Chapters (46)
- Cover
- Other Titles
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Friday
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- Saturday
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- Sunday
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- Monday
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dear Mrs. Pelley,
My name is London Parker-Stewart, from Thunder Bay, Ontario, and for the tiniest millisecond of time in relation to the entire great history of our world, I dreamed I was in your shoes. Even though I’m sure your shoes, which are likely very expensive and hard to walk in, wouldn’t really fit me. I’m sorry. That was a bad metaphor.
Let me start again.
I drove to Duluth from Thunder Bay with my grandmother so I could meet up with your husband and help him with his mission to save the world’s sharks. Before I go any further, I just want you to know that while it might seem like I was more interested in the former than the latter, in all actuality the sharks are my main focus in life, and saving all animals in general. I believe that we as a society will ultimately be judged by how we treat those who are more helpless and voiceless than us, and that we have a responsibility to stand up for and protect those whose habitats and ways of life we have damaged with our own selfish ambition and consumerism and general antipathy towards our planet. But I’m sure I don’t have to explain this to you, Mrs. Pelley, as you are married to one of the most dedicated and respected champions of animals that the world has ever seen.
I am writing this letter in the cabin of your husband’s boat while my grandmother pilots. She also believes in the mission, and she believes in me. You may recognize my grandmother from the recent viral video of an old lady going over Kakabeka Falls in a whisky barrel. It has had over 10 million views on YouTube, and was featured on several news programs and talk shows, and was even the focus of a pretty lame skit on Saturday Night Live. I am telling you this because I want you to know that I come from a family of brave and relentless women, Mrs. Pelley, women who long to defy the odds, not only to dream impossible dreams but to turn around and make them possible. My grandmother has the magic heart of a dragon, and I can only hope that some of that has been passed down to me.
London puts down her pen and gazes out the cabin window. Outside in the cockpit, her grandmother stands at the wheel of the Rum Runner, her gaze fixed on some destination off in the distance. They have been taking turns watching for the shark, but London has a suspicion that her Nana is focused on something else, that she has set her own secret plan in motion. Or maybe London is just deluding herself. Her grandmother isn’t capable of making secret plans anymore.