The Seal Man

R.T. Carr, Editor

Chapter 3 (Narrative ends)

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I just awoke and I am sad to report that nothing was written, since as soon as I had sufficiently imbibed I fell fast asleep. The cask is empty. So I write with a terrible pain most appropriate to the situation. My wharf is no more and that is the fact of it. The story is so painful, I'm afraid I'll stop writing and not continue. But I will. I am resolved to tell the tale despite the pain it will cause to revisit it. It was just a few days ago now,

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early one morning before the sun was up, I was awakened by several gun shots. I was in the far back of my 'lab' sleeping on an impromptu bed made of a coil of rope. Since I knew I would be dealing with mankind, I folded my hood back to reveal my head and laid aside my fins. I made my way out on to the pier. The owners might have come back from Sacramento, perhaps, and were reacting quite negatively to the presence of

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my friends. Whomever they were, they had shot several of the creatures, and the rest had fled rapidly, causing the pier to pitch crazily as if in a storm. To say I was enraged is an understatement. I yelled out "Stop, Damn you!" in a loud voice and advanced towards them. I do think if I hadn't taken off my hood that I would have been shot as a seal. Perhaps it would have been better if I had. There were two of them. I attacked with all

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the power and voice of the Sea Lion, barking and pushing with a reserve of strength and a real fury, I did not realize I possessed. My attack caught them by surprise. I confess I clubbed one of them with a stout piece of scrap wood, knocking him senseless. When I hit the first, the other fell into the water, but not Before dropping his oil lamp and setting fire to the pier. They beat a hasty retreat, as soon as the second

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man had managed to retrieve his cohort from the water, I suppose based on the fury of my attack . Had I managed to hold on to one of them I honestly do not know what I may have done. Then came the tragedy. I whirled around in rage and saw her lifeless body. Sparkle was probably the first one shot. She had become so domesticated and full of trust that more than likely she came right up to them, I suppose she had surprised

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them in their burglary. They had shot her point blank in her trusting forehead. The sparkle in her eyes now dead forever. I was most devastated by this development, but through some presence of mind I ran into the building, collecting a few of my papers and my flippers, and fled into the night. I was so grief filled that I went to my former residence almost like a homing pigeon back to my fathers house. I do not know how I

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got there. But I was lucky in that they were all out of town on holiday, or I would have had an unpleasant amount of explaining that I was surely not capable of rendering due to such an upsetting turn of events. My room was still waiting for me, and frankly I hid for quite a while, venturing out in street clothes, disguised as a man, to buy the papers, this small notebook and a small pouch to tuck it into. I have vowed once this

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is written down to take steps to abandon this human existence and attempt to adapt myself to my Sea Lion brothers. The papers were full of the mysterious fire for a few days, mentioning the odd pier, with the Sea Lions dead on it, and gossiping about talk of a scientist that had attracted them. I, it seemed was a 'man of mystery' and since the owners of the pier were not available for comment, there didn't seem to be a trace of

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evidence of me being involved. There was a related story about two desperate characters, one bleeding profusely from a gash in his head, that were shot trying to burglarize a neighboring pier. I wondered if that was why they came to my pier having been somehow off course to the actual one with valuables upon it. They were both dead in typical San Francisco law enforcement fashion, and were blamed for the fire on my

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pier as well as the burglary attempt on the other. The mysterious professor was still missing and foul play was suspected. Indeed it was justice. It is sad to say, but it was inevitable that man and animal living in harmony would be savagely torn asunder by a suspicious, careless, or nefarious peer who did not care a whit for such beautiful creatures or the lives attached to them. I find myself guilty as I grieve for Sparkle and

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realizing I had more to do with her death by being so selfish about her domestication. I dedicate my life, with every future breath I may possess, to the preservation of this species, and will avenge any wrongs perpetrated upon them, to my last fervent breath. I have vowed to join the Sea Lions, as soon as it is practical. I will bring my little spectacles and this diary as well as a 9 inch metal spike for my spear fishing. That

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is all of mankind I will bring apart from a wax pencil for any last minute thoughts while on the rock. My fins may help me to swim, its worth a few tests. So I have vowed that this Sunday I will begin my new life.

I bid farewell to my life as a human.

"The Seal".

[Remainder of pages following are stuck together. The wax had bonded to the paper, and the paper was deemed to be too brittle to attempt to recover the writing.]