“And we won’t tell anyone your secret. It’s safe with us. I bet you a lot of merkids are frightened—more than you think,” Echo said reassuringly. “I still am, a little bit.”

Then Kiki heard Shelly speaking to the whale. And even though Kiki was terrified to the tip of her tail, she understood every word.

“Hello,” Shelly said. “We are excited to meet you. May we touch you?”

“It winked at us!” Echo said with a nervous giggle.

“It’s soooooo huge,” Kiki said quietly. It was true. The girls weren’t even as big as this whale’s flippers. “One smack of its tail and we’d go flying.”

“Don’t worry. He’s very gentle,” Shelly said. She reached out her hand toward the enormous whale.

“Don’t touch him!” Kiki yelled. But Shelly patted the whale and spoke to him again. The whale let out a sound like a moan.

“Really?” Shelly answered.

“What did he say?” Echo said. “Did Dr. Mousteau teach us those words?”

“He said, ‘It’s okay,’” Kiki explained.

“What’s okay?” Echo asked.

“This,” Shelly said. “Watch!”

Whale Ride

SHELLY!” KIKI SCREAMED. “GET down off that whale! You’ll get hurt!”

Shelly waved from the whale’s back, her long red hair swirling around her. “He said we could all ride him.”

“Wow! Come on, Kiki, let’s do it. Maybe we’ll see a boat or something human!” Echo said.

“We’ll fall off!” Kiki answered.

“No, we won’t,” Shelly said. “Kiki, Echo, meet Mortimer. He said we can hold on to his bumps.” Shelly pointed to three knobs on the back of the humpback’s head.

“Well, you can just tell Mortimer that you are not going to do any such thing,” Kiki said desperately. “Mrs. Karp will not allow it.”

Kiki, Shelly, and Echo quickly looked at Mrs. Karp, who was trying to keep Rocky from pulling another whale’s tail.

“She didn’t say we couldn’t ride a whale,” Shelly said.

Echo grinned as Mortimer let out another long moan.

Kiki folded her arms over her chest. “Mrs. Karp never told us not to ride a shark, either, but we’re smart enough not to try that.”

“This is different,” Shelly said. “Mortimer invited us.”

“I’m doing it,” Echo said, surprising both Shelly and Kiki. “I may never get another chance to do anything like this again.”

“No!” Kiki squealed. “Echo, you’re going to get up on that monster?”

“He’s not a monster,” Echo said. “Just because he’s big doesn’t mean he’s a monster.”

Kiki knew Echo was right. She didn’t like feeling this way. Maybe it was because she was so small herself. Or maybe it was the scary stories her brothers had told her about whales. For whatever reason, she couldn’t help being afraid.

“Come on,” Shelly begged. “He’s really nice. He wants you to come too.”

“Well, maybe,” Kiki muttered. Maybe if she held on to her lucky starfish, she could safely join Shelly and Echo. She went to open her purse to get her charm… but the purse wasn’t there! Her purse and her lucky starfish were gone!