So she’d sit on the side of the pool with whatever book she was reading, wearing her hearing glasses, listening. He babbled vowels, Ahh ah-ha eh-eh, like a toddler.

She kept her head down, staring at the book, only glancing at him occasionally from the edge of her eyes.

* * *

After each language lesson with Junior, she rubbed his back to say thank you. She told him she loved him. She had begun to use that word a lot with him. After all, it was the word a mother would use. While she rubbed his back, his focus moved inward, and he got very still. After a few minutes, he would swim away suddenly to the far end of the pool to recover.

Each time she looked at him, she felt warmth. He was her Labrador puppy, her companion, her friend.

* * *

One early morning, before dawn, after using the toilet, she stepped out of the dry room, back into the homearium. And an arm reached out and grabbed her.

Eh had been hiding, pressed against the wall. He yanked her to his chest and began to drag her back into the dry room. She caught a glimpse of the living-room windows, empty. The other men not yet awake. Eh was saying something muffled in her ear, the smell of cigarettes. She could hear nothing but her own labored breathing. She twisted and flailed, struggling. It made not a bit of difference.

Then something flew through the air, hitting Eh smack in the nose. The ball. Junior.

Eh startled back, his grip loosened from surprise.

She jerked forward hard, twisting free, and dove into the pool. Surfacing, she looked back. Eh had stepped up to the edge of the pool, but Junior was in the water in front of him, 300 pounds of sleek muscle.

For a long moment, Eh stared at her and Junior, his eyes very still. All emotion was gone from his face (his easy grin, his tennis-player squint). Instead his eyes were just empty.

The hair prickled on the back of her neck.

For Eh’s benefit, Junior clapped his mouth open and shut, showing off his many razor-sharp teeth.

Without a word, Eh turned away, leaving the homearium. She stayed in the water. She rubbed Junior’s back and sides for the longest time, whispering thank you. Her fingers trembling.

From this point on, she tried to be in the pool as much as possible. She only stepped into the dry room to use the toilet when more than one of the men was in the living room. She locked the door while she was in there and exited as quickly as she could, glancing around the edge of the door before stepping out.

She left the safety of Junior’s side for three reasons only: to give Blum her daily report on the lawn, to feed and work with the other dolphins (staying close to Tibbet the whole time), or to walk into town on her day off.