The crow kept cocking its head, looking around confused.

* * *

While Blum was looking through Cora’s notes, Bernie began to chase Kat. The two of them circled the lagoon at high speed. At one point, Bernie swam by just beneath the surface, upside down, his erect penis cutting through the water like a pencil. Blum seemed surprised.

He looked to see Cora’s reaction.—How often does that happen?

She kept her eyes away from the dolphins.—Several times a day.

—I don’t see it in your notes.

She said nothing. She could feel a type of branks in her mouth, holding her tongue down.

—To help with the research, you can’t be bashful.

She looked at him.

He said—Researchers observe everything. We take notes on what we see, no matter what the behavior.

—We?

We—He gestured from himself to her.

She was surprised, the idea that she could be helping with the actual research.

—Mating is a natural behavior for all animals.

He told her to note down each time the dolphins mated. He had her say mating ten times in front of him to get over the embarrassment. He didn’t look away from her lips while she said the word. With each word, she could feel the branks loosening in her mouth.

* * *

Blum might have thought she was shy about observing or discussing sex. He did not understand she grew up on a farm. Much of her family’s income came from the pigs they raised and brought to market. A large part of that work was controlling who mated with whom and when, animal husbandry.

On her dad’s farm, the boar, Luther, weighed 700 pounds. He huffed just from standing, and his bleary eyes peered about for something to attack. He was too unpredictable to be allowed anywhere near the valuable sows, so her dad moved an old weight-lifting bench into one of the empty pens and wiped sow secretions on it. This was common practice among the farmers. Each farmer had a preferred type of mounting bench that they swore by. The one thing they all agreed on was that wood was not a good idea because of the possibility of splinters.

When a sow was in estrus, Luther was ushered into the pen. Instead of a sow, there was that bench which Luther would sniff, then mount and heave away on top of it, a frustrated inchworm, unable to get anywhere.

And her dad would kneel, just as the other farmers did, to reach underneath with both hands, one to help Luther finish, the other holding the bottle ready.

Cora did not talk about mating or sex in front of men, not because she was innocent or bashful. No, branks always came from a lack of power. The reason she didn’t talk about sex was because she did not want to encourage ideas. She did not want the men’s eyes to get intent and for them to stand closer and try to touch her more. She would not have to show any interest; they would still try to get her alone with them. Her branks was out of self-defense.