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
Thus, her spoken vocabulary stayed close to that of an eight-year-old, her comprehension so much larger.
One day walking past the bookshelves, she spotted a book with Blum’s name on the spine. Curious, she pulled it out. The photo on the back showed him younger and posed, his chin up and eyes focused on the distance, the type of photo found in an old-fashioned locket.
The book’s cover had a drawing of a gorilla staring at the viewer. In the drawing, the top of its skull was removed, its brain floating like a wrinkled UFO above its head.
* * *
Arriving one morning, Cora walked around the left side of the house and discovered something new sitting on the lawn beside the building. It looked like an oversized bathtub, 8 feet long and 3 feet deep. A hard plastic liner in a partially built wooden frame.
She stopped and considered it.
For a dolphin to fit inside, it would have to curl up. On top of the tub, was a hinged lid that could swing closed. It would be as dark inside as a coffin.
A hose lay nearby, ready to fill the tub with water.
She walked by, uneasy.
* * *
Mother was floating by the sluice, her mouth open a fraction, tasting the water from the open sea. She’d been floating here for a long time, her eyes closed.
Interested, Cora snorkeled nearby, watching. After a minute, Mother opened her eyes and slid her chin onto the ledge of the sluice. She twisted her head from one side to the other, examining the concrete. From that angle, she couldn’t see the beach 30 feet away or the sea. She must, however, have been able to hear the surf.
Mother slid her whole head onto the ledge, then, with some effort, humped up onto it, until the first third of her body was on the sluice, her flippers pressed down and balancing her there.
Cora watched, not breathing.
The depth of the stream was only 6 inches, Mother’s head and back out of the water. Her whole body weighed at least 350 pounds. Out of water like this, when she breathed, it sounded a little labored. She strained, arcing upward. Perhaps between the rocks she was able to glimpse the sea and the waves.
After a long moment balanced there, she slid back into the lagoon.
* * *
Each time Cora tossed a new squid to Kat, she would hide it at the bottom of the lagoon somewhere, perhaps under a rock. Later that day, when the other dolphins had forgotten about the squid, she’d fetch one and fling it at another dolphin. A practical joker who didn’t know when to quit.
One afternoon when Cora stood up out of the water and pulled off her mask, a decomposing squid smacked her in the face.
Surprised, Cora fell backward into the lagoon, inhaling water. Coughing hard, she stood up and, with some difficulty, tugged the squid out of her hair.