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  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

TWELVE
July 1–8, 1965

Over the next few days, to someone who didn’t know them, the dolphins would have looked happy, the permanent up-curl of their mouths, the way they chased each other and arced out of the water, immense and sleek.

But Cora saw how Mother stayed for hours near the chute, floating there with her beak open, tasting the water from the open sea. The incisions in her head were visible as bloodless slits.

On the other hand, Bernie ate less, sometimes mouthing a fish for a moment, then spitting it out. He spent a lot of time lying on the bottom of the lagoon, staring into the distance.

Kat and Junior seemed the least affected, tussling, eating and investigating. Kat continued to play with the bodies of the squid Cora gave her. One day Kat figured out she could grab the tentacles of a squid and, with a twist of her head, sling the body sideways through the air like a wobbly discus.

At first she could throw the body only a few feet, but she worked at the trick all that day, practicing with the different physics and center of gravity. There wasn’t a lot else to do in the small lagoon. She got better quickly, first in terms of distance and then in terms of aim.

By the afternoon, her constant play had shredded every squid she had. The one she had left was grey and tattered. Who knew how long the body had been there, hidden on the bottom of the lagoon? She could sling it 30 feet through the air. A decomposing missile. The smell distinct.

The other dolphins stuck their heads out of the water and watched, a crowd of impressed bystanders. If any of them looked away for even a moment, Kat would peg that one in the face, splat. Furious, the dolphin would chase Kat for several minutes. Fleeing, she’d jump out of the water, head high, so pleased with herself.

7/2—Kat prefers to play with squid, rather than eat them.

* * *

Junior was playful also, curious about everything happening around him, from a sea slug crawling along the lagoon floor to Cora’s detachable flippers.

One morning he imitated everything Cora did underwater, shadowing her. Swimming just beside her, looking in the direction she looked in, pausing where she paused, touching his fin to whatever she touched. Staring absorbed at the other dolphins as she did, then turning to her, his gaze wide with wonder, his head cocked at the exact same angle.

7/3—The dolphins at times appear to mimic humans, in posture and action.

* * *

Once, in tenth grade, her classroom visited a nearby museum. Cora, unable to hear what the teacher was saying in the echoing room, stared at a glass case full of household tools from the 1700s. One tool caught her eye. It looked like a leather belt laid out flat in the case, but it was different in three ways. It was too small to fit around even a child’s waist; it had a metal lock and key instead of a buckle; and sticking up from the center of the belt was what looked like the bowl of a wooden spoon.