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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

* * *

In the pool, with nothing else to do, no other dolphins around, Kat connected with Cora in a way she hadn’t before. Without other dolphins around, she focused on the interaction, on the training. Bored and social, she learned faster than Cora could have imagined.

That fourth afternoon, Cora tried gently scratching Kat’s sides and Kat stayed still for five minutes, nearly hypnotized by the sensation of mobile fingers scrubbing. Then abruptly she broke away and moved as far away as she could in the small pool. Looking dazed. After that, Cora sometimes rewarded her for an exceptional kazoo by scrubbing her skin for a few minutes, telling her how well she’d done. Each day they worked and worked.

TWENTY
Aug. 8–15, 1965

It seemed likely that Kat’s sunburned back hurt, along with the dry cracked skin on her fin. She was tired of being in the tiny pool, in the less circulated water, with no other dolphins, barely able to move. So perhaps it wasn’t a surprise that she began to cause trouble. She’d started to flick squid at the kitchen window, at the upstairs bathroom, at the men anytime they stepped outside. From this new vantage point next to the house, Kat was much closer to her targets. The smack of the squid against a window made everyone jump, like the building was under attack.

When the men opened the side door to step out, they learned to duck, jibing left or right, moving fast around the corner of the building. If they forgot, they’d get slapped in the face with a low-flying squid. Kat figured out that Eh tended to juke to the right, so when he came out the door, she began to be able to consistently peg him in the cheek or shoulder. After a few direct hits, he started faking right and then diving left.

One day Blum opened the screen door and automatically ducked and a squid flew in past him to knock over a lamp. The lamp broke with a loud crash. Kat peeked over the edge of the plastic pool, her eyes shining.

The men ate their meals outside on the veranda. This spot was protected from her squid projectiles by the corner of the building, but she could still hear them, so Kat began to imitate their laughs, especially Tibbet’s. He had a tight-throated ack-ack-ack that sounded a bit like he was choking. Each time he laughed, Kat would repeat the sound, the inflection and tone of it. This eerie ack-ack echo from around the corner. It would stop him mid-laugh. All of them listening, eyes down.

Tibbet said it didn’t sound like him at all. Not at all. But when he was outside, he didn’t laugh as much.

* * *

Each day Kat improved at kazooing, not just in the number of sounds she could repeat, but also in the emphasis. So Cora began to recite nursery rhymes. Stylized and exaggerated in beat and tone, the rhymes were easy for Kat to hear, easier for Cora to recognize when Kat had imitated her well.