Dismissing a display devoted to vanishing ocean wildlife as needlessly depressing, her next stop was devoted to the Outer Bays. This, she quickly saw, was essentially an enormous fish tank, stretching floor to ceiling and extending from one side of the cavernous room to the other. Behind the glass, a variety of sea life swam past: huge yellowfin tuna, sleek and sharp-eyed barracuda, a pair of sea turtles.

The star of the attraction, however, proved to be a juvenile great white shark, which she learned by reading a sign placed nearby had been successfully kept at the aquarium for some months after being accidentally caught in a fisherman’s net. Because the tank and its inhabitants were so large, it was difficult to tell where the shark was. However, the unmistakable gasps of the crowd alerted Caddie to its presence.

The shark, seemingly unaffected by its celebrity, passed by several feet above the heads of its audience. It was perhaps four feet long, a perfect miniature of what Caddie imagined a great white to be. Its black eye revealed nothing of its thoughts as it moved, its tail curving in a gentle S and its mouth open wide enough to show the teeth of nightmares. The other fish, when it approached, either swam away or formed tight clusters with their like kind.

“Apparently it took a bite out of one of the tuna last week,” a woman said to her companion.

“I think he’s cute,” said a child beside her, and the woman laughed.

“Sharks aren’t cute, honey. They eat people.”

Caddie, seeing the look of consternation on the child’s face, said, “I think he’s cute too.”

The child grinned as her mother, glancing quickly at Caddie, tried to push her way closer to the tank. Keep fighting, kid, Caddie thought.

The shark having gone, she lost interest in trying to differentiate one type of tuna from another. To her they were all big silver fish, more interesting as sushi than as living things. She hoped the little great white ate a few more of them, wished even more that she could see it do so. That would be something, she thought, imagining the carnage.

She decided to explore the other wing of the aquarium, reached by crossing a narrow walkway that passed over the heads of entering visitors. Reaching the far end, she saw below her another huge tank. Unlike the other one, however, this one was filled with rocks and plants in addition to fish. Also, there was color. Instead of the monotonous variations of silver, these fish were alive with yellows and reds. The rocks, too, were pretty in purple and brown, much more interesting than the endless blue of the open ocean.