The Happiness of Seals

Kobo was getting right into Kierkegaard. He was a strange sort of philosopher. He wrote in character. In Repetition he called himself Constantine Constantius. Constantine Constantius had some funny ideas, but you couldn't really blame Kierkegaard for any of them. Constantine Constantius was an older man who was trying to give helpful advice to a younger man. The younger man had split up with his girlfriend, because he had decided that after all he couldn't deal with getting married. The trouble was, how could he get out of it without feeling terribly guilty for the rest of his life?

Ageless should read this, thought Kobo.

........

Ageless was not thinking about Kobo at all. He was in the Pacific Cultures Gallery, sitting next to Mr Lee, munching corn chips, which he had brought up from dowstairs. On the other side of Mr Lee, Lavender and Baby Pierre each occupied a separate seat, althought they could easily have doubled up. Above them, suspended from the ceiling hung two woven straw alligators, and along the walls were various shields, spears and Pacific Cultures masks, arranged in patterns.

The lecture was about the Southern Ocean, which is warming, freshening and acidifying. This is known because scientists drop hundreds of yellow plastic data-gathering transmitter tubes into the ocean, and also attach transmitters to the heads of seals. Sucked in, seals. The speaker had a photo of one of the seals. It looked quite happy with its transmitter sitting on its head just like a fascinator. It smiled and stuck its large pink tongue at the camera. It could easily have been made of wax.

Lavender nudged Baby Pierre.

What? whispered Baby Pierre.

The speaker, Steve Rintoul, went on to say that the transmitters didn't hurt the seals. The transmitters dropped off when their fur began to moult, sometimes even before. As he spoke he looked directly at Lavender who was looking back at him and wondering if he could be her daddy. But she wasn't going to say anything, not this time.

Past and Future

It was getting late. The next building they passed was already closed.

I hope that's not the library, said Baby Pierre.

It says ART GALLERY on the front, observed Frog.

So I was right, said Baby Pierre. It's not the Library.

Frog looked sour.

The next building was set back from the road beyond sunken lawns edged by palm trees. People were hurrying inside.

This must be the Library, said Baby Pierre.

But it wasn't the library, it was the Museum. Baby Pierre and Frog had arrived just in time for the Sprigg Lecture. They decided to stay.

They walked up the grand central staircase and turned right into the Pacific Cultures Gallery. They chose two seats on the front row.

What if someone sits on us? said Frog.

They will get a surprise, said Baby Pierre. Especially if they sit on you.

The lecture was about Megafauna. The speaker had published a book on the Diprotodon. She told the audience that just before she published the book she had learned that current thinking had changed. The two different species of Diprotodon were actually male and female of the same species.

There's a case where it would have been better to know the future, whispered Frog loudly.

Poo! said Baby Pierre. It would have been better to know the past.