Section Two<\/p>\n
as sung by Laughter Ring<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
CHAPTER TEN<\/p>\n
The others may sing, and we may listen, but best of all and<\/em><\/p>\n always, we laugh.<\/em><\/p>\n It is we.<\/em><\/p>\n The two of us, for always — forever and a day.<\/em><\/p>\n We are dolphin. He is Little Brother and I am Laughter Ring.<\/em><\/p>\n But I am before the story, and the Song of the Sea must be<\/em><\/p>\n sung clearly to all those who will listen and understand.<\/em><\/p>\n This song cannot be sung as some of the other songs have<\/em><\/p>\n been sung. Those other songs are long in melody and rich in<\/em><\/p>\n voice. I can barely carry a tune — my voice squeaks and twitters.<\/em><\/p>\n The other was whale and he is great in philosophy and purpose. I<\/em><\/p>\n am dolphin, and we have little philosophy. Our purpose as dolphin<\/em><\/p>\n was and is to laugh, to giggle — to bring mirth and merriment to the<\/em><\/p>\n cloudiest of days.<\/em><\/p>\n This then is my singing of the Song of the Sea.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was born long, long ago in a happy time, a time of joy in<\/p>\n the waters of life. I grew, like all birthed creatures, for some con-<\/p>\n scious time in the darkness of my mother\u2019s womb, listening to her<\/p>\n silly stories about the mysteries of life. \u201cYou will be different,\u201d she<\/p>\n whispered, \u201cYou will be special. Your laughter will ring the world<\/p>\n over and cause rainbows to kiss the waters that flow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho, me?\u201d<\/p>\n Then, in a blink of an octopus eye and the pop of a sea foam<\/p>\n bubble, I was suddenly one with the world. Oh, and how the sights<\/p>\n and the sounds assailed my senses, but I wasn\u2019t shocked or fright-<\/p>\n ened. Like all dolphin, I was amused. The world made me laugh,<\/p>\n and laugh I did. I laughed and laughed, rolled and giggled in delight<\/p>\n at all I saw and felt. My mother, as tradition dictated named me what<\/p>\n first came to her mind –Laughter Ring.<\/p>\n The mother and daughter intimacy was lost in the riot of<\/p>\n colors that danced upon the waters of life. In the silliness of all that<\/p>\n is, I immediately joined with others my own age. How the seas<\/p>\n rolled with our laughter as we danced on the waves and leaped over<\/p>\n the wind. We chased our tails which made us laugh all the merrier,<\/p>\n for there were many of the young in those days, and even the older<\/p>\n dolphin loved the sound of our laughter.<\/p>\n Time, like the tides, rolled on. We traveled all about the<\/p>\n great circle of our sea, from crystal ice to balmy blue. From our sea<\/p>\n we watched the golden light as it rose in the dawn over the Dryside<\/p>\n of Burning Rain. We followed the golden light across our sea to<\/p>\n the dryside where it finally set smoldering into the steamy fields of<\/p>\n dryside kelp that waved so oddly there.<\/p>\n Fate always calls to those who listen, and fate sang to me<\/p>\n in rapture. Hundreds of tides after my birthing, my joining with<\/p>\n the laughter of life, I met my life\u2019s mate. I was sneaking up on the<\/p>\n tuna-tails and tickling their bellies from beneath, causing them to<\/p>\n scatter in fear, when I found myself the victim of another\u2019s teasing.<\/p>\n Somewhere, somehow, someone had slipped beneath me and tick-<\/p>\n led me in the most ticklish of spots between fluke and fin. I giggled<\/p>\n and rolled trying to escape as laughter in bubbles fair burst in rain-<\/p>\n bows in the surface air. Try though I might, I could not escape this<\/p>\n demon of the untimely tickle.<\/p>\n \u201cStop!\u201d I cried as my tears squeezed into the already salty<\/p>\n water. \u201cI can laugh no more, or surely I will die.\u201d<\/p>\n His voice called to me with a final tickle on my tail. \u201cBe not<\/p>\n I the one to cause your death, Laughter Ring who sings so sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n And there he was — sleek and silver with streaks of black racing<\/p>\n back from head to tail.<\/p>\n \u201cWho are you?\u201d I cried, stifling the laughter that yearned to<\/p>\n giggle more, \u201cwho tickles those who were made for tickling?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust me,\u201d he sang in his sing-song fashion.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd just who under the seas is \u2018just me\u2019?\u201d I asked in<\/p>\n mock disdain.<\/p>\n \u201cMy name is Little Brother,\u201d he exclaimed in all seriousness.<\/p>\n Whether by reason of his serious tone or perhaps the silli-<\/p>\n ness of his name (I know not which), I again began to laugh. \u201cWhy<\/p>\n are you called Little Brother?\u201d<\/p>\n He became more somber still and said, \u201cI must warn you that<\/p>\n I am very good at riddles. Why would I not be called Little Brother?<\/p>\n Can the answer be a question: Did not my mother and father already<\/p>\n birth an older child?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I suppose,\u201d I laughed, that his name is Older Brother.<\/p>\n Tides forbid that your parents should birth another son for he should<\/p>\n be called Littlest Brother. Then there would be room for no other<\/p>\n brothers and your mother would have had to begin on the daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n I think at this point the joke had turned a bit sour and my<\/p>\n companion of tickle had become indignant at the laughter pointed<\/p>\n at his name. \u201cFor your information,\u201d he retorted tartly, \u201cmy other<\/p>\n brother is not called Older Brother, but rather something else.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike what?\u201d I asked. \u201cOlderest Brother?\u201d<\/p>\n I truly expected Little Brother to answer that his brother was<\/p>\n named a regal name like Prince of the Sea or Radiant Splendor,<\/p>\n but he retorted in a very somber tone, \u201cMy older brother is named<\/p>\n Bubble Butt.\u201d<\/p>\n Like the pest I was then, I persisted and swam after the bait,<\/p>\n \u201cBubble Butt? Your older brother is called Bubble Butt?\u201d<\/p>\n Indignantly, he turned tail to me and I surely felt I had hurt<\/p>\n him to the quick. \u201cI am sorry,\u201d I sang. \u201cI meant no harm.\u201d I followed<\/p>\n but stayed behind in consolation.<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he sighed, \u201cyou meant no harm but great harm you<\/p>\n did cause.\u201d<\/p>\n I was hooked, saddened by the laughter turned sour, by the<\/p>\n hurt to another. \u201cI truly meant no harm. It was just that the name<\/p>\n Bubble Butt seems a bit odd.\u201d<\/p>\n He still had his back to me and, I felt deep remorse from my<\/p>\n dark humor. Never is a dolphin\u2019s laughter to cause pain. \u201cHis name<\/p>\n really is Bubble Butt. He got his name because he was born butt<\/p>\n first in a bubble and his butt is monstrous round and smooth and<\/p>\n does look like a bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n It was then that Little Brother turned toward me, and I could<\/p>\n see the mischief in his eyes. He was not hurt at all; he was teasing.<\/p>\n He was the master jabber of jabs in the ribs of some unsuspecting<\/p>\n squiggly-finned creature.<\/p>\n I was shocked and surprised, and a bit dizzy as one who has<\/p>\n been turned round and round. \u201cWhy, you . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBesides,\u201d he laughed, \u201cI really don\u2019t have a brother, but I do<\/p>\n have a sister called Older Sister. I was to be Little Sister, but nature<\/p>\n always causes the rain to fall on those who seek fair weather.\u201d<\/p>\n With a flip of his tail under my chin, Little Brother was gone<\/p>\n in a flash, and feeling angry at being duped I quickly chased after<\/p>\n him. He breached from the waters as he raced along slicing smooth-<\/p>\n ly into the dryside, gaining speed and distance. I followed, and our<\/p>\n spray traced lazy patterns back to the sea.<\/p>\n We chased and chased until my anger turned again to ex-<\/p>\n hausted blowing of misted laughter from the tonal vent on my<\/p>\n head. We finally stopped in a cove of coral, living rock and there<\/p>\n we looked long into one another\u2019s eyes. It was a deep soulful look<\/p>\n that merged and melted all our reserves and, like others before, we<\/p>\n became one — in our own way we were mated for life — bonded by<\/p>\n that which must be. Shyly we turned away and joined the others, but<\/p>\n we were one, soul mates — forever and a day.<\/p>\n In the sea, the tides change, and with changing comes the<\/p>\n growth to adulthood. It was strange as I grew how I never felt the<\/p>\n change, but rather observed.<\/p>\n Little Brother and I bonded closer and closer in friend-<\/p>\n ship until we nearly thought alike. In many ways that was a scary<\/p>\n thought indeed, Little Brother being silly as he was.<\/p>\n Together we played, laughed, and teased the world unmer-<\/p>\n cifully. The feathered-furies were a delightful prey and the subject<\/p>\n of a great many jokes and games. At times, we would slip slowly<\/p>\n beneath them as they floated in the waters of life. Then gently, like<\/p>\n a rising tide, Little Brother would slowly rise until one of them would<\/p>\n be standing, quite confused, on his back. Not very intelligent were<\/p>\n they. They would stand there, these dryside, feathered tunas, while I<\/p>\n would rise under another one until the two were standing eye to eye.<\/p>\n With wide eyes, they would screech warnings to each other and<\/p>\n then lumber up into the wind-swept sky. My friend and I would roll<\/p>\n in the seas, bathed in our own laughter.<\/p>\n One of our favorite ploys was to slip into a great gathering<\/p>\n of these feathered-furies and skim the surface with our fins jutting<\/p>\n from the water like some great sharp-fin, which are known to have<\/p>\n devoured a dryside meal or two. This cruel joke was played many,<\/p>\n many times, but like all jokes, it finally ran its course and became<\/p>\n less amusing when the pretend became reality.<\/p>\n One day as we were playing our little child\u2019s game, knifing<\/p>\n through the waters pretending to be other than we were, scaring<\/p>\n the very feathers off them, I noticed Little Brother, who was silkily<\/p>\n slicing through the water on my strong-fin side. \u201cHow smooth he<\/p>\n glides,\u201d I thought. \u201cAlmost like a real sharp-fin.\u201d<\/p>\n I swam for a time in this manner with Little Brother at my<\/p>\n side, when I dove to change sides and make a new run at the feath-<\/p>\n ered furies. To my amazement, Little Brother had shifted sides, too,<\/p>\n and we were still swimming side by side. I blinked and realized that<\/p>\n there was no way possible that he could have gotten from one side<\/p>\n to the other.<\/p>\n \u201cOh sweet coral crap!\u201d shouted Little Brother, \u201cA sharp-fin is<\/p>\n swimming at your side! It would not please me to watch you be-<\/p>\n come a meaty meal.\u201d<\/p>\n I breached and as quickly dove, glancing behind to see if<\/p>\n I had eluded that which I had moments before striven so hard to<\/p>\n imitate. To my great discomfort, I discovered the sharp-fin had tired<\/p>\n of snacks of feathered-fury and decided to follow me. Not only to<\/p>\n follow but also to intercept and perhaps devour a small meal — a<\/p>\n meal that was composed of a plump young female dolphin who was<\/p>\n far too young for such a fate!<\/p>\n I twisted and swam deeper, and yet it followed on behind in<\/p>\n that icy way that sharp-fins do. He slid by, as if I weren\u2019t there at<\/p>\n all, and then turned to face me, jaws open wide, glistening teeth in a<\/p>\n sickening smile. His eyes rolled and the lids locked in the evil eye of<\/p>\n death. This was it! I was soon to be a lump in his stomach. I twist-<\/p>\n ed and lurched to one side as he attacked, knowing too well that my<\/p>\n defenses were hardly any defense at all.<\/p>\n My prayers of finality, the beginning of the end, were rudely<\/p>\n broken as my eye caught a flash of diffused light on yet another<\/p>\n sharp-fin. But this was not simply another mortal fin; this was none<\/p>\n other than Little Brother, and he was throwing himself at my attack-<\/p>\n er. His body rammed the sharp-fin full in the side, and there was a<\/p>\n burst of bubbles as the creature lost a rib or two from the collision.<\/p>\n Quickly, Little Brother raced off and attacked, again and again. The<\/p>\n sharp-fin soon lost all desire to taste my sweet meat, and beat a<\/p>\n hasty retreat into the deep.<\/p>\n I surfaced, my tail quivering in the aftershock of fear that<\/p>\n touches all of us at the closeness of a meeting with the beginning<\/p>\n of the end. Little Brother soon leaped above and then fell back into<\/p>\n the water. His showing off, which normally irritated me, this time did<\/p>\n nothing more than ingratiate, as I watched my hero bound about in<\/p>\n the waters of life.<\/p>\n Finally he tired of his game and swam to my side and gently<\/p>\n asked, \u201cAre you okay, Laughter Ring?\u201d<\/p>\n Surprised by his gentleness, I responded in kind, \u201cI am all<\/p>\n right. Thank you. For what you did was very brave and very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot so brave nor for the reason as you would think,\u201d he<\/p>\n laughed with his eyes twinkling merrily. \u201cFor if the sharp-fin had<\/p>\n tasted you, he would have spat you out such a bitter taste are thee.<\/p>\n And then he would have come looking for me. It is the talk of the<\/p>\n sea that I am the sweetest dolphin around.\u201d With that, he splashed<\/p>\n me full in the face, and the chase was on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Section Two as sung by Laughter Ring CHAPTER TEN The others may sing, and we may listen, but best of all and always, we laugh. It is we. The two of us, for always — forever and a day. We are dolphin. He is Little Brother and I am Laughter Ring. But I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}