But at the last possible moment before I thought she would crash into me, the whale shark sank just low enough to not touch me at all, though her dorsal fins almost brushed up against the belly of my wetsuit. If I’d wanted to, I could have reached down and petted her spotted back when the dive master wasn’t looking, but I was too terrified to do anything but float, lifting my belly and curving my back as far up as it would let me as I tried to get out of the shark’s way.
