like a real sand master started to add to our comic ‘mutant’ even more funny details. When Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich went out from the water our group was rolling with non-stop laughter, moreover, not only the ‘spectators’ were laughing but also the ‘mutants’. By the way, the last ones roared with laughter more than the others, shaking like awaken volcanoes, that’s why the ‘masterpieces’ started to lose some details. And if to take into account Eugene’s comment about that, you can imagine in which ‘tears-and-dying’ state we were when Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich came up to us. However, they also quickly joined our merry mood and made a few extremely funny jokes concerning that collective creature. Evaluating Eugene’s additions to the sculpture he boasted of, Nikolai Andreevich even ‘diagnosed’ him unambiguously with all typical symptoms of the disease.
When this uninterrupted laughter was over and ‘victims’ extracted from the sand of the sculpture went to swim, Stas told briefly to Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich about their finding. Our psychoterapist who stood near Sensei listened to the guy first a bit strained but later has relaxed and said, “I have already thought that… You whistled from the coast so loud as if all your crew sank.”
“Here is our Nightingale-Robber,” Stas pointed out to Eugene with guilty smile.
“Right,” Andrew backed him while listening to the conversation, “He tested our ears here.”
Eugene smiled self-satisfied and waved his hand towards Andrew.
“You, village boys! You have no notion of our robber accoustic art.”
Everybody laughed again. Sensei just smiled and said, “Well, show us your ‘robber road’.”
Stas, Eugene, Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich went all together. Going out of the sea Ruslan asked Yura, “Have you ever seen a dolphin?”
“No.”
“Me neither. Let’s go and look at him?”
“Let’s go.”
They hurried on to come up with Sensei. All the rest of our group followed them dying from the same curiosity. Nikolai Andreevich turned around to us and stopped on seeing such a mass crowd.
“Hey, guys, and who will stay in the camp?”
“Whom should we protect it from?” Andrew replied for all. “There is nobody here around anyway…”
“But for the lonely maniac,” Eugene added with a thrilling ‘cinema’ voice.
Everybody laughed and Nikolai Andreevich glanced at Sensei with a question in his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” the last one answered at his unspoken question.
“But the cars?”
“Well, it’s just pieces of iron. If something happens, we will walk on foot to the city.”
“You are right,” the doctor replied happily switching to the good mood of Sensei. “All the more walking is very good for the health!”
In about twenty minutes of walking we have seen the air-bag dragged out to the coast and Volodya with Victor sitting near the motionless body of the animal watering him with sea water, probably out of pity, although it was obvious that it won’t help him.
The dolphin lay on the sand, his head directed to the sea coast. The coastal sea waves hardly reached the tail part of his body.
Having come closer we silently gathered round this unusual creature. And the first thing which stroke me was his slit-like dark brown eyes. They were frozen with an air of silent terrible pain and suffering as if it were a man who went through a heart-break. His dark almost black spine moistened by human hands was shining under the sun and giving an illusion of the body full of life. The white belly and nice black and white stripes on the sides stood out in contrast on the ideally smooth skin. The light sectors were seen around the nice snout with slightly prognathous jaw. On one side a bit lower than the head there was a stab wound which was already hardly bleeding. ‘Eternal’ kind smile of the dolphin seemed very unreal in contrast with this terrible death. Looking at this harmless friendly creature the heart sank out of pity and impossibility to help him somehow.
“Who’s done it to him?” Andrew asked sadly looking at the dolphin.
“Obviously the fishermen stroke him with a gaff,” Sensei answered inspecting the wound.
“My God, why?” Tatyana exclaimed with compassion.
“Sometimes dolphins steal the catch from fishermen and damage their tackle. But dolphin is just an animal. He goes there where there is a catch. And people…” Sensei sighed heavily and his gaze became a bit severe, “kill them for this.”
Sensei fell silent and at that moment I experienced flows of different feelings. I felt as if there were a lump in the throat, and tears came to my eyes. What a beast (one can’t call this man otherwise) dared to raise a hand to kill such a wonderful creature? This is but a dolphin, the fully-rights earthling, the ocean inhabitant. And his ‘home’ is much bigger than ours. So we, the people, should not kill them but learn from this friendly creatures how to be so nice and kind, how to feel their natural joy of life and harmony of co-existence. Though they are wild animals, they never try to take more from the nature than they need for living, they never try to conquer anyone or anything. They peacefully co-exist with a big variety of species dwelling in the World ocean and taking into consideration their joy of life I have no doubts that they not only exist but also enjoy every moment of their life.
I think that chasing our ‘civilized’ progress which requires more and more of natural victims we lose our humanity, we lose first of all ourselves, our Spiritual nature. With our insatiable endless needs we glorify our Ego, turn to ugly heartless beasts who destroy not only the Earth but all living beings on it, including similar to us. And we consider it normal, don’t we? But is it the reason we came to life? Our life is an instant. And everybody wants to be happy in this instant. Everybody wants but can’t. Why? The nature gives us its silent answers to these questions in harmony of its everyday life. But we do it vice versa: instead of observing we kill, instead of wisely creating we destroy. It’s awful indeed, to live with a beast nature and to possess a mind with the dominating Ego. Eternal sufferings… However, the happiness is so close. We need only to turn to the Good and just to become Human.
The guys stood silently over the body of the dolphin. Even Stas, though he was a reserved person, turned off hardly checking himself.
“If I met now that ‘fisherman’, he would lose for long a desire to take something heavy to his hands…”
“…and bad thoughts to his head,” Victor replied in the same manner.
“Hatred is a bad adviser,” Sensei remarked thoughtfully.
“Who talks about hatred?” Eugen shrugged his shoulders. “We would beat him…’with love’. So that he would forget how to touch not only a dolphin, he would avoid water at all and forget the way to the washbowl.”
“Well, our ‘tolerant’ friend,” Sensei uttered with a light smile and added in a while, “And if to speak seriously, maybe you are right. If you ignore the evil, you won’t notice how you will become indifferent to the good. But when you punish the evil, you should know when to stop. Only this way you will avoid the danger inside of you. The winner doesn’t pride himself, doesn’t rape nor triumphs. He wins… and first of all himself. So punishing the evil you should remember about the good.”
The guys listened to Sensei and hung their heads again over the body of the dolphin.
“Let’s burry him or what?” Eugene proposed after a small pause obviously trying to vindicate himself in front of Sensei.
“Right,” Andrew backed him. “I will bring a shovel…”
“Why do we need a shovel?” Eugene opposed. “There are a lot of us, it will take us less time to dig a tomb in the sand. It’s easy.”
And in order to prove his words Eugene made with his hands a few wide rakes of the sand like a drag-line excavator demonstrating us how quickly it can be done. During this