dark kelp forest exhibit. They switched on their headlamps and sank down along the huge viewing window. The campers each chose a spot, attached the suction cup handle to the window to hold on to, and began brushing. Almost immediately, Tristan felt something graze his leg. He looked down. A three-foot-long leopard shark with black spots on its smooth, light-brown body hovered just slightly to his left. Tristan heard a voice in his head: Yo, missed a spot over here.

      Yeah, yeah, that’s real funny, Tristan thought. He brushed off a layer of fine brown fuzz, which he assumed was algae. He worked his way over to the spot the leopard shark had pointed out. The animal aimed its snout at another section of the wall. Tristan decided it was going to be a long night.

      When he needed air, Tristan let go of the suction cup handle and swam to the surface. On his way back down, several other leopard sharks started to swim in tight circles around him. Tristan could hear them all talking at once. They were giving him directions on how best to clean off the algae, where to scrub, and commenting on how slow he was. It was going to be a very long night.

      Nearby, Hugh and Rosina were having their own problems. A small school of sardines circled Hugh, while a big orange rockfish was trying to lie down on his head. Hugh kept pushing the rockfish away and it kept coming back, ready for landing. Meanwhile, a monkey-faced eel was attempting to snuggle up next to Rosina—and anyone who knew Rosina knew she wasn’t exactly the snuggling type.

      After about an hour of cleaning and dealing with some seriously annoying leopard sharks, Tristan thought he heard music. He stopped brushing and listened. The other teens did the same. Then Tristan heard the tune more clearly. Dunt, dunt . . . dunt, dunt . . .

      It was the eerie theme to the movie Jaws. A little weirded out, Tristan swiveled around, trying to figure out where the music was coming from. When he happened to glance out the viewing window, he saw Pete laughing and motioning for them to quit working and swim to the surface.

      “Couldn’t resist,” the communications director said as they climbed out of the tank. “Piped in the music through an underwater hydrophone. That one always gets a good reaction.”

      “Dude, like, so funny,” Ryder said, trying to look cool, but clearly just as creeped out as the rest of them.

      Tristan and the others took off their wetsuits, rinsed, and dried off. They then followed Pete to the sea otter exhibit. They walked by the floor-to-ceiling windows and doorway that led outside to a small amphitheater, a shallow tide pool, and the adjacent waters of Monterey Bay. It was too dark to see the kelp beds in the nearby ocean or the yellow buoys marking the intake pipes for the water that circulated through the aquarium’s exhibits.

      “Hope there’s no rockfish on this next job,” Hugh said, rubbing his head as they walked. “Besides, my fingers are already all pruney.”

      Pete chuckled. “Sorry about that. But since you’re here for just a short time, we need to take advantage of your unusual skills.”

      “Cleaning windows?” Tristan asked sarcastically.

      They arrived at the sea otter exhibit. It was the most popular spot in the entire place, nearly always jam-packed with people. Young and old alike plastered their faces up against the viewing window or stood five people deep just to get a glimpse of the furry creatures.

      Tristan moved closer to the dimly lit exhibit. In the water were three otters floating on their backs. Each was about three feet long, with thick chocolate-brown fur; small, dark button eyes; tiny ears; and a furry face with long whiskers and a flat, brown nose. They reminded Tristan of cuddly, buoyant teddy bears.

      The sea otter tank was roughly semicircular in shape and fifteen feet deep, with a rocky back and bottom. There was also a platform at the back of the tank. Tristan moved closer to the dimly lit tank. Two otters appeared to be asleep with their front paws curled up on their chests. The other otter was grooming, using its paws to fluff up the fur on its face. Tristan had learned from the trainers that otters must continually groom their fur to keep it clean and full of air. Without the blubber of seals or whales, otters rely on a layer of air in their thick fur pelts to keep warm. Grooming is essential to their survival in the cold ocean—as is eating. To stay warm, sea otters consume huge amounts of food relative to their body size. One trainer told Tristan it was like him having to eat one hundred quarter-pounders a day. Tristan loved a good burger or two, but one hundred a day? That might be enough to make him swear off beef forever.

      One of the sleeping sea otters woke up and began paddling around the tank on its back. Kicking with one foot, it zoomed about incredibly fast. The otter bumped into the wall and then crashed into another otter, waking it up. All three began doing rolling somersaults and pedaling around on their backs.

      “They are too cute!” squealed Sam.

      Even Rosina was taken with the otters. “Just adorable.”

      The boys rolled their eyes as if the otters were nothing special, though silently, Tristan agreed with the girls.

      The senior trainer came out from a door next to the exhibit. “Ready to use those special powers I’ve heard about?”

      The teens nodded tentatively.

      “We’ve got a problem with one of the otters. See the smallest one in there? She’s the one with the cream-colored fur on her face. For some reason, that little otter likes to swallow air bubbles and, well, it gives her gas.”

      Ryder laughed. “You mean she’s got the farts?” The other teens snickered.

      “I know it seems funny,” said the trainer. “But it’s not healthy, and she’s having a hard time diving for food and getting rocks to smash open sea urchins. The purple sea urchins are her favorite.”

      “Uh, what do you want us to do?” Hugh asked.

      “Talk to her. Explain the problem. Tell her to stop swallowing bubbles. And we need her to take this.” The trainer showed them a small medicine box labeled Instant Gas Relief.

      More giggling ensued.

      “None of us have ever talked to an otter before,” Tristan said, trying to keep a straight face. “Not sure if we can.”

      “Well, could you at least try?” the trainer asked. “Just go in there and see what happens.”

      “Hope it doesn’t smell like sea urchin farts in there,” Ryder laughed.

      After several more fart jokes and a few fake burps from Ryder, the trainer decided he was not well suited for the job. The otters could be quite sensitive. It was a small enclosure, so only two of the teens could go in. Tristan and Sam were quick to volunteer.

      The two teens put on wetsuit overalls and entered the enclosure. Immediately, the curious otters turned to check out the strangers. The trainer had also given the teens a bin of enrichment feeding toys: rubber СКАЧАТЬ