The Dog Spoke ⑥ [Learning Words]

<Episode 6> "Learning Words"

Two days had passed since Sato-san started talking.

Ever since then, Sato-san began to frequently make a sound like "Momo."
That's not all. As if he couldn't suppress the urge to say something, he started making all sorts of sounds. When I said "Ah-ah," he would respond with "Ah-ah." When I played peek-a-boo, he would delightedly make "Kya, kya" sounds. When I looked into his round, sparkling eyes while holding him, I felt as if my heart was connecting with him just like a human baby.
The sounds he could pronounce started with "O" and "A," and gradually increased to "Mama" and "Dada."
Dad said it was just like a baby's babbling. It was the kind of behavior where an infant learns language from scratch.

Watching Sato-san from afar as he gobbled up his food while making "Momo... Momo" sounds,
"No, that can't be right. It just sounds like that," Mom kept telling herself. Despite hearing it clearly with her own ears, she remained skeptical. Her common sense as an adult was getting in the way, making it impossible for her to accept.

Dad was happily filming it with his smartphone. "This is great. Should I have him guest star on the 'Wan-Nyan Channel'?" he joked, before adding another bit of trivia.

"Hey, did you know? There was a talking elephant in Korea."

"What's that?"

"It was years ago, but there was news that an elephant at a zoo in Korea spoke. It said things like 'Hello' or 'No' in Korean."
"Really?"
"Really. They said it put its trunk inside its mouth to make human-like sounds."
"Like a parrot?"
"That's right. Like a parrot or a hill myna. Maybe there are dogs that can mimic voices too. Maybe he's trying to match his barks to human speech because he wants food. Or..."
Even Dad, who loves such dreamlike fantasies, was trying to use his knowledge to understand it in a conventional way. That 'Sato-san isn't talking. He's just repeating things.'

Sato-san jumped on me, making "Momo... Momo..." sounds. I was so happy, and when I said, "It seems like he even knows my name," Dad was cautious, saying, "I wonder. I don't think he understands the meaning."

"Why?"
"Human babies are the same. The first words they usually say are things like 'ma' or 'mo'."
" 'Ma'? Why 'ma'?"
"The sound babies find easiest to make is 'a,' but when they're hungry, they move their lips as if they're nursing, so it sounds like 'ma.' Here, try saying 'ah' while repeatedly pursing your lips like you're nursing."

I tried it, imagining the scene.

" 'Ah... nma... nma... nma... mama.' Oh, you're right."

Dad said proudly, "See? That's why 'mamma' is baby talk for food in Japan. Even overseas, sounds like 'mama' or 'mum' mean mother. And the Okinawan 'anma' too. Either way, it just means they want milk. So, maybe Sato-san doesn't think 'Oh, this person is Momo,' but just wants to eat."

"Ugh."

"Other sounds like 'dada' or 'papa' are also easy for babies to pronounce. That's why in other countries, they call fathers 'Dad' or 'Papa.' Because the baby says it while looking at them, parents want to believe that they're 'calling for them.' Well, that's just parental instinct."

"Geez, you're such a killjoy."

Sato-san called my name.
...I'm sure of it. That's what I want to believe. Let me believe it.

"But this is assuming he's a human baby... Is he just mimicking sounds like a parrot? Or is it Sato-san's own intention? That's a big difference. Well, anyway, I guess we have no choice but to wait and see."

Just as Dad was being unusually cautious, Sato-san happened to say,

"Ai"

Because he replied, Dad and I looked at each other and laughed.

◆

Ever since then, Sato-san has started to speak words at an accelerating rate. Like a baby, he would repeat the words I said as if imitating them. It was just like a toddler energetically trying to absorb language.
When I said "Bye-bye," he would say "By-bye, by-bye."

When I said "Yes, yes," he would say "Yes-yes, yes-yes."

“Yes, that’s right, is it? Sato-san is such a good boy.” When I spoke to him,
he would respond with an “Oh, oh, oh” as if to answer back.

When I showed him his stuffed dog, Taru-nii-chan, and said, “Look, a doggy,” he was scared at first. But perhaps realizing it wouldn’t move or do anything, he chomped down on it. “Hey! Stop it!” Even when I scolded him, he didn’t care and barked “Doggy!” proudly.

Before long, Sato-san began to express his own emotions.
Rather than repeating words mindlessly like a parrot, Sato-san’s words were something that could only be called his own “will.”

He would nudge his food bowl with his nose and say,
“Ma-ma, fo-od, fo-od (Mom, food).”

When I tried to put him in the bath,
he would say “No, no” and run away.

“This is amazing! Even humans only start talking around one year old…”
Dad was excited and amused.
“Is that so?”
“Momo-chan was a year and a half, so she was even later.”
“Shut up.”

It’s abnormal, isn’t it? But even regarding that abnormality, he was learning words at such a furious speed that our senses were becoming numb and we were starting to accept it.

But finally, when Sato-san said to Mom, who was drinking milk,

“Mi-ilk, mi-ilk, Mom-ma, gi-ve me, gi-ve me”

Mom was so surprised she dropped her glass, and seeing Sato-san licking up the milk that had splattered on the floor, she finally stopped holding him, saying, “This might be creepy.”

Watching that, Dad muttered with a more serious expression than usual.

“I am calling a family meeting.”

◆

Dad and I sit at the dining table. Mom is drinking tea on a sofa far away, having no choice. Sato-san, not caring at all that he is being talked about, is trying to pull a stuffed animal out of his toy box.

Dad started the conversation.
“Now, let’s begin the family meeting. Let’s organize. The agenda is about ‘What are we going to do with Sato-san from now on?’ Alright.”

“A-gen-da? What’s that?”
“It means the topic. The theme. The purpose of the meeting, like what we are talking about.”
“Is something going to happen to Sato-san?”
“No, that’s what I want to discuss.”

Dad glances at Mom out of the corner of his eye.
Mom is quietly drinking tea on a distant sofa as if it has nothing to do with her. She hasn’t warmed up to Dad enough to sit at the same table, but she can’t avoid the issue of what to do about this problem. Therefore, she has no choice but to listen from a strange distance.
Dad is pretending to talk to me, but he is talking to Mom.

"Sato-san spoke. Even with everyone watching, that's clear, isn't it?"
It can't be helped, I'll be the listener. Yes, yes. "Yeah."

"The problem is whether it's okay to keep the fact that Sato-san spoke just within the family."
"Should we tell someone?"
"Hmm, I wonder. I don't know who the right person to consult would be. A vet? The public health center? The police? A university? A newspaper? Our TV station...? There's no rule for this anywhere, after all."
"What happens if we tell them?"
"It might become a huge commotion in the blink of an eye. Perhaps all over the world."
"And then?"
"At best, he'd become a spectacle at a zoo or in the media..."
"What!?"
"At worst..."
"...At worst?"
No, no, no, no way...
"He'd be taken away, become a research subject, and if things go poorly, an experimental specimen or dissected..."

"Nooooo!! No! No! You can't tell anyone!"
I hug Sato-san.

"But I wonder if keeping it a secret is really the right thing to do. If he were a dangerous animal, we might be committing a crime by failing to fulfill our duty to report it. Since there's no precedent for a 'talking dog,' I don't know the specific laws. Even if that weren't the case, isn't it against social ethics?" Dad acted strangely conventional as a parent.
"Sato-san isn't dangerous. I don't want him to be dissected."

"…Dis-sect, Dis-sect…"

Sato-san innocently mimics my words. He bites his ball happily, without understanding the meaning.
He looks at my face and laughs, "Heh heh." It's an irresistibly adorable smile.

"From now on, Sato-san might start talking more. Like a human. If that happens, it might be a historic biological discovery. Or, there might be a possibility that it could have some negative impact on society. The question is, is it really okay to keep it a secret?"

"I don't want that! No way! Don't tell anyone!"
"I understand. But what's troubling is whether it's okay for the whole family to keep a secret that might be against the world."
"I don't know if it's good or bad."
"Maybe I should consult a lawyer."
"You can't tell anyone!"
"Should we post it on YouTofu and see the reaction? Pretending it's CG made with AI."
"Stop it. Seriously."

"We should tell them."

Mom opened her mouth.
"At the very least, I don't think this is a problem our family should be shouldering. It's not right. We should investigate properly, and if it turns out to be nothing, then that's fine too," she says, drinking tea while looking straight at the wall.

While surprised by the overly logical argument and the fact that Mom spoke up,
"…Well, I suppose so," Dad sighs.

"Noooo!"

"Why don't you casually ask the place where we got Sato-san? Maybe we'll find out something," Mom mutters as if to herself.
I join in, "That's right, what was the name of that place again?" No matter how many times I hear it, I forget. "Um, Angel... something?"
Dad corrects me, "Angel Life. It's an NPO volunteer organization that helps find foster homes for homeless dogs and cats. I found it on a pet matching app."

"Should we ask them? Where Sato-san came from."
At my question, Mom also seems curious and pricks up her ears.

With a sigh, he says, "I don't think it's possible. They said he was a stray dog that the public health center had rescued. They don't know where he came from. It happens often. Irresponsible owners who can't handle them dump them."
"He was dumped? By whom?"
"I don't know. I wonder."

"………."
"………."
"………."
Everyone fell silent.

"Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Suddenly, Sato-san began to bark frantically.
As if frightened by something, he looked around, desperately.

"Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!"

While barking as if to plead something, he ran around in circles as if to drive us away. With an unusual excitement, like a broken toy.
He tried to bite and pull the sleeve of my clothes as I crouched down to ask what was wrong. It was as if he were trying to take us somewhere.
Before long, he bolted out of the living room and ran down the hallway.

"What is it?"
"Hey, Sato-san, what's gotten into you?"

We followed Sato-san. As we rushed into Talu-nii's room as if drawn in, Sato-san slid under the bed, hunched over, and growled, "Grrrrrrrrr." The light in his eyes was filled with hostility.

“What’s wrong?”
“We were talking about doing something about Sato-san, so maybe he’s on guard...?”

At that moment, the alarm clock by the bedside rattled softly.

Huh?

Far beyond the closed curtains, from deep in the city, I instinctively felt a low rumble approaching, breaking the silence of the night.

“Gogogogogogogogogo...”

In that instant, the room suddenly began to shake violently!

Everyone’s smartphones started blaring the unpleasant earthquake alert sound all at once!

It was a massive earthquake, so strong we couldn't stand. Just as the eerie sound of the walls and pillars rubbing against each other repeated, with a creaking noise,

“Crash!! Clatter, crash!!”

The sound of things falling and glass dishes breaking echoed violently from the living room.

“I’m scared.” As I closed my eyes, Mom hugged me, and Dad covered us both to protect us.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.........

◆

It was only until we caught our breath, but it felt like an eternity to me.
The alert sounds stopped, and eventually, the creaking sounds subsided little by little. The only thing left was the sound of the lampshade swaying pointlessly on the ceiling, creaking back and forth.

We looked at each other and cautiously went to peek into the living room.

There, glass cups were scattered across the white flooring, and a ceramic vase had shattered, leaving red gerberas strewn about.
“This is awful...” As I reached to pick up the flowers,

“Dangerous! Don't go in there!” Dad stopped me, carefully extending his feet to avoid stepping on the shards. Even under his slippers, there was a small crunching sound of shards being stepped on. When we lifted the 50-inch large LCD TV that had fallen face-down, he turned on the power.

The screen appeared with a sudden pop.
"Oh, it's on."

The news was playing, screaming frantically that there had been a magnitude 5 earthquake off the coast of Tokyo Bay.
"Please be careful of tsunamis. Please move away from the coast." The announcer, distorted by the cracks in the glass screen, repeated this with excitement.

Before long, various images were playing on the TV. It seemed to have been a larger tremor than expected, showing fixed-point camera footage of staff panicking at the news desk, and scenes of passengers at stations confused by stopped trains.
There were also dogs and cats that had escaped from a pet shop where the building was damaged. It showed a scene of police officers chasing after dogs and cats that were running around in a panic due to the earthquake, using large nets. It seemed to be viewer footage that was buzzing on social media. Inside the nets they were caught in, they struggled desperately, kicking with their hind legs, but the way the net dug into their bodies was painful to watch, and I couldn't bear to look at it properly.

Mom carefully used a mop to gather the glass shards scattered on the living room floor into one place. As the shards were dragged across the water-soaked flooring boards, making a dull grinding sound, a raw sense of fear washed over me.

If Dad, Mom, and I had been in this room, what would have happened?
If Sato-san hadn't barked and gone to the bedroom...

Huh? ...No way.
Could it be that Sato-san knew the earthquake was coming? What does this mean?

"Where is Sato-san?"

When I returned to the bedroom, Sato-san was curled up small under the bed, trembling. After luring him with pet jerky, Sato-san finally crawled out from under the bed slowly. He was holding something in his mouth.
When I looked, it was a glove knitted from light blue yarn.

"This is..." Mom muttered.

It was my older brother's glove that we thought was lost.

"Taru-niichan!"

Dad, Mom, and I looked at each other.

"........."

"A little more..." Dad muttered. "Should we wait and see a little longer?"

Then, Sato-san,

"Ai"

answered, or so it sounded.

I decided. I will protect this child.

(To be continued...)

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