Lab Notes, Week 3: The Way Home

For two weeks we've been reading the lab observer's notes: first at Bara's home (week 1), then at the lab, where Bara kept looking out the window between shampoos (week 2). This week the tests end and Bara goes home. The observer goes along, notebook in hand, and still understands almost nothing. You'll understand all of it.

Day 15

Final test: coconut conditioner. Result: Subject B-02's fur stands up in four directions, one more than last week. The observer informs the subject that testing is over and she goes home on Day 17. The subject answers, "I know." She points at the marks on the wall by the window. The observer finally counts them. There is one for every day since the subject left her front step. The marks were not counting shampoos. They were counting days.

Day 16

The subject packs. Contents: the blank calendar she kept under her pillow, and tag 02, polished twice. Nothing else. Before leaving she fixed one last thing: the window, which never opened. It opens now. The observer asked why, since she's leaving anyway. The subject said, "So anyone can look over there." The observer opened the window. Looked. A tree, a lamppost, the street.

Day 17

Early departure. The subject did not walk: she ran. The observer, carrying the notebook, lost sight of her at the second corner and found her again at the fifth. The subject knew every turn without a map. Arrival: Subject Capy is on her front step, with Pincho on her head and the paper tag on her ear, a little faded. Subject B-02 stopped at the gate. For the first time in three weeks, she stood completely still. Subject Capy did not get up. She moved over a little. The observer notes that there was already room. There had been room the whole time.

Day 18

Subject B-02 spent three hours and twelve minutes sitting on the step next to Subject Capy. She said nothing. She fixed nothing. Neither did Subject Capy. The observer wrote: "No activity." Then crossed it out. Wrote "rest" and crossed that out too. Could not find the word. Left the space blank, like the calendar.

Day 19

Subject B-02 searched the whole house for things to fix. Found: none. Everything was just as she left it. The only change is Pincho: he grew four new little apples while she was away. Subject B-02 tried to water him three times this afternoon. Subject Capy hid the watering can three times, without a word. The observer looked it up: too much water is bad for a cactus. The observer did not know that. Subject Capy did.

Day 20

Subject B-02 took out the blank calendar and a pencil. In each little square she drew something: a door, a bottle, a window, a tree, a street. In the last square she drew a front step with two capybaras and a cactus. She gave it to Subject Capy. Subject Capy hung it by the door, at eye level for both of them. The calendar has no dates. Subject B-02 says it doesn't need any.

Day 21

Subject B-02 slept nine hours without moving. The lab's record was forty minutes (Day 11). Subject Capy did not sleep: she watched her sleep, with Pincho on her head. The report's conclusion: Subject B-02 does sit still, but only on this step. Subject Capy waits, and the waiting works. The observer cannot explain either result.

End of the study

Before leaving, the observer looked back: two capybaras and a cactus on one step. Wrote it down. And then, for the first time in three weeks, instead of writing, drew it.

You knew she'd come back. So did Capy. A friendship like a cactus: it doesn't need watering every day.

If you want to see how it all began, here is their story, Nothing to Fix. And if you're wondering which one you are, the one who waits or the one who comes back, take the quiz.