Dolphin Address 18 2003
July 22, 2003
Yesterday evening, just before dark, I went to fetch my shoes at Pollenawatch. There was a rather substantial woman (she called herself 'padded') swimming with a dog named Bailey. The other woman was just peeing at the plank gate.
When she was finished she pulled her trousers up and then, with a lot of giggles pulled it down again for her friend. She was not even startled when I stepped out of the twilight and thanked her for her performance. Only: 'Oh, I didn't see you come.' 'I didn't.'
Of course I kept hanging around, if only to see Dusty play with the dog. Suddenly I saw another dorsal fin and at the same time I heard the other woman behind me say: 'Look, there is another dolphin.' Then, fins everywhere, at least four, the nearest at about five meter. I saw Dusty flash along the pool rock and back and again.
Suddenly I got very scared. Sometimes at night it's very dark in the dunes. Sometimes than I get the KKK-panicky feeling, that black wrapped locals, keen on a crack, will doom out of darkness, to, for some self-cooked reason, teach me a lesson. I then submit to the inevitable. I can do that, because I know it's only fear for fear.
For her it was real, I could tell by her flight. But what was really happening here? Did they come to take her back, was it an undertaking of punishment? I don't think they touched her, today I did not see the rakes on her skin that are typical for attacks by other dolphins.
Suddenly I had this new idea: could Dusty seek human company to protect her from her on kind? They disappeared as swift as they came and a little later Dusty was playing again with the dog.
Jan Ploeg, Fanore beach, July 21st 2003
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