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
Curious what the future held, she followed. Their sleek children appeared beside them now. Their grandchildren, cutting gracefully through the endless sea. She knew they were showing this future to her as a gift, as a thank-you. They surged on, wanting to show her more.
But unlike them, she was not a natural swimmer. She got tired. Time was tugging on her again, pulling her back to her original spot on the bottom of the river. Only at this point did she realize she hadn’t seen Junior yet. She kicked as hard as she could in the direction of the homearium, but did not have enough energy to get there, to find him.
She was pulled back into her body. Back into time. It was dawn, and she was lying on the grass just outside the homearium. Blum was telling her to feel the bliss. Telling her it was a purple flame just above them. Telling her to touch it.
She could not see the purple flame. She could not see pretty much anything given the fact that he was on top of her, but she could hear him saying yes yes, she was touching the joy now. What she was touching was actually his chest, trying to push him off.
She knew Blum considered this sex.
Junior was in the water staring at them. She could feel how much Blum liked that part; his grunts were loud and long.
* * *
That day, Eh was the one to hand her the magazine. A men’s magazine of a kind she’d never seen.
The front cover had a drawing of a naked woman arching with joy, her legs around the midsection of a grinning dolphin. The woman had Cora’s haircut.
When she looked up from the magazine cover, Eh smiled. Perhaps he had made this happen. Perhaps Tibbet had. Perhaps it had happened on its own. Whatever the circumstances, she thought she would never be able to see a human smile again without thinking of the hatred on his face in this moment.
THIRTY-EIGHT
The older she got, the faster time seemed to go. Years, then decades, flew past. She’d lived long enough to time-travel into a new era. Push-button phones, then cordless ones, then everyone walking around with cell phones, talking into them. The speed of the travel tugging at her flesh, loosening the skin on her bones.
Each day Cora walked to the beach to snorkel. She now had hearing aids, remarkably small and powerful. It was strange to hear better now in her sixties than when she was young. Yet, before wading into the water, she’d take them out and leave them on her towel.
Standing in the waves, she pulled on her flippers and mask and dove in. She kicked forward, listening, as she had when she was young. She heard the roar of the waves, the clicks of rocks tumbling.
* * *
In the aftermath of the scandal, she’d married her vet. What else remained for her?