Swimming With Sharks Read online

  To my family and friends—it is a joy

  to share a planet with you. I can never

  thank you for all you have done.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Author’s Note

  Commonly Asked Questions About Sharks

  Learn Spanish with the Villalobos Family!

  Useful Phrases in Sri Lanka

  Sneak Peek

  About the Author

  Copyright

  A sudden movement in the net caught my eye, and with another deep breath, like I saw Zev take before he went free diving, I dove underwater and kicked to get closer to the pile of stuff. There, tangled in the clear lines, was a green sea turtle, desperately wiggling back and forth to get free. I usually only saw them wriggle around so much when they were clambering onto land to sunbathe.

  The stinging in my chest reminded me that I wasn’t a fish and needed to take a breath. Kicking back up to the surface, I looked at the guys as I gasped and filled my lungs with air.

  “There’s a turtle stuck in the line!” I said. “We have to get it out!”

  “It could bite you!” Feye said.

  “When have you heard of a sea turtle biting someone?” I argued.

  Feye looked stumped.

  “Mom and Dad always say to ‘do the right thing.’ We can’t just leave it down there to drown,” I said. Sea turtles aren’t like fish. They need to come up to the surface to breathe. I knew my brother wouldn’t disagree with me on that. He loved animals as much as I did.

  “We don’t even have anything to cut it loose with, A,” Feye said, sighing.

  “I do!” Dilip said, rummaging in his pocket and producing a sharp knife.

  Feye and I did a double take.

  “What?” asked Dilip. “It’s a dive knife. I have it when I go fishing with my dad in case the line gets caught on stuff and we have to cut it off.”

  “That’s perfect!” I said, thankful that we had run into Dilip.

  “Well, nice knowing you, Dilip!” Feye said, motioning toward the pile where the sea turtle was wriggling.

  “I’m not going down there! I can’t hold my breath that long,” Dilip said.

  I grabbed the knife from him and clipped the GoPro to my shoulder so the camera could see everything. My very own animal rescue! “I’ll do it,” I said.

  Before Feye or Dilip could stop me, I took another deep breath and swam down to the poor sea turtle, which by now had slowed its wriggling a bit. It must be running out of oxygen. I gotta hurry!

  We all looked at the picture of the small gray shark that fit in the hands of an unknown person.

  “A Pondicherry shark? What in the world is that?” asked Mr. Savage, our producer, from behind us. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him in the same look I’d always seen him in—aviator sunglasses, a blue button-up shirt, and white pants with fake crocodile-skin shoes. Mr. Savage had come over to the Sacred Sanctuary and Zoological Park, where our family worked when we weren’t filming the Wild Survival! television series with him, to tell us he had heard from the network what our next animal rescue would focus on. The photo had just come through Mr. Savage’s iPad as we sat down to look at the picture.

  “It’s a shark, duh.” Feye, my older brother, laughed. Dad rolled his eyes, once again frowning at Feye’s hair. My parents adopted Feye when I was just a baby, so we didn’t look like siblings, but we especially didn’t look alike now since his naturally dark, wiry hair was currently a bright orange. He was in what my parents called a “neon stage,” where all he wanted to wear was brightly colored stuff that stood out against his dark skin and brown eyes. It was driving Dad crazy, but Mom didn’t seem to mind so much.

  “It’s an extremely rare species of requiem shark. There are about sixty species in that family and some of them have even been observed in freshwater,” Mom said. “Judging from its size in the picture, this one looks like it could be a juvenile Pondicherry shark.”

  Her own dark hair was pulled into a ponytail, and her brown eyes were sparkling with excitement. I smiled at her, proud to not only look like her but hopefully grow up to be just like her. I wanted to be a wildlife scientist and work at this zoo full-time, not only help out when I wasn’t being homeschooled (we traveled too much to attend regular school).

  I know about requiem sharks—they are scientifically known as the Carcharhinidae family. My favorite shark, the tiger shark, is in that family. “If they belong to that family, then they all look like sharks. Not like some shark families that make them look like they are half stingray, half shark,” I said.

  Feye didn’t seem to hear me. Or if he did, he was ignoring me. “Is it called a Pondicherry shark because it is red like a cherry?” he joked. He didn’t love sharks as much as I did, so he wasn’t the “family expert” on them like I was. Birds? Go to Feye. Sharks? You go to me. I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. Feye stuck his tongue out at me. Real mature for a fourteen-year-old!

  Mr. Savage began to pass out booklets that said “Wild Survival!: Sri Lanka” on the front in big, bold red colors. We receive a booklet before each trip so we know more about where we are going and the different animals we could possibly see. I’ve collected all my booklets and found them really useful. Sometimes I learn more from the booklets than the books at the library that I go to with my best friend, Alessi. After our last trip to Cuba, we checked out a dozen books on different Caribbean wildlife—our moms caught us staying up way past our bedtime reading and we had to keep the books in the living room.

  “I’ve read a little bit about Pondicherry sharks before. They’re gray on top and white below, like many species of sharks. They have black tips on some of their fins, though,” I said, blowing a strand of my curly black hair off my face. “They’re also known as long-nosed sharks.”

  “Why is this shark so special if it looks like any other shark?” Feye asked, leaning on his packed backpack and flipping the pages of his booklet quickly. As soon as Mr. Savage told us we had another rescue to film, we all had gone home to pack up our suitcases for the next adventure. I had my pink suitcase next to me, wheels ready for takeoff.

  “According to the network, it’s one of the twenty-five ‘most wanted lost species.’ That photo came from Sri Lanka, and it’s a pretty big deal if they really have one in an aquarium,” Mr. Savage said, his pale hand ruffling his bright red hair.

  “Mr. Savage, you said this shark was in an aquarium? Like, a personal one? No way would that be big enough for a shark!”

  His blue eyes wandered to our suitcases, making sure we each had a bag, and then he smiled. “We’ll see for ourselves. Seems like you’re ready to go—grab your bags and vámonos!”

  Seems like our Spanish was rubbing off on Mr. Savage. We waved goodbye to some employees as we left the lobby of the Sacred Sanctuary and Zoological Park. I texted Alessi that we were off on another adventure, and got a quick smiley response back. Over my shoulder, Feye was taking selfies for his large social media following. “My son the popular influencer,” Mom teased, causing Feye to roll his eyes.

  “So, what ex
actly is the plan for filming, Rick?” Dad asked.

  “We want to showcase the big, the rare, and the dangerous. We’re talking videoing you guys with an angry elephant stampede, the family swimming among the man-eating sharks there, and, of course, releasing this super-rare Pondicherry shark into the wild,” Mr. Savage said with theatrical hands. “We heard there are some dangerous sea animals there like sea snakes and jellyfish, too. Up the ante, you know?”

  “Um …” Mom’s voice piped up. “That isn’t exactly how we saw the show going.”

  “Elephants are gentle giants. Sharks are not man-eaters. Sea snakes and jellyfish are fascinating,” Dad agreed.

  Mr. Savage waved a dismissive hand in the air. “I’m sure we’ll capture all that as well! We’ll talk more about it when we’re there.”

  With that conversation done, the car started and off we went! On the ride to the airport, I busied myself by texting Alessi more.

  ALESSI: Good luck and stay safe!

  ADRIANNA: I promise I won’t get bitten by a crocodile this time.

  ALESSI: Or anything else!

  ADRIANNA: Deal, LOL. Guess where we are going.

  ALESSI: Um … Mexico?

  ADRIANNA: I wish—love tacos.

  ALESSI: Antarctica?

  ADRIANNA: LOL no. Sri Lanka!

  ALESSI: Wow! Far away!

  I was about to text back when I suddenly heard my brother say, “Earth to Adrianna!” My head snapped up and I saw that the whole family was out of the car, Feye looking at me impatiently.

  “Come on, Sis! We’re waiting for you!” he said.

  Even for it being so late in the day, the airport was crowded, with friends and family exchanging big hugs as they said goodbye or hello for the first time in a while. I always love people watching, and airports are one of the places you can see the best in people.

  Once on the plane, I sat down next to the window and let my mind wander back to Alessi’s text. “Stay safe,” she had said. Our last filming trip was in Cuba, where I got bitten by a crocodile. When Feye and I had saved an injured crocodile’s eggs, we came across some dangerous poachers. It had been months since that trip, and my leg had finally healed, with only bright purple scars reminding me of my brush with death. I couldn’t stand on my tiptoes for long because it made my leg hurt, but otherwise I was good as new! Well, almost …

  We hadn’t gone on another TV trip since we released the female crocodile mother and half the baby crocodiles back to the wild. The other half of the baby crocodiles went to zoos around the world, to create more babies and help American crocodiles get off the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Vulnerable list. It broke my heart to know they got the label of Vulnerable because humans were wrecking their homes and illegally hunting them and their eggs.

  Some turbulence brought my attention back to the booklet about Sri Lanka opened up on my lap. The country was officially known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and we were traveling to its largest city, Colombo. Sri Lanka was in South Asia, and I realized I knew very little about it. Geography wasn’t my strong point. But I knew someone who loved geography—he just happened to be related to me.

  “What do you know about where we are going?” I asked my big brother. When he didn’t answer, I nudged him with my elbow and realized he had earphones in. He took one out and looked at me.

  “Yes?” he asked. I asked my question again.

  He shrugged. “Not much. A little bit about the Silk Road, the Buddhist writings about it, and how it was ruled by Britain and known as Ceylon,” Feye answered, grabbing a bag of chips from his backpack and taking a few out to eat. He motioned for me to take a few, and I stuck my hand into the salty chips. They were my favorite. I turned back to my booklet and pointed out the title to my mother, who was sitting in the aisle seat in front of me, and asked, “Do they speak English in Sri Lanka, Mom?”

  “The official languages are Sinhala and Tamil, but they do speak some English,” she answered.

  Dad also had turned around from his seat in front of us. “Sri Lanka is home to many cultures, languages, and ethnicities, kids,” he chimed in. “The Sinhalese make up most of the population. The Tamils speak Tamil and come from southern India and northeast Sri Lanka. Other religious and ethnic groups in Sri Lanka include Muslims, Burghers, Parsis, and Veddas.”

  “You’ve been there before, right, guys?” Feye asked our parents. They nodded.

  “You’re going to love the food, kids—they are addicted to spices and live to drink tea,” Dad said.

  I made a show of licking my lips. “I can’t wait to get there.” I loved flavorful food full of spices like paprika and cumin and … well, I could go on. And tea! I love tea! Peppermint is my absolute favorite tea, but a close second is Ceylon tea, which comes from Sri Lanka.

  “It’s a beautiful place.” Our mother sighed. “Your father got me these azul sapphire earrings the last time we were there.” Our parents kissed, and Feye and I stuck out our tongues.

  “Yuck!” I turned away from my kissing parents and focused on my booklet, jotting down some facts in my trusty field notebook.

  Sri Lanka

  Home to many cultures, languages, religions, and ethnic groups

  Spices and teas are popular

  Fave sport: cricket

  Over 20 species of different whales and dolphins

  I hoped to catch a glimpse of a blue whale while on this trip, as it would be my first time seeing one. Well, one that was alive. We had been to a few museums before where I had gotten to see their bones or pieces of their body, like their heart.

  I don’t remember when I stopped reading my booklet, let alone fell asleep, but I woke up to light from the open window pouring on my face, my favorite blanket wrapped around my body. It had my favorite animal on it—an echidna! Echidnas sort of look like a mash-up of a ton of animals. They have spines like a porcupine, a snout that looks like a bird’s beak, a pouch like a kangaroo’s or koala’s, and they lay eggs like a lizard. Some people call them spiny anteaters, but I think “echidna” is the perfect name for this little mammal from Australia. My mom had found this blanket when she and Dad were traveling in Australia before they had me.

  I sat up to look out the window and saw waters the most beautiful shade of turquoise that blended into a sandy white beach. Beyond the beach I could see expansive green forests. I grabbed my backpack from under the seat in front of me and rummaged around for my camera. Once I had it out, I took a picture of my first glimpse of what must be Sri Lanka. Wow. It’s gorgeous.

  The flash went off and woke up Feye, who had been sleeping next to me. “Oops, sorry!” I said and looked down at the camera and went to the photo gallery to see my picture. It was all black. Weird …

  I turned the camera over and saw the protective lens cap was still on. Dang it!

  I held the camera up again and took another picture. “Did it come out this time, or did you forget the camera lens again?” Feye asked, hitting the button that made his chair go from a sleeping position to a sitting position. I held it up for him to see and said, “I always do that! I’ve just got to get used to it, is all.”

  “That was really nice of Abuela to give you a camera for our next adventure,” Feye commented. I nodded. Our grandmother was the best! She had heard me going on and on for months about wanting a camera after our family went to a photography exhibition about the behind-the-scenes fishing industry. Inspired to make a difference, I was determined to start getting out there and taking photos of lots of wildlife I ran into!

  As the plane got closer to the land, our captain told us to fasten our seat belts, so I buckled up and put away my camera and booklet. I would just have to read about the Pondicherry shark when we got to where we were staying!

  “Ayubowan! Welcome to Colombo, Villalobos family! We are very excited to show you around our beautiful Sri Lanka,” boomed a man with midnight-black hair and brown skin. His dark eyes twinkled with warmth, and he gave me a str
ong handshake that made my bones feel like they were rattling inside me. Still, I liked the big smile he gave me, and I couldn’t help but notice the large gap between his pearly white teeth.

  Mr. Savage and the camera crew—made up of Mark, Alice, and Connor—had left us with instructions at baggage claim to find a man carrying a small whiteboard with our name on it. They were going to drop off all the luggage at the hotel where we would be staying while we went on a small island tour.

  “My name is Manil, and I’ll be taking care of you. This is my boy, Zev. When I told him I would be giving the Wild Survival! family a tour of our island, he just insisted he come with me. He’s been a fan of your YouTube channel for a while, and ever since your crocodile episode aired, I think we’ve seen it a hundred times now. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Our mother shook her head. “Not at all! I’m sure Adrianna and Feye would love to have another kid around. It’s very nice to meet you, Zev. What a lovely name.”

  Zev smiled broadly. He looked exactly like his dad, except without the wrinkles. “Ayubowan! Hello! And thank you! It is very nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Villalobos. My name means ‘wolf.’ ”

  I gasped. “Our last name means ‘wolf,’ too! ‘Lobo’ is Spanish for wolf, and ‘lobos’ is plural, so that means more than one wolf,” I excitedly proclaimed. I was proud of knowing two languages and liked teaching people Spanish words.

  “Cool! What does ‘villa’ mean, then?” Zev asked.

  “Nothing cool. It means village,” Feye interrupted, picking up his bag and joining the adults, who were walking ahead and toward Mr. Manil’s car. Zev and I ran after them, helped put the bags in the back of the car, and piled in. Us kids were in the back while all the adults sat up front.

  Zev was telling Feye and me about the stuff we were seeing outside the window when I heard Mr. Manil say, “It will be interesting to see if the shark really is the rare Pondicherry shark.”

  I whipped out my field notebook and pencil and started writing as Mr. Manil talked about the Pondicherry shark. I always wrote in this notebook about the different animals we got to work with. The last one had been the American crocodile!