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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

* * *

Since seawater was highly conductive, electricity was too dangerous to have anywhere near the pool. The only electricity in the homearium was in the microphones and spotlights, both of which were wired high up on the ceiling. For safety, the switches for both were inside the house, outside of her control.

At dusk, that first day, the spotlights clicked on abruptly, the bare kind of lighting associated with prison yards and guard towers. Looking over, she saw Blum in the living room, next to the switch, watching her.

By this point, her thighs were trembling from exhaustion, from wading all day through water. She had several bruises from tripping over Junior. She wanted a hot shower, followed by dry clothes, a big meal and then bed.

When she designed the homearium, she had thought it smart to put the shower inside the pool. Placed here, she could continue to talk with Junior, to work with him, even while showering. This arrangement, she believed, mimicked the way a mom worked with her baby, the two of them always together.

However what she hadn’t imagined was how much she might want a shower at the end of the day, her skin itchy with salt. She hadn’t imagined how brightly lit the homearium would be under the spotlights or that the men might be eating dinner just on the other side of picture windows or that they might have turned their chairs to watch the homearium like it was a large TV. Under these circumstances, she did not want to step behind a shower curtain, even if it was opaque.

So instead she started dinner. Within a minute, she learned how hard it was to cook on a propane stove hanging on chains from the ceiling. Anytime she flipped or moved the food, the stove twisted and began to swing. Objects sitting on the stove or counter would rock or fall over. While cooking, she had to hold the side of the stove with one hand to keep it still.

Twice, she realized she’d forgotten an ingredient. She waded across the homearium to the dry room to retrieve first the flour and then the milk. Her legs so tired, her hips aching.

After she finished eating, she eyed the shower again. If she waited until the men turned the spotlights off, she’d have to shower, dress herself and find her way to the bed in the dark with a dolphin winding around her feet.

The men had finished with dinner and were sitting in the living room cradling highballs and talking with each other, only glancing at the homearium occasionally. So, with determination, she stepped into the shower and yanked the curtain shut. She stood in a 3-foot circle with water to her knees. It took work to pull off her bathing suit and tug it off her feet in that small space. Belatedly she noticed her shadow on the curtain, her contorted undressing probably visible from the other side. When she cranked the water on, Junior got very curious, butting his way under the curtain, swimming around her feet, rucking up the curtain a few inches each time his dorsal fin went under it. She kept her feet spread for balance, trying not to trip on him and stumble out from behind the curtain.