Monologue
Jonah — Whale
Len Jenkin
Whale: The sea is black. Go down — no sunlight penetrates beyond twenty fathoms. Below two hundred fathoms, where I often hunt, the sea is endless night. You can’t even see your own flukes. Squids are fast and clever bastards. This giant specimen of Architeuthis lived in a cave along the sea bottom, near the Gilbert Islands. I hadn’t eaten for weeks, and I went deeper into the blackness than I ever had before. I heard a tentacle slipping out to feel around for food. I grabbed it in my jaws and hung on. It took hours to haul his entire wiggly body out of the cave, and then he tried to kill me. He wrapped his tentacles around me, tore at my skin and flesh. The great battle raged for three days in total darkness. In the end I bit his head in two. I ate his eye and beak first. He was tasty down to the gristle. I still have the scars.