Dolphin Child (12 page)

‘
Hey’ she said.

‘
Hey’ he replied quietly. Paul did not turn to look at her, but
instead continued to stare determinedly out to sea, as if by
returning her gaze he would reveal some weakness. She realised that
he was trying not to cry. Something must have happened to upset
him.

‘
What’s up?’ she asked. Paul gave a slight shake of his head,
as if to say he would not tell her, while still looking away from
her. Lucy glanced around her, as if by doing so she could see the
cause of his distress. There was no one in sight other than a few
tourists and visitors to the town.

‘
Was it those kids again?’ she asked, guessing at the truth.
Paul gave the slightest of nods, but still would not return her
look.

‘
Will I see you around?’ she asked. He gave a shrug.

‘
I’m not supposed to talk to you’ he mumbled
eventually.

‘
Well suit yourself.’ Lucy walked away feeling rejected. She
saw that Bethany had pulled up in the car park behind the harbour.
She hooted the horn and waved out of the open window when she saw
Lucy coming in her direction.

‘
Hey Kiddo, hop in!’

Lucy was glad to climb into Bethany’s old Land Rover and sit
down. It had been a surprisingly tiring afternoon. Just as she got
to the car she cast a last look back in Paul’s direction. He was
staring down at his feet.

Later on, after a dinner of salad and freshly caught plaice
that Bob had wrapped up for Lucy to take home, it was time for Lucy
to call Dad. Bethany and Lucy sat outside after they’d washed up,
enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. Swifts skimmed along the
hedgerows and over the meadow like miniature fighter pilots,
catching insects on the wing.

‘
I can’t believe those tiny little birds fly all the way up
from North Africa to spend each summer here’ said Bethany
admiringly, gazing up at them in the sky.

‘
It’s time to call your Dad’ she added after a while. ‘Bet
you’ve got lots to tell him.’

‘
Well yes and no’ said Lucy noncommittally. Although Dad knew
that Lucy was what Paul called a Dolphin-Child, she was keenly
aware that he did not like it and did not approve. He was so
adamantly opposed to it, that she felt she could not tell him
anything about Spirit and the other dolphins at all. It seemed
better just to keep quiet and avoid trouble. Yet the strange thing
was that not so long ago he’d objected to her even doing swimming
practice at lunchtimes. Now he’d agreed to her coming down to
Cornwall to stay with Bethany alone and without his supervision. It
didn’t make any sense.

‘
He’ll be coming down in a few days, you looking forward to
it?’ Lucy pulled a face. ‘Hey, he’s your Dad you know and he loves
you. He’s stuck in that office working while you’re down here
enjoying the summer. You’ll have a great time when he comes down
I’m sure.’

‘
But will I be able to see Spirit though when he
comes?’

‘
I thought that might be worrying you Kiddo’ replied Bethany.
‘I guess it won’t be quite as easy, but we’ll have a word with him
and make sure you still can. Don’t forget, it’s been tough on both
of you after your Mum died, but he’s had to look after you, carry
on working in a difficult job he doesn’t like very much and keep
the house and home together. Maybe he’s starting to relax a bit
now. A holiday will be good for him. It’ll be good for both of
you.’

‘
I guess so’ said Lucy. She wasn’t so sure, but didn’t like to
say. It would be their first holiday together since Mum died. It
didn’t seem right to be away with Dad unless Mum was there too.
She’d just about got used to living at home with only Dad, but a
holiday with him would bring all the memories back to her and that
great aching sense of loss.

Lucy dutifully went over to the farmhouse to call Dad. Mobile
phone reception was still bad at the farm. Darren opened the door
then Mary came out from the living room.

‘
Hello there Lucy’ she said amiably. ‘Just before you call your
Dad, I thought I’d tell you that I had a bit of a surprise visit
from the Coast Guard this afternoon. They wanted me to tell them
how I knew there was a little girl stranded on the rocks off Black
Gull Beach.’

‘
What did you tell them?’ asked Lucy nervously.

‘
Well I didn’t know what to tell them. I didn’t think they’d
understand if I told them what really happened and I thought you
might not be so keen on getting an earful of their questions. So
I’m afraid I told them a bit of a fib’ she confessed awkwardly.
Lucy was grateful and relieved that she hadn’t been put on the spot
and wondered what on earth Mary could have said.

‘
So I told them that a friend of mine was walking down the
coastal path to the beach and saw the girl and that she called me
on her mobile so that I could ring the Coast Guard’ Mary continued.
‘Not sure if they completely believed me, but it kept them quiet
though and off they went again.’

‘
Trouble is’ said Darren coming through, ‘that my Mary always
blushes scarlet red when she tells a lie. Known for it in these
parts she is. So I’m guessing they didn’t believe her at all’ he
laughed. Lucy smiled awkwardly.

‘
I’m sorry you had to fib’ she said to Mary, ‘but thanks
anyway.’

Lucy went to the phone in the hall and called Dad. She told
him all about the boat trip with Nate and Bob earlier and the
strange boy she’d encountered in the town. She didn’t tell him what
Paul’s mother had said about her, or helping to rescue the little
girl, or her swims with Spirit. In fact she didn’t tell him any of
the really interesting stuff at all. Towards the end of the call he
cleared his throat and then asked the question that she knew he
really wanted to ask all along.

‘
So, err, how are things with your, err, dolphin
friends?’

‘
Oh, you know, fine’ she answered as uninformatively as
possible, hoping that he wouldn’t ask anything else.

‘
And are you swimming with them?’ he asked. Lucy knew he hated
the idea of her doing so and could not bring himself to use Spirit
or Dancer’s names. It was Lucy’s turn to fib now.

‘
Oh you know, Bethany and I have gone down to the cove a couple
of times and I, well, said hello to them.’ At least on the phone he
couldn’t see her blush.

‘
Good girl’ replied Dad. ‘At least you know better than to try
and go down there on your own. Those coastal waters are incredibly
dangerous. The undertow can pull you out a quarter of a mile before
you know it, even a strong swimmer like you. At the end of the day
Luce those dolphins are just animals. They may look smiley and nice
but you can’t trust them to save you if you get into trouble. At
least I’ll be down in a few days and then I can look after you
properly.’

‘
Yes Dad’ said Lucy obediently, her heart sinking.

Lucy slept badly that night. At first she’d slept well enough
and dreamt of Spirit, Dancer, Storm and the others, which made her
feel happy and calm. Then towards the morning the image of the lone
dolphin came into her mind once again, floating suspended in the
murky waters a few metres away from her. She tried to swim towards
the vague silhouette of the dolphin, but the more she strove to get
closer to it, the further away it seemed to be.

Then suddenly the calm waters turned choppy and she could see
children above her on the surface, their arms flailing, gasping for
air as the waves crashed over them and then floating down, still
and lifeless into the inky depths.

Lucy woke up with a start, anxious and sweaty. Though she had
slept for nine hours, she felt as though she had barely slept for
two. She felt drained and exhausted. Although she wanted to, she
didn’t feel able to cycle up to Old Man’s Cove at first light in
the hope of seeing Spirit and Dancer. Besides, she wasn’t sure if
they’d be there that morning anyway.

Lucy stretched out instead to Spirit with her mind. She had to
focus her thoughts and then relax, so that she could find that
elusive door between her conscious and unconscious that would allow
her to slip through and tumble down into their world of water. She
already felt tired from her disturbed night’s sleep, so the effort
to maintain the vision was more difficult than usual.

Lucy’s thoughts kept returning to Susan Penhaligon and her
ill-fated attempt to take to the sea with a crowd of other
children. Could humans really turn into dolphins? It seemed
unlikely, but then her own ability to communicate with Spirit and
Dancer defied understanding. She asked Spirit, but he hadn’t heard
anything of the story. Of course it happened over two hundred years
ago and maybe it was unlikely that such a tale would pass down
through so many generations of dolphins. Spirit said that he would
ask the others about it, but she doubted he would be able to find
anything out.

She didn’t like to tell Spirit about her dream of the lone
dolphin in those murky waters, perpetually just out of reach. She
thought it might disturb him. Eventually her energy gave out and
she found herself sitting on a kitchen chair in Bethany’s studio,
feeling tired and hungry.

Bethany had also got up and had crept down the stairs from the
sleeping platform so quietly that Lucy had not noticed. Now that
Lucy had emerged from her reverie, she dared to make a
noise.

‘
Hey Kiddo, how about some chocolate milk?’ she
said.

Sunlight flooded in through the windows and after three slices
of toast and a bowl full of cereal, she was beginning to feel more
herself again. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to live
exclusively on a diet of fish and squid like Spirit had to and was
quite glad she didn’t have to try.

‘
So what do you fancy doing today?’ asked Bethany as she
cleared away the breakfast things. ‘I’ve got stuff to do this
morning but we could hang out together this afternoon. Maybe we
could book ourselves a lesson with your friend Dan at the surf
school? One day I’m determined that I’ll be able to stand up on
that surf board without immediately falling off it
again.’

‘
That sounds good’ replied Lucy. ‘I’d like that.’

‘
It’s a deal then. I’ll call Dan this morning and fix up a
lesson for this afternoon. I’m pretty sure the tide will be coming
then, so the waves should be a bit bigger.’ Four months ago Lucy
had given Dan the fright of his life when she’d swum away from
shore by the surf school to save Spirit.

Lucy had the morning to herself and she decided to ask Mary if
she could borrow her bicycle. She wanted to cycle into Merwater and
buy a postcard to send to her friend Amy back home. Amy had
demanded that Lucy send her regular updates over the summer. Lucy
wondered whether she would see those kids when she went into town,
or that boy Paul. She didn’t want to go up to the recreation ground
as she was still worried about encountering his mother Mrs
Treddinick again.

She left the house, bumped over the cattle grid on Mary’s bike
and started cycling up the lane. The verges were overgrown with
weeds and flowers now and the hedges behind them were tall and
unkempt. The occasional butterfly fluttered past and Lucy could
hear the distant hum of bees as they flew from flower to flower.
The first bit was uphill and Lucy soon broke out into a sweat in
the warm sunshine. The lane levelled out where it joined the main
road that followed the coast. It was busy with tourist traffic and
Lucy cycled on the grassy verge to keep out of the way of cars.
After a quarter of a mile or so another lane branched off again and
Lucy knew that she could get into Merwater on this quieter
road.

Within another ten minutes she was free-wheeling down the
steep hill towards the harbour and the High Street. Lucy chained
her bike up to a railing and began to amble along, casually looking
into the shop windows as she went. She had the whole morning to
herself after all. She bought a postcard and a stamp in one of the
gift shops and then sat on a wall in the sunshine to write it
before dropping it into the post box outside the ‘Clotted Cream’
Tea Room.

As Lucy walked along the road, she got to the point where the
walled stream passed under the road and continued for a short
distance before it came out at the sea wall and the muddy strip of
beach beyond. She stopped and looked down to see how much water was
in the stream. It was sluggish and green with algae and there
seemed to be less in it than when Lucy had followed Paul up it only
a couple of days before.

Just as she was about to turn away, Lucy suddenly heard
thudding noises echoing down the walled stream from up the hill and
then she caught the sound of children’s voices yelling angrily.
Lucy’s heart started to thud as Paul Treddinick came round the
bend, running as fast as he could along the bed of the stream. He
stumbled on the algae covered rocks and almost fell as he did so,
righting himself just in time. The two bigger kids that had chased
him the other day were almost on top of him, barely an arms length
behind him and seemed intent on catching Paul and pulling him down.
As quickly as they came into view, they disappeared out of sight
under the road.

Lucy felt a clutch of anxiety. She couldn’t just stand there.
She had to do something. There was a pedestrian crossing across the
road only twenty metres away and immediately beyond it a narrow
side road that led to sea wall. Lucy walked briskly up to the
crossing and then once she was on the other side, ran as fast as
she could till she got to the wall. Looking down, she could see
that the tide was out to its fullest extent and beyond the thin
pebble beach there was thick sludge. The two older kids had caught
up with Paul and it looked like one was holding him while the other
had scooped up a handful of sea mud and was trying to stuff it down
the back of the neck of Paul’s tee-shirt.