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Contents (45)
  1. ALSO BY AUDREY SCHULMAN
  2. THE DOLPHIN HOUSE
  3. ONE Tampa, Florida Feb. 1965
  4. TWO Aug. 1957 Ogunquit, Maine
  5. THREE May 1965
  6. FOUR March 1958 Orlando, Florida
  7. ARRIVAL
  8. FIVE June 4, 1965
  9. SIX June 4, 1965
  10. SEVEN June 5, 1965
  11. EIGHT June 6–10, 1965
  12. NINE June 11–16, 1965
  13. TEN June 17–26, 1965
  14. ELEVEN June 27–30, 1965
  15. TWELVE July 1–8, 1965
  16. THIRTEEN July 9–13, 1965
  17. FOURTEEN July 14, 1965
  18. LANGUAGE LESSONS
  19. FIFTEEN July 15–17, 1965
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN July 18–25, 1965
  22. EIGHTEEN July 26–Aug. 1, 1965
  23. NINETEEN Aug. 2–7, 1965
  24. TWENTY Aug. 8–15, 1965
  25. TWENTY-ONE Aug. 16, 1965
  26. TWENTY-TWO Aug. 17–30, 1965
  27. HOMEARIUM
  28. TWENTY-THREE Homearium, Day 1
  29. TWENTY-FOUR Homearium, Day 3
  30. TWENTY-FIVE Homearium, Days 4–7
  31. TWENTY-SIX Homearium, Week 2
  32. TWENTY-SEVEN Homearium, Week 3
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT Homearium, Week 4
  34. TWENTY-NINE Homearium, Week 5
  35. THIRTY Homearium, Weeks 6–8
  36. THIRTY-ONE Homearium, Weeks 9–11
  37. THIRTY-TWO Homearium, Week 12
  38. THIRTY-THREE Homearium, Week 13
  39. THIRTY-FOUR Homearium, Week 14
  40. THIRTY-FIVE Homearium, Week 15
  41. THIRTY-SIX Homearium, Week 16
  42. THIRTY-SEVEN Homearium, Week 18
  43. THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  45. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

While Tibbet and Eh rolled up the net and put it away, Blum walked down to the lagoon, his coffee mug in one hand, stepping barefoot into the water and walking from dolphin to dolphin, considering each. He stopped beside Mother and jerked his chin at her. Tibbet and Eh shoved the other dolphins back into the water. Only Mother remained beached, watching the men. Each time she breathed, Cora could see the effort it took, the unaccustomed weight of gravity on her ribs. The men brought over a canvas stretcher and placed it on the ground next to her, then heaved her onto it. From the lagoon, the other dolphins squealed and stared.

Tibbet and Blum grabbed one end of the stretcher, Eh got the other end and they lugged Mother up the stairs. The men grunted with each step, moving slowly and red-faced, easing her into the house like an oversized couch. She disappeared.

The dolphins whipped around the lagoon, looking for a way to get to Mother, to help. At the surface, their fins cut through the water. They jumped into the air, hoping to catch a glimpse.

Cora wrapped her wet hair tightly in a towel and risked putting on her hearing glasses. She walked up the stairs until she could hear what was going on inside the house. The noises were not quiet; they echoed out the window. Mother was squealing, sometimes very loudly. There was a rhythmic metal banging. Instruments clattered. Occasionally a machine beeped. The men called out information or commands to each other.

She backed away slowly, unable to will herself inside to look through the windows or door to see what was happening. She took off her glasses, walked back to the lagoon and sat there on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest, looking only at the dolphins in the lagoon.

After an hour, the men carried Mother back out of the house and back down to the pool. She was alive. She had three incisions, each about an inch long, on the top of her head. It was unclear how deep the cuts were. The men tilted the end of the stretcher up to slide her into the lagoon. Mother tucked her head down, dove in and swam fast to the far end, the other dolphins rushing to her. The blood on her skin was washed away. She seemed to be moving well. The four of them clustered together, circling, rubbing against each other.

Within a few hours, Mother was eating normally. She swam and breathed and looked healthy. The incisions weren’t bleeding and were barely visible. The only way a stranger might know something had happened was that she stayed at the far end of the lagoon for days and startled easily. She would no longer get within 10 feet of Cora.

In a strange way, Bernie seemed more affected. He wouldn’t eat for two days. He stayed deep in the water for long periods of time, surfacing for air rarely. He didn’t play with the others. When he did rise to the surface for a breath, his exhale seemed weighty and full.