Midnight Dolphin (24 page)

‘
Do you know
that woman Dad?’ asked Lucy curiously.

‘
It’s the
strangest thing’ replied Dad. ‘That woman over there. The one
walking off up the path. I’ve seen her before.’ He stood looking at
the woman’s retreating back with a puzzled expression on his
face.

‘
Are you
sure?’ replied Bethany. ‘Can’t say I recognise her
personally.’

‘
I saw her not
three nights ago at the hospital’ he continued. She was standing at
the foot of Lucy’s bed, making notes. I thought she was a doctor or
something but the nurses said they thought she was a relative. I
didn’t get a good look at her because she walked off up the
corridor before I was able to say anything, but it’s definitely
her.’

‘
Well go and
speak to her Dad’ said Lucy encouragingly. He made his way off up
the path towards the car park, but he was too late. The woman had
already driven off.

‘
I lost her’
exclaimed Dad when they joined him.

The next
morning, Lucy persuaded Dad that she had to go into town to do some
research for a school project. Mary gave her a lift into Merwater
and she soon found herself sitting on a swing in the recreation
grounds opposite Paul’s house, waiting for him to appear. It was
another cold, frosty day and she shivered inside her thick coat.
For a moment she thought she could see a snow flake fluttering
down, but if it was, it melted away into nothing.

‘
Hi Lucy’ came
a voice just behind her. Lucy started in surprise. Paul sat down on
the swing next to her.

‘
Where did you
appear from?’

‘
Oh you know,
here and there’ he replied noncommittally.

‘
How are you
doing then Paul?’ He smiled.

‘
Yeah things
are like, a lot better than they used to be. Baz and Mike leave me
alone and I’ve made some more friends at school.’

‘
And your
mum?’ Lucy asked.

‘
She’s got
this job now and she seems to be much better than she was. She
smiles more and smokes less anyhow. And she’s earning now so
Christmas won’t be so tight this year.’ Paul turned to look at her
directly. ‘So what’s up with you? Is it to do with Spirit?’ Lucy
nodded. She suddenly realised how vulnerable and exposed she
felt.

‘
I’m losing it
Paul. I’m losing it. My gift, my connection with Spirit I mean. I
thought I’d lost it already. Then I cracked my head on the side of
the swimming pool at school and got knocked out. They couldn’t wake
me up but really I was swimming with Spirit and Dancer and the rest
of the pod.’

‘
Blimey!’
exclaimed Paul.

‘
Anyway, when
I was there with Spirit for those couple of days there was this
dolphin called Sunlight. She said that it was told that if a
dolphin and a child meet at midnight in a place that they call the
Three Green Caves, then they will stay connected for the rest of
their lives.’

‘
And you know
where these caves are then do you?’ asked Paul.

‘
No I’ve no
idea’ replied Lucy. ‘I was hoping you might know.’

‘
Search me’
said Paul, shrugging.

‘
But you must
know something!’ exclaimed Lucy. ‘You’re the local kid. You know
this place like the back of your hand. You know all the secret
walled streams through town and all the hidden corners. I bet you
know more than you think.’

Paul was
flattered that Lucy believed that he could help and he thought
hard. If it’s underground caves that you’re wanting, then I’d start
with the tin mines.’

‘
Are there any
round here then?’ Lucy asked.

‘
Oh sure’
replied Paul casually. ‘Come on I’ll show you.’

They made
their way out of the recreation ground and into the orchard which
the walled stream ran through that Paul used like his own private
lane. He didn’t climb down into it though, and instead walked
through the old orchard. There in one corner was an enormous mound
of concrete.

‘
That’s one of
them’ said Paul, giving it a kick with his trainer.

‘
What do you
mean?’

‘
That’s an old
entrance to a tin mine’ Paul explained. ‘There must be half a dozen
in Merwater alone. The town is full of them.’

‘
But what’s it
covered up with concrete for?’ asked Lucy in
frustration.

‘
Well I
suppose it’s to stop kids like us from going down them’ replied
Paul. He stopped kicking the concrete lump and sat down on it
instead.

‘
And you think
these mine workings might lead down to some caves under the
cliffs?’ asked Lucy, full of expectation.

‘
Who knows?’
replied Paul. ‘Wouldn’t surprise me if they did.’

‘
But you can’t
get into them if they’re all covered up’ exclaimed Lucy.

‘
Well I
wouldn’t say that’ said Paul casually. ‘Not this one I mean’ he
added. ‘There is one you
can
get into.’

‘
What’s it
like?’ asked Lucy expectantly. Paul grinned.

‘
I reckon it’s
pretty dark’ he replied. ‘I’ve not been in there myself. It freaks
me out. All I’ve done is look in the entrance. Besides, you’re not
supposed to go in, especially kids like us. It’s like, really
dangerous. You might never come out again if you did. There’s
poisonous gas, rock falls and all sorts.’ Lucy looked at Paul
decisively.

‘
Take me to
see it’ she commanded him.

Paul led Lucy
down into the bed of the walled stream, but turned left in the
opposite direction to the way she’d been before. Now it was winter
there was much more water in the stream and Lucy had to be careful
not to get her feet wet. The stream ran parallel to the sea line,
off into a scrubby overgrown patch of land towards the edge of town
that appeared to have been abandoned for years. The walls of the
stream became shallower and more broken down, until in the end it
was just a pile of stones that they were picking their way across.
Bushes grew up on either side of them and it became harder to push
their way through, but Paul kept on going and Lucy was determined
not to be left behind.

Eventually it
opened up into a small clearing. There were discarded beer cans and
cigarette butts on the ground, and the remnants of a camp fire
blackened the stones under foot.

‘
Here, take a
look at this’ said Paul, gesturing to something just at the edge of
the clearing. Lucy looked more closely. There was a hole opening up
into the ground, running horizontally back into the hill. It looked
as if you could just walk into the hill itself, but it was covered
with a heavy iron grill, which reminded Lucy of the bars on prison
cells in a castle she had visited. A more modern sign was fixed to
the iron grill which said ‘Danger. Unstable mine workings. Keep
out.’

‘
But it’s
covered with a metal grill’ exclaimed Lucy. ‘You can’t get inside
there!’

‘
That’s what
you think’ replied Paul, evidently pleased with himself. ‘Watch
this.’ He eased himself through a tight gap between the bars like a
cat burglar breaking into a house. Before she knew it, Paul was on
the inside of the tunnel grinning through the bars back at
her.

‘
What’s it
like in there?’ asked Lucy with a flutter of excitement in the pit
of her stomach.

‘
This is as
far as I go’ replied Paul. ‘Like I said, the dark freaks me out. I
just thought I’d show you.’ He lithely squeezed himself back
through the bars. ‘You have a go’ he said when he was standing next
to her again.

‘
But you’re a
lot smaller than I am’ replied Lucy. ‘There’s no way I could get in
there.’

‘
Go on, have a
go’ Paul answered. ‘Bet you can.’ It looked impossible to Lucy, and
try as she might, she could not squeeze herself through the gap as
Paul had done. She got half way in with her legs, and then she got
stuck at the top of her thighs, leaving rust stains on her
jeans.

‘
It’s no good,
I give up’ said Lucy disappointedly. She pulled herself out. Paul
smirked annoyingly back at her.

‘
Well if you
can’t get in that way, I suppose I’ll just have to show you the
other way.’ He laughed to himself.

He ran up the
heap of stones above the iron grate to where buddleia and other
scrubby bushes were growing. He beckoned with his hand for Lucy to
follow.

‘
Look’ he said
pointing. The roots of one of the bushes had broken through into
the tunnel. The gap was just big enough for her to squeeze
through.

‘
You want to
have a go?’ he asked her with a big grin on his face. She didn’t
know whether to laugh with him or have a go at him for making her
spend the last ten minutes trying to squeeze through the gap
between the bars.

‘
Why not?’ she
replied eventually. This time it was a simple matter to pull
herself through the gap and into the tunnel. She stood up. There
was reasonable head-room and she only had to stoop a little bit.
The occasional drip splattered down from the ceiling of the tunnel
onto the back of her neck. ‘I’m going to have a look’ she said. She
took a few steps down the tunnel. It seemed to rise up a little and
then began to curve down to the left. Lucy had no torch and she
realised that if she went any further she’d be plunged into
darkness. She felt a pang of fear clutch at her chest.

‘
Are you okay
down there?’ called Paul into the tunnel. Lucy realised that it
would be foolish to continue without even a torch to light her way.
Reluctantly she retraced her steps and pulled herself out of the
hole in the rocks.

‘
Hey, it’s
snowing!’ she exclaimed, holding out her hands and looking up at
the sky. Snow-flakes were fluttering lazily down from the grey
clouds above them and already the rocks were powdered with
white.

‘
Yup, sure is’
Paul grinned. ‘Are you going to go down there then, exploring I
mean?’ Lucy thought of those warnings you see on the TV;
‘
Don’t try this at home
.’ She’d have to be mad to want to explore old mine
workings.

‘
As soon as I
get myself a torch, that’s exactly what I’m going to do’ she
replied defiantly.

Chapter
Fifteen
:

In the midst
of Spirit’s waking sleep, an eerie green light seemed to play on
the surface of the water around him. The sea surged slowly up and
down, but the sounds of the ocean seemed muffled and far away.
Spirit began to realise that there was a wall of rock encasing him
on all sides and that he was in a great cave. Above the eddies and
ripples of the water, he could see the cave arch upwards. The walls
of the cave were an emerald green, and they sparkled occasionally,
lit by some sort of phosphorescent glow that seemed to emanate from
everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The cave was
shaped like the back of some great whale, porpoising through the
sea. The ceiling of the cave curved down towards water-level, but
just where he thought it would descend into a wall of rock, there
was an opening that led on to another cavern beyond the
first.

In his dream,
Spirit swam effortlessly into the second cave. This one was
iridescent and green like the first, but there were more sparkles
of light shimmering from the walls. It wasn’t as big as the first
cave he swam through. Looking above the surface of the water, he
noticed that there was a dry platform where a human could walk if
he wanted. Spirit imagined Lucy walking there, and bending down to
cup his head with her hands. This second cave was smaller than the
first but followed a similar shape. Under the water there were huge
green crystals growing that looked like they had been there for
thousands of years. Spirit had a strange sense that the caves were
both entirely familiar yet completely alien to him.

Beyond the
second cave there was a further opening. He approached it, and then
hesitated. Somehow he knew in his dream that it wasn’t the right
time to swim through into the third chamber; not yet at least. He
lingered a moment and then turned slowly to return the way he had
come. Swimming past the great submerged green crystals, he returned
to the first cave with its soaring ceiling and green phosphorescent
glow. He wondered how he had ever come to be in the green caves,
but his dreams had brought him there without ever realising.
Despite his excitement, Spirit felt calm and focused. It felt
completely natural to swim there, in a way that he did not really
understand. In the largest cave there were no crystals under water,
but the sides slid down and curved round beneath him as if he were
in a whales’ great belly. The sides of the cave were so smooth that
he hardly knew where water ended and rock began. He swam slowly
round the cave, wondering how to get out, before at last
recognising a large hole beneath the surface of the water, set into
the rock that he must have swum past several times before seeing
it.

Spirit took
one final glance back at the great enormity of the cave around him,
before flicking his tail and propelling himself down into the
pitch-black hole beneath him.