The Dolphin
Copyright© 2017 by Colin Barrett
Chapter 24
Kitik is right.
And yet he does not go far enough in his thought. He says he believes that humans talk shadow and live in shadow, but it is more. The humans make their shadow themselves and then allow the shadow they make to become the now for them.
I think this is what Altauk means when he tells me before that it is not good to live too much in shadow. Shadow is with everyone, but most know that shadow is different from the now. And I do not see how it is possible to live when not only is this difference lost in the mind but the mind makes its own shadow and believes it to be the now.
It is when the guards of whom Maggie tells me come that I learn how deep is their shadow and how it overtakes their lives. One of them speaks with me, and at first I do not find him foolish; for a time he speaks as Maggie does, and he listens when I speak and replies sensibly, and I am pleased.
But then he begins to talk to me of strange things. He speaks of something called a country and how it is a portion of the land that is apart from other land. He says that humans make such divisions in the land and then in each of the countries they make they live in one way when in other countries they live in another way.
I do not see how this can be. We do not divide the sea, it is the sea and it cannot be divided. The land is different, I know this, but I do not understand how humans can make divisions in it.
And there is more, the new Mike that Maggie brings speaks of love for this country or that. How can there be something in one part of the land that is so different from other parts of the land? And even if there is, if one part of the land is better than another part, would not all love the better part more no matter if they lived in that part or another part?
When the Mike leaves I ask Maggie more of this. How are the pieces of the land set apart? She says it is agreed that one part will be this country and a barrier is made, and on the other side of the barrier is another country. She says that humans may not cross the barrier freely but must ask permission to enter the country.
When I say I do not understand she asks do we not do the same? I tell that naturally each pod will have a place where we will be but that the place will not always be the same. What if another dolphin that is not part of the pod seeks to come into the place of the pod, she asks. I say that one may come if he wishes but there will not be others to hunt with him or make joy with him and he will not wish to stay.
Then she asks what if another pod comes to the place of the first po7d? What if the hunting in the place of the first pod is better than in other places and both pods wish to be in that place?
I tell her the sea is large and there is good hunting in many places. If two pods wish to share a place there will be room for them, or perhaps they may in time join with each other if there are not too many for a hunt.
She asks will we not fight the other pod to guard our place, or will they not fight us to take that place. I do not understand her question. Why would one fight another for a place in the sea? And why would many fight together against others for any reason?
Yet I understand that this is what humans do for their divisions of the land. They make the divisions themselves and believe those divisions are the now, and then they fight each other to break or keep the divisions.
Maggie says that this is because humans build great things for themselves and they somehow make their food, and those things must be done in one place and so the place is important.
In this way I can understand how a place on the land may be more important than a place in the sea where none build things or make food. I ask is it that there are not enough things or not enough food, or only just enough, and that is why others may not enter. But she says that is not the reason for fighting, it is that each group of humans gathers to itself as much as it is able and wishes to keep all of what it has and to take more from others.
This is not the behavior of sensible creatures, it is madness. It is shadow that overtakes the now.
I begin to think that I must not stay for long in this place, or perhaps the shadow of these humans will take me as well. I like to be with Maggie and Jason, I learn very much and they are good to Kitik and me. But I think there must come a time when we will leave this place and return to the sea and to those who do not give their lives over to shadow.
That time is not yet, I have much to learn still.
But I think it may be soon.
“Politics!” Maggie burst out disgustedly. Jason had the TV news on and the talking heads on the screen were discussing the upcoming election.
He laughed easily. “It’s what makes the world go round, honey,” he said. “Who runs the country today and who wants to run it tomorrow.”
“Why would any rational person want to go out there and suck up to thousands of people, make that millions, just to get elected to some temporary job where he has to do the same thing all over again in a year or two in order to keep it?” she demanded.
“Well,” he said reasonably, “I suppose we could make the jobs permanent. Like royalty or dictators or something. Maybe even let the next generation inherit so we wouldn’t have the indignity of politics even when the poor bastards dropped dead.”
She grimaced in reluctant acquiescence. “OK, OK, I don’t need a lecture on democracy one-oh-one. I guess there has to be some way of choosing. But why— Oh, I don’t know.”
“Just think of it like a job interview,” he said with amusement. “You’ve had those, I know. It’s just that this one is with lots and lots of personnel officers all at once and you’ve got to sell them all, or at least the majority.”
“But all they do is lie, “ she protested. “You’ve heard the old joke about politicians, you know they’re lying when you see their lips moving. They just say what they think people want to hear.”
“Whereas when you interviewed for Flagler, for example, you made sure to say everything you could to alienate them, right?”
“Uh,” she grunted. “OK, point taken.”
“Honey, if they’d caught you out in a bunch of lies they’d have shitcanned you, right? Well, politics is pretty much the same. If they do too many whoppers we boot their butts out and go for somebody else the next time around. It really isn’t that unreasonable a way of doing things, now, is it?”
“I suppose,” she said grudgingly. “But if it’s like you say, a sort of job interview, then it has to be a job you want or you wouldn’t be interviewing. So why does anybody want that kind of job?”
“Being a leader? Doesn’t everybody want to lead, be at the front of the line?”
“I sure don’t,” she told him flatly.
“Oh?” He looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You’re doing all this with Minacou and Kitik for the sheer joy of doing it? No plans to publish, make a name for yourself, get to the top of your field?”
“That’s different!” He continued to look at her with an unaltered expression. “OK, maybe it’s not completely different,” she finally, grudgingly admitted. “Sure, I want to do all that. But not just to pump myself up, so I can have some say, make a difference. Get people to do things my way, see them my way, do what’s right.”
His expression didn’t change as he turned his head to the TV and nodded.
“Oh, I guess,” she said in frustration. This wasn’t going as she’d expected.
“Honey, most of them want the same thing. Sure, some of them are crooks, they’re just in it for what they can take or steal or whatever, but there are easier ways to be a crook. Mostly they want the same things you do.” He leaned over for a kiss and she responded, but it was perfunctory; her mind was still churning.
“That’s not really what I meant,” she said vaguely.
“So what is it you meant?”
She shook her head. “It’s more like— why are we the way we are and they’re the way they are?”
He understood; she was talking about the dolphins. “You’re going to have to bring me up to speed, Mag,” he said.
“Look, today Joe started talking to Minacou about—”
“Joe?”
“Sherlock Holmes or whoever,” she said impatiently. “He told me his name is really Joe something, gave me his card. Anyhow, he said some stuff about countries and patriotism and all, and she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, and afterwards she asked me, and I didn’t know what to say.”
“Well, it’s not that tough—” he began.
“For you, maybe,” she interrupted. “But what do I know? I was science in school, babe. Ask me about the genome of fruitflies, or why seaweed’s important, I can give you hours. Even out of my field—how do you make an atom bomb? Is Pluto a planet or not? We can talk.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Is it? Pluto?”
“Who cares? But this is something I can’t do well. I’ve become sort of an ambassador for the human race with a whole other species—”
“Stop,” he cut her off. “Or at least slow down, way down. What are you talking about?”
“Well, aren’t I? I’m really the only one who talks to Minacou and she’s for pretty sure the only dolphin who talks to a human, so that lays a big responsibility on me. I’m trying to put our best foot forward—”
“Maggie, honey, you know what I think of you, hell, for me you walk on water, but don’t you think you’re giving yourself maybe just a teeny bit too much importance here?”
“Am I?” she asked meekly.
“Love, you’re a human being talking to a dolphin,” he told her. “Sure, it’s never been done before, it’s a huge breakthrough, but it’s just one-on-one. If we ever get to that stage there’ll be plenty of time for both sides to appoint ambassadors or whatever, and go for all the let’s-make-a-good-impression, let’s-make-a-deal, that kind of stuff. For now it’s you and Minacou. Two friends talking together. Don’t put a lot of extra weight on your shoulders.”
“Well, but all that’s down the road,” she said. “Sure, it’s just me and her, but it’s the first. And you know how important first impressions are. I don’t want her first impression of humans to be that we’re weirdos, what kind of start is that for interspecies communication? Can’t you just hear her telling other dolphins, ‘sure, we can talk to these dorks, but they’re whack jobs, why do we want to bother?’”
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