The Allegory of the Cave

I always knew my M.A. in Classics would come in handy! Though I doubt Plato would appreciate this--never struck me as a "talking animal" sorta guy...

Still, this is chapter 50 of Neighbors, and it's the first inspired by the new series of Thursday Prompts now living at Duroc's place. This week's was "shadows."

The previous chapters of all this are numbered accordingly as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

     Just off the top of my head, I don't think I've ever seen 

such a look of concentration on any face, human or otherwise, as 

I saw then from Heather, standing perfectly still in the grass 

and focusing an absolute torrent of attention on Deena, sitting 

on the top step of their porch with the box of Doggie Noms in 

her lap.

     "It's uncanny," El Brujo whispered, and even though I 

wasn't about to admit it, I felt so much better with her 

stretched across my lap.  "I'd've bet money the child was 

physically unable to stop moving."

     "OK, Heather," I said in animal speech.  "I'll need you to 

pay attention to me for a just a minute."

     "I can't!"  Heather didn't move a whisker.  "If Deena takes 

a cookie out of the box and I'm looking away, she might think I 

don't want it and give it to somebody else!  And that would be 

horrible!"

     El Brujo spoke so dryly, I almost sneezed: "Truly, a valid 

concern."

     So I revised my strategy a bit.  "You don't need to look 

away, Heather.  You just need to listen to what I'm saying and 

then listen to the human word Deena's gonna be saying.  OK?  Can 

you listen like that?"

     "Listen?"  Her ears went up and down, down and up, a doggy 

debate apparently raging inside her.  "I...I guess maybe 

I could do that..."

     "OK."  I sat forward a bit in my chair.  "Deena's gonna say 

your name and then the human word for 'sit.'  And when she says 

it, you're gonna sit down and she'll give you the cookie.  

Simple, right?"

     "Cookie."  Heather more moaned it than said it.  "Could she 

give me the cookie first, Mr. Augie?  I'd be able to concentrate 

so much better if I had a cookie dancing inside me."

     "Umm--" I began, considering it.

     But El Brujo cut me off.  "We have rules when we're 

teaching and learning new things, Heather.  And the majority of 

those rules boil down to one simple phrase: trick first, cookie 

after."

     "Cookie!" Heather shouted, her tail blurring like a 

dragonfly's wing, her gaze still locked on the box.  "Please 

teach me the trick quick!  Teach it to me right now!"

     So I switched to human speech.  "Deena?  Look Heather right 

in the eye and say, 'Heather, sit.'"

     Fortunately, animal speech flows a lot faster than human 

talk, so Deena hadn't been sitting there for more than a few 

seconds while El Brujo and I had talked to Heather.  I found 

myself wishing we didn't hafta work all sideways like this, but 

with Deena just started in the drug rehab program at Chrysalis 

House, I knew she needed things as rational and unmysterious as 

she could get.

     The smile she gave me made my heart feel like Heather's 

speeding tail; she leaned forward, focused on the little dog, 

and said, "Heather?  Sit!"

     And Heather just stood there staring at the box of doggie 

treats.

     El Brujo blew out a sigh, and I blinked.  "Wait a minute," 

I told Deena, then I went back to animal speech.  "Heather?  Did 

you hear Deena say your name?"

     "I did!"  The ferocious wag seemed to be inching up her 

spine, the whole hind quarter of her wagging now.  "It's my very 

favorite thing she says except for when she says 'cookie'!"

     "Then do you remember how Deena was gonna say your name and 

then say the word for 'sit?'  Do you remember that?"

     Her wag slowed a bit.  "I remember.  But it doesn't make 

any sense."

     I did some more blinking.  "Can you tell me why it doesn't 

make sense?"

     Heather actually glanced away from the box for the briefest 

of seconds.  "Humans talk by flapping air through their face 

meat, so ev'rything they talk about is solid and heavy and 

simple.  I mean, how can flapping meat talk about anything that 

isn't that?"

     "How indeed?" El Brujo asked, and I almost flicked her nose 

with a finger.

     "So, wait."  A little ache sprang up behind my left eyes.  

"Humans can say your name.  How is that simple?"

     Her ears jerked.  "Names are the simplest of all because 

only things have them!  So when Deena flaps her meat and says my 

name, I know she's talking about me!  When she flaps out the 

name 'cookie,' I know she's talking about cookies!  But 'sit' 

isn't a thing!  It doesn't have a name!  So how can you flap 

meat at someone and tell them to sit?  It's impossible!"

     Feeling like I was under water, I looked down at El Brujo.  

She gave a little feline shrug.  "The child isn't wrong."

     "But--" I started to say, but I stopped because I had no 

idea what I could possible say next.  I mean, I'm sure there are 

people down at the university who could've gotten into the weeds 

of how nouns and verbs all work, but I sure wasn't one of them.

     The silence went on long enough for Deena to notice.  "Gus?  

Should I try it again?"

     I held up a finger, my mind racing after shadows of ideas, 

anything that could maybe explain to Heather--

     Wait.  Shadows?

     "Heather!  When a tree casts a shadow, they're not the same 

thing, are they?"

     That got me another half heartbeat of a stare, Heather's 

eyes darting over from their unending vigil on the cookie box.  

"Trees and shadows?  Yes, they are different things."

     "But if a tree casts its shadow through the window onto the 

wall inside the house and you look at that shadow, you can still 

tell what sort of tree it is, can't you?"

     She perked a bit.  "Yes, I can!  Different trees have 

different shapes, so I can recognize them from their different 

shadows!"

     I reached down and patted her on the head.  "And that's 

what we humans do when we're flapping our meat!  The words we 

make are sound shadows!"

     This time, I got a full-fledged stare from both her 

and El Brujo, so I tried to explain.  "With a regular 

shadow, the shape of it tells you what's casting it, right?  But 

with a human word, the sound of it tells you what idea is behind 

it!  So when Deena flaps her meat and makes that sound she just 

did, the sound is a shadow of the idea of sitting!  When you 

hear that particular sound, you recognize it as coming from the 

idea of sitting, and that way you can think the idea of sitting 

inside your own head the same way Deena was thinking it inside 

her head!"

     Heather's whole body seemed to be vibrating.  "I can think 

what Deena is thinking?"

     "If you recognize the shape, the sound, the word, the 

shadow!"  I felt like I was vibrating, too.  "When Deena speaks, 

she'll make the sound shadow for you, then she'll make the sound 

shadow for sitting.  Are you ready??"

     "Yes!"  Heather actually barked as she said it.

     It took me a breath to switch back to human speech.  

"Deena?  Try it again."

     Deena nodded.  "Heather?  Sit!"

     And Heather sat.