A neighbor rumor had it that the dolphins were tucking the morning into their pockets. By tea the rumor had grown kinder: they were only playing hide-and-seek with the sun on the water. The smallest one slipped a glitter into a fold of the harbor, looked the other way, and waited. The glitter stayed put until the boat finished a shy little bow. Then it came out on its own, curtsied, and asked, very softly, for one more round.
We asked at the kiosk. "I came for a bun and stayed for the counting," said a man with a ticket stub behind his ear. "They hide so gently the water hardly notices. I wrote in the little book: please leave the last sparkle for the evening boat."
The pier keeper posted a card on the railing: dolphins may borrow the glitter, glints may hide in exactly one fold, and visitors are asked not to clap until the last sparkle has come out and said thank you.