Red Knot Page #2

Well, that is our honeymoon.

To, um...

Adventure Antarctica

and your work.

To writing about a place and then

getting the opportunity to go there.

That's really interesting.

So they actually land or

do they just swoop down...

No, no, they land. They do this

thousands of times, they enlarge wounds

until you get a whale which has,

I don't know, six or eight wounds

- down its middle.

- It's a good way to put it.

Collecting places,

collecting locations.

We're obsessed

with categorizing and...

They will fly down,

land on the back of the whale,

bite a hole in the whale,

and then fly off

with a hunk of meat.

You don't usually accompany Roger

on his trips though, right?

No, no, I don't.

I've been once to Patagonia

where he goes every year.

For his Right Whale study.

And I was feeling miserable.

The sun never shone.

It was windy.

I feel a bit, uh...

You know, out of place.

And, um, all the more so

because Peter seems

very much in his element

and I sometimes feel like

I don't know where to fit into.

But, you know, it's all well and good,

We're having a good time.

Oh, God.

Doctor?

Hello.

Take a seat, please.

Oh.

Relax. Just relax.

Yeah. And is this a path

of where whales feed?

Like, you were pointing out

to me the...

Ah, that's not bad.

I mean, let's face it,

we don't often get a chance to see this.

Hey, there you are.

See the whales?

Yeah, I saw them.

It was beautiful.

Why didn't you come get me?

Babe.

Roger went through an entire

book about Antarctic pattern.

Page after page. What am I gonna do?

Interrupt him in the middle?

I'm glad you're here though.

I'm glad you got to see them.

Um, I wanna sit

at the table with Roger,

before the seat's taken.

Can we go in?

- Can we go in?

- Okay.

Okay, come on.

Yeah?

You know, you go,

save me a seat, though.

- Are you sure?

- Will you save me a seat?

I'll save you a seat.

You think it can make any difference that

the sound was at this end of the boat

and the engines were

at this end of the boat

and the whales were

possibly out here?

The engines are not the source

that makes the loud noise.

It's the propeller itself.

Oh, okay. So, if we were

in a small boat...

I've read that chapter

of your book

and in the 60s, weren't you lying down

in your boat listening to them at night?

Oh, yeah, that's with everything

turned off, and that's a sailboat.

Right.

I think probably they did hear it.

They could have heard

some of which you were doing,

very, very faintly.

The other trouble is,

the moment we're asking to hear it

is just as part of its head

is breaking the surface.

And that's generating

a lot of noise.

So, I mean the conditions are...

No, no, it's good,

it's good, I like it.

The conditions are

certainly not favorable...

- Yeah.

- ...for the possibility.

If everything was completely quiet and

stopped and we're not moving forward

and we were in some little harbor somewhere

away from the ocean traffic noises...

Lighter trouble?

Pretty much always.

I thought there was

no smoking on this boat.

I didn't hear that.

I'm... I'm Chloe.

Chloe Harrison.

Captain Emerson.

Well,

I probably shouldn't be smoking anyway.

Why is that, I mean,

aside from the obvious?

The black and white

is their camouflage

in this fairly gray,

black-white environment.

And if one adult

walks away from its nest

and leaves the egg exposed,

and a skua comes in,

the immediate birds right next

to it might peck at the skua.

But they're not

getting off their egg.

So, if you were dumb enough to

get off your egg, tough luck.

These guys actually do lay two eggs,

these rockhoppers.

...what attracts them,

and sometimes they just have minutes to eat

then bigger vultures

come and kick them out...

Look at them up there.

Chatting away.

Peter's really enjoying

being here. I can tell.

Probably getting in to practice

for his next big journey.

Good place to start.

You and Roger have

such a great...

rapport.

Yeah, well, that's, um,

'cause we've been married a long time.

You'll be there soon, you wait.

What are you going to do

when, um...

when Peter goes off on this next

big venture he's going to have?

- Which one?

- Oh, the book deal.

Walking to the poles.

Next year.

Book deal?

You know about this, don't you?

Book deal, yeah, it's uh...

It's great.

Um...

I think I'm gonna

go back to the boat.

So I'll see you back there later.

Whoo!

Hey.

Hey. I need to

talk to you.

Um...

Is there any way to

get off this boat?

Uh... no.

We're underway

in about 15 minutes.

I need a... I need a room.

I need a different room.

I need a new room.

We, uh, we don't have

any spare cabins.

Listen,

I'll have a word

with the steward.

Maybe we can

move somebody around.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

Chloe?

What the f***?

Chloe?

Chloe?

What is going on?

Hey, don't ignore me.

What's going on?

Where'd you go?

I come back and

all your stuff is missing?

Why are you

treating me like this?

When were you gonna tell me?

About the book deal?

Were you just gonna wait

until you were already gone

to tell me about it?

I made a mistake.

Do you know what it feels like

to find out about something

like that from somebody else?

I mean, how could you?

How dare you not...

tell me first?

It involves me.

How do you think that you

going away for a whole year

doesn't involve me directly

enough to ask me about it?

Right, no,

that makes total sense.

I didn't wanna tell anyone else.

Lisa and Roger asked me

what my next project...

It doesn't matter.

It's about the fact that you

wouldn't even discuss it with me.

I was gonna discuss it with you.

You were gonna... You know what?

It's too f***ing late!

- Yeah, because they asked me...

- It's too late!

You know when you should've

discussed it with me?

Before you told

other people about it.

Well, they asked me what my next

piece of work was gonna be.

What am I gonna say,

"I got nothin' I'm working on."

And you know what,

this really sucks

'cause I was gonna

surprise you with it

because you're gonna be

a huge f***ing part of it.

A huge part of it.

Remember Scott, in his last days,

how he wrote letters to his wife.

We were gonna do that.

Scott died in Antarctica.

I don't even factor...

- into your...

- Oh, babe.

Stop. Stop it!

Honey, just stop.

Stop. God! Peter!

You don't even see me!

Yeah, I just don't know

how this is gonna work.

Really?

Really, that's how you feel?

Can I just talk for a second?

Can I just... Can we

just back up?

Because things have gotten

a little bit extreme.

I'm really, really sorry

that you found out about this and that you

feel that I was deceiving you in any way.

But, please...

Chloe, it's not what you think.

I don't know what I want.

I just know that I need space.

Come on.

I need space.

Just give me that.

Chlo...

Chloe.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

Your move?

Yeah, no.

Yeah it is.

Oh, no, no.

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