Celia's Song Read Online Free

many scientists have studied the ocean because of that. The earth has been through cataclysmic change a few times, every time a lot of humans perished, but the earth has survived.
    From their conversation, Celia gathers that these men seek evidence of previous vegetation, unknown life before the coastline was manipulated by the newcomers. Celia chuckles; some old Indian could just tell them what sorts of tender sea vegetables perished on the coast, but then these guys would have to believe them. Their science is not about belief; their science is about proof.
    This makes me laugh too.
    THE OCEAN WAVES CONTINUE to thicken and roll forward, but the white froth that tipped the waves has disappeared. “Why are the waves so grey near the shore?” Celia’s hands tremble as she watches the waves gain volume. She does not like the looks of the size of the swell nor does she like the feeling the waves inspire. She no longer feels compelled to watch. She shrugs, returns to her bills, and thinks no more about the ocean.
    â€œHALF THE WORLD HAS stories of sea monsters, no less on this continent,” Sam argues with the men in the lab as they head for Davis’s office.
    â€œSomeone would have seen it before now?”
    Thomas doesn’t disguise his exasperation. He believes the film is defective. Sam wants the film tested for defects, but only because he believes it isn’t defective at all. Although it’s absurd to waste time speaking about it until the film is tested, they continue to argue.
    I find them kind of funny .
    Neither Sam nor Davis challenges the notion that as scientists their own beliefs should be held suspect, nor do either of them think that making decisions based on belief without checking, researching, or verifying the evidence is odd.
    â€œBy ‘someone’ you mean you and me. Have we actually seen the atom split?” Sam challenges. “Someone has seen it.”
    Frederick is curious as to why Sam is so touchy about the stories of people disconnected from his heritage and scientific world, but he says nothing.
    â€œDon’t pull that race card on me, you know what I mean: some scientist would have seen it.”
    â€œNo scientist believes there is a Sasquatch, but in the state of Washington, if you cause one to die through harassment of any sort you will be charged with murder. Look, I’m not convinced it’s anything, but as scientists we are given to inquiry, so let’s inquire.” Sam’s voice is sure and steady.
    â€œIt’s a waste of time; we’re marine biologists, not myth hunters.” The possible reality of a sea creature challenges Thomas’s sense of self; it’s an affront to his education.
    â€œAny judgment not based on inquiry is superstition,” Sam snarls back as he fills another cup of coffee. He spoons three teaspoons of sugar into the cup, stirring it so hard that it spills. He curses, grabs a towel, and wipes it up. “In the forties, science held that only humans had language, but the Natives believed they could converse with orcas and whales. Every scientist laughed at them. By the nineteeneighties, when the Natives who could speak the language of the orcas were wiped out, scientists discovered that orcas and whales do have language, they engage in conscious communication.”
    I want to tell him that I believe he is a sugar addict, but he would not hear me .
    Frederick frowns; there’s just a little too much push in Sam’s voice and it makes Frederick wonder. Are his relatives Native?
    â€œJust this past spring, you remember, three whales were stuck in Arctic ice. The Inuit offered to talk them out. The marine biologists forbade them to try. At a cost of three million, icebreakers from Russia and America were hired to clear a path. Every day the Inuit came and offered to talk them out. Two weeks and one dead whale later, they were nowhere near freeing the trapped whales and the other two were