I spent a great deal of time in my aquarium tank trying to figure out how to communicate with the beings on the other side. They did not seem to respond to my color-changing, nor arm-waving. One person gave me salvation. He would hold up signs with markings, and then hold an object. He held up a sign with certain markings and showed me food. He held up another sign with other markings and showed me a shell.

He did this for a long time, from one breeding season to another. I remember it was breeding season because I was so frustrated by not being able to mate. I ended up channeling my energy into understanding the person holding up the cards. Everyone else just pointed at me.

Something clicked in my head, or maybe in my stomach, which is right next to my head anyway. When a person removed a panel on top of my tank to give me food, a cylindrical object fell out of his clothing. I knew clothing was not skin, since I saw humans molt it with more ease than is natural. I figured they were soft shells and humans were like hermit crabs.

Anyway, I had seen people make markings with similar cylindrical objects. I grabbed that one and ignored the alarm calls. I drew one of the signs the sign-holder had shown me, the one for food.

“Great heavens!” cried a human (someone told me; at that point I didn’t understand speech,) “She’s writing Chinese.” She gave me some food.

I turned the color of pleasure, and then wrote a sign for people. I pointed at the sign holder, and then wrote the sign for “food-friends-freedom-sleep”, which I later learned as my first abstract concept: “good”.

The sign-holder laughed. “I told you octopi were intelligent, but nooo…”