Contents ( 45)
- ALSO BY AUDREY SCHULMAN
- THE DOLPHIN HOUSE
- ONE Tampa, Florida Feb. 1965
- TWO Aug. 1957 Ogunquit, Maine
- THREE May 1965
- FOUR March 1958 Orlando, Florida
- ARRIVAL
- FIVE June 4, 1965
- SIX June 4, 1965
- SEVEN June 5, 1965
- EIGHT June 6–10, 1965
- NINE June 11–16, 1965
- TEN June 17–26, 1965
- ELEVEN June 27–30, 1965
- TWELVE July 1–8, 1965
- THIRTEEN July 9–13, 1965
- FOURTEEN July 14, 1965
- LANGUAGE LESSONS
- FIFTEEN July 15–17, 1965
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN July 18–25, 1965
- EIGHTEEN July 26–Aug. 1, 1965
- NINETEEN Aug. 2–7, 1965
- TWENTY Aug. 8–15, 1965
- TWENTY-ONE Aug. 16, 1965
- TWENTY-TWO Aug. 17–30, 1965
- HOMEARIUM
- TWENTY-THREE Homearium, Day 1
- TWENTY-FOUR Homearium, Day 3
- TWENTY-FIVE Homearium, Days 4–7
- TWENTY-SIX Homearium, Week 2
- TWENTY-SEVEN Homearium, Week 3
- TWENTY-EIGHT Homearium, Week 4
- TWENTY-NINE Homearium, Week 5
- THIRTY Homearium, Weeks 6–8
- THIRTY-ONE Homearium, Weeks 9–11
- THIRTY-TWO Homearium, Week 12
- THIRTY-THREE Homearium, Week 13
- THIRTY-FOUR Homearium, Week 14
- THIRTY-FIVE Homearium, Week 15
- THIRTY-SIX Homearium, Week 16
- THIRTY-SEVEN Homearium, Week 18
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* * *
Since Blum had started taking Leary’s pills, he had become more internal, busy thinking his own thoughts. Before he asked a question, he tended to have an answer picked out that he wanted to hear. If she gave a different answer, he had a hard time registering it. At times she would repeat her answer in several ways, trying to get him to understand.
After her next daily progress report, Blum brought up one of his ideas again. He said—With drugs, Junior might have a breakthrough.
She said, enunciating as clearly as she could, as though he was the one with the hearing problem—He might forget to breathe. He might drown.
She’d wondered if it would help if she wrote her words down and mailed them to him. Or perhaps she could try Morse code, or semaphore, or charades.
Blum said—It could open his mind. He might learn faster.
She spoke trying to break through.—If you give him drugs, I will tell the reporters.
His eyes blinked and cleared. This, he heard.
They stared at each other. They had reached a new stage, no longer on the same side.
* * *
She knew she could protect Junior for only so long. She spent time eyeing the distance between the homearium and the open sea. To free him, she’d have to carry him down the hill, the 50 feet or so to the lagoon, then along the chute to the sea. Junior weighed 300 pounds at least. She could not lift him on her own. She imagined a cart that would take his weight and length, but she’d have to heft him into it somehow. And she could not wheel such a cart across the rocks and beach to the sea.
So on Sunday she asked the vet to help her.
In response, he looked sad, as though she was a child asking to visit the moon. He said the center was funded by NASA. Junior was NASA property. It would be a federal crime.
* * *
Tibbet was still at the center. Unable to finish his original research without Kat and Mother, and desperately needing a publication from the summer’s work for the tenure committee, he decided to test the limits of Junior’s comprehension of language and publish on that.
To test Junior’s comprehension, he would bring Cora twenty sentences a day, each a command made of simple words, a sentence Junior had never heard. Put ball on stove. Carry towel around pool. Hold triangle in mouth. At these sentences, Junior would regard her for a long moment, clearly wondering why she would ask him to perform such a task. Still, if she said Please, he’d generally perform some approximation. He’d pick up the ball, but not put it on the stove. He’d swim around the pool, but without the towel. She did not know if he didn’t understand the full sentence or felt his action was good enough, or if, with Tibbet’s narrowed eyes watching him, he just didn’t want to do it.