How My Brain Ended Up Inside This Box

Chapter Thirty One

After what must have been hours we came upon a chain of small rocky outcroppings in the middle of the ocean, some covered in bushes, a few adorned with trees. Midgerette circled around one of these, a circular island with grasses and shrubs, filled with the scent of eucalyptus from the elegant blue-leaved trees that lined its closer coastline. In the shade of those trees she dropped to sea, plopping herself down in the water, and paddled onto the shore, where she hopped up onto the land and began to stroll about. Cade, who had been quiet and still all this time, not even remembering to mutter about my unfitness, followed her in to the bank and seemed to understand that Midgerette wanted him to pull ashore and let me off.

"There's nothing out here," he warned me as I removed the red vest and jumped onto the sand, "but if that's what the bird wants and that's what you want, then what the hell. It's your funeral."

"Don't worry about it," I told him."We know what we're doing."

"I doubt that very much," he grunted, and then he pushed off. Midgerette had returned to the water and was slapping her wings against the surface, guiding him to a new and no doubt fruitful fishing hole. Cade gathered up his equipment and went about his work, settling in for the long haul with a look of grim determination on his face. This was serious business for him. The killing of fish was his life.

I headed inland, to the center of the island, which was not very far at all, but at least from there the ocean was completely concealed from view, so I knew that I was just as hidden from sight from there. I sat cross-legged on the ground, closed my eyes in a new sort of meditation focus, and went about my own sort of business. I always knew I could sit still in one place and concentrate for hours and never need to move but let myself become absorbed in everything all around me. I had found my place in the world, and I had found the whole world right where I was.

The island became my home. I have been here for some time now and I have made a lot of new friends. There are turtles who live on the island, and they talk mostly about snails and hermit crabs. They don't really get the concept, trading in your home for another all the time. Some of them are worried that the crabs will try to take their own shells away from them. Turtles worry a lot. They are also very kind.

Midgerette often leads a tour of sea birds out to visit me. She's become super famous because of me. When she brings the pelicans a lot of other birds tag along behind them. The legend has it that pelicans are the best at finding fish in the sea. Chumbert comes along every time, and as a guy who likes to float on the water a lot, he's drummed up a lot of interest among the dolphins and otters who also frequent these waters. He even brings some humpback whales sometimes. They don't have a lot to say, but they've been absolutely everywhere it seems. The elephant seals are maybe my favorite new friends. They pass by twice every year, on their way out and on their way back. They go thousands of miles and when I ask them why, they always laugh and tell me that's for them to know and me to find out. At this rate I will never find out, but that's okay. The world is big enough for everyone.

None of my new friends want to harm me or use me in any way. They just want to know me. They didn't trust me at first. I looked too much like a human, but I've been working on changing that. Stan's threat to chop me into little pieces gave me the idea of reassembly, and I've been modifying my physical form somewhat. It's a work in progress. My plan is to create myself in my own image. The main problem is figuring out exactly what that is.