them that I was a wild animal. I was so infuriated with them for being so obtuse in thinking I was some wild beast, and I was so frustrated I couldn't speak to them that I decided if they wanted me to be an animal they would get an animal. I trained them to respect me when I growled and barred my teeth at them.
I also practiced escaping from my cell. It had a combination lock, and whenever I was taken out, I made sure to set the combination before being put back in. Sometimes the slamming of door jarred the combination and so I wouldn't be able to get out, but usually the door shut on the combination to open it, and all I had to do was open the door. As an animal, no one cared that I played with the dial of the combination. My captors saw it kept me calm and were happy to have a moments' respite from observing me nervously. Whenever I escaped, I located all the closets in the building I was in and spent the nights experimenting with the things I found, dressing in the strange clothes.
By day I slept. What use was it to go around escorted, wearing a gruesome uniform? My captors were mystified by my daylight sleepiness. Even though my arrival in this world was so inexplicable, I realized that I couldn't let these people define who I was, what I was, or where I was from. If I didn't trust myself, if I let someone else determine the nature of my being, then I would be lost to myself. I was already lost to my world. That was bad enough. How bizarre it was that these people did not accept my common humanity with them, nor did they accept the differences between us while the forest I had lived in had. I was letting my flights of fancy carry me away. A forest could not really perceive personality and consciousness when it did not have these qualities, no matter how much it seemed it did. A scary thought nagged at me. This world was so different from my own; maybe the forest did have self-awareness. Could I be making the same mistaken assumption about the forest that the people were of me?
I must find out as much as I could about this world I now inhabited, so I covertly kept an eye on my captors' habits. I saw that my captors always ate together in a lovely wood-paneled dining room. The food they ate smelled wonderful. I added raiding the pantry to my nightly rounds. I kept it a secret that I was learning their language. Its syntax was very close to English. I started to sneak out of my cell at riskier times to spy on the people, to learn their customs, and to pick up their language so that some day I could escape.
After a time I realized I was at a university and was considered a kind of lab animal. Visiting professors would come, and each of them spoke a different language. Yet all of the resident students and faculty understood the visiting professors. New students would come speaking different languages and though they did not understand the others, the others understood them. How could my captors understand so many different languages? By my count they knew thirty-five or thirty-six at least. When a new faculty member arrived at the campus between meals, he was given a fine meal, which he ate alone in the dining room. If someone happened to be free, then they would keep the professor company, and sometimes share the meal. It seemed the etiquette to share food with whomever joined you at the table, so the professor always shared the meal with whoever sat down to keep him company. I came up with a great idea. I saw a new professor arrive when I was being given my daily walk. After I was returned to my cell, I sneaked out of it and raided the clothes closet of the woman whose clothes I liked best, and of course, whose clothes fitted me. Then I entered the dining room where the professor sat. I smiled and took my seat. Sure enough, he asked me to join him.
"Thank you," I said. So far so good.
The professor then began to chat, gesturing every so often to a small black case he had set on the table. I ate and
I also practiced escaping from my cell. It had a combination lock, and whenever I was taken out, I made sure to set the combination before being put back in. Sometimes the slamming of door jarred the combination and so I wouldn't be able to get out, but usually the door shut on the combination to open it, and all I had to do was open the door. As an animal, no one cared that I played with the dial of the combination. My captors saw it kept me calm and were happy to have a moments' respite from observing me nervously. Whenever I escaped, I located all the closets in the building I was in and spent the nights experimenting with the things I found, dressing in the strange clothes.
By day I slept. What use was it to go around escorted, wearing a gruesome uniform? My captors were mystified by my daylight sleepiness. Even though my arrival in this world was so inexplicable, I realized that I couldn't let these people define who I was, what I was, or where I was from. If I didn't trust myself, if I let someone else determine the nature of my being, then I would be lost to myself. I was already lost to my world. That was bad enough. How bizarre it was that these people did not accept my common humanity with them, nor did they accept the differences between us while the forest I had lived in had. I was letting my flights of fancy carry me away. A forest could not really perceive personality and consciousness when it did not have these qualities, no matter how much it seemed it did. A scary thought nagged at me. This world was so different from my own; maybe the forest did have self-awareness. Could I be making the same mistaken assumption about the forest that the people were of me?
I must find out as much as I could about this world I now inhabited, so I covertly kept an eye on my captors' habits. I saw that my captors always ate together in a lovely wood-paneled dining room. The food they ate smelled wonderful. I added raiding the pantry to my nightly rounds. I kept it a secret that I was learning their language. Its syntax was very close to English. I started to sneak out of my cell at riskier times to spy on the people, to learn their customs, and to pick up their language so that some day I could escape.
After a time I realized I was at a university and was considered a kind of lab animal. Visiting professors would come, and each of them spoke a different language. Yet all of the resident students and faculty understood the visiting professors. New students would come speaking different languages and though they did not understand the others, the others understood them. How could my captors understand so many different languages? By my count they knew thirty-five or thirty-six at least. When a new faculty member arrived at the campus between meals, he was given a fine meal, which he ate alone in the dining room. If someone happened to be free, then they would keep the professor company, and sometimes share the meal. It seemed the etiquette to share food with whomever joined you at the table, so the professor always shared the meal with whoever sat down to keep him company. I came up with a great idea. I saw a new professor arrive when I was being given my daily walk. After I was returned to my cell, I sneaked out of it and raided the clothes closet of the woman whose clothes I liked best, and of course, whose clothes fitted me. Then I entered the dining room where the professor sat. I smiled and took my seat. Sure enough, he asked me to join him.
"Thank you," I said. So far so good.
The professor then began to chat, gesturing every so often to a small black case he had set on the table. I ate and
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