Chapter 6 Section VI

Mick Nouru should be said to be a good guide on the island, but he has a shortcoming, he likes to brag.Don't take him seriously when he says big things.He said, for example, that the big nurse Tessie ("Two Ton Tessie" as she was called on the island) left Tonga because the big girls back home laughed at her for being too small.Johnny couldn't believe it, but Mick assured him that it was all true. "If you don't believe me, ask her yourself," Mick said.Under the thick curly black hair, there was an absolutely serious face. Fortunately, the other things he said are easy to verify.But when it comes to business, Mick is never ambiguous.After Dr. Keith handed Johnny to Mick, he took the new kid on a tour of the island.

Although the island is not big, there are still many places worth visiting.In fact, it took several days for Johnny to gradually become familiar with the way on the island.The first thing Johnny learned was that there were two kinds of people on Dolphin Island: one was the scientists and technicians in the research station; the other was fishermen who made their living from fishing at sea.The island's power station, water plant, restaurant, laundry room, and small farm with ten cows, as well as workers in other life service industries, are also served by fishermen. "We bought cows," Mick explained. "Because the professor wants to milk the dolphins, we are unanimously opposed to him doing that. This is the only protest on the island!"

"How long have you been here?" Johnny asked. "Were you born here?" "Oh no, we're from Darnley Island, north of Torres Strait. We moved here 5 years ago, when I was 12. The wages are good and it's a lot of fun!" "Is it really that interesting?" "That goes without saying! Tell me to go back to Darnley Island, and I won't go! I won't even go to Australia! You'll know that if you've played in the coral reefs!" They left the main road and took a short cut through the woods.This grove occupies almost most of the island.The trees were dense, but there were no thorny vines in the woods, which Johnny hadn't expected. He had expected a tropical forest to be full of thorny plants and tangling vines.The plants on the island are lush, but they grow in an orderly manner.

Some trees had little piles of twigs growing from their roots, and Johnny realized later that those were roots too.But these roots did not grow into the soil, but grew to the ground. "This tree is called a pandanus," Meek said. "They're called 'breadfruit trees' because they're used to make bread. I've had them, and they're terrible! Watch out!" But it's too late.Johnny's right leg was knee deep in the dirt.He struggled to get his leg free, but his left leg sunk in too, deeper than his right. "I'm sorry," Mick said, but there was no apology on his face. "I should have told you. There's a sea-bird's nest here--these sea-birds make nests in the ground like rabbits. There are some places that are all over the place, and you'll get stuck if you walk over it."

"Thank you for telling me." Johnny said sarcastically as he crawled out of the mud puddle and dusted himself off. But along the way, he still got caught in the sea swallow's nest several times, and finally they got out of the woods and came to the east of the island.They walked onto the beach, facing the boundless Pacific Ocean.It was hard to believe that he miraculously came to this remote island in the middle of the ocean from a place far beyond the horizon. There is no one here.It seems that this side is often hit by monsoons, so the buildings, docks, etc. on the island are on the other side.A thick tree trunk lay horizontally on the beach, and the long-term exposure to the sun made the trunk white.This is a remnant of past hurricanes that have hit the island.There are also piles of dead corals on the beach, obviously washed up by huge waves, and some piles weigh several tons.But now it is quiet here.

The two children began to walk along the sand; the beach was between the trees and the dense coral.Mick was looking for something, and before long he found what he was looking for. Something big had crawled up the beach from the sea and left deep marks in the sand, like a tank had been driven.At the end of these tracks, away from the water level, there was a flat patch of sand; it was here that Mick began to scoop up the sand with his hands. Johnny helped him dig too.Digging about a foot deep revealed dozens of eggs, the size and shape of ping pong balls.But the eggshell is soft, like leather, and it can be deformed by hand.Mick took off his shirt and made a bag, and filled the bag with eggs desperately.

"Do you know what kind of eggs these are?" "I know," Johnny said quickly.This obviously disappointed Mick greatly. "It's turtle eggs. I saw a movie on TV once, and I saw how baby turtles hatched from their egg shells, and how they dug themselves out of the sand. What are you doing with so many eggs? "Cook and eat! Stir-fry and eat with rice, it tastes great!" "Hey!" Johnny said. "You don't want me to eat, do you?" "You don't know yet," Mick replied. "Our chef is the best!" They walked along the winding sandy beach, went around to the north of the island, and then went west to return to their place of residence.As they approached their place of residence, they saw a large pool connected to the sea by a small artificial river.Now that the tide is low, the artificial river is closed with gates, and the water is left in the pool.Bring in seawater when the tide is high.

"It's over," Mick said. "You've circled the whole island." In the pool, there were two dolphins swimming slowly along the edge of the pool, just like the dolphins Johnny had seen in the depths of the ocean.He wanted to go closer to the pool for a closer look, but the pool was surrounded by barbed wire and he couldn't get close.On the barbed wire, hung a sign with big red characters: "Please keep quiet - the hydrophone is working." After they tiptoed past the big pool, Mick explained: "The professor doesn't like people talking around dolphins, saying it's going to confuse them. One night a fisherman came here drunk The dolphins were yelling and swearing a lot. There was a big uproar about it - the fisherman was fired and he got out of here as soon as the next boat arrived."

"How is the professor?" "Oh, he's a nice guy—but it's not the same by Sunday afternoon." What happened to Sunday afternoon? " "Every Sunday afternoon, his wife calls and asks him to come home. But he doesn't want to go home. He says he doesn't like Moscow—it's too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Then they'll have a big fight on the phone There was a big row. After a few months, they made up again and went to Yalta or something like that." Johnny listened to Mick's words and pondered for a while.He was eager to understand Professor Kazan, the more detailed the better.This helps him increase his chances of staying on the island.Mick's words startled him.Fortunately, just after Sunday, Professor Kazan should be in a better mood these days.

"Can he really speak dolphin language?" Johnny asked. "I think those strange calls are difficult for people to imitate." "He can only speak a few words. But he can use a computer to translate the recorded dolphin language. Then, he can record a new tape and talk to the dolphin. It is very complicated work, but the dialogue is successful." Mick's words impressed Johnny, and at the same time heightened his curiosity.He has always been interested in everything; he can't imagine how people can learn the language of dolphins. "Hey," Mick asked him, "have you ever wondered how you learned to talk yourself?"

"I guess, listen to my mother first," Johnny said.When it comes to his mother, he is a little melancholy, he can barely remember his mother. "Yes. So, the professor caught a female dolphin and her calf, and put them in the pool. During the growth of the calf, he has been listening to the conversation between them. In this way, he and the calf gradually Learned the language of dolphins." "It sounds too easy." "Oh, no, it took years, and he's still learning. But he's learned thousands of words, and he's written a history of dolphins. "history?" "Yes, the history of dolphins. Because they can't write books, dolphins have a particularly good memory. They can tell us what happened in the ocean long, long ago—at least, that's what the professor told us. Of course it's natural. Yes. Before humans created words, they also kept everything in their heads. Dolphins do the same.” Johnny was amazed as he walked thinking about the things Mick had told him.Finally, they came to the administration building, completing a week's journey around the island.Seeing so many houses with so many workers and complicated machines inside, Johnny couldn't help but think of a more realistic problem. "Who pays that much?" he asked. "It will cost a lot of money!" "It's not a lot of money compared to what's being spent on the space program," Meek said. "The professor started this work 15 years ago with six assistants. When the research started to make progress, the deep-pocketed science foundations fully funded him. Now, we clean the place every six months. Greet the old men, the old women—they call themselves inspectors. I heard from the professor that life was much more interesting before that." That might be a good statement, Johnny thought.But even now, life here was very interesting—a life he wished he could share.