Dolphin Child (33 page)

‘
What’s the matter Flipper? It’s only a storm’ Lucy could make
out Mrs Penrose saying over the wind and driving rain. She could
see that Star-Gazer was desperate to escape. Mrs Penrose’s voice
became more plaintiff.

‘
You can’t leave us Flipper. Norman needs you! Stay with us!’
she cried out as another flash of lightning illuminated the sky.
Star-Gazer paid no heed though, as she continued her compulsive
flailing to and fro in the water. Lucy could see Mrs Penrose go
down onto the small landing stage and kneeling down, it seemed as
though she were trying to offer Star-Gazer something, though Lucy
could not make out what. Just then Paul nudged Lucy with his
elbow.

‘
This is weird’ he exclaimed.

‘
You’re right’ replied Lucy, pulling herself together. ‘We’ve
got work to do.’ They made their way along the bank towards the
closed-link fence that separated Star-Gazer from Spirit and the
wide open sea beyond the estuary. Lucy didn’t care about Mrs
Penrose now. It was probably too dark for her to see them and even
if she did, in the midst of the storm it felt as though different
rules applied.

The storm was so heavy and so much water had fallen so quickly
that great rivulets of fresh water were running into the inlet now.
It seemed as though half a dozen streams had appeared from nowhere.
Lucy and Paul splashed through them as they made their way to the
fence. It didn’t matter if their shoes got wet, they were soaked
already.

When they got to the fence Lucy could see that Star-Gazer had
been right. The storm had succeeded in washing away much of the
silt that had accumulated around it. The channel on the other side
down to the sea was free now.

‘
Spirit!’ she cried, splashing down into the water to greet
him. Dancer was there again too. Paul followed her and they both
embraced the two dolphins briefly. Spirit and Dancer started to let
out a succession of clicking and whistling sounds to alert
Star-Gazer to their arrival.

Star-Gazer immediately gave up her flailing and approached the
fence. Spirit was there on the other side, looking through it at
her. It was the first time that they had actually seen each over
for other a year and for a few moments they seemed lost in each
others gaze. Lucy could only guess at what was going through both
of their minds at that moment.

Despite being so close to Spirit on the other side of the
fence, Star-Gazer was still not free. She swam around in a circle
and then tried to jump again, but there was a wire submerged just
below the surface of the water and there was still not enough depth
to enable her to jump high enough to clear the fence. On the other
side Spirit and Dancer started ramming the fence, trying to
dislodge it at the bottom and make a gap big enough for a dolphin
to swim through. It was no good though; the fence had been fixed in
place well and though it bent when they rammed it, it did not break
or dislodge. Lucy produced her penknife from her pocket.

‘
Let’s help them’ she said to Paul, wading into the water. The
penknife had a saw blade and after a couple of minutes she was able
to cut through the submerged wire. It wasn’t enough to enable
Star-Gazer to jump the fence though and she started hacking at the
fence links. Paul tried pulling it up at the base while the
dolphins continued to ram in. The worst of the storm had passed and
though there was still thunder and lightning, it was not overhead
now. The rain continued to sheer down and twilight was descending.
It would soon be dark.

‘
This is like, impossible’ panted Paul. ‘It’s going to take
forever to cut through the wire with that penknife of yours and
we’re not going to be able to open up a hole at the bottom, that’s
for sure.’

‘
You’ll be needing a pair of these’ a voice suddenly sounded
behind them. Both children whipped round in surprise, Paul nearly
slipping into the water as he did so. Mrs Penrose was standing
behind them on the bank. She looked gaunt and severe and almost as
soaked as they were. Lucy made an involuntary gasp. What did she
want? Would she insist that they stopped, or would she even call
the police?

‘
You’ll be needing a pair of these’ she repeated again, holding
out something in her hand. Lucy couldn’t make out what it was at
first in the deep gloom. ‘They’re wire-cutters’ she added, her
voice choked with emotion. Lucy looked up into her eyes in wonder.
Another flash of lightning illuminated the scene momentarily and
Lucy wondered whether it was rain or tears streaming down the old
lady’s face.

‘
You were right’ she continued. ‘Flipper, Star-Gazer or
whatever you call him needs to be free. I can see that now. I think
Norman can too.’ She held out the wire cutters again in her hand.
‘Take them!’

Lucy needed no further invitation. She scrambled up the
slippery bank, took the wire-cutters from the old lady’s
outstretched hand and slid back down into the water. She threw her
penknife to one side and started clipping through the wire as
quickly as she could. One by one she sheared through the links and
after a couple of minutes the fence was sagging low.

Star-Gazer circled again and as Lucy continued to clip, she
sailed through the air over the sagging fence, so close to Lucy
that she could almost feel it. Star-Gazer splashed into the channel
on the other side next to Spirit and Dancer. She was
free!

A great feeling of joy surged through Lucy and she hugged Paul
briefly. She turned and looked up at Mrs Penrose.

‘
Thank you’ she said simply. Mrs Penrose smiled, wiping her
eyes as she did so. Then Lucy waded back into the water to where
the three dolphins were clicking excitedly in the small channel.
Paul followed.

Lucy hugged Star-Gazer and Dancer in turn and shyly, Paul
followed suit. Then she stood for a moment and looked deeply into
Spirit’s eyes, before climbing on to his back.

‘
Children, come back out of the water, it’s not safe. You’ll
drown!’ called Mrs Penrose behind them. Lucy was completely
absorbed by the three dolphins. She pulled herself up onto Spirit’s
back and the two of them started to make their way off down the
channel towards the sea. Paul followed suit and mounted Dancer’s
back, holding on fast to her dorsal fin.

‘
What are you?’ called Mrs Penrose in exasperation and wonder.
Paul looked back at her.

‘
I told you, she’s a Dolphin-Child’ he replied. ‘I’m a
Dolphin-Child too now’ he added, as if the thought had just come to
him. He and Dancer started swimming behind the other
two.

Star-Gazer looked up out of the water at Mrs Penrose standing
there on the muddy bank in the rain. She regarded the old lady with
kindly eyes before swimming off behind the other two dolphins to
freedom.

It was exhilarating to hitch a ride on the backs of dolphins
in the middle of a thunderstorm in the encroaching darkness. The
rain still beat down and the occasional flashes of lightning
revealed the stark silhouettes of trees on either side of them as
they swum down the estuary towards the sea. Lucy began to feel
really cold now and glancing at Paul, she could see that he was
shivering convulsively in his sodden tee-shirt as he clung on to
Dancer.

As the estuary widened they could hear the creaking of the
yachts and boats moored in the shallow water and the crack of wires
against the aluminium boat masts. Beyond them was the dull roar of
the stormy sea.

At the mouth of the estuary, looking out to sea was a pub, the
‘Man Overboard’ built at the top of stone steps that led down to a
short sandy beach. The bright lights from inside the pub shone out
into the darkness of the stormy night.

It was the lights of the Man Overboard that Lucy saw as the
three dolphins swum towards the sea. Beyond the estuary Lucy could
tell that the sea was rough and choppy. There was no way that the
children could venture out on the dolphins backs into all that,
especially not in the dark. Spirit, Dancer and Star-Gazer seemed to
be aware of this too and they made for the small strip of beach
just below the pub. They got as far into the shallows as they could
without risking grounding themselves and Lucy climbed off. She
leant over and hugged Spirit tightly before wading up out of the
water. It was just a few short steps to get to the warmth and
safety of the pub. It had been wonderful to stay with the dolphins
after helping to liberate Star-Gazer, but Lucy knew that now was
the time to leave them. She turned to wave them
farewell.

Following suit, Paul slid off Dancer’s back as well, but he
stood there uncertainly up to his waist in the cold salt
water.

‘
What’s going on?’ he asked, sounding confused.

‘
We’ve got to leave them now Paul and come ashore’ Lucy
replied.

‘
Why can’t we just swim out to sea with them?’ he asked
plaintively. ‘We can stay with them in the ocean.’

‘
Don’t be daft Paul’ said Lucy. She was tired and cold and
wanted to get on dry land as quickly as possible. ‘It’s freezing
out here.’

‘
But we’re Dolphin-Children now. We don’t have to come back to
land anymore. We can just swim out to sea if we want to.’ Lucy
didn’t know what to say to him. People had said that she was a
Dolphin-Child but she still didn’t really know what that meant. She
certainly didn’t think that Paul was one too. She wondered if the
cold had made him delirious somehow.

‘
Look we can’t stand here waist deep in the freezing water.
Come ashore and we can talk about it then.’ Lucy could see Paul
shiver again convulsively, but he still would not come onto dry
land. Dancer started to move off and Paul turned round in a
panic.

If only Lucy had known everything that was going through
Paul’s head she could have said something to reassure him, but she
had no idea. In Paul’s mind though all he could see were the taunts
and threats of Baz, Mike and the other kids. He thought of the mud
that they had thrown at him and the feeling of loneliness now that
his best friend had moved away. He thought of his mother, depressed
and distant, and of his father who hadn’t even called him for
months. Then he thought of the sense of belonging and intimacy he
had felt in the presence of Spirit and Dancer, of how they had
needed his help and how he needed theirs.

He thought of the story of Susan Penhaligon and how many
people in Merwater still believed that the children who had swum
out to sea with her had really turned into dolphins. His mum was
wrong about dolphins, he knew she was. It would be better to be a
dolphin than to be a miserable and unhappy human he thought. He
imagined his arms transforming into flippers, his legs turning into
tail flukes. He would be free in the wide seas and every day would
be happy. All he needed to do was to welcome the water and let it
happen, he thought.

‘
No’ he answered in a cracked and anguished voice. ‘I’m not
going back. You can’t make me! I’m going with them.’ He turned and
started swimming out to sea. Dancer had already disappeared into
the black, choppy water but he was determined to catch
up.

‘
Paul, you’re crazy, come here now!’ Lucy cried in what she
hoped was a commanding voice, but Paul took no notice and Lucy was
overwhelmed by a sense of growing panic. ‘You’ll get yourself
killed!’

Lucy started swimming desperately after Paul, but it was dark
now and she could hardly see where Paul was going. She couldn’t
even hear him over the roar of the sea. She’d already seen that he
was a weak swimmer and she knew that he wouldn’t last long in
conditions like this. It was so dark now that he could slip under
the water a metre from her and she wouldn’t even know it. Cramp and
tiredness could easily overcome him. He’d go down like a
stone.

Even though Lucy was a strong swimmer, she wasn’t used to
conditions like these either. She wished with all her heart that
Spirit and Dancer would come back, but they would have no idea
about what was going on now. There was no time to reach out to them
with her mind. Everything was spiralling horribly out of control
and Lucy knew that in as little as a minute Paul could die, his
lungs choked with water, the life squeezed out of his slight
body.

Just as Lucy thought it was all going to be too late, a bright
spotlight suddenly clicked on and illuminated the water in front of
Lucy. There was Paul, clearly struggling in the water, but still
with his head above the surface. Just in front of them was the
familiar yellow of the Merwater Lifeboat. It was coming in from the
direction of the sea and Lucy became aware of voices calling out to
Paul and Lucy, though she couldn’t make out what any of them were
saying. A figure in a yellow outfit jumped from the lifeboat into
the water attached to a rope and struck out to where Paul was
flailing. The experienced hands of the lifeboat-man quickly secured
Paul and they pulled him in up onto the deck.

Lucy trod water with difficulty and was dazzled when the light
of the lifeboat picked her out. There were more cries from the deck
and another figure plunged into the water. Even before they reached
her, she felt a sense of relief that help was at hand roll over
her. Lucy didn’t quite know how she found herself on the deck of
the lifeboat. Then a familiar face appeared in front of her as
other hands busied themselves to cover her up and restore some
warmth to her chilled body.