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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

She grunted with surprise, seeing her first grandchild with a dolphin’s ears.

SEVENTEEN
July 18–25, 1965

Cora watched how Tibbet did his research. At no point did he just let himself sit still and observe the dolphins, how they moved and interacted. He did not wonder about their personalities or perceptions or let his mind hold big questions. Instead he focused on one small aspect at a time and tallied up the associated behaviors. Knowing the numbers made him confident about what he’d seen.

When she asked him why he studied the animals this way, he paused for a moment, thinking, then told her a science paper was like a recipe.

(While he spoke, there was no wind and she was sitting close to him with her glasses on, so she could hear more of his words. However it was apparent that Tibbet was also speaking in a different way. He leaned forward and enunciated each word, facing her so she could read his lips. He wanted her to understand. His love for science in his face.)

He said a recipe was a list of the ingredients and actions needed to get a desired result. A science paper was like that, except it also postulated why the recipe might have worked out that way and what the implications might be.

He said other researchers could then try to duplicate the recipe to confirm it. By confirming recipes and improving on them, scientists gradually evolved a better and better understanding of the world. That, he said, is how you got to the truth.

The word he said that was the hardest for her to hear was science. Partly it was because it had an S-sound at the beginning and end of the word, a sound so hard for her ears to hear, but partly it was that when he said the word, his voice got more breathy, a little like the way her Aunt Etty talked about God.

Tibbet mentioned twice that the highest possible standard was something he called a double-blind experiment.

It could be she’d misheard this phrase. It didn’t seem like being doubly blind would be helpful. Maybe he was saying double-line instead. That night, she looked up both versions of the term in the glossaries of the books and journals she’d borrowed, but couldn’t find either. It might be one of those obvious terms all scientists were supposed to know. Unsure of its meaning, Cora pictured Tibbet as the kind of high-strung horse that had blinders on both sides of his bridle so he wouldn’t get startled or distracted.

When he talked about science, she saw he was trying to help her, to teach her. He was not an unkind man.

She knew he’d used the analogy of a recipe because he thought this was a concept that, as a woman, she might understand.

* * *

The third day, trying to train the dolphins, Cora held out a butterfish, saying Talk, talk. Kat considered her for a moment, then dove under the water and came back, holding in her mouth a grey and bloated object. With a fast flick of her head, she threw it onto the dock beside the bucket.