The Dolphin

I do not understand these creatures. I do not understand why they do what it is that they do.

There are two who are nearby on the land almost always when it is light above. The one that Kitik cares for is bigger and the sounds it makes are lower. It is the one that usually asks us to do things when there are many other of the creatures near.

I think I am right that the other creatures come to watch. I do not know why they wish to watch, but I think it is what they do.

The smaller of the two creatures is with us more often when there are no other creatures near, or fewer of them. That one often makes noises to us. It seems to wish us to make such noises too, and it is pleased when Kitik does so. Kitik tells me it would please this one if I make the noises, but for a time I do not do so. I think it is foolish to make noises that mean nothing, and I do not wish to appear foolish before these creatures.

It is dull in this place. There are no hunts, and nothing to hunt; we take our food from the creatures and it comes without effort. There are no evil mouths to flee, no weed to avoid. There are no new places to go or different creatures to see. There is no room to swim well, the land and the rock weed are all around. Kitik is here but only he, there are no others to be with. I am idle.

I speak to Kitik of these things. He tells me it is always so since he comes to this place. It does not trouble him. In the sea Kitik is always easy in the times when it is dull there. I do not like being idle even then, but Kitik is content.

Because I have nothing else to do I begin to pay more heed to the land creatures. They make noises often; sometimes it is when the smaller one makes them to us, but they also make many noises between themselves. When I listen to the noises I find that they sometimes make the same noises to each other that they do to us. I begin to think that the noises have meaning.

There is a noise “fish” that both of the creatures make when they give us food. I say that noise back to them, and they give me more food. I think that noise means food.

I learn that other noises mean other things. “Jump” is the noise for making joy above the water. “Bell” means the thing that is above the water that they wish us to leap and strike, or perhaps it means the leaping and striking, I am not certain. I learn the meaning of other sounds.

If this is how the creatures speak to one another it seems a very clumsy way of talking. Their speech, if that is what it is, has none of the richness of our own, it can have only simple meanings.

But I do not believe these creatures are themselves simple. There are things on the land that I do not believe form there; I think these creatures may build some of those things. If they do that they must be complicated, and if they are complicated they must be able to talk with meanings more than simple.

A strange thing happens. The smaller creature begins to make other noises to us. They are not the same kind of noises, and I do not hear the creatures use these noises to each other. The new noises seem almost like our own speech. The creature makes a noise that is something like Kitik’s name, and another noise that could be my name if it were said by one who could not speak properly.

I know it cannot be that the creatures are trying to say our names. They do not use our names, they make up other noises that they use instead of our names. They speak to Kitik as “Tow-bee” and to me as “Em-ill-lee.” I do not know why they use these noises; we are not nameless. They do right that they use two sounds for Kitik and three sounds for me, that is the proper way of names. But these are not our names.

I think that both of these creatures may be male. They speak to each other as “Jay-sun” and “Mag-gee,” each with two sounds. But perhaps it is that they do not know the way of names, I cannot be sure.

When I tell these thoughts to Kitik he says I am too much in the shadow of what things may be. “Leave it, come in the now,” he says, and he nudges me in play, and for a time we play in the water. It is good to be in the now with Kitik.

But in times when we do not play I try to understand more of these creatures. If I cannot leave this place, and even if I could I would not leave without Kitik and I know he cannot leave as I come in, then I will be with the creatures for long. If that will be so then it is good to know as much of them as I may.