Big Miracle by Tom Rose

idea. “Let’s do some interviews,” he suggested. “We can edit them to go with the pictures of the whales for local TV. Which one of you guys wants to be interviewed?” Caudle inquired of his captive audience. Since the film would be shown on the local channel, Oran had to get some local flavor. That meant Billy or his assistant Marie.
    Of the six people now on the ice, Marie seemed best suited to conduct the interviews. She was director of public information for the North Slope Borough. She was also Geoff Carroll’s wife. In spite of her title, she didn’t agree at first; Oran had to coax her. Geoff and Craig pretended to be completely absorbed in their various tasks. They were collecting lots of new data they would need to analyze, but they were also camera shy.
    Oran assured Marie she looked great. Besides, if she didn’t, who would ever know? After more playful prodding, she agreed to question her husband and then Craig. Oran thrust the microphone into her hand and pushed the Record button. “Go ahead,” he said with one eye squinted shut and the other buried in the viewfinder. “Ask him what he is doing out here and what he thinks of the whales.”
    Marie was quick to pose coherent questions. She asked Geoff how the whales were discovered and what he thought their chances that they would either be able to escape or be harvested. Geoff said he didn’t know for sure on either count; all he knew was what he could see in front of him. The whales were not in great shape.
    She then interviewed Craig, who sounded professional, factual, and concise, if a little stiff. His stark face matched the terrain. With the whales active in the background, Oran knew he was finally recording some good stuff. (If he only knew how good!) Craig told Marie that the Wildlife Management office had a rare chance to study a natural phenomenon he was not sure anyone had been able to see before. “Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough data yet to comment with any authority as to how these whales got stuck or what their chances might be to swim free,” said Craig. Little did he know what good practice these quick sound-bites would be for the gathering storm looming on their personal horizons.
    Oran wanted Billy in front of the camera to lend authority to the story’s locality. Billy was an Inupiat whom everyone in town knew and who would make the setting more authentic, the story more compelling. And it would get critics off Oran’s back. As much better paid advance men for major party presidential candidates were proving at the same time down in the Lower 48, visual backgrounds were rapidly moving into the foreground of what critics now deemed to be “good” television.
    As Billy and Marie began speaking into the microphone, one of the two larger whales rose to breathe and burst brilliantly into frame. Oran stumbled in the slush as he backed up for a wider shot. He couldn’t imagine a more powerful image. He couldn’t describe what he naturally intuited. These creatures had a remarkable pull over the imaginations of everyone who saw them. Here the whales were fighting for each breath in front of people who went to great lengths and not insignificant personal risk just to see them. Oran’s reaction didn’t seem much different than anyone else’s. It was more emotional than journalistic. It had to be—other than new data collected, there was nothing inherently journalistic about three whales either stranding themselves or being stranded at the very tip of North America.
    What would become clear soon enough was that this story’s real drama was unfolding not under the ice but on top of it: people gathering to watch captive whales becoming themselves captive to their fate.
    As Billy spoke, he motioned behind him to note the stressed condition of the baby whale. At that moment, the baby rose timidly through the ice and stole the show. Bloodied and