We humans like there to be reason or cause to events. They help us to make sense of what's happening and how to take action. Making sense runs on logic and we believe ours is the only kind to evaluate cause and effect. We try to place things we don't understand in such a perspective that they make sense. Like Dusty's behaviour.
At long last the sea had quietened. No white water heads running amok, no climbing swell in clear jades, but sandy shines and dark emeralds, grooved by an airy breeze. Rocks that reached clear down towards the seabed or that appeared from the deep. No Boats, no Ute, thank God.
The only one missing was Dusty. Recently she has been nibbling attention at the Doolin pier, where dangerous currents lurk and the ferryboats make swimmers leave the water. Also she has played with the surfers at Fanore beach, but she does occasionally still visit Pollenawatch. We decided to go in anyway. The time dolphins still came on land dates from before the existence of mankind and as the visibility was good the water looked inviting. The best mental attitude to cover yourself against a washout is regarding Dusty as a bonus.
My first view under water was a direct hit. I saw a conger eel swim underneath me with the lifeless body of a sand eel trailing from its mouth. By the time I had my monofin on, it had disappeared again in a seaweed forest, which on closer inspection did not yield the scavenger.
Dusty must have been waiting for us, as the next moment she was there. After a few lazy roundabouts she swam to where Joy, who had her debut the day before, was about to enter. There she lay in waiting for the lady who yesterday had the rare grace not to grab at her. But that was all the attention Joy got and Dusty did not come nearer to her than a tempting tease until Joy mentioned this to me. Right upon that, Joy had her famous first feel. When I tell my mother such something, she always says, 'Isn't it like such an animal has brains!', (‘Yes mother, indeed she has'). I had been feeling a bit under the weather lately, but Dusty's presence was so invigorating that I forgot my languor and joined her in tightening circles.
An English couple arrived and a little later entered the water in bathing costumes. Dusty checked them in and out, but maintained her gentle composure.
An old trick to capture Dusty's attention is to act as if you're leaving the water. I resorted to it in an attempt to get her closer to Joy. That worked pretty well and Dusty began hanging at my exit. Shortly thereafter I heard Joy saying Dusty had shown her teeth. Immediately and demonstratively I left the water to make it very clear I accepted none of that behaviour towards my steady. Right upon that Dusty closed in on the English couple and threw water at them by clapping her jaws. The man didn't understand the anger in that, but after a while retreated on the rocks.
Dusty returned to me and to appease her I went back into the water upon which she displayed grand affection. She let me scratch her throat
and went belly up for more on her chest. Then she let me run my fingers along the leading edges of her pectoral fins and rub the sweat out of the dimple she has for an armpit. I can't remember her ever having this fancy for affection. It's not part of our habitual interaction. She has always swum me for deep and fast, but since about three years ago I'm the purveyor of peculiar sound samples. This chick-flicking we had done no more since the old days in Fanore. So why all of a sudden this dedication to intimacy?
Dusty doesn't much like people to approach her in the shallows and off the rocks. Her mobility there is rather restricted. And taking her serious means that you trust her and she very much wants to be trusted. My trust was acknowledged 25 years ago, when I laid my hand on the tongue of a dolphin, who figured that if you trust me, I can trust you.
Joy had not strayed too far from the rocks and had several times taken a rest upon a protrusion, and so had the English. Dusty knows me and my unconditional trust in her and my prompt retreat after her scolding Joy must have aggravated her annoyance with the English. With me, however, she wanted to explain, she was the best of friends and that she did, by offering trust and affection.
Skeptics may pronounce this order of events anthropomorphic, but let's face it, Dusty is also pretty human.