The Dolphin
Chapter 17

Copyright© 2017 by Colin Barrett

I am not sure why I continue to speak with these strange human creatures.

Kitik says it is stupid. He says their talk is shadow-talk. I know that he cares much for the human Jason, I see them in the water when Kitik plays with Jason, but it is not the same. I do not care for Maggie in the same way that Kitik does for Jason, but there is a feeling in me of sameness, as if she and I are alike in some way.

If that one wishes talk why does she not speak our speech, Kitik asks. I tell him she cannot say our speech, she does not even say our names right, only a little close. I try to say to her some of our speech, but she cannot say good. She does not understand how we speak all in small sounds. She does not even understand how it is different between the sounds we make for speaking and the sounds we make for hearing them back and knowing what is before us and around us. Because I can make her speech by playing with my breathing and using their way of making speech in small parts and putting the parts together, that is how I must speak to her.

But Kitik does not care about such things. He tells me there is a right way to speak and this one does not speak that way, this one does not speak in the now.

At first Kitik attends our talk. He wishes to go with me to where I travel in the mind, and I wish him to go with me as well. He tells me he hears the humans make these sounds when they care for him at the place where he is taken, the hos-pit-tall, but he does not understand the sense.

I think Kitik does not care to know the sense. I wish it were not so, but I know that it is. Kitik stays with me long as I speak with Maggie and the one she brings with her, but in time he wearies and goes to himself. If he is gone away long I go to him and tell him that I will be with him and not the humans. Sometimes he goes back to be with me as I speak to the humans. Sometimes he says to me to go back and he will rest, or he will play with Jason.

The one that Maggie brings is foolish like the other one to begin, and I tell that I will not speak foolish and go away. But Maggie asks me come back, and then that one begins to speak sense with me. I think this one is male, his voice is lower like Jason’s voice and I think that is a way of knowing. His name also has two sounds, but I learn that humans do not know the way of names so I must use other kinds of knowing.

It would be easier to know except the humans cover their bodies with things. I will ask Maggie why they do this.

I begin to speak with Maggie only to know about Kitik. Then I continue to speak with her to learn more about humans, whether they may wish us harm. Maggie says the one who hurt Kitik does that because its mind is in shadow, but I think that the minds of all humans are often in shadow.

But it is not the shadow of Acou where there is pain for him and he must strike at others. That one wishes hurt for Kitik because of the pain of its shadow, but Maggie and Jason and I think also the new one Jerry do not wish hurt for us, they are in another shadow that does not seem to make pain for them.

Kitik asks why do I go in shadow. I tell him that shadow is a part of how I come to find him and to be with him. He says it is good that shadow helps bring us together again, but now we are together and it is time to leave shadow.

But I live always in a part of shadow. I am in the now and it is good, but the now is not enough for me as it is for Kitik and for most. When it is slow and dull my mind drifts to shadow. Perhaps some part of this I take from my father, from Acou, but his shadow is different. Mine does not make pain in me.

The shadow of the humans’ speech is another different. I do not know if it is good or it is bad. I think maybe it is neither by itself. But I will learn more of this shadow, and then I may know better.


Maggie was still sitting where Jerry had left her, numb with the shock of her complete success. She’d hoped, she’d worked so hard, and then it had all happened so quickly she could scarcely believe it.

A knock at the door finally stirred her into motion.

“I saw him leave and you didn’t come down,” Jason was saying as he walked in. “So I figured ... and you’ve got my only key.” She was silent, simply staring at him as though he’d dropped in from outer space.

“Well?” he persisted. “You look ... weird. What happened? He turn you down? Dammit—”

“No.” She waved her hands aimlessly to stop him. “He— he’s giving me a grant!”

“Hey, all right!

“Twenty—” She gulped. “Twenty thousand dollars! For six months, and I can ask for a renewal.”

He grabbed her into a sweeping hug. “You did it!” he exulted.

She pushed back to look into his face. “We did it,” she corrected. “Babe, I couldn’t have done it without you.” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, and this time there was no turning back. His response was immediate, and the kiss lasted and deepened. His hands began to stray on her body in a touch she welcomed.

He’d begun lifting her T-shirt when she pulled back. “No!” she said abruptly.

“Maggie—”

“Not here. Morris...”

“Yeah.”

“My place,” she said breathlessly. “Let’s don’t be obvious. You go out and finish up or whatever, and then I’ll go through the lobby and say good night and all. I’ll get my car and pull out and head home, and you leave out the gate. I’ll pull off by the bridge and wait, you can follow me. OK?”

“Sure, great.” He was still holding her.

“One more for the road,” she said, leaning into him for another kiss even more passionate than the first one. “Wow,” she said softly. “Go on now. By the bridge, just before, OK?”

“See you there,” he said. “Don’t be long, huh?” He looked down and laughed. “I think I’d better go out the side entrance, I’m a little visible.” She gave him a happy smile as he left.

As Jerry had pointedly remarked she had no makeup to repair, but she passed a wet washcloth over her face to cool the flush she knew was there and adjusted her clothes. As she ran her fingers through her hair to fix it as best she could without a brush she looked at herself critically in the mirror. She shook her head ruefully. “Jerry’s right,” she muttered to herself. “What the hell does Jason see in that?”

In the event it took her several minutes more than she’d anticipated to make her exit. Morris had clearly been waiting for her in the lobby; she’d told him the day before about Jerry’s visit, and he was eager for news. She was purposefully vague about the amount of the grant—even with Jerry’s money in the offing she didn’t want to turn off the $100 a week he’d been paying her, at least until she actually had the check in hand—but she gave him a synopsis that she intended to be brief. He continued to pepper her with so many questions that she finally had to plead weariness from the schedule she’d been keeping, and even then he followed her halfway into the parking lot before he finally let her go with a congratulatory hand grasping her shoulder.

 
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