Whale Watching (Chapter 1)

[BatteredOnionRings]

Kinda short and sparse. First in the series here, but those on reddit can see earlier Felix and James stories in /r/ABDLStories.
 

“You wanna wear a Goodnite?” James pulled one out of the pack in Felix’s suitcase. He already had a diaper in his other hand.

“I think I’d better. No excuse for bringing a messenger bag on a whale-watch, and I hate not having a change.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. Your mom said it was a bit of a drive.” James held the training pants open and Felix stepped into them. “Want me to bring an extra, just in case?”

“Where?” If James was bringing a bag anyway…

“Jacket pocket.”

Felix shrugged. “Sure.” The Goodnites were already ‘just in case’, but if he did have an accident it would be nice to have a dry one to change into.
 

The whale-watch had been Felix’s mom’s idea, a fun adventure for their engagement visit. It was touristy, but James had never been, and neither Felix nor his parents could remember the last time they had.

“Can I drive?” Felix asked his dad as they loaded the car. Seeing the soft cooler and beach bag his parents had packed, he felt a little regretful he’d forgone better padding—maybe his “messenger bag” would have slipped through unnoticed after all. But getting to drive his dad’s very fast car for over an hour would be some consolation. One of those privileges that only grown-ups get but only littles can truly appreciate.

“Nope,” David said, getting into the driver’s seat with a smile. Felix sighed and got in the back with his fiancé.

“Excited to see some whales?” James asked brightly.

“We might not see any,” Felix answered. “But I am excited,” he added, not wanting it to seem like he was pouting about not getting to drive. “And we’ve had pretty good luck in the past.”

James handed him the shared coffee thermos and he took a long sip. “You’ve never seen one, right?”

“Only at Sea Word.”

“Those don’t count,” Felix said authoritatively. “Those are just big dolphins. Panda dolphins.”

“Panda dolphins?” James raised an eyebrow.

“Panda dolphins,” Felix repeated, taking another sip of coffee. “Humpbacks are where it’s at.”

He saw his mom roll her eyes, and wondered if he sounded too childish or just like too much of a know-it-all. He’d always been a bit of both, and loving as his parents were, they had told him as much. He felt his face growing warm, but James reached over to scritch discreetly behind his ears, and he calmed quickly.

“Were you able to figure out the last time you went on one of these, Barb?” James asked.

“No, never did,” she answered. “I don’t think Felix could have been in middle school yet.” Felix fidgeted. He always felt nervous and small when his mom and James talked about his childhood—which James was frequently keen on. He did like how the age difference was magnified as you went back in time: the last time he’d been on a whale-watch, James, if they’d known each other then, would have been old enough to be his babysitter. But there was something a little too knowing in how Barb sometimes answered her son-in-law-to-be’s questions.
 

They arrived early—a virtual certainty with David driving—and decided to have an early lunch at the seafood snack bar by the dock. Not normally a big lunch eater—especially before noon—Felix couldn’t help ordering a plate of clamstrips. The deep fried bits of chewy shellfish had been his childhood introduction to mollusk-eating some twenty years earlier, and as a regional specialty of a region he no longer lived in, they were more of a treat than ever. He shared a few with James, and, not wanting to let any go to waste, polished the rest off himself.

“Why are they called clam ‘strips’?” James asked.

“No stomachs, just the necks.” Felix answered. “But I wonder what they do with the stomachs. Whole clams are good too but I wouldn’t want a plate of just the stomachs.”

“Use ‘em to make stock, I bet.” David offered, wisely. We’d better get on the boat,” he added, standing up from the picnic table.

“Okay, lemme go to the bathroom first.”

“There’s one on the boat.”

Felix looked over at the ticket building. He felt like he’d have to sit on the potty soon, and that would be a lot more comfortable on dry land, where the bathroom floor didn’t move beneath you. But they couldn’t risk missing the boat, so he shrugged and let his dad lead the way.
 

The boat was built for a hundred and fifty passengers on two decks: the lower mostly enclosed, and the upper entirely open. Felix noticed the two single occupancy bathrooms (“heads”, he reminded himself) on the lower deck, “amidships”, near the stairwells. They found four seats together on the open deck, near the bow and facing the outer rail. It was the coldest and least comfortable place on the ship, but the best for spotting whales.

When they were sitting and David and Barb distracting each other, James leant to whisper in Felix’s ear. “Do you still need to go potty?” Felix shook his head. “It passed?” Felix nodded, nervously checking that his parents hadn’t heard. James patted his knee.

A few minutes later, the ship began to move. “At last the anchor was up…” David said, apparently racking his memory. “The sails were set, and off we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas...”

“What?” James asked, looking over in confusion.

“Pretty sure he’s quoting from Moby Dick,” Felix offered. Given that it was March, he hoped it was that and not dementia setting in.

“The Pequod does set sail from this very harbour…”

“We know, dad,” Felix said. He knew, anyway. He reminded James of the whaling museum and the little whalers’ church they’d seen the last time they’d been to New Bedford. David extolled the virtues of reading Melville for the next few minutes, and Felix closed his eyes, leaning against James for warmth.
 

He woke up to several sensory inputs vying for his attention. The most present was James nudging him awake and telling him to get up and look at the whales. A loud PA speaker was telling him the same thing, but his gut was telling him there wasn’t time for that.

“I gotta go potty,” he told James groggily, and a little louder than he meant to. But between the PA and the passengers, there was plenty of audio cover.

“Oh no, not yet,” James told him. “If you go now you’re gonna miss the whales.”

Felix stood up and, glouring, walked a few feet to the rail.

James had been entirely right. Three humpback whales were swimming beside the boat, less than one hundred yards away. Two of them could only be seen as dark forms beneath the waves, but one was at the surface, exhaling and spraying water higher than the deck of the ship.

“Anyone got a harpoon?” Felix asked, looking around at James in excitement. His gut churned and growled but he ignored it. Even if he did have an accident, he was wearing training pants. It would be worth having to change them to see this.

As the exhaling whale dove, another took its place at the surface. It seemed to everyone on the ship that the pod was putting on a show. Just as the excitement began to fade, the smallest dove and then rose fast, breeching in full view and turning over to fall on its back into the waves. It was utterly engrossing.

After a long, wonderful eight minutes, the whales dove once more and weren’t seen again. With a satisfied sigh, Felix came back to his body. He had to go now.

“Okay, I’m gonna use the head,” he said, trying to sound casual. It wouldn’t be safe to run anyway. He turned and walked, clenching, down half the length of the boat, turning into the stairwell that led to the head.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, his heart sank. There was a line, four people long—two of them women. He looked at one of the guys in the line and gestured towards the other side of the ship. “Anyone check the other...” The stranger nodded solemnly.

The end of the line was outside, near the railing. Felix went there and took his place, but he didn’t have much hope. A minute later he was sweating, and the bathroom door was yet to open. He turned to face the waves, taking deep breaths as his will to actively clench began to fail. He felt only a small mass drop into his training pants, but like pulling a plug, it was followed by a rush of liquid. The woman in front of him glanced back at him for a moment, but with all the sounds of the ship, she couldn’t be sure what she heard.

Felix got out his phone. One bar, then two, then one. He texted James. “Can you bring me that spare pull-up?”

James replied with a smirking emoji. Felix replied with a red, glaring one.

“On my way.”

Well, that was something. Everything would be fine, as long as all that liquid… He reached down to feel the seat of his jeans and found two apple-sized wet patches. Turning his back to the rail, he pulled up the hood of his windbreaker and started to cry.

[littleTomás]

I went on a whale watching trip one time. I got sea sick and threw up on the bar. It was the first and only time I’ve done that.

[dannydpr]

Cute story. I tried searching for the others you mentioned on reddit, but didn’t see anything?

[BatteredOnionRings]

21 hours ago, dannydpr said:

Cute story. I tried searching for the others you mentioned on reddit, but didn’t see anything?

Glad you liked it! The old ones are here:

And here:

I’d forgotten how long ago I wrote those chapters! No wonder you couldn’t find them.

[Cute_Kitten]

This was a cute, quick read. Poor Felix should've worn thicker padding. ?