Lab Notes, Week 2: The Strawberry Week

Last week, the lab's observer followed Bara home and understood nothing (week 1). This week Bara is back at the lab, where they test shampoos and hair creams. The observer is still writing everything down, with the same care and the same confusion. If you haven't met Capy and Bara yet, these notes pick up right after their story, Nothing to Fix.

Day 8

Subject B-02 arrives at the lab. Time: very early. First thing she does is polish tag 02 with a paw. Second, she asks whether anyone has seen a large capybara sitting on a front step. Nobody has. Third, she fixes the lab door, which has squeaked since last year. Nobody asked her to. The door no longer squeaks.

Day 9

First test of the week: strawberry shampoo. Result: the subject's fur is standing straight up, all of it, as if she has seen something amazing. She smells of strawberries from the hallway. The subject considers this a success. She marks it on the wall, with one line, next to the window. The observer does not know what the line is counting.

Day 10

The subject spent the afternoon looking out the window. There is nothing out there. The observer checked: a tree, a lamppost, the street. The subject says she is looking "over there". Observer's question: over where? The subject points with a paw. In that direction there is nothing on the map. Well, a street with houses. One has a front step.

Day 11

Second test: "extra gentle" hair cream. The subject held still for forty minutes so the cream could work. An all-time stillness record for the lab. During those forty minutes, the subject told the observer a joke about a duck. The observer did not laugh. The subject said, "She didn't laugh the first time either." She did not explain who "she" is.

Day 12

The subject woke up with three ideas before breakfast: fix the dripping sink, sort the bottles by color, and make a calendar. She did the first two. She started the calendar, drew a great many little squares, and stopped with the pencil in the air. She left it blank. She did not throw it away. She put it under her pillow.

Day 13

A field report arrived from another observer: Subject Capy remains on her front step. Specimen 01, now called Pincho, remains on her head. Neither has moved much. The observer read the report aloud to Subject B-02. The subject jumped three times, then sat down. She stayed sitting a long while, hugging her tummy. She said there was a knot in it. The observer checked: there is no knot.

Day 14

Last day of tests this week. The subject smells of strawberries, coconut and a little lavender. Her fur stands up in three directions. She asked to keep her tag on, "just in case". Before bed, she looked out the window again, over there. This time the observer looked too. Saw nothing. Wrote it down anyway.

End of the week

The report's conclusion: the shampoo works, the cream works, and Subject B-02 does not sit still, except when she talks about a front step. More data is needed.

You already know what's over there. A friendship like a cactus: it doesn't need watering every day.

Are you more of a Capy, the one who waits, or a Bara, the one who comes back? Take the quiz.