292 Union Bay 



Herbie would have had some such thoughts about the fog, 

 notwithstanding the shore sounds which would have in- 

 stantly destroyed any illusions which an older person might 

 have tried to build up. If the sounds broke into Herbie's con- 

 sciousness at all, he would have interpreted the shouts of 

 playing boys as the cries of children begging for rescue, muf- 

 fled traffic sounds would have been the roar of the seas, and 

 auto horns the signals sounded to keep the ships together in 

 the fog. 



But there were no such connotations in the sounds I heard: 

 they were the rattles of loads sliding over the endgates of the 

 city garbage trucks, the noise of heavy traffic across the 

 bridge, the bells of the ferry landing on Lake Washington, 

 the chimes of the University carillon. I envied Herbie his 

 imagination but, whether for good or bad, I must take my 

 pleasure from the interpretation of tangible things. 



I temporarily dismissed Herbie and continued my slow 

 progress. I realized, as I had foreseen, that I was testing my 

 reactions almost entirely without the greatest of the senses- 

 sight. I had never been so conscious of the pungency of 

 odors, nor so aware of the little noises of the marsh— the 

 creaks, the snappings, and the small and indistinct clicks 

 which came from everywhere. The drops falling from the 

 paddles, and even the little wavelets at the canoe bow, came 

 to me as sharp, separate, and distinct sounds. I noted the 

 smell of smoke from the University stack, the marsh gas 

 which bubbled to the surface, and the mud displaced in the 

 shallows by the canoe paddle. And then I heard a definitely 

 close sound on my left— the noise of spattering water. 



One glance in clear weather would have revealed the 

 cause. Had it been early summer I might have thought that 

 some nesting bird was making a display to divert my atten- 

 tion from its nest or young, but this was not possible in 

 November. Equally unlikely was the pleasant thought that 

 children might be playing on the beach. 



