CHAPTER TWELVE<\/p>\n
We swam slower now as the sea filled with massive chunks<\/p>\n
of ice. And it was early the next tide that we came upon a group of<\/p>\n
our distant cousins, the flipper-fins. We happily called to them and<\/p>\n
were delighted to notice that Harmony, too, seemed to recognize the<\/p>\n
flipper-fin as an extension of the intelligence in the sea. He became<\/p>\n
excited and before we could tell him the tales of our cousins, he<\/p>\n
swam quickly away from us to meet with them.<\/p>\n
It was with horror that we watched Harmony surge into this<\/p>\n
herd of simple-minded relatives–not to play, but to feast. The herd<\/p>\n
scattered, dashing up onto the shore, as this great white whale<\/p>\n
chased a fat cousin into the deep and quickly devoured him in two<\/p>\n
or three bites at best. We waited–no laughter, no smile–until he<\/p>\n
swam back to rejoin us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the matter?\u201d Harmony sang innocently enough, \u201cIs<\/p>\n
there some evil in the water, some sandwalker drawing near?\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t even talk so revolted was I, but Little Brother<\/p>\n
spoke angrily, \u201cYou speak of seeking the sandwalker and wish to<\/p>\n
see their evil ways. Yet you prey on and eat the flesh of our near-to-<\/p>\n
cousins, the flipper-fins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harmony looked at us, his eyes going blank. \u201cThat\u2019s impos-<\/p>\n
sible,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard them sing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and your songs,\u201d I snapped. \u201cNot all are related by a<\/p>\n
musical song alone. Listen as they speak in the water. Listen to<\/p>\n
their words so true as they dash and tell of the brutal you!\u201d<\/p>\n
The whale paused and listened carefully to the fearful cries<\/p>\n
of the flipper-fin as they made their escape to the dryside. \u201cI hear<\/p>\n
not but their bark,\u201d he retorted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat,\u201d said Little Brother, \u201cis the song of the flipper-fin.<\/p>\n
Whether you know it or not, they are of our family and yours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flipper-fin kept singing their song of fear. They sang<\/p>\n
of that great white hunter who had killed their leader. They sang a<\/p>\n
warning in the sea for all to leap to the frozen islands in order to<\/p>\n
escape the monstrous fiend. It took Harmony a bit of time to realize<\/p>\n
that he was the great white hunter . . . he was the fiend. This dis-<\/p>\n
tant cousin of ours, though over-sized and munch-mouthed, stared<\/p>\n
at us in total shock-horror as the truth seeped into his dryside brain.<\/p>\n
His eyes widened and his skin seemed to pale. He backed away and<\/p>\n
disappeared for a time into the gloom of the deep.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe makes me a bit nervous,\u201d said I. \u201cHe talks of lofty ideals<\/p>\n
and sweet sung songs and then turns and eats his relatives. I don\u2019t<\/p>\n
know whether I trust him or not. I mean, first a flipper-fin and then<\/p>\n
one of us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about you,\u201d said Little Brother chuckling, \u201cbut<\/p>\n
if I hear his stomach grumbling one more time in hunger, you\u2019ll find<\/p>\n
yourself swimming alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later the great white hunter returned looking shamefaced,<\/p>\n
but still I could not trust him. We moved closer to the dryside shore<\/p>\n
and after a time, I quietly whispered to him, \u201cKeep low in the water<\/p>\n
and watch the shore of the dryside. There you will see part of that<\/p>\n
which you seek.\u201d<\/p>\n
We watched the flipper-fin that cavorted on the dryside, safe<\/p>\n
from the \u201cmenace in the sea.\u201d Soon, as we had watched so many<\/p>\n
times before, sandwalkers wobbled swiftly along on spindly fins<\/p>\n
trapping the baby flipper-fins they called seals against an ice wall,<\/p>\n
cutting off any escape to the sea. Then with clubs they summarily<\/p>\n
beat the babies to death.<\/p>\n
Harmony, after a long time of watching this horror turned<\/p>\n
and solemnly said, \u201cThe sandwalker gathers meat, as does the pod.<\/p>\n
They are no better or worse than the whale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook again, dear friend,\u201d cried Little Brother, as tears traced<\/p>\n
their way down his silver skin. \u201cThe sandwalkers are much worse<\/p>\n
than you who only seek a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n
We gazed again at the shore and watched as the sandwalkers<\/p>\n
ripped the furry skins off the dead children and tossed their car-<\/p>\n
casses away. Then, as quickly as they had arrived, the sandwalkers<\/p>\n
retreated from the bloodied beach.<\/p>\n
Our minds filled with this horrible carnage and waste, we<\/p>\n
pulled the whale away from the shore to the deeper waters. \u201cI<\/p>\n
should have,\u201d Harmony rumbled angrily, \u201csnapped the arm from the<\/p>\n
sandwalker on the creaker that touched me before it could do this<\/p>\n
harm,\u201d not even able to sing his message in song.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t them,\u201d said I very subdued. \u201cFor there are many<\/p>\n
sandwalkers, some are good but most are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
We rolled in the silence of the sea, soothed by its very si-<\/p>\n
lence. Little Brother and I watched the great whale as he wrestled<\/p>\n
with all that he had seen. Finally, he roused himself from his intro-<\/p>\n
spection and said, \u201cNow it is time for me to return to the pod. For<\/p>\n
I have seen the good and the evil of the sandwalker and there are<\/p>\n
many lessons that must be sung into the Song.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as we would have been glad to be rid of this float-<\/p>\n
ing appetite and as much as we wanted to continue our search for<\/p>\n
delight in the world, I spoke again, \u201cNot yet, my great whale. There<\/p>\n
is more that you should see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore!\u201d he cried in disbelief. \u201cMore of the sandwalkers killing<\/p>\n
the flipper-fin young, and then defying the basest law of the sea by<\/p>\n
not consuming their kill?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d answered Little Brother, \u201cit is worse than that. Much,<\/p>\n
much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
We silently swam down the seas and left the cold, stained<\/p>\n
waters of the flipper-fin. We didn\u2019t talk, let alone sing for a time, out<\/p>\n
of fear that we might become the next meal for our glutton friend.<\/p>\n
We ate sparingly of the bottom fish, bug-eye, and flat-tail, and sped<\/p>\n
quickly down from the cold following the swift currents.<\/p>\n
Within a tide or two as the dark turned to light, turned to<\/p>\n
dark and back to light, Little Brother and I both tried to bring laugh-<\/p>\n
ter back to the sea. We frolicked and played, breaching over this<\/p>\n
behemoth, but little could we do to make him laugh. It may have<\/p>\n
been his introspection of all he had seen, or it may have been that<\/p>\n
the water changed as the air warmed.<\/p>\n
Whenever Little Brother and I swam in this part of the sea,<\/p>\n
we felt and tasted the wrongness, the bitterness that seemed to<\/p>\n
seep from the dryside. Often we would have to swim around, or<\/p>\n
under, a floating island of rot and filth. Objects, the likes of which<\/p>\n
Harmony had never seen, floated crazily on the water, and because<\/p>\n
they smelled strongly of evil; a closer inspection was not advised.<\/p>\n
Little Brother explained that all these objects and all this filth<\/p>\n
had come from the sandwalkers that lived on the dryside nearby. The<\/p>\n
water had become so fouled that Harmony\u2019s bright-white skin began<\/p>\n
to turn an oily black. I jokingly said that Harmony had begun to<\/span><\/p>\n look like a real whale, but I don\u2019t think he was much amused by the<\/p>\n transformation. Time and tide again, he would dive to the deep in an<\/p>\n effort to rid himself of his stains, only to breach in yet another slick<\/p>\n of the brackish, putrid water, and he would be blackened once again.<\/p>\n Soon after, in the distance, we finally could hear the plaintive<\/p>\n cries of other dolphin. Tired though we were, we swam faster and<\/p>\n soon closed in on their pleas for help.<\/p>\n What we found, though so hideous as to be beyond the pos-<\/p>\n sibility of belief, were dolphin that were wrapped in kelp-like stream-<\/p>\n ers holding them fast. The sea was filled with their screams of<\/p>\n torture as the dolphin tried desperately to rip free from their death-<\/p>\n bound prison.<\/p>\n Harmony, without thinking of the possible consequences to<\/p>\n himself, tore at these webs with his teeth. He thrashed about, his<\/p>\n great bulk wracking great havoc with the sandwalkers\u2019 woven kelp<\/p>\n but, even with all of this tremendous effort, only one was freed.<\/p>\n Harmony never stopped trying, reason deafened by the screams of<\/p>\n dolphin pain and anguish.<\/p>\n He was finally pushed firmly away by Little Brother and<\/p>\n myself. \u201cTry not, our friend,\u201d we cried, \u201cfor these dolphin have been<\/p>\n trapped too long. If they lived, they would be stranger still, for they<\/p>\n have been long without the air to fill their lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n We backed away, watching in horror as hundreds, of dolphin<\/p>\n died in that cove. Above, we could see the sandwalkers still milling<\/p>\n about inside their shells. Soon they began to pull the kelp-like ma-<\/p>\n terial to the surface, and the dolphin found still clinging to life were<\/p>\n beaten until the waters ran red with their deaths — a horrible death.<\/p>\n When all was done and silence returned to the sea, a som-<\/p>\n ber Harmony asked, \u201cWhy? The fishes are food for all to share as<\/p>\n was commanded by ALL THAT IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD but the<\/p>\n dolphin have song. Why does the sandwalker murder them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know,\u201d Little Brother said, answering in kind and<\/p>\n then continued, \u201cWe think the sandwalkers believe all the fishes to<\/p>\n be theirs. We think they don\u2019t wish to share, and kill anything that<\/p>\n gets in the way. But we really don\u2019t know why. We, the dolphin,<\/p>\n love all things created, even the sandwalkers, only to be rewarded at<\/p>\n times like this with death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen enough!\u201d the great white said in anguish. \u201cNow<\/p>\n surely you will let me return to my pod to add all these horrors to<\/p>\n the Song — to tell of the right and to tell of the wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo!\u201d I cried. \u201cThere is one more truth that you should see.<\/p>\n You must know everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowing the depth of Harmony\u2019s pain at seeing all this for<\/p>\n the first time, Little Brother consoled, \u201cIt isn\u2019t far and it truly is on<\/p>\n the way back to your pod.\u201d Harmony, so numbed, meekly followed<\/p>\n as we led him back to sea and the sweetness of open water. We<\/p>\n swam slowly, in silence. The great whale sank many times to the<\/p>\n deep in attempts to cleanse himself of the filth that had tainted his<\/p>\n body. But his memory would never be the same, and the worst was<\/p>\n yet to come. As we swam true to the rising golden light, the water<\/p>\n seemed to reverberate with keening, a soft high-pitched sound. We<\/p>\n swam hard, and the volume of the noise increased until we were<\/p>\n bathed in its unearthly sound.<\/p>\n Little Brother and I knew that sound. We understood from<\/p>\n all that we had seen before that the carnage to be seen would be<\/p>\n beyond that which we could bear. We gently warned our friend, \u201cGo<\/p>\n no closer. You must see what you can see from where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n On the horizon, many giant shell-sharks were filled with<\/p>\n hundreds of sandwalkers. Harmony leaned high into the dryside,<\/p>\n gazing at the horizon, trying to discern what could be causing such<\/p>\n a commotion. \u201cI must go closer. I can barely see,\u201d he protested.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t understand,\u201d I said, as I leaned into his bulk to<\/p>\n restrain him from going closer. \u201cYou are in mortal danger here. For<\/p>\n these sandwalkers kill not flipper-fin or dolphin. Here they kill the<\/p>\n whale, the very Song itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Harmony shook his great head, still without complete un-<\/p>\n derstanding. Little Brother came close to his side and whispered,<\/p>\n \u201cHere they kill your song. Here they murder whales. All within this<\/p>\n pod will die.\u201d<\/p>\n Against our warning, Harmony blindly surged forward, brush-<\/p>\n ing us both out of the way like we were a bit of storm foam. We fol-<\/p>\n lowed to help if we were needed, and it wasn\u2019t long before the water<\/p>\n turned brown with the blood-sludge of the dead. Around us, strange<\/p>\n screaming shell-sharks chased whale after whale and stabbed them<\/p>\n deep with pointed sticks.<\/p>\n In less than a tide the white whale, numbed by all that he<\/p>\n had seen, had to be forcibly guided into the cleaner seas. His eyes<\/p>\n were glazed with the pain and misery. Harmony quietly sank from<\/p>\n our sight, and we politely held our distance, knowing that he need-<\/p>\n ed to be alone to cleanse himself. From the deep, we could feel<\/p>\n the vibration of his song, and it welled all about us, filling us with<\/p>\n its sadness. We did not talk, we did not laugh, and it was only by<\/p>\n conscious effort that we even remembered to breathe, so beautifully<\/p>\n plaintive was the song as sung by Harmony.<\/p>\n Finally, the seas were silent again. Soon after, the great white<\/p>\n breached from the sea with a roar. There he floated for a bit and,<\/p>\n when the silence echoed on the trailing waves, he sang. \u201cI don\u2019t<\/p>\n know whether to love you for showing me all of this or to hate you<\/p>\n forever. My song is filled with confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGo now to your pod,\u201d we said in gentle voice. \u201cThough you<\/p>\n be confused, remember that there is good and bad in all things in the<\/p>\n sea. You must learn to value each for its balance. Someday we will<\/p>\n meet again and share a memory, and we will learn to laugh again.\u201d<\/p>\n Filled with sorrow because we understood his great pain, we<\/p>\n slowly swam farther down the world to a gentler place. Here we,<\/p>\n too, would be able to cleanse ourselves of all the great wrongs we<\/p>\n had seen these past many tides.<\/p>\n Although the great white needed to learn these lessons that<\/p>\n we taught, it is hard for a dolphin to be without its natural purpose<\/p>\n — laughter in the sea. We hadn\u2019t laughed freely in gleeful abandon-<\/p>\n ment for such a long time and had need for the clear blue waters of<\/p>\n the downside — the corals of Winsome Bright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CHAPTER TWELVE We swam slower now as the sea filled with massive chunks of ice. And it was early the next tide that we came upon a group of our distant cousins, the flipper-fins. We happily called to them and were delighted to notice that Harmony, too, seemed to recognize the flipper-fin as an extension […]<\/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-1345","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\/1345","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=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1346,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephencosgrove.com\/bookstore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}