FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 3

“Who are you,” I’d typed onto the keyboard. I glanced over my shoulder at the dog, scooting the desk chair out of the way as he and Albert split apart. Albert was clearly confused by this, even if the bulge in his pants implied other thoughts as well.

We both watched the dog as he stared at the keyboard, looking at the screen. His eyes weren’t moving, his breath slowed, and he entered a state of presumed dormancy. He wasn’t moving, blinking, or even clearing breathing. The rise and fall of his chest was almost impossible to see, and right as I was starting to get worried he twitched his fingers, blinked, and started breathing again. His ears flicked as I opened my mouth to say something when he suddenly muttered gibberish and stepped back.

Me and Al continued to watch him as he stared at the floor. He was clearly lost in thought, and I felt like I’d broken him, like I’d asked something he wasn’t ready for. He suddenly walked over to us, very determined, and typed three words: “I don’t know.”

I nodded, speaking aloud, “Why do I get the feeling that the guys at the adoption center knew all this?”

Al shrugged, “Same reason I get the feeling he’s bull shitting us about not knowing how to talk. There’s no way he can’t talk, you have to learn to speak before you can learn to read and write. Speaking is more natural, reading is a human construct.”

“True, but what if you grew up without spoken language? You could still learn that all those markings had meaning, that there was something going on, but you wouldn’t associate it with sound.” I looked at the dog, staring at us blankly. “Basically he’d understand what we’re saying if it were written, but spoken… it’s all meaningless white noise, like what animals talking between each other is to us.”

“But, do you think we could teach him to talk?”

“Probably…” I got the dog’s attention and looked him dead in the eyes, saying “ah,” trying to get him to mimic me. He did, pretty quickly, and then stopped when I typed an ‘O’ on the keyboard and pointed, saying “Ah” again. He didn’t get it.

I decided I should explain first. In writing, because apparently that’s how to communicate with my adopted brother. “Look, those noises we make have meaning, that’s what writing is based on. Of course, we still talk, as well as write, so either you need to learn sign language or you need to learn to talk, and you’re capable of doing the latter so”

He suddenly grabbed my hand and typed a response, “I get it, but I don’t know what letters represent.”

I nodded, and started typing a response, “They’re sounds, well, mostly. There’s a lot of weird breaks in the rules, but basically each letter represents a different sound, with some exceptions like C, Q, Th, Sh, Ch, and those times where Ch is Tch, and Sh is Sch, and almost any word with R in it, where you kinda just have to bull shit it and hope you said it right.”

He turned and looked at me, nodding.

“You wanna try it?”

He nodded again, looking at me. I hit “A” on the keyboard and looked at him, making an “aa” sound. He repeated it, and grabbed a pen and paper, writing an A on it and making the sound again. He kept making the sound, over and over, stopping and thinking about it, and actually felt his jaw and mouth one time. He scribbled a weird mark next to it and said it again, more definitively.

Al gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek, “Well, you got this under control, I’m gonna go. See ya tomorrow.” He left the house and I glanced back to see the dog sitting there, giving me a curious look.

I turned to the keyboard, “What?”

I slid the keyboard over to him and he immediately started typing. “Why did you kiss?” He slid the keyboard over to me and looked at me, a look of complete curiosity on the fox’s face.

I sighed and started typing, “Well…” I looked at him, and got an idea. I turned back towards the computer, “I’m gonna read this out loud when I’m done, so that you can get the gist of speaking.” I cleared my throat and read it aloud, and I kept glancing over at him to see him nodding, following along to the sounds with the meanings of each word. “Me and him are in a relationship. Now, admittedly homosexuality is weird, and you probably know nothing about it,” I looked over at him as I typed this and nodded, which told me he’d been sheltered his whole life. How... “Okay, uh, do you understand sexuality at all?”

He shook his head, then reached over and typed something, “I know the birds do it and the bees do it. I don’t need the talk, but anything beyond boys and girls having sex is lost on me.”

I nodded, “Okay, so you know where babies come from, but you don’t know what relationships are?” He made a gestured with his hands that suggested some varied understanding. I sighed, “Oh boy, do we have cultural catching up to do. Okay, first let’s teach you to talk, then this will be easier on me.”

He nodded, and very definitely said, “Talk.”