The Dolphin
Copyright© 2017 by Colin Barrett
Chapter 28
We are in the sea!
Kitik and I make joy together, and again. Even the water seems cleaner, better. Inside it is good but there is wall all around, it cannot flow freely. Here all is open, clean, right.
“Do Minacou,” Kitik tells me. “So they see.”
I dive deep. Inside I cannot dive so deep. I push as strong as I can, and when I leap I go more than I think I ever go. I see the creatures that are always in the air, the humans say bird, and for a time I am one with the birds. The joy fills me.
“Will we hunt?” Kitik asks. “I wish to eat, and there is food.”
We go to hunt. It is the time when Maggie and Jason give us food in what they call the day, and we do not eat before they break open the fence for us. I tell Kitik because we are only two we must hunt in the way of two. I say I will go below and blow in the water to confuse the food and then we will strike.
“No,” he says, “this time I will go below. It is long since I hunt. I must know do I still do well.” In the pod it is I who lead the hunt and not Kitik, but this time I let him lead. He goes below and he blows in the water a little early, but it is still good. I strike very quickly, and he strikes quickly too, and we may eat as we will.
“It is long, but you hunt well,” I tell him. We make joy again.
“I do not hunt so good as you,” he says. “You will lead a new hunt when we are hungry again, as you do in the pod. I blow too soon. It is only that we strike so fast that we eat well. You lead the hunt better. If you were male you would be leader in the pod, not I. I would follow you.”
I go to rub against him that he says this. The feeling for him is very strong in me. I come for him and I find him and I am with him in the sea and my life is right.
“In the next time I will have calf,” I say to him. “I wish you to give me calf.”
“When we are in the pod again I will give you calf,” he says.
But there is a thing to do before we go to seek the pod. I tell Kitik what I say to Maggie.
“Where are these boat dolphins?” he asks. “I do not know them.”
“The ones I know are not far,” I say. “They are near the land because they follow the boats and the boats come from the land. I will take us there.”
As we swim Kitik asks why it is that we do this. I try to explain about money and how it is that the shows are important to Maggie and Jason and the other humans, but I cannot say it right. He does not understand. At the last I can only tell him that we must do this because Maggie wishes it so and I say to her that I will.
“Then we will do,” Kitik says. “If I say to Jason I will do a thing then that is a thing I must do. I feel much for Jason, he cares for me, does for me, he is as mother to me. I say it to him when we leave in the way you tell me. I think you feel some of this for Maggie. It is different in many ways, but in this way I think it is the same.”
“Yes,” I tell him. “Maggie does much for me. I must do this for her.”
He asks me will the boat dolphins come with us when we find them.
“We do not ask,” I say. “We tell them. The ones I meet are stupid, they do not hunt, only do empty shows for humans, play as fools. If you tell them they will follow you as leader, come with us where we take them. If the humans give food as I tell Maggie they will stay when we leave.”
“Then I will tell them,” says Kitik. “For this time I will be their leader. But only to take them to that place. Then we find our pod again.”
“Yes,” I say. “We go to find the pod. And then there will be very great joy. And you will give me calf for us.”
Maggie was sitting on the sea-wall as Jason pulled himself out of the water. Wordlessly she handed him the towel. He dried himself cursorily; the sun would finish the job. Then he sat down to join her in gazing out at the ocean. They watched as the dolphins jumped in unison, Minacou made her final spectacular leap, and then there was only the sea and the rising sun.
They were still sitting there half an hour later when Morris walked up along the wall. He sat down beside them.
“So,” he said after a moment. “Somebody want to tell me?”
“Morris, I’m so sorry,” Maggie said. “We had to let them go.”
“I saw. You were trying to be quiet, but I had the window open. You woke me up, I watched the whole thing.”
“You didn’t try to stop us,” she said wonderingly.
“Well. I figured you had to have a good reason. Didn’t think you’d do it just to spite me.”
“Morris, of course not!” she protested. “And I’m going to pay you back, what you spent for Kitik, the fence, the ads, every dime, no matter how long it takes.”
“We will,” Jason put in. “Maggie and I, both of us.”
“Mmm,” said Morris noncommittally. “Talk about that later. For now how about you tell me why.”
She gave him the whole story, starting with her talk with Minacou and going on from there. Neither Morris nor Jason interrupted as she carried it through to the final decision.
“Morris, I felt like there was really no choice. I know the law says all they are is possessions, things to be owned. Like pets, zoo animals, cattle, whatever. But they’re not things, they’re alive, they’re as intelligent as we are or maybe even more, and ... don’t they deserve to be free as much as humans when that’s what they want?”
“Mmm,” he said again in the same tone. He paused for a moment in thought. “You couldn’t say this to me first?”
“Morris, I thought—”
“You thought I’d say no?” he pressed. “Tell you don’t mess with my fishies, they belong to me?”
“I— I didn’t know,” she stammered.
“Mmm.”
They sat for a moment in silence.
“Tell you a story,” Morris said. “Back when I was a little kid we lived next door to an old couple. Nice old folks. I was what you call a latchkey kid, mom and pop both worked so they weren’t there when I got home from school. This old couple, they’d have me over every single day. I called them gramma and grampa. They’d feed me, make sure I did my homework, I was as much at home with them as I was at home.”
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