Then something big broke the surface of the water, a grey back rolling forward, the spray of its exhale, a dorsal fin and it was gone, just the ripple spreading out from where the animal had been.

Such surprise, that the lagoon had anything that size in it.

A moment later, a second dolphin surfaced on the far side: the exhale, the fin, then gone.

She understood the water in the chute was too shallow for them to escape. For a swimming pool, this lagoon was huge, but as a sea, it was miniscule. Like having several cougars penned in the backyard.

She was still staring at the water, when an alarm rang. A metallic clanging loud enough for her to hear from a distance. The man on the dock jerked up, slapped the alarm off on the timer next to him, stared at the empty waves and scribbled something in a notebook. He appeared dazed, somewhere in his mid-twenties, a few years older than her, athletic and wearing a polo shirt, his blond hair disheveled.

She approached, and he blinked at her. He smelled of stale cigarettes and beer.

She asked—Dolphins?

This wasn’t a serious question, more a conversational opening.

He struggled to his feet, his face pale, his attention internal. Sheltered from the wind and surf, it was quiet and he was facing her, so she could watch his lips.—When the buzzer goes, take notes, will you?

She understood his sentence was not a question, but more of a command. She knew this not just because of his stance and tone, but because he handed her the notebook and pen and was already moving toward the building, speeding up from a walk to a trot.

He added over his shoulder something more, but she couldn’t hear it. Then he disappeared inside.

She was left standing there. Opening the notebook, she scanned a few entries. Written words were so easy to understand.

7:55 ———

8:00 dolphin surfaces, blows

8:05 ———

8:10 dolphin jumps

8:15 ———

8:20 ———

8:25 dolphin surfaces, blows

Page after page of this.

She stepped onto the dock, near the timer. When the buzzer went off, the water was quiet, no dolphin visible. So she wrote 8:30 and drew a line after it.

For a while she sat on the dock, watching and making these notes, feeling the morning slowly warm. She did not have to be at work until just before lunch. The place was peaceful. She’d never seen dolphins up close before. Occasionally one of them exhaled, or a flipper appeared, or a body shot by under the water. Other than that, she had no idea what the animals were doing, didn’t even know how many there were.

The man didn’t come back outside.

Gradually she got curious. So she put the notebook down on the dock, placed her hearing glasses on top and stripped down to her bathing suit. She pulled on her mask and snorkel and lay down in the shallow of the lagoon, just deep enough to get her head under the water. She wanted to hear the dolphins.