From the Shores of Eden

by Shelley Penner

  Eggsucker woke to the shrilling of monkeys. He could see them in the meadow below feeding in a fig tree. Their appearance reminded him of the throwbacks of his own kind. It made him wonder if he could safely eat the same things they did. He made his way carefully down the rocky slope until he sat beneath their tree. With his injuries, he couldn’t climb up to where the fruit hung like little sacks of juicy sweetness, but he could smell it. His stomach cramped with hunger. The monkeys shrieked at him, feeling threatened. Eggsucker gazed at the closest individual beseechingly and made a begging gesture and, oddly enough, the monkey recognized it and responded. He dropped a fig so it landed nearby. Eggsucker stuffed it in his mouth and begged for more. Most of the monkeys returned to their own feeding, reassured that he presented no threat, but half a dozen continued picking fruit and dropping it for him as if curious to see how he would react.

  * * *

  The monkeys ranged over a large swath of the mountain’s western slopes and over the next two months Eggsucker followed them, eating what they ate, sleeping close to where they slept and trusting their warnings if danger threatened. They grew accustomed to his presence and no longer feared him, though they kept their distance. Whenever they fed in the trees, they dropped food for him. Eventually his shoulder and ribs healed until he could climb to feed himself. The monkeys taught him how to survive in this unfamiliar environment and, in many ways, he found life easier than at the shore. Memory of his dream-vision faded except for a subliminal sense of kinship with the monkeys, the nurturing earth and the distant, benevolent sun.

  For over two years he lived with the monkeys. Each cloudless night he studied the stars as he rested in the crotch of a tree, or on a mountain ledge. The streak in the night sky grew larger and brighter and gave him an uneasy feeling but triggered no associated recollections. Then it began to dwindle in size as the arc of its trajectory turned away from the earth, until he could no longer see it.

  As Eggsucker continued to mature he began to take notice of the fertile females and the mating practices of his simian companions. The females didn’t attract him, being a different species, but they made him long for a mate of his own. When that hunger for companionship finally grew too strong to resist, he at last headed back toward the coast. The lesson of the fish remained embedded in his memory and this time he carried a gift of ripe figs, which he hoped, with their exotic appearance and sweet smell, might win the approval of a female.

  * * *

  Blackcap dove deeper, holding her breath as she explored the wonders of the coral reef: sea anemones and starfish, the pretty colors of the hydrocorals and sea slugs amongst the seaweeds and a variety of darting fish. She came up for air and then dove again, watching curiously as a young dolphin played with a spiny sea urchin, tossing it with his beak and then circling beneath to catch it on his tail and flip it up again. Even this juvenile looked huge to her, so she hid in the weeds while observing his antics.

  A dark shadow glided out of the murky distance, elegant and deadly — a reef shark. It swam a sinuous, circular path toward the young dolphin. Blackcap nearly lost her air as a shock of terror paralyzed her. Sharks remained the deadliest predators in her world. She trembled as she watched the young dolphin realize his peril. He dove to avoid the sleek hunter and, instead of taking a bite out of his side, it neatly sliced off the corner of his right fluke. He uttered a distress call so high pitched that Blackcap felt her eardrums shiver, leaving a permanent imprint in her sensory memory. She needed to breathe as adrenalin ate up the oxygen in her blood. But she feared to move and offer herself as easier prey.

  The dolphin called again and out of the murky depths bulleted three grey, streamlined shapes. One after another she heard them thud against the shark, their hard beaks hitting it like clubs. The shark sank to the ocean floor, trailing blood from crushed gills. It struggled into the concealing kelp forest and disappeared, mortally wounded. Blackcap popped to the surface, gasping for air and thrilled. All her young life sharks had seemed relentless, indestructible monsters that poisoned the water with fear. Now she knew they could be defeated.

  After that day she became fascinated and obsessed with dolphins. Spirits of the Sea the elders called them. She watched for their curved dorsal fins and smooth shapes sliding through the water and not even food could distract her from studying them. She listened for their clicks and whistles and practiced imitating them. Her kin stared at her when she sat on the beach making popping and whistling noises. Redfish would sit beside her and sift through her mane as if to calm her. They didn’t understand why she made these strange sounds, and their simple language had no words to explain.

  * * *

  On the day when Blackcap earned her adult name, Redfish gave birth at the edge of the tide. The waves washed away the blood and amniotic fluid and mingled it with the water. This new little brother fascinated Blackcap enough to keep her on the beach that day, until hunger drove her to forage amongst the rocks. The high tide bothered her less than most of her kin, since she had grown adept at diving and could hold her breath longer than any other member of the tribe. A dozen others foraged as well, swimming from one rock cluster to the next, hunting for crabs and shellfish.

  As the tide rose, it carried the scent of natal blood over the submerged reef to the open ocean.

  Another juvenile, Blackcap’s playmate, Crabcatcher, foraged alongside her companionably, picking at limpets and mussels. Because Blackcap always watched for dolphins, she noticed three triangular fins coming over the reef and into the lagoon before anyone else. She knew the difference between a shark’s fin and a dolphin’s. “Shark! Shark!” she screamed.

  Panicked, everyone in the water scattered, some onto the rocks, others attempting to swim to the beach. Caught in open water with no hope of reaching the safety of either, Blackcap dove and Crabcatcher followed her. Facing the open sea and approaching death, Blackcap screamed out the dolphin distress call as loud as she could, over and over until she ran out of air. One of the sharks came cruising straight towards her and Blackcap began swimming for the closest rocks. She heard Crabcatcher scream and suddenly the water turned red with blood. Blackcap scrambled up onto the rocks and looked back. Crabcatcher had disappeared. The sharks swirled in a feeding frenzy.

  From her vantage point above the water, Blackcap spotted a whole pod of dolphins porpoising through the waves at high speed, coming in response to her distress call. Amazed at her success, she called again, though the air didn’t carry the sound quite the same way.

  She could hear them now, calling back and forth with their squeals and whistles, their buzzing clicks showing them what hazards lay before them. The sharks heard their echolocation calls too. The smaller pair darted away, avoiding a confrontation. The largest one, still hungry and determined, circled once and then homed in again on the panicked splashing of Blackcap’s kin. The chilling sight of that triangular fin surging in the wake of her father drew another piping distress call from her. Three dolphins soared over the submerged reef in formation while the rest entered the lagoon through a gap in the wall of coral. Blackcap quietly slipped into the water and dove down to watch and listen to thud after thud as the dolphins took turns battering the predator, until the shark gave up and fled.

  The dolphins swirled about the lagoon, searching with their ultrasound clicking for the source of the distress call. They could find no lost youngster, no shark-bitten corpse lying on the bottom. They squeaked and squealed back and forth, discussing the mystery. Blackcap popped to the surface and took a big breath, then sank underwater again. She echoed some of the sounds she heard them making, and suddenly they moved closer and circled, eying her curiously. She voiced a few of their other calls that she had practiced, repeating a foreign language without knowing what it meant.

  One of the older adults uttered a buzzing sound and several others broke away to follow her out of the lagoon. A handful of juveniles and two adults remained. Blackcap recognized the young dolphin with a bite
missing out of his fluke. She recalled the warm kinship she felt while watching him play with the sea urchin. She piped a sound that combined the squealing pitch of their language with two words in her own. “Sea Brother!”

  He replied with a squeak and a series of clicks, then moved close enough so she could touch him, her hand sliding along his smooth hide as he glided past. Then he and the rest of the dolphins turned and swam away. Only then did Blackcap realize many of her own kin had re-entered the water to watch the encounter. No longer hungry, she headed for the beach, and as she stepped out of the waves, a number of the elders came to meet her, including the dominant pair. They greeted her with a respect reserved for high-status individuals, using her new name, Able-to-Call-Dolphins.

  * * *

  Through the long dry season, Sea Brother visited the lagoon often, sometimes with one or two companions, but most often alone. The sea apes grew accustomed to his presence and enjoyed the new sense of security it offered. To them he looked huge, and they had seen his kin chase away the greatest enemies they had ever known. They came to value his guardianship. Curiosity and a growing, mutual fascination with Able-to-Call-Dolphins drew him back again and again. They clicked and twittered at each other like a pair of birds, neither understanding but both enjoying the attempt at communication, like an older brother with an infant sibling making its first attempts to speak.

  Despite their lack of verbal comprehension, they understood one another on a more basic level. At first Sea Brother would only briefly come close enough for Able to enjoy the tactile sensation of stroking him. Then one day as she swam across the lagoon, he came up beneath her and carried her for a short distance. They both enjoyed this exercise so much that they kept repeating it, until Able learned to hook her hands around his dorsal fin while he surged through the water at speeds she could never hope to match alone. When she needed to resurface for air, she just let go. Once he learned how long she could remain underwater, he would breach automatically to let her snatch a breath. She grew to love him dearly.

  One day, instead of moving into the riding position, he stopped with his tail beneath her and lifted her suggestively. She remembered how he had played with the sea urchin, and she gathered herself in preparation. With a powerful surge, he lifted her and threw her into the air. She uttered a trill of fear and delight as she flew, her arms straight out for balance, like wings. When gravity claimed her again, she raised her arms over her head to assume a dolphin shape for the plunge back into the water. The other sea apes observed this play with a touch of awe and apprehension, sensing that this new relationship had the potential to initiate mysterious and daunting changes.

  As the seasons passed, other youngsters, both dolphins and sea apes, joined in the fun and formed tentative bonds. The young sea apes learned to cling to a dorsal fin while their dolphin friends raced through the waves at exhilarating speed and their elders watched with guarded disapproval.

  * * *

  Eggsucker sat on the clifftop looking down on the sea apes as they went about their daily routines. He felt apprehensive about approaching them. He studied the changes that had taken place during his absence. Sunstone had risen in the ranks and now appeared permanently partnered with Sparkling Water. Redfish carried a new infant, a tiny smooth-skinned male. Eggsucker felt none of the jealousy for this little brother that he had felt for Blackcap. In fact, seeing his mother again, he felt nothing, not even anger. However, despite the distance of time and estrangement, the sight of his sister swimming effortlessly across the expanse of water still filled him with resentment and hatred.

  Three fins rose to the surface and cut the water in the lagoon and Eggsucker’s heart gave a hard thump. Instinctively, he filled his lungs to shout a warning. Then he saw one of those fins turn toward his sister and quickly overtake her. He grimaced and remained silent. But miraculously, the pursuit didn’t end in her death. He watched in stunned amazement as she caught that fin and clung as it surged through the water, carrying her with it. Not a shark then, he realized, as a dolphin’s head rose above the waves and uttered a series of squeaks that sounded like laughter. The dolphin lifted Blackcap on its tail and flung her skyward, and Eggsucker watched in awe as she flew high and then plunged back into the water like a gannet diving for fish. He observed them for over an hour as they played, listening to their vocal interactions in stunned amazement. Some of the other sea apes played with the dolphins too, but only his sister spoke to them in what sounded like their own language.

  * * *

  At last, Eggsucker gathered his courage and attempted to approach a group of young females resting on the sand. He settled beside Anemone. Although she had the long-limbed, upright stance of the sea apes, dark hair clothed her just as it did Eggsucker. He thought perhaps, as a fellow throwback, she might feel more sympathetic toward him. She gave him a nervous, startled glance and started to move away. When he held out his gift of figs she hesitated and settled back again, curious. She took one and sniffed it. Eggsucker ate one to demonstrate their edibility. Anemone tried a fig and decided she liked it. Just as she held out her hand for more, just as Eggsucker felt he might be close to achieving his goal, Pearl spotted him seated just a few feet away and the sight of him generated terror. She uttered a wild cry of alarm and scrambled away, racing to the safety of the sea where she knew he would not follow.

  After two years, Eggsucker’s attack on Pearl had become a dim memory for most of the sea apes and they might have accepted his return without rancor if not for her panicked reaction. Her fear generated an instant defensive aggression on the part of the dominant males. They banded together and charged the intruder. Eggsucker, with his own traumatic memories, fled back inland.

  Once more rejected, he ran until he reached the canebrakes. There he gave vent to his frustration in a screaming, raging tantrum, tearing canes up by the roots and flinging them about wildly. With a cane in each hand, he pounded the earth. A water rat cowering in the brakes suddenly darted across the open area he had created, racing in panic for the safety of the water. Before he even registered its presence, a random strike with the cane flattened it with a broken back. The sight triggered a flash flood of memory. Eggsucker froze, staring at the dead rat, recalling his dream-vision of the Father Sun striking out with a fiery cane, killing the monkeys. He remembered the comfort of Mother Earth cradling his broken body and the feeling of kinship with the monkeys, with all life. And he remembered Father Sun handing him that fiery cane.

  Eggsucker thought long and hard while he ate the rat. He feared the big males who had beaten him almost to death. But he considered the advantage of wielding the cane, the extra reach it gave him, the power of a blow that could kill an animal without getting close enough to risk its defensive action. When he’d finished eating, he took one of the canes and practiced wielding it in a more controlled and disciplined manner, trying to deliberately strike chosen targets with intent. Repeated success gave him a tremendous sense of power and superiority.

  When he grew tired, he sat down in the sun to envision how to proceed. He knew he needed to do something more, something to startle and intimidate the senior males immediately so they wouldn’t rush him in a group wave. Even the cane would not help much then, since he could only strike one at a time. He needed to make himself look bigger, intimidating — supernatural. But how? He needed to make a direct challenge to the dominant male, Surf-Rider. Pride and tradition would dictate he respond one-on-one. But first Eggsucker needed to get everyone’s attention so they all saw him defeat Surf-rider.

  * * *

  Early the next morning, Eggsucker prepared two canes just in case one broke as they had many times in practice. He trimmed the root ball but left the knob on each. He practiced for a few minutes to boost his confidence.

  When he reached the beach, he found the clan just gathering on the sand for the morning forage. No one noticed him at first. He made his way along the edge of the scrub that bordered the beach until he came to a hollo
w log he remembered from his childhood. He recalled playing inside it when he was very small. And hiding inside it from the older ones when they teased and bullied him. Now it served as a drum to announce his arrival. He pounded on it with one of the canes and it gave off a hollow booming sound that drew every eye. He kept up the pounding until they gathered before him, puzzled and wary.

  Eggsucker stood proudly with the butt of his cane resting against the ground and announced, “I am your new leader. Father Sun has sent me a dream. He gave me this cane and told me to lead.”

  They just stared at him blankly. Surf-rider bristled. He and the other senior males moved forward in a line and for an instant it looked like they might rush Eggsucker. Then Surf-rider stepped ahead and demanded in contemptuous disbelief, “You challenge me?”

  With his heart pounding, Eggsucker replied, “I challenge.”

  Without ceremony or any further preamble Surf-rider charged, his expression furious. Surf-rider had remained undisputed leader for all Eggsucker’s life and had no intention of letting this social misfit take his place. But before he could approach close enough to punish Eggsucker, the cane came whistling down and struck Surf-rider’s left forearm, snapping both bones. The alpha didn’t even register the pain at first, he just kept coming. Eggsucker sidestepped his rush with surprising speed and grace. He swung the cane again, using the knobby root like a club. It struck Surf-rider across the side of the face. Blood and teeth went flying out his mouth and his jaw came unhinged. He landed face down on the sand, moaning in pain. Eggsucker watched him warily for a few moments, but the battle was over. He had defeated the alpha, which traditionally made him the new alpha. He turned to the gathered clan, who stood silent in shock and dismay. He brought the cane whistling down on the ground and the sand around it jumped. The sea apes flinched.