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
Mother watched his actions closely, her head up so both her eyes could focus.
Tibbet considered the flow of the water for a minute, then rocked the gate with his foot so it fell to the next notch.
Mother blinked at this.
After he left, Mother examined the gate for a long time, watching how the water moved under the metal gate and down the exit stream without the debris there. She did not let more seaweed go to watch it roll down the stream, but simply stared at the gate itself.
* * *
Cora now knew the different dolphins, their bodies and voices. Even with her eyes closed, she could frequently tell which dolphin made which noise.
Bernie’s voice was the lowest, and he liked to issue long vibrating raspberries from his blowhole.
Mother had a tightness, a sort of quivering intensity to her voice.
Kat had the greatest vocal range and could create the widest variety of sounds. By now she could imitate the doves cooing or the metallic ringing of the phone in the house.
The youngest one, Junior, tried to imitate the sounds of the other dolphins, but couldn’t make the same variety of noises yet. Like any teenager, he didn’t have the full vocabulary of an adult.
One day Cora bought them a toy at the market in town: a 10-inch punch ball. When she threw it in the lagoon, Junior investigated it first, clicking at it, then tentatively prodding it with his beak. (While the dolphins still would not touch any food or object the men put into the lagoon, they clearly no longer considered Cora a stranger, for they would accept anything she threw in.)
Within minutes Junior was throwing his body on top of the ball, trying to keep it balanced under him while he pushed it deep under the water, then rolled off it to have it rocket up into the air.
He used his beak to flick the ball to Mother, but she just watched it splash onto the water near her and then turned away, uninterested.
Junior retrieved the ball and looked around. With no other dolphin at the surface, he flipped the ball to Cora. Surprised, she missed the throw, so the ball bounced onto the dock and rolled to a stop against one of the posts.
He stared at it there, out of his reach, the solemn stillness of a child. Feeling badly for him, she fetched it and tossed it back.
He jumped for it, so happy, then bopped it back to her, but it flew wide and landed on the sand of the beach. He looked at it. She fetched it.
This was how they started to play catch—with the dolphin throwing the ball and the human retrieving it.
* * *
The next book she borrowed was a copy of the Journal of Behavior. She chose it because the cover had a photo of a dog in a cage. She thought the featured article might be about how to train animals.