Resort Taxonomy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Resort Taxonomy - Assignment Example The explanation that the current categorization methods are based on some specific recreational activities or specific features that a resort possesses, is not also mentioned. The objection on such a classification is that a resort may fall into several categories this way. There is also not mention how clarity in categorization can be achieved by classifying resorts in mutually distinct categories. While explaining the resort classification criteria, the content has skillfully explained how it differs from existing methods. However, it fails to mention why only four categories and made for resorts and how they seem to classify all types of resorts. Definition of Resort Further on, the fact that why resorts have different overlapping definitions and why people seem comfortable to keep the definition of it broad has been ignored. The point to investigate is what people generally think of when resort is mentioned e.g. even if resorts fall in multiple categories, what are the basic feat ures that every resort should possess that people generally think of? The existing processes do not specifically provide clarity in classifying resorts; however it fails to mention the features of a resort that makes the categorization unclear in existing processes. One point raised is that resort is termed for even those places that possess non resort properties. Once again it fails to mentions what non resort properties are. ... It does mention that the approach may help the academics who carry out researches. No highlighting of how those classifications may help the consumers who will be targeted as a result of these researches and how to make the classification process understandable for them has been bothered about.. If we see from the review of the literature, the existing definitions of a resort also relied on the characteristics that a resort possesses. An attractive way of description on how the newly found definition maps to expectations and interpretations of consumers of resorts has been made. There is also a mention and explanation that there is a six pointer definition that is derived for a resort after this research. These six points are agreed upon by the industry people who agreed to appear in the interview so it reflects the agreed upon points in a definition. No points of disagreement between the professionals have mentioned, suggested or argued. The points of disagreement may help future re search in determining what factors usually do not matter to the consumers and which ones do not impact the people who belong for people who belong with the resort business. It also highlights which features actually belong to other categories of hotel stay and what reflect a true essence of vacation. It has successfully managed to discuss the implications of the definition in terms of consumer expectations of a resort. The comprehensive definition seems to encompass all what a consumer desires for in a resort. After the successive rounds of interviews, the definition is formed of a resort and it concludes that the industry professionals agree on the fact that the definition of a resort should comprise on the fact that it should encompass the amenities and features

The Importance Of Accuracy And Fluency

The Importance Of Accuracy And Fluency Accuracy and fluency are two key components of second language acquisition. In todays world, it seems that learning the usage of grammar and focusing on accuracy are emphasized by many language students over fluency. This topic of accuracy and fluency has been a controversial issue that has been discussed for many years. Although some formalists argue that learning a language means learning forms and rules, some activists take a different view and claim that learning a language means learning how to use a language (Eskey, 1983). Thus, this essay will argue that accuracy is not necessarily more important than fluency. It depends on learners needs and the purpose of instruction in second language acquisition. In order to demonstrate this, this essay will first focus on the importance of accuracy and fluency in English learning and show that they are both essential by looking at two different teaching methods. Second, it will turn to discuss both accuracy and fluency in term of learner goals, learner variables and instructional variables. Third, it will suggest what language teachers should do to deal with the issue and find the right balance between them. The importance of accuracy and fluency In this section, it will be argued that both accuracy and fluency are needed in second language acquisition. There has been much discussion about these two components, with arguments put forward in support of either one of the other. However, it will be shown that neither component is useful without the other. Early teaching methods promoted accuracy over fluency. For instance, the Grammar-Translation Method has been used by language teachers for many years. It is the traditional style of teaching method emphasizing grammar explanation and translation (Cook, 2001). In such a method, it is important for students to learn about the form of the target language. The role of the teacher is the authority. Students merely do what the teacher says and learn from the teacher, and many students consider that correct answers are essential. If they make errors or do not know an answer, it is the teachers duty to supply them with the correct answer. However, accuracy cannot be regarded as enough in language learning. According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), in the Grammar-Translation Method, the language that is used in class is mostly the students native language. In this case, there is much less attention to second language speaking and listening. When it comes to speaking and listening skills, fluency needs to be taken account in language learning. For this reason, other methods have emphasized fluency in language learning. It is clear that these approaches are built on learning the use of language not on learning the usage of it. For example, compared with the Grammar-Translation Method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) emphasizes the process of communication rather than just focusing on language forms (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Since the concept of CLT places an emphasis on fluency, errors of form can be seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills. Another argument in favour of fluency is the implementation of language in an authentic environment. In the real world, language is mostly used to express feeling and thought (Eskey, 1983). When there is a purpose to exchange meaning, fluency is the key element during communication. While communicating with each other, foreign language learners often encounter the difficulty, that is, what they know how to say does not achieve their communicative intention. In order to bridge the gap of such discrepancy, learners may use communicative strategies, such as prediction to make the communication successful. This is because if communicators are in the same context, one may predict what the other is going to say next. For example, before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, taxi drivers in Beijing were trained in order to obtain English speaking ability so that they could communicate with foreign tourists fluently. In this situation, although the taxi drivers were poor at grammar rules, they still can communicate with foreigners. This is because the driver can predict where the foreign passenger will go since their destination may be related to the Olympic Games. In this case, although some grammatical errors exist, communicators can still understand each other because they are in the same context. When listeners can not understand what speakers mean, they usually predict the following conversation and provide immediate response with speakers in the process of meaning negotiation. However, it must be remembered that the achievement of this level of communicative competence does not mean an equal one of grammatical competence (Eskey, 1983). As Eskey (1983: 319) claims, fluency in a language is no guarantee of formal accuracy. A realistic concern is that focusing on fluency may cause the significant effect on accuracy. According to Eskey (1983: 319), rewarding a learners fluency may, in some cases, actually impede his or her achievement of accuracy. For example, in order to get meaning across, language learners find the words, but they either pronounce them wrongly or put them together inappropriately. Such problem happens due to the fact that they can speak English continually but express themselves poorly. Thus, although accuracy is not enough by itself, it is still considered as necessary in language learning. Although learners can still communicate the message to make sense without correct form, it can not be denied that in order to use the language, learners still need to be able to convert linguistic forms into the ability to actually use then. Therefore, when using CLT approach, correcting for accuracy will still be offered by teachers. Although prediction in communicative context may benefit successful communication, fluency is not enough in this circumstance. Without accuracy, misunderstanding may occur because of misspelling, poor pronunciation and grammatical structures. It is therefore clear that as language teachers, both fluency and accuracy must be equally concerned in teaching students to use a language. The elements towards focusing on accuracy and fluency As the first section has mentioned, both accuracy and fluency are needed in the process of language learning. In this section, it will be argued that although these two components are equally necessary, there are three elements that may influence focus on them. The first element to consider is learner goals. It is suggested that many ESL teachers facilitate their students to develop communicative competence to really use the language for authentic purpose. Nonetheless, what students learn from the teacher may not be the outcome that the teacher supposes them to acquire. For example, if Thai children learn English in a rural Thai village, the outcome of language achievement may not all be positive. This is because these children do not need to use English as a tool in their daily life. In contrast, if Thai children learn English in order to sell products to foreigners, then there may be concern about a purpose for communicative competence. Moreover, if they want to pursue higher education in England, accuracy needs to be focused in language learning. Therefore, it seems that the need for accuracy and fluency relates to what goals learners want to achieve. It is considered that learner variables are also a key element which influences the focus on accuracy or fluency. According to Celce-Murcia (1985), a strategy guideline is provided to assist teachers in determining what degree they ought to focus on form in their own classes. In his study, learner variables include age, proficiency level and educational background. It is noted that every individual learns in different ways. Compared with adolescents and adults, young children seem to be more holistic in learning a concept instead of doing apparent analysis. This is because they are too young to analyse the structure of a language. Therefore, if young ESL learners are taught, it is most likely that little grammar instruction is needed. However, if the students are adolescents or adults, focusing on form may be more important. It is also suggested that education level is relevant to focus on accuracy or fluency. This is because teaching learners with preliterate level differs from teaching ones with literate level. If adults are at the level of beginners with little formal education, then focusing on form will be less important while fluency is the top priority. On the other hand, if the learners are at the intermediate or advanced level and are well educated, accuracy may be required and it may be necessary for the teacher to provide some feedback relating to form correction in order for them to make progress. Therefore, focusing on accuracy is not enough, fluency still needs to be concerned in terms of learners age, proficiency level and educational background. Moreover, instructional variables can be seen as the third element, which includes skill, register and need. It is suggested that the need of focus on accuracy and fluency also changes according to the purpose of the instruction. For instance, according to Celce-Murcia (1985), when the teacher is teaching receptive skills, such as listening or reading, the emphasis on form will be less important, since these skills require competence primarily in word recognition. Nevertheless, this does not mean accuracy can be neglected, because when knowing grammatical structure, learners can build up logical connection between sentences, which facilitates both listening and reading comprehension. On the other hand, if the teacher is focusing on productive skills, such as speaking and writing, then formal accuracy will become an essential concern. In addition, it has to be remembered that fluency is still needed for communication purpose. This is because if the teacher is offering a conversation class which purpose is for learners to really use the language to communicate with others, then fluency will be emphasized. Furthermore, if the learners immediate need is survival communication, formal accuracy is less focused. On the other hand, if the learner wants to use the language in a professional field, such as writing an academic essay or being a diplomat, then a high degree of formal accuracy is essential. The higher the stakes, the more likely that accuracy will be important (Eskey, 1983: 318). Therefore, it is clear that both accuracy and fluency are needed and whether focusing on accuracy or fluency depends on learner needs and course objectives. Approaches of finding balance between accuracy and fluency a) Course design and needs assessment Based on these three elements mentioned above, it is suggested that teachers should find the right balance between accuracy and fluency. Eskey (1983) argues that: Teachers must be prepared to deal with students who know grammar rules but can not speak the language fluently; likewise, they must also be prepared to deal with students who are fluent but not accurate (Eskey, 1983). In order to balance accuracy and fluency in language learning and teaching, it is suggested that both these components need to be taught in the process of learning situation. Thus, in this section, it will suggest methods of keeping a balance between accuracy and fluency in term of course design and needs assessment. It has been argued that many language learners have learned grammar rules, but when they want to express themselves, they do not have enough authentic experience of using languages (Celce-Murcia, 1985). Such result may be due to the fact that teaching materials does not provide learners with the context relevant to the communicative situation. In order to solve this problem, Celce-Murcia (1985) suggests an integrating grammar instruction into a communicative curriculum providing purposeful task-based discourse samples. For example, for the general purpose language learners, their beginning level course may start with teaching grammar-meaning correspondences, such as present tense versus past tense. By giving the time frame, students can easily distinguish the difference between these two tenses. After that, students are then taught grammar-function correspondences, such as the tone of must is stronger than need to. As soon as these two basic levels have been established, the teacher can offer discourse-level grammar, such as use of conjunctions. In this case, students not only acquire the grammar rules which focus on accuracy but also apply it for purposeful discourse which focuses on fluency. By this course designed to integrate form, meaning and content, it is possible for learners to balance accuracy and fluency in the communication (Celce-Murcia, 1985). However, there is a simple question about why learners need to balance accuracy and fluency. The answer to this question relates to English for specific purpose (ESP). According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), courses should be designed to meet learners needs. This may suggest that language teachers should note which learners need more attention on accuracy or fluency. To achieve this goal, for instance, teachers need to gather information about learners needs on accuracy and fluency and identify their target situation by using questionnaires, interviews, observation and informal consultations with learners before a course. Having done this, teachers analyse strategies required to cope in target situation, and then create syllabus which is a document saying which aspect needs more effort on accuracy or fluency. After that, select and design materials to focus on these strategies in syllabus. Finally, after teaching the materials, teachers establish evaluation procedures to test lear ners acquisition of accuracy and fluency (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). b) Evaluation and feedback In this section, it will be argued that course design and needs assessment are not enough. The evaluation and feedback afterwards from learners can also help teachers find the right balance between accuracy and fluency. Evaluation can be defined as a whole process of action which begins with decision of information gathering and ends with change in current courses or influence on future ones (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998). According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 145), an ESP course, after all, is supposed to be successful. This is because it is designed for particular learners to achieve particular objective with language level of accuracy and fluency. There are two levels of evaluation. The first one is learner assessment. Students performance is assessed at strategic points, such as at the beginning and at the end of the course. This is because ESP concerns with the necessary skills for particular learners to carry out communicative tasks. This kind of assessment enables teachers to determine how much focus on accuracy and fluency is needed (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). As ESP teachers, they need to consider if the objectives are too ambitious for learners. If so, the learners initial language competence may be overestimated. For example, a teacher designs a syllabus by analysing students needs. Students are expected to present written work and make an oral presentation in accurate English. After teaching, the teacher may find that serious weakness in grammar leads to unclearness of students oral presentation. Although the course contains the objectives of achieving certain level of accuracy and fluency, perhaps students achieve more on either one of them, and then students will require more specific help by teaching both accuracy and fluency used in the context relevant to their needs. The second one is course evaluation by learners. This helps teachers to demonstrate how well the course actually meets a particular educational aim. Therefore, evaluation not only reflects learners performance on accuracy and fluency during the process of learning but also shows how effective students feel the course was. In this case, if they feel the ESP course fails to meet their goal, then there must be something wrong with course design or methodology. It is therefore clear that both learner and course evaluation have a similar function in providing feedback on the ESP course (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). Moreover, the feedback of the learning outcome is essential not only for students but also for teachers. This is because feedback reflects students learning achievement on accuracy and fluency and the effectiveness of teaching. Therefore, how to evaluate learning and teaching to obtain feedback is important to teachers. In order to find the balance between accuracy and fluency, evaluation and feedback are essential not only at the beginning of the course but also after the instruction. Conclusion In conclusion, although accuracy has been emphasised by many language students, as the three sections mentioned above, it can clearly be seen that both accuracy and fluency are important at different needs for different people of different priorities. Despite the fact that some arguments show that accuracy is essential for learners to acquire linguistic form to produce the language, this is not enough. Fluency is still needed considering the language implementation in an authentic environment. This essay has suggested that both accuracy and fluency are needed in second language acquisition. Whether to focus more on accuracy or fluency depends on learners needs and course objectives. Therefore, language teachers can find the right balance of accuracy and fluency by using an ESP approach to design courses relevant to the needs and objectives. Thus, these courses can maximise the effects of teaching and learning through evaluation and feedback. Although ESP can solve this problem, teachers ability to design the course should be taken into consideration. Therefore, it is suggested that teacher training program is certainly necessary and the real development may be made in the future.

Motivating Students in Writing Curriculum Essay -- English Writing Tea

Being an effective Instructor of Composition at the community college level requires a variety of skills and talents, many of which simply can’t be taught in formal classroom settings. Facing constant pressure to make judgments that have weighty consequences is just one of the challenges of teaching writing. A writing teacher who is too strict or inflexible can give students the excuse they may be seeking to withdraw or not perform in class. Some students are only too eager to proclaim that they can’t possibly meet high standards in writing, so there is â€Å"no use in even trying.† Putting stringent rules in place for a writing class does not necessarily provide an atmosphere that will foster successful student writing. But being lenient and making exceptions to policies can give a teacher the reputation of being one who can be manipulated or worse yet, â€Å"easy.† How do teachers of writing negotiate these obstacles and still manage to convince students to produce quality writing not only in their classes but across the curriculum as well? How do teachers of writing fulfill an obligation to students, and provide them with a basis of knowledge and the writing experience to prepare them for the next semester of writing instruction while still being understanding and compassionate? There is a fine line between expecting students to do their best work and knowing when to allow them some room for the extraordinarily difficult situations in which many of them find themselves. This is one aspect of the job that very few veteran teachers speak of to laypersons. And yet this is a very real problem teachers of writing face every day. How do we find a way to be compassionate and fair without compromising the morals and character of the teache... ...nd working in a broken society---to the complicated and thoroughly nontraditional lives being led by most of our students, regardless of age or background, to the unavoidably and increasingly personal interaction that takes place with our students, to issues of trust and ethical responsibilities. (325) It is as if Dan Morgan has been observing my classroom and reading my mind. Students are depending on writing teachers to be fair and ethical no matter how much the students attempt to bulge or dilate the traditional boundaries of a student/teacher dichotomy. The ability of our students to develop as writers could very well depend on our willingness to rise to the challenge of meeting the complex demands that are being made on teachers of writing. Works Cited Morgan, Dan. â€Å"Ethical Issues Raised By Students’ Personal Writing.† College English 60 (1998): 318-325. Motivating Students in Writing Curriculum Essay -- English Writing Tea Being an effective Instructor of Composition at the community college level requires a variety of skills and talents, many of which simply can’t be taught in formal classroom settings. Facing constant pressure to make judgments that have weighty consequences is just one of the challenges of teaching writing. A writing teacher who is too strict or inflexible can give students the excuse they may be seeking to withdraw or not perform in class. Some students are only too eager to proclaim that they can’t possibly meet high standards in writing, so there is â€Å"no use in even trying.† Putting stringent rules in place for a writing class does not necessarily provide an atmosphere that will foster successful student writing. But being lenient and making exceptions to policies can give a teacher the reputation of being one who can be manipulated or worse yet, â€Å"easy.† How do teachers of writing negotiate these obstacles and still manage to convince students to produce quality writing not only in their classes but across the curriculum as well? How do teachers of writing fulfill an obligation to students, and provide them with a basis of knowledge and the writing experience to prepare them for the next semester of writing instruction while still being understanding and compassionate? There is a fine line between expecting students to do their best work and knowing when to allow them some room for the extraordinarily difficult situations in which many of them find themselves. This is one aspect of the job that very few veteran teachers speak of to laypersons. And yet this is a very real problem teachers of writing face every day. How do we find a way to be compassionate and fair without compromising the morals and character of the teache... ...nd working in a broken society---to the complicated and thoroughly nontraditional lives being led by most of our students, regardless of age or background, to the unavoidably and increasingly personal interaction that takes place with our students, to issues of trust and ethical responsibilities. (325) It is as if Dan Morgan has been observing my classroom and reading my mind. Students are depending on writing teachers to be fair and ethical no matter how much the students attempt to bulge or dilate the traditional boundaries of a student/teacher dichotomy. The ability of our students to develop as writers could very well depend on our willingness to rise to the challenge of meeting the complex demands that are being made on teachers of writing. Works Cited Morgan, Dan. â€Å"Ethical Issues Raised By Students’ Personal Writing.† College English 60 (1998): 318-325.

Differences Between CPA Board Passers and Non-Passers

Being a student opens a lot of opportunities in life. Living in the Philippines, we have every right to choose what we want to do with our life. Choosing our friends, socializing with people, going to college, choosing a program, etc. – we can have it our way. A lot of students nowadays are choosing Accountancy as their program in universities. There are many privileges in this program since money is associated. We get knowledge of how money works in every business firms in the world.This is not an easy program. In fact, it is one of the most challenging one in the world, but the real challenge is finishing the now 5-year program and passing the CPA Board Exam. It is just not enough to graduate with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy. As the society demands, those who graduated BS Accountancy must first take up the Board Exam to see if they are really qualified with the job of an accountant. If you pass the Licensure Exam, you will now be called Certified Public Ac countant.Passing the exam requires a minimum of seventy-five percent examination rate and will be entitled to registration as Certified Public Accountant provided that every subject does not have a rating of less than sixty-five percent. There are no more requirements to fulfill after you passed the exam. After graduating and passing the Licensure Exam, CPA’s will have to practice their profession for at least three years before they become Registered Certified Public Accountant.Working in the industry with low starting income is normal for beginners, but as time passes by, there is a chance for the increase in salary and income if you worked hard in your job. Attending seminars is also helpful since it helps you gain more knowledge which you haven’t acquired yet when you were still studying your program, like money and many topics involving the use of it in the industry. Those people who did not pass the Board Exam of course will not be released a license.Sometimes, t hey get underemployed or worse, unemployed although some still try to review and take again the next scheduled Board Exam. Those who failed after 2 CPA Board Examination will not be given chance to take again the exam, except if the registrant has proven that he has already taken and completed 24 units in the subjects included in the exam. This research aims to compare the differences between the board passers and non-passers in terms of benefits and privileges since every firm demands a passer and also a non-passer in their accounting department.We aim to understand and differentiate the two also because they have designated jobs in the society while other programs cannot have a job if they did not pass the board exam. The employment privileges is one of the reasons why accounting students take up this program, so if they did not pass the test, all their efforts in studying accountancy for five years will be wasted, right? Accountancy is one of the most challenging programs that ex ist. Those students who take up this program must have a high and clear knowledge of what the program really is.According to the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 1 of the Accounting Standards Council, â€Å"Accounting is a service activity. Its function is to provide quantitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities, that is intended to be useful in economic decisions. † The above statement clearly tells us that accountancy is not just about money and manipulating it. Accounting is also useful in the economic aspect of every business firms and that every firm must have someone who specializes in the field of accountancy.It could help them solve problems that might arise in terms of financial and economic aspects. It would take a great deal of hard work and perseverance to master this program. However, a lot of students mostly underestimate the real meaning and purpose of this program. Students think that accountancy is all about basic addition and subtraction. In reality, accountancy is not just about memorization of formulas – it is about the analysis of the problem. There are also students who think that because of the high demand of accountancy graduates, the program is easy.We must always bear in mind that there is never an easy program for every student in the world to take. Some students perceive accountancy as having knowledge of how money works in people’s lives and in business firms. Globally, the use of money is quite a complicated task and that is what makes it interesting for people to learn. We become mesmerized by the amazing process of the manipulation of money in every business around the world, but money is simply not an easy job to learn – it is a complex system.We need to pay attention to its complex system and how it really works. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants through its Committee on Accounting Terminology, â€Å"Accounti ng is the art of recording, classifying and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are in part at least of a financial character, and interpreting the results thereof. † An accountant’s job is to record, classify, and summarize transactions of business firms and interpret its results to know how much the firm earns.They are also responsible for the flow of money in firms and where the money is used, for example in every international trips of the manager, in charities that they support, in payrolls, in projects that they conduct to improve their business, in their withdrawals, in their debts, in every liabilities that they acquire, etc. Every business firm in the world wants to earn more income and have lesser accounts payable. It is an accountant’s job to make sure that businesses do not acquire many debts but still, they need to gain more profit from people.Statement of the Problem This study aims to compare the Differences between CPA Board Passers and Non-Passers in Terms of Benefits and Privileges. Specifically it sought answers to the following questions: 1. What are the possible jobs of CPA board passers and non-passers? 2. What is the employment rate of the graduates? Significance of the Study The result of this study is a great help to the following personnel: College Students. This study helps the students taking up the program Accountancy because it can serve as their guideline on preparing themselves in Board Exams.Students will be encouraged to study and review harder. Graduates Who Passed The Board Exam. This study will help them know the benefits that they would acquire after passing the exam. Being a CPA, you have the ability to start your own business and have a great salary. There are lots of opportunities to those who passed the CPA Board Exam. Non-profit organizations are looking for the qualified CPA’s on their board. Graduates Who Failed To Pass The Board Exam. T his study will help them to be inspired to take again the board exam for the second time, and make sure that they will pass.It can also help them to be prepared in taking up the board exam. Teachers And Professors. This study can help them prepare themselves to teach the future accountants. They will focus on their teaching qualities. Future Researchers. The result of this study can be a benefit to other researchers who will conduct a study related to this comparative research. Scope and Delimitation This study aims to compare the differences between CPA Board passers and Non-passers in terms of Benefits and Privileges. The study will be conducted at Our Lady of Fatima University Antipolo City during the S.Y. 2013-2014.The school is located at Km. 23 Sumulong Highway Brgy. Sta Cruz, Antipolo City. The respondents of this study are random Accountancy Graduates in the Philippines who have taken up the board exam. This study utilized the comparative method in order to find out the outp ut that will serve as a guideline to all students who are planning to take the board exam. However, the study limits only to those respondents who are in this profession in order to determine the differences between board passers and non-passers. Materials and MethodsThis research utilizes a comparative method since it aims to compare and know the difference between board passers and non-passers. This method is defined as a method of investigation based on comparison between two objects or problems. Information in this study came from various materials such as books, articles, and online resources. Aside from that, we also consulted people who have already an experience working in the field of accountancy. Definition of Terms The following terms are conceptually and operationally defined for common point of understanding and for guidance of the readers.Program – It refers to the course taken up in a university or college Underemployed – It refers to people who graduate d with a specific degree but is not working under their field of profession Unemployed – It refers to people who graduated but do not have a job Money – It is an instrument used by people to transact with one another; it has a value depending on the amount Benefits – Things or objects that you get for doing or acquiring a certain thing that is assigned to you Sex – It refers to the gender, whether the person is a male or female Passing rate – It refers to the percentage of the people who passed the exam Employment rate – It refers to the percentage of the people who are employed in this field

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 15~16

CHAPTER FIFTEEN A Song for Your Supper Amy picked the whale. It had been a stressful morning for her, and Quinn wanted to convey his complete confidence in her, so he handed over the headphones and took directions as they narrowed down which of their whales was actually the singer. â€Å"Wait a second,† Amy said. â€Å"Shut down the engine.† And then she did something that Quinn had seen no one do for twenty-five years, and then it had been his mentor, Gerard Ryder, who most people agreed had been eccentric to the point of being full-blown bat shit. Amy hung over the side by her knees and put her head in the water. After about thirty seconds she swung up, spraying a great crest of seawater all over the boat, then pointed north. â€Å"He's over there.† â€Å"That doesn't work, you know,† said Quinn. It was pretty much accepted that humans didn't have directional hearing underwater. He was just gently trying to remind her. â€Å"Go that way. That's where our whale is.† â€Å"Okay, there may indeed be a singer over there, but you didn't locate him by hearing him.† She just stood there next to him – dripping on his feet, the console, the field notes – looking at him. â€Å"Okay, I'm going.† He started the engine and pushed the throttle over. â€Å"Tell me when I get there.† A couple of minutes later Amy signaled for him to cut the engine, and she was hanging over the side with her head in the water while the boat was still coasting. â€Å"Well, this is just stupid,† Nate said while Amy was submerged. Amy dedunked long enough to say, â€Å"I heard that.† â€Å"Looks like you're bobbing for whales, is what it looks like.† â€Å"Shut up,† said Amy, up for a breath. â€Å"I'm trying to listen.† â€Å"You look like that cartoon character in ‘B.C. that used to watch fish all day.† â€Å"That way,† said Amy, up again, pointing and dog-shaking the water out of her hair onto the Ph.D. â€Å"About six hundred yards.† â€Å"Six hundred yards? You're sure?† â€Å"Give or take fifty.† â€Å"If we're within a half mile of a singer, I'll buy you dinner.† † ‘Kay. What do you suppose the freight is to fly a lobster from Maine to my plate in Lahaina?† â€Å"I'm not going to need to know that.† â€Å"Drive the boat, please. Over there.† And she pointed again, not unlike Babe Ruth indicating the Wrigley Field fence over which he would hit the famous promised home run (except Amy was thin, a girl, and alive). Quinn heard the singer even before they put the hydrophone in the water. The whole boat started resonating to the song as they coasted into a drift. Amy hopped up on the bow and pointed to some white spots dancing below the surface – pectoral fins and a tail. â€Å"There he is!† If there had been a crowd, they would have gone wild. Quinn smiled. Amy looked back at him and grinned. â€Å"Steak and lobster,† she said. â€Å"Something red and French and expensive for the wine, something on fire for dessert – don't care what it is, long as there's flames coming off it – then a backrub before I send you back to your cabin alone, disappointed and confused. Ha!† â€Å"It's a date,† said Quinn. â€Å"No, it's not a date. It's a bet, which you have lost miserably because you had the audacity to doubt me, and for which you shall remain ever sorry. Ha!† â€Å"Shall we work now? Or would you like to gloat a bit longer?† â€Å"Hmmm, let me think about it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She's so small, yet she contains so much evil, Quinn thought. He threw the field journal at her and read her the longitude and latitude off the GPS. â€Å"Film's in the camera. New roll. I loaded it this morning.† â€Å"I was thinking I'd gloat some more.† Amy picked up the notebook, then paused as she opened it to begin writing. â€Å"Singing stopped.† â€Å"Sometimes I think they just stop singing to freak me out.† â€Å"He's moving,† Amy said, pointing. â€Å"Moving,† Quinn repeated. He looked over the side and saw the white pec fins and flukes flash out of sight. â€Å"Hold on.† He started the engine. â€Å"They can hunt these kind, as far as I'm concerned,† Quinn said after they'd been on the whale for two hours. They'd recorded three full cycles of the song and gotten a crossbow biopsy, but the whale simply would not fluke, so they hadn't been able to get an ID photo. A lot of good it did to have a DNA sample when you couldn't identify the animal. â€Å"Hunt them and make them into pet food,† Nate continued. â€Å"Get their tainted, nonfluking genes out of the gene pool.† â€Å"Maybe you should have a doughnut or something, get your blood sugar up,† Amy said. â€Å"Use their pathetic, nonfluking baleen for corsets and umbrella stays. Use their vertebrae for footstools. Use their intestines to make giant, nonfluking whale sausages to serve at state fairs. Remove their putrid unfluking gonads and –  » â€Å"I thought you liked these animals.† â€Å"Yeah, but not when they won't cooperate.† The whale had led them five miles out toward Molokai and very close to the wind line, where the waves were too big and the current too fast to stay on a singer. If the whale continued in this direction, they would lose him within the next two dive cycles and the day would be wasted. What was even more frustrating was that this animal was hanging in the water and singing with his tail only a few feet below the surface. Typically, a singer in the channel would be thirty to fifty feet down – this guy was at about seven. Nate kept having to pull up the hydrophone to keep it from bopping the whale in the noggin as they drifted over it. â€Å"He's coming up,† Amy said. She grabbed the camera off the seat and aimed it at a spot twenty yards or so in front of the boat so the auto-focus and exposure would already be set. Nate pulled up the hydrophone with two yanks and started the engine. The whale was moving faster this time. Nate adjusted the throttle to put Amy at the right distance for a full-frame tail shot. One breath and he was down for ten seconds, another breath twelve seconds, another breath and the great tail peduncle arched high into the air. â€Å"Looks like he's going to do it,† Nate said. â€Å"Ready,† Amy said. The tail cleared the water by just a foot, presenting an edge view instead of a flat horizontal view that would give them all the markings, but Nate thought he saw something. Something that looked like black letters on the underside of the tail. â€Å"You get that? You get that?† â€Å"I got what there was. He didn't present very well.† Amy had run the motor drive for the whole cycle of the dive, maybe eight frames. â€Å"Did you see those markings? On the underside? The black†¦ uh, stripes?† Quinn whipped off his sunglasses and wiped them with his T-shirt. â€Å"Stripes? Nate, I didn't see anything but edge through the camera.† â€Å"Damn it!† â€Å"Look, he fluked. Maybe he will again.† â€Å"That's not the point.† â€Å"It's not?† â€Å"Get up on the bow, see if you can find him.† Amy stood on the bow and directed Quinn. When she dropped her arm, he killed the engine. And there was the whale, hanging there, singing, his tail not ten feet under the water. They weren't a hundred yards off the wind line, and the boat was drifting away from the whale faster than it had before. They'd be over it for only a minute or so. This close to the wind line, they'd probably lose him the next time he came up. Nate was not going to finish this day wondering if he was having hallucinations again. â€Å"Amy, hand me my mask and flippers from the bow cabinet, would you?† â€Å"You're going in the water?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"But you never go in the water.† â€Å"I'm going in the water.† Nate opened a plastic Pelican case and pulled out his Nikonos IV underwater camera, checked to make sure it was loaded. â€Å"You're not a water guy.† â€Å"See if there's a weight belt in there, too.† â€Å"Clay says you're not a water guy. You're a boat guy.† â€Å"I'm going to get an ID photo from under his tail. If he's going to be accommodating enough to stay this close to the surface, I'm going to go get the photo.† â€Å"Can you do that?† â€Å"Why not?† She handed him a belt weighted with ten pounds of lead, and Nate buckled it around his hips. He pulled on the mask and fins, then sat on the gunwale with his back to the water. â€Å"You're going to drift off of me. I'm not going to try to swim to catch you, so come back and get me. Wait till I wave. I don't want you to start the engine until I'm sure I have the picture. Keep recording until you come get me.† † ‘Kay.† Amy's mouth was sort of hanging open as if she'd just been slapped. â€Å"This is no big deal.† â€Å"Right. You want me to do it? It's my fault I didn't get the shot last time.† â€Å"Not your fault. The shot wasn't there. See ya.† Quinn put the snorkel in his mouth and rolled backward off the boat. At seventy-five degrees, the water was still cold enough to knock the breath out of him. He floated to the surface and tried to take controlled breaths until his system adjusted. The whale was close, only a hundred or so feet away. The song reverberated in Nate's ribs as he kicked over to it. This had to be the â€Å"bite me† whale. Even if he'd somehow been wrong about there actually being letters, there were certainly some strange markings on this animal's tail. And there was more than that, too, if he could prove to himself that this was the same animal. It would mean that the whale had stayed in the general area of the Au'au Channel for over three weeks, which was fairly unusual. Of course, conclusions weren't reached from that lack of data. It could simply be that they hadn't computerized the catalog of Hawaiian ID photos the way they had in Alaska. And without the first picture there'd be no proof that this was the same animal, but Quinn would know. He would know. That had become the impetus of this silly mission, not just proving that he wasn't hallucinating. He was a man of science, of facts, of reason. He didn't need to prove he was sane. I'm out of my mind, he thought. He'd never even heard of anyone trying to do an ID photo underwater. The animal was perfectly motionless, a great swath of gray in a field of infinite blue. But Quinn thought he saw movement on the far side of the whale. He lifted his head out of the water and looked back at the boat. Amy gave him a thumbs-up. He took a deep breath and made his dive to take the photo. If he'd been wearing tanks, he might have let the weight belt take him down slowly, but he knew he'd be able to stay down for only forty to sixty seconds, so he went headfirst, kicking hard until he was down twenty or so feet. Then he leveled off, holding the camera in front of him, and looked up at the underside of the whale's tail. There it was, in big, sans-serif, spray-paint-like letters: BITE ME! He nearly forgot to take the picture. How could this possibly be? Had the animal somehow been caught in a net when it was younger and marked by a sardonic fisherman before being released? Was it one of those animals that had swum up a river and got stranded, then been rescued by an army of fish-and-game people? He centered the tail in the viewfinder and hit the shutter. Advanced the film and shot again. Then he needed to breathe. He turned and kicked to the surface, but again he saw the dark shape moving near the whale. Remora, he thought. Although it looked too big to be one of the parasite fish that often attached themselves to whales. At the surface he looked back down at the singer, near the left pec where he'd seen the movement. The animal was doing ribbits. Quinn smiled around his snorkel, took three deep breaths, held, then dove again. This time, before he could get the camera up, he saw the movement of a dark fin on the far side of the whale, and he squinted to see deep into the blue distance. Blue-water willies, was how he'd always thought of it. The feeling you get when you realize that something big and carnivorous could come at you from any direction, then you start looking for gray missiles in the blue, like looking for a malevolent face to appear at a dark window. Then the whale moved. The wash of the tail pushed Quinn back, but he maintained his bearings and started toward the surface, trying to keep his eye on the animal. The whale turned around in little more than its own length and shot toward Nate. He kicked laterally, trying to move to one side or another, then up, so he'd be tossed over the top of the animal rather than under it as it came up, because it was definitely going to bump him. He looked back beyond his fins as he kicked and saw the whale adjust its direction to keep coming toward him. Nate kicked once for the surface, then looked back again to see the animal's enormous mouth opening beneath him. No, this can't be happening, he thought. The panic rising in his chest demanded air, but it was as if the entire ocean had opened up a hole behind him, and he wasn't going to make it to the surface. The whale came halfway out of the water as it scooped him up, and Nate saw sky, and white water, and baleen fringing the upper jaw above – all of it framed by the huge trapezoid that was the whale's open mouth. Then he felt the whale sinking back, and he saw the baleen close over him. He rolled into a ball, hoping not to be crushed by the jaws, hoping to be spit out as a horrible dining mistake. But then the great tongue came forward, warm and rough, driving him against the baleen plates – it was like being smashed into a wrought-iron fence by a wet Nerf Volkswagen. He could feel the baleen ripping the skin on his back as the tongue covered him, pressing the seawater out around him as it would strain krill, then crushing him until the last of the air exploded from his body and he blacked out. PART TWO Jonah's People Men really need sea monsters in their personal oceans. For the ocean, deep and black in the depths, is like the low dark levels of our minds in which the dream symbols incubate and sometimes rise up to sight like the Old Man of the Sea. – JOHN STEINBECK CHAPTER SIXTEEN Shoes Off in the Whale! â€Å"Shoes off in the whale!† a male voice said out of the dark. Quinn could see nothing. His entire body ached like, well, like it had been chewed. He crawled to his hands and knees on what felt like wet latex. He reached down and felt for his feet. He still had his flippers on, and logic protested through his confusion. â€Å"I'm not wearing shoes. These are fins.† â€Å"Shoes off in the whale! And don't try and make a break for the anus.† Two things that, if asked about an hour earlier, Nate might have said with conviction he'd never hear in a lifetime of conversation. â€Å"What?† Quinn said, squinting into the dark. He realized that he was still wearing his dive mask and reached up to push it back. â€Å"I'll bet he didn't bring the pastrami on rye I asked for either, did he?† came the voice. Shapes began to define themselves in the darkness, and Nate saw a face not a foot away from his. He gasped and pulled away from it, for although it seemed to be examining him with great interest, the face was not human. Clay Demodocus was known throughout the world as one of the calmest, most level-tempered, most generous and considerate individuals in the entire milieu of marine biology. His reputation preceded him when he went on assignment, and people took it for granted that he would remain amiable throughout a long voyage in cramped quarters, as well as efficient in his own work, respectful of the work of others, and cool-headed in an emergency. Because he often had to subjugate himself to the head researcher on any given assignment, Clay did not indulge in ego battles and testosterone-slinging contests with researchers or crew. None of these qualities were evident when he went over the desk of the Coast Guard commandant and stopped only inches from head-butting the tall, athletic-looking officer. â€Å"You call this search off now and I'll see to it that your name is remembered for all time in concert with Adolf Eichmann and Vlad the Impaler. Nathan Quinn is a legend in his field, and every t ime there's a documentary on whales on the Discovery Channel, or National Geographic, or Animal Planet, or PBS, or the fucking Cartoon Channel, I'll see to it that your name is mentioned right after Nate's as the man who left him out there. You'll be the official Coast Guard pariah for the next hundred years. This will be the Coast Guard's My Lai. Every time a kid drowns, your name will be mentioned – nay, every time someone gets a soaker, the name of Commodore Whateveryournameis shall be brought forth and your effigy burned in the streets and your head stuck on a pole, lipsticked, and marched around school yards, forever. And all because you're too goddamned lamebrained to put a couple of helicopters into the air to find my friend. Is that what you want?† Clay had strong views on loyalty. The commodore had been in the Coast Guard for most of his adult life, spending the majority of his time and energy either rescuing people or training others to do so, and as a result he was taken aback more than somewhat by Clay's tirade. He looked across his office to where Kona and Amy stood by the door, looking nearly as haggard as he felt. The surfer looked at him and shook his head sadly. â€Å"It's been three days, Mr. Demodocus. In open water with no life preserver? You're not a tourist – you know the odds. If he were alive, he'd have drifted far out of where we're able to patrol by now anyway. We're doing no fewer than ten rescues a day on Maui. I can't have our helicopters out to sea when there's just no chance.† â€Å"What about tide maps, currents?† Clay pleaded. â€Å"Can't we try to predict which way he might have drifted? Narrow the search area.† The commodore had to look away from Clay when he answered. The first thing the surfer kid with the uneven dreadlocks had said when they'd come into his office was â€Å"Sucks to be you.† And right now the commodore couldn't have agreed more. He'd lost friends at sea; he understood. â€Å"I'm sorry,† he said. Clay sighed heavily, and his shoulders sagged. Amy came forward and took him by the arm. â€Å"Let's go home, Clay.† Clay nodded and allowed himself to be led out of the commodore's office. As they made their way across the parking lot to Clay's truck Kona said, â€Å"That was amazing, Clay.† â€Å"Throwing a fit? Yeah, I'm proud of that, especially since it worked so well.† â€Å"Why didn't you say anything about the whale eating Nate?† In the three days since Quinn had disappeared, Kona had forgotten to speak brophonics and Rasta talk almost completely, and now he just sounded like a kid from New Jersey with a â€Å"whoa, dude† surfer accent. â€Å"Whales don't eat people, Kona,† Clay said. â€Å"You know better.† â€Å"I know what I saw,† Amy said. Clay stopped and stepped away from both of them. â€Å"Look, if you're going to do this stuff, you have to be practical. I believe that you saw what you say you saw, but nothing about it helps. First, a humpback's throat is only about a foot in diameter. They couldn't swallow a human if they wanted to. So if the whale did scoop up Nate, then there's a good chance he was spit out very quickly. Second, if I told that story to everyone else, either they'd think you were being hysterical or, if they believed you, they'd assume that Nate had been drowned immediately, and there wouldn't have been a search. I believe you, kid, but don't think anyone else will.† â€Å"So what now?† Kona asked. Clay looked at the two of them, standing there like abandoned puppies, and he pushed aside his own grief. â€Å"We finish Nate's work. We do this work, we carry on. Right now I've got to go up the mountain and see the Old Broad. Nate was like a son to her.† â€Å"You haven't told her?† Amy asked. Clay shook his head. â€Å"Why would I? I haven't given up on Nate. I've seen too much. Last year they thought they'd lost one of the black-coral divers. The boat came back to where they'd sent him down, and he was gone. A week later he called from Molokai for them to come get him. He'd swum over and had been so busy partying he'd forgotten to call. â€Å"Doesn't sound like Nate,† Kona said. â€Å"He told me that he hated fun.† â€Å"Still, it would be wrong not to let the Old Broad know what's happened,† Amy said. Clay patted them each on the back. â€Å"Intrepid,† he said. As he drove up the volcano, Clay tried to formulate some gentle way of breaking the news to the Old Broad. Since his mother had passed away, Clay had taken the bearing of bad news very seriously – so seriously, in fact, that he usually let someone else do the bearing. He'd been in Antarctica on assignment for National Science, snowed in at the naval weather station for six months when his mother, still in Greece, had gone missing. She was seventy-five, and the villagers knew she couldn't have gone far, yet, search as they might, they did not find her for three days. Finally her location was revealed by her ripening odor. They found her dead in an olive tree, where she had climbed to do some pruning. Clay's older brothers, Hektor and Sidor, would not hold the funeral without Clay, the baby, yet they knew their brother would be completely out of touch for months. â€Å"He is the rich American,† came the ouzo-besotted lament. â€Å"He should take care of Mama. Perhaps h e will even fly us to America for the funeral.† And so the two brothers, having inherited their mother's weakness for alcohol and their father's bad judgment, packed the remains of Mother Demodocus in an olive barrel, filled the barrel with the preserving brine, and shipped it off to their rich younger brother's house in San Diego. The problem was, in their grief (or perhaps it was their stupor) they forgot to send a letter, leave a message, or, for that matter, put a packing label on the barrel, so months later, when Clay returned to find the barrel on his porch, he broke into it thinking he was about to enjoy a delicious snack of kala-mata olives from home. It was not the way to find out about his mother's death, and it engendered in Clay very strong views about loyalty and the bearing of bad news. I will do this right, he thought as he pulled into the Old Broad's driveway. There's no reason for this to be a shock. There were cats and crystals everywhere. The Old Broad led him through the house and had him sit in a wicker emperor's chair that looked out over the channel while she fetched some mango iced tea for them. The house could have been designed by Gauguin and landscaped by Rousseau. It was small, just five rooms and a carport, but it sat on twenty acres of fruit-salad jungle: banana trees, mango, lemon, tangerine, orange, papaya, and coconut palm, as well as a florist's dream of orchids and other tropical flowers. The Old Broad had cultivated a low, soft grass under all the trees that was like a golf-course green over sponge cake. The house was made almost entirely of dark koa wood, nut brown and with black grain running through it, polished to a smooth satin and as hard as ebony. There was a high-peaked galvanized-tin roof with a vented tower in the center to draw heat out the top and cool air in from under the wide eaves that surrounded the whole house. There were no windows, just open sliding walls. You could look through any part of the house to the other and see the tropical garden. The Old Broad's telescope and  «big-eye » binoculars stood on steel and concrete mountings in front of where Clay sat, looking very much out of place: the artillery of science planted in paradise. At Clay's feet a skinny cat happily crunched the legs off a scorpion. The Old Broad handed Clay a tall, icy glass and sat in another emperor's chair beside him. She was barefoot and wore a flowered caftan and a yellow-and-red hibiscus blossom in her hair that was half the size of her face. She had probably been a dish back around the time of Lincoln, Clay thought. â€Å"It's so nice to see you, Clay. I don't get many visitors. Not that I'm lonely, you know. I have the cats and the whales to talk to. But that's not like having one of my boys to visit with.† Oh, jeez, Clay thought. One of her boys. Oh, jeez. He had to tell her. He knew he had to tell her. He had come up here to tell her, and he was going to tell her, and that was that. â€Å"This is excellent tea, Elizabeth. Mango, you say?† â€Å"That's right. Just a little bit of mint. Now, what is it you needed to talk to me about?† â€Å"And ice? I think the coldness makes it, gives it a fantastic, uh†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Temperature? Yes, ice is an essential ingredient in iced tea, Clay. Thus the name.† Sarcasm is so ugly on the aged, thought Clay. No one likes a sarcastic oldster. He said, â€Å"Iced tea, you mean?† Oh, this is just going to kill her, he thought. â€Å"If this is about a new boat, Clay, don't be shy. I know how you loved that boat, and we'll get you another one. I'm just not sure we can go for one quite that nice. My investments haven't been doing well the last couple of years.† â€Å"No, no, it's not the boat. The boat was insured. It's Nate.† â€Å"And how is Nathan? I hope he's handling his little infatuation with your new researcher with a bit of dignity. He was wearing it on his sleeve that night at the sanctuary. You'd think a man as smart as Nathan would have better control over his impulses.† â€Å"Nate had a thing for Amy?† Clay was going to tell her, really. He was just working up to it. â€Å"You said ‘had, † said the Old Broad. â€Å"You said Nate ‘had' a thing for Amy.† â€Å"Elizabeth, there's been an accident. Three days ago Nate went into the water to get a better look at a singer, and†¦ well, we haven't been able to find him.† Clay put down his tea so he could catch the old woman should she faint. â€Å"I'm very sorry.† â€Å"Oh, that. Yes, I heard about that. Nate's fine, Clay. The whale told me.† And here Clay found himself balancing on another dilemma. Should he let her have her belief, no matter how crazy it might be, or should he dash her spirits to earth with the truth? Although Nate had found Elizabeth's eccentricities irritating, Clay had always liked her insistence that the whales spoke to her. He wished it were true. He scooted to the edge of his chair and took her hand in his. â€Å"Elizabeth, I don't think you understand what I'm saying – ; â€Å"He took the pastrami and rye, right? He said he would.† â€Å"Um, that's not exactly pertinent. He's been gone for three days, and they were right at the wind line toward Molokai when he was lost. Rough sea. He's probably gone, Elizabeth.† â€Å"Well, of course he's gone, Clay. You'll just have to carry on until he gets back.† Now she patted his hand. â€Å"He did take the sandwich, right? The whale was very specific.† â€Å"Elizabeth! You're not listening to me. This is not about the whales singing to you through the trees. Nate is gone!† â€Å"Don't you shout at me, Clay Demodocus. I'm trying to comfort you. And it wasn't a song through the trees. What do you think? I'm some crazy old woman? The whale called on the phone.† â€Å"Oh, Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I don't know how to do this » â€Å"More tea?† asked the Old Broad. As Clay made the long drive down the volcano and back to Papa Lani, he tried to fight letting his spirits rise. The Old Broad was completely convinced that Nathan Quinn was just fine and dandy, although she could give no reason other than to say that the whale, after ordering a pastrami on rye, had told her that everything would be all right. â€Å"And how did you know it was the whale on the phone?† asked Clay. â€Å"Well, he told me that's who he was.† â€Å"And it was a male voice?† â€Å"Well, it would be. He's a singer, isn't he?† She'd gone on like that, reassuring him, encouraging him to go back to work, dismissing any guilt or grief, until he was almost to the gates of the compound before he remembered. â€Å"She's a total loony!† he said to himself, as if he just needed to hear the words, to feel their truth. Nothing is all right. Nate's dead. Clair would be sleeping at her house tonight, and although it was late, Clay could not make himself go to sleep. Instead he went to the office, knowing that nothing in the world could eat up time like editing video. He attached a digital video camera to his computer and turned on the recently replaced giant monitor. Blue filled the screen, and then he could sense the motion of descent, but there was only a faint hiss of his breathing, not the usual fusillade of bubbles from a regulator. This was the rebreather footage, from the day he had almost drowned. He'd completely forgotten about it. The breath-holder's tail came into frame. Clay's first instincts had been right. This was great footage of a breath-holder – the best they'd ever recorded. As he passed the tail, the genital slit came into view, and he could tell that they were dealing with a male. There were black marks on the underside of the tail, but the view was still edge on, and he couldn't make out their shape. He heard a faint kazoo sound in the background and ran back the tape, with the sound turned up. This time his breath sounded like a bull snorting before a charge, the kazoo sound, louder now, like a voice through wax paper. He ran back the tape again and cranked the sound all the way up, bringing down the high frequency to kill some of the hiss. Definitely voices. â€Å"There's someone outside, Captain.† â€Å"Does he have my sandwich with him?† â€Å"He's close, Captain, really close. Too close.† Then the tail came down, and there was a deafening thud. The picture jerked in a half dozen directions, then settled as tiny bubbles passed by the lens in a field of blue. The lens caught a shot of Clay's fin as he sank, and then it was just blue and the occasional shot of the lanyard that secured the camera to his wrist. Clay ran the tape back again, confirmed the voices, then set it to dub onto the computer hard drive so he could manipulate the audio in a waveform, the way they did with sound recordings. Even though he was sure what was on the tape, he couldn't figure out how it could possibly have gotten there. Only five minutes of watching little progress bars move across the monitor, and he could stand the suspense no longer. He smiled to himself, because now was the time he would have gone to Nate, as he had so many times before, to help him figure out exactly what it was they were hearing or looking at, but Nate was gone. He checked his watch, and, deciding that it wasn't too insanely late, he headed across the compound to get Amy.