Evening, we're watching across the lake, the western shore, between two cliffs a pasture, a rick of grass from beneath which are crawling dozens of turtles to the water. There's a stable against the left, or south cliff, in which a couple of peacocks are watching, the light is everywhere a uniform deep blue, beneath the south cliff I can see a faint light issuing from an underwater cave, and I want to swim beneath the water and explore, it's unseasonably warm here for this time of year...
Now a dolphin, swimming in the lake, playful, intelligent, rising out of the water on it's tail to chatter at us, swimming closer to play,...
...and L**** is explaining to me that the dolphin will die, it can't survive here, her mother is a marine biologist and she would know, besides, there was an earlier one and it died as well, and she explains there's a well intended young hippie girl across the lake that brings them back from the coast, but she doesn't understand they won't live...
We take the dolphin, heavy like a large dog, putting it L****'s jeep set out to release it at the coast, I hold it in my arms...we have to stop at gas stations and restaurants to feed it (canned tuna), keep it wet, eventually come to a village built upon a swath of river gravels in a deep valley, the river deep blue and raging against dark brown gravel dunes, and I'm wondering if they've been prospected, they're promising....a man in the village tells us of the last dolphin, he saw it die, it wasn't pleasant, I consider releasing it into the river here in the hopes it can swim to the ocean, but realize it won't make it, the river's too swift, raging, there will be hydroelectric plants and dams, it hasn't a chance, and I realize that it's Christmas day and I'm already 7 hours away from spending time with my son and daughter, am angry at L**** for dragging me along on this, at the dumb hippie that caught it, we can take the dolphin back to the lake and release it there until I have more time to properly rescue it, L**** is upset, she wants to rescue it now, but I'm being entirely remiss in my duties as a parent and so she reluctantly agrees to return it to the lake...
(Xmas in Edmonton, remarkably vivid dreams and comfortable sleep on air mattress. Only remembered this one...)