موبی دیک

CHAPTER 6 Moby Dick

Captain Ahab didn’t sleep very’ often now. We saw the light from his room on many nights. He sat at his table. He looked at his maps and planned. Where was Moby’ Dick? How could we find him? He only talked to Fedallah. We could hear the two men in Captain Ahab’s room. Captain Ahab often shouted angrily; but Fedallah always spoke quietly. Fedallah was different from other men. He stayed away from the other whalers. He sat high up in the sails at night and watched for whales. He slept in the day.

“Why does he watch for whales at night?” we asked. “Does he have the eyes of a cat? Can he see in the dark?” And why did Captain Ahab only listen to this man? Fedallah wasn’t God.

“He can see the future,” said some whalers.

Could Fedallah really see the future? What did he see? What did lie tell Captain Ahab?

One night Starbuck found Captain Ahab asleep at his table, with the light on and his maps around him.

“Crazy old man,” he said quietly. “You sleep tonight, but your dreams are full of your white whale. You hate Moby Dick and you’re taking me and our men with you. To what? Our deaths?” That same night we heard Fedallah. “The white whale!” he shouted.

I ran and evoke the other men. We looked up and saw Fedallah at the top of the sails. He looked out at the ocean and showed us the whale. “There!” he shouted.

Suddenly a huge shower of water went up. Then a second shower. We could see something white on the water. It was a white whale! Was it Captain Ahab’s white whale? Now we understood. Fedallah watched at night because you could see a white whale at night.

Captain Ahab was there. His face was as happy’ as a child’s face on Christmas morning. “Put the sails up! Faster!” he shouted.

The white whale sent three more showers of water high up into the sky. The water looked beautiful in the light of the stars.

“Follow him!” shouted Captain Ahab.

We started to go after the whale, but it quickly under the water. We lost it.

“Was that really Moby Dick?” I asked Queequeg.“Will we see him again?”

Queequeg cleaned his harpoon and looked at the ocean. “He will come again,’’ he said.

And he did. He came the next night. And the night after that —always at the same time.

“He wants me to follow him,” said Captain Ahab on the third night. “He’s showing us the way.”

I was suddenly very afraid. We had to stay with Captain Ahab to the end. We couldn’t leave. I couldn’t change my future now.