The Physics of Friendship
They looked out the window of the bus together, side by side, cheek to cheek.
The heat and humidity of the Brownsville morning and the air conditioning on the bus caused the windows to fog.
Hilcias pulled his sleeve over his hand and used it as a kind of window wiper, moving it back and forth until he and Taki could see clearly the Gulf of Mexico along the coastal road.
“Wow,” whistled Hilcias softly, “Maybe 52 Blue is there.”
“Maybe,” whispered Taki. “I sure hope so.”
People began to stir and stretch and reach for their bags above and around them, but Hilcias and Taki stayed as still and quiet as the leaves on the trees that lined the street beside the bus station.
There are five foundational forces in the universe.
They hold everything together.
They can bring order and cause chaos.
Four of them can be explained by physics - the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the weak force and the strong force.
The gravitational force keeps planets in orbit around their suns and our feet firmly planted on the earth.
The electromagnetic force brings us electricity, information in computers, and connection - it underlies the mighty power of lightning and the gentle touch of the human hand.
The weak force brings us nuclear energy and makes stars shine.
The strong force holds quarks inside of protons and neutrons and holds protons and neutrons inside of atoms.
The fifth foundational force can’t be explained by physics, though.
It can only be explained by friendship.
It is love.
Taki and Hilcias stepped off of the Greyhound bus into the early morning sunlight.
“Where should we go?” asked Taki.
She looked at the horizon between the Gulf of Mexico and the Brownsville sky.
She was very still and very quiet.
Hilcias looked at the horizon, too.
“I guess we should go to the water,” he whistled, “If we’re going to find 52 Blue.”*
They reached out for each other’s hands.
They walked together down the road toward the gulf.
This created that fifth foundational force, which is the strongest force of all, for it keeps hearts in orbit around each other and gives the possibility of being able to find a lost and lonely whale in the vast reaches of the deep, deep sea.
*There is a whale named 52 Blue.
Scientists named him this because the frequency of his whale song is around 52 MHz.
When other whales sing their songs, they sing at frequencies between 15 and 25 MHz.
His song cannot be heard by any other whale.
He is known as the loneliest whale in the world.
Normally whales are communal creatures.
They live their lives in family groups.
They migrate from warm waters to cooler waters to give birth and find food.
They follow the same migration route from year to year.
52 Blue is different.
He lives alone.
He does not follow a migration route.
He wanders the ocean, a wandering whale.
52 Blue (A fibonacci poem)
whale
song
lonely
where are you?
wandering, singing
singing unheard wandering song
can you hear me? are you there? are you? i am alone
listening, longing for songs gently sung, i hear you song on water, i’m here, i’m here
we sing at diff’rent frequencies, migrate along diff’rent routes, wandering, wondering
unheard, unknown, wandering the sea, songs on water
singing unheard wondering songs
Wondering, singing
who are you?
gentle
song
whale
- Trevor Scott Barton, stories and poems for a brown-eyed girl, 2020
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