Jay hits the whale how he wants, left fin on the lower slope of the nose, right fin on the knobby tip of the lower jaw. But the sperm’s head is harder than Monastery Beach rock. Jay’s fins are EVA plastic and the left one snaps in half, the blade pinwheeling into blackness. Could have been Jay’s foot—his toes, white tapioca beads, are exposed. A rod of pain drills through his left leg, heel to hip, a highway pileup of leg bones. His bare foot slips off the icy nose, souring Jay’s balance so that his right heel goes between the whale’s front teeth and he slides feetfirst into its mouth on two
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