Much later they came to speak of those that had died and those that had been born since last council had met. Dolphins that Spirit had never heard of were spoken about and stories shared about those that had gone. Painful memories flooded back into Spirit’s mind. Then Breeze spoke of the losses within their own pod.
‘Eight full moons ago we suffered a loss, when Star-Gazer was taken from us. She had swum out to feed with Summer and myself, when we were separated by a squall that blew up. A ship crossed our path and the noise of its engines disorientated all three of us. When the ship had passed, Summer and I found each other and then we went searching for Star-Gazer. We found traces of blood in the water but Star-Gazer had disappeared. No one has heard or seen her since and her calf, Spirit was left alone and without a mother.’
Spirit winced at the memory. Though the rest of the pod had comforted and nourished and cared for him, the pain of this loss was still sharp. If only he knew what had happened, or been able to say goodbye to her. Now the many dolphins around him spoke warmly of her. She had been endlessly fascinated by the heavens above them at night and this had given her name. She was famous for it. Their talk about her buoyed Spirit up. His mother had not been forgotten.
The dolphins talked on about the happier news of new couples and new calves within the pods. Each new calf was led into the centre of the council and introduced. Though Spirit and Dancer were not the youngest, they too were led in to the centre and formally introduced. Spirit felt awkward and bashful, but he was proud as Breeze told the gathered dolphins that he was the fine young son of Star-Gazer. The long talk wound on. Dancer sidled up to him.
‘It goes on a bit doesn’t it!’ she whispered.
Eventually Spirit sensed that the council was drawing to a close. The sun was low now and soon it would be dark. Storm spoke again.
‘As you know, in every generation there is one that is born amongst us who will be the natural leader of the next. We all look for the traditional signs to show us which young dolphin that might be. That young dolphin should be wise beyond his or her years, but more importantly, must have the gift of special knowledge; the gift of knowing what cannot be known. Few of us have it and fewer still can use it well. All of us must search for it amongst our young. Who amongst us has seen the signs?’
Several dolphins spoke of this or that youngster, how they were very smart or very good at locating shoals of fish, but no one said that they had seen the special signs. As the comments died away, Storm spoke again.
‘I believe that there is one amongst us who has shown the signs of the gift of special knowledge. I believe that this young dolphin is unique.’
The dolphins stirred, their curiosity aroused and cries of ‘Who?’ came from all sides. Storm chuckled and sighed.
‘I am old and I have seen much and so until I have seen all the signs, I will not jump to conclusions. I cannot be sure yet and, because I am not sure, it is better that I do not say. However, I urge you all to look within your own pods for the signs. I may be mistaken and we need to be sure. Let us meet again under the next full moon. We will know more then.’
There were murmurs of assent and, as the sun went down, the council meeting broke up. It was too late for the other pods to swim back to their own waters and so the dolphins settled down into groups, talking quietly, until one by one they slipped into their waking sleep.
Chapter Seven:
Lucy was relieved to have a calm and peaceful sleep that night. She dreamt of the little dolphin again, but in her dreams he was safe and happy, moving confidently through the water and so she woke up feeling better. The slow crash of the surf on distant rocks in her dreams had also calmed her. She woke up well rested and was relieved to be able to go back to school again.
As normal, Dad was in a rush, cramming toast in his mouth while he stuffed files into his bag.
‘Get ready Lucy!’ he called upstairs while she was dressing. ‘I’ve got to get you out of the house and off to school in ten minutes or I’ll be late for my first meeting.’ Lucy appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed and ready.
‘I need some breakfast though’ she called back.
‘Of course’ Dad replied, ‘help yourself, but be quick about it.’ Lucy hardly had time to scoff her cereal and drink her juice, standing at the counter in the kitchen, before he was shooing her unceremoniously out of the house.
‘But I’ll be way too early for school!’ she complained, but to no effect.
‘You’ll be fine in the playground’ he replied. ‘It’s not raining and your friends will soon be there.’
Lucy trudged off disconsolately down the road toward school. At least it was Friday, she said to herself. One day and then the weekend. Lucy was lost in her own thoughts when she heard a familiar voice.
‘Hey Lucy’ cried Amy, coming up behind her as she approached the school gate, ‘how are you feeling today? Were you ill yesterday?’ It was good to see a friendly face. At least she wasn’t the only person early to school.
‘Well, Dad kept me off school yesterday’ replied Lucy, turning to let her friend catch up. ‘He thought I was too tired to come in. It felt a bit funny though, being stuck at home with all of you at school as normal, sort of like I was skiving off. How about you, did you come in yesterday?’
‘Sure I did’ replied Lucy, ‘but Mum really had to drag me out of bed. We did have a bit of a late night!’ Lucy gave her a sad half-smile. She felt guilty.
‘But it wasn’t your fault though’ continued Amy, guessing how she was feeling. ‘Mum and Dad were happy to have you. They said you can stay any time.’ Lucy felt awkward. She still felt angry at Dad for having forgotten about her like that, but she’d feel bad if other people starting saying things about him.
‘You didn’t tell anyone did you?’ she asked Amy nervously.
‘Well, you know, I kind of did tell one….or two people’ Amy replied, glancing at her friend uneasily. Lucy could hardly blame Amy, but now everyone in the class would know.
‘Oh well’ she sighed resignedly. She knew that some of the boys in the class would make pointed comments at her expense, but there was nothing to be done. The two girls hung around in the school playground. Slowly, a trickle became a stream of children passing through the school gates. Then the bell rang and the children piled in to class. Their form teacher, Mr Baines was calling register.
‘Ah Lucy’ he said, eyeing her over the top of his glasses. ‘How are you today?’
‘Fine thank you Mr Baines’ replied Lucy. She could see one or two of the boys turn their heads her way and break into knowing smiles.
‘I need to update your emergency contact details’ he continued after he’d done the register. ‘The school office tell me it’s out of date. I understand you and Ben from the after school club had some problems the other night.’ The snide looks of Brian Jenkins and Dan Smith turned into knowing sniggers.
‘Quiet there.’ Mr Baines cast a critical eye across the classroom. Lucy wondered whose details she could give.
‘It’s okay Luce’ whispered Amy. ‘You can give him my number’ she added, slipping across a piece of paper with her number and address neatly written down.
‘Thanks’ she whispered back with a smile. It made her feel a bit less alone.
After assembly they went into their maths lesson. More than the fact her Dad had forgotten about her, though, were the thoughts that kept passing through her mind about everything else that had happened in the past few days. She thought about Bethany and Dad’s half overheard conversation a few nights ago. She just couldn’t figure out what Bethany had meant when she said that Lucy was special in some way. She thought about the orca attack on the little dolphin. It had been so vivid that it hadn’t felt like a dream at all, but something more than that, as though she were actually there. Her mind buzzed with the realisation that somehow, somehow, she had been able to pass through into the dolphin’s world, if only for a minute or two. It was as real as her maths teacher Mrs Evans stan
ding there in front of her now, as real as the pencil in her hand. Someone coughed and she remembered that she should be answering the questions they’d been set. Then her mind drifted back to the little dolphin.
‘Hello’ she’d said.
‘Hello’ he’d replied, surprised by her sudden appearance. With a look of realisation he added ‘You helped me with the orcas didn’t you?’
‘I think so’ she answered uncertainly. ‘Were you scared?’
‘Yes, even with Storm there, I was scared.’ Spirit paused. ‘And then your voice came to me and it made me feel better and I knew that we’d find a way out.’
‘I so wanted to help you’ said Lucy, ‘I wasn’t even aware I was talking to you really. It just sort of happened.’ She faltered, not knowing how to put her thoughts into words. ‘I guess that somehow I was able to get through to you.’ The little dolphin turned and regarded her, this strange, slight figure floating next to him in water, passing thoughts to him without words.
‘So you are a human? The only one I’ve seen before was covered in black and had a mask on his face.’
‘Oh, err, you mean a diver?’ asked Lucy, thinking quickly.
‘Yes, a human that goes under water and breathes. Not like you though. You’re underwater and you don’t need to breath.’ Lucy hadn’t thought of how she came to be there, talking with her mind but without moving her lips, or how she was floating effortlessly under the cold surface of the sea. She looked around her. ‘The little dolphin’s right’, she thought to herself, ‘I shouldn’t be able to do this, I should be drowning.’
‘I don’t really understand what’s happening’ she said. ‘Do you?’
The little dolphin seemed to give a slight shake of its head. ‘All I know is that I’m glad that you’re here’ he replied simply.
‘So am I’ smiled Lucy. Suddenly Lucy felt that the effort of it all was too much for her, like the pressure of the water itself. It felt as though she were being drawn away from the little dolphin, as though her own world were pulling her back.
‘I’ll come back to you again soon!’ she cried. Then she had found herself in her bedroom again, drained by the effort it had taken.
She became aware that Mrs Evans was suddenly in front of her desk. Lucy had been lost in her reveries.
‘Come on Lucy’ said Mrs Evans. ‘I know you can answer these questions. Keep focused and you’ll soon finish them.’
‘Yes Mrs Evans’ she replied obediently. It was hard to concentrate on school work though. It would be good if she could tell Amy or another friend, but would they believe her? They’d just say she was dreaming. Why wouldn’t they? At least at lunchtime she’d have swimming. She could plough up and down the pool for half an hour and clear her head. The morning dragged on. Eventually lunch break came and she headed off to swimming practice. Miss Baldwin was there as usual and gave her a friendly smile. She dived into the pool and the water closed above her head and with it the sounds around her turned to muffled echoes. Her hands folded through the water quickly and easily, pulling her along with confident strokes.
Lucy turned at the pool edge and pushed back into the water for another length. She was wearing her goggles and looked out in front of her. Under the broken surface of the water in the distance she could see legs kicking and hands splashing. The tiles of the pool extended onwards. As she looked she imagined she could see a small bottlenose dolphin swimming towards her, with a friendly look in its face and an intelligent glint in its eye. She imagined the dolphin stopping to face her, just close enough to touch. If only it were true, if only she could reach out and touch her little dolphin. She wished she could transport herself to the open seas right now, to feel the cold salty currents upon her skin, to swim by the dolphin’s side. The image of the dolphin slipped away though and the sounds of the swimming pool crowded back around her.
‘Lucy, are you alright?’ She had stopped swimming and was half floating in a star fish position. Someone was swimming up behind her. She brought her head up and took in a lung full of air.
‘Quite alright thank you Ms Baldwin’ she said politely and swum on to the other side. After that though her heart wasn’t quite in it. Ms Baldwin shook her head quietly to herself. There was going to be a swimming competition among the local schools in a few weeks time. She hoped that Lucy would be able to make it and that she would work hard and do herself justice. However, it was far from certain whether she’d got permission from her father. He seemed an odd fellow, she thought to herself.
Lucy did a few more lengths, but more slowly than usual. Swimming hadn’t cleared her head at all. She got out a little earlier than usual and hurried to change back into her uniform in order have her lunch before the bell went for the afternoon lessons to begin.
The next lesson was English with Mrs Penhaligon. The bell rang and the children filed in. Chairs scraped as the class took their seats. Today they were talking about legends and folk stories. Mrs Penhaligon asked the class to tell the legends they knew about. John Jeffries started speaking about Star Wars and Jack G spoke about Batman. Lucy wasn’t in the mood to put her hand up and speak in front of the whole class. She was content just to listen.
After fifteen minutes of lesson, Mrs Penhaligon came round handing out work sheets. The class had different legends they had to read about and then they had to write their own, using the themes in the example they’d been given. Mrs Penhaligon came to Lucy’s desk.
‘I thought perhaps you might like a folk story about the sea’ she said, almost shyly, as she handed a work sheet to her. Lucy looked down.
The Girl and the Sea.
There was once a girl who lived on a rocky island surrounded by the salt water of the sea. She lived with her old grandmother, who said that her mother and father had sailed away in a boat when she was but a baby and had never returned. They lived on seaweed, cockles, whelks and the small fish that the girl could find. It was a simple lonely life and they whiled away the long winter evenings by telling each other wild and fantastical stories of dragons and princes, as they huddled from the cold in their low cottage with its turf roof.
Every day the girl searched the horizon for boats and although she saw many, they never came to her island. Her grandmother grew old and the girl became a young woman. Though she dressed in rags and her hair was wild, the girl was beautiful.
In the summer, she would dive from the rocks and search for fish or for the ship wrecks and lost treasure that her imagination had conjured up. In the winter, she would wrap herself up in an old cloak which her grandma said had been her father’s, against the stinging wind and bitter rain.
One summer day the girl stood singing to herself on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the sea. She was lost in her thoughts until suddenly she heard the creak of timbers below her and, looking down, she saw a fine fishing vessel and a young sailor staring up at her. He came ashore and stayed with her and her grandmother in their low cottage for two nights. Soon the girl and the sailor had fallen in love. The young sailor asked the old lady for the girl’s hand in marriage and she gave the couple her blessing. The girl begged to leave straight away with the young sailor. Instead he said that he had to visit an island two days sailing away and that he would soon return. He urged the girl and her grandmother to pack their things and be ready to escape the barren rock where they had lived alone for so many years. He said that he would carry them to the mainland where they would marry in a fine church overlooking the sea and that she would have a garland of flowers in her hair and a gold ring upon her finger.
He left and the girl waited. But days passed and ne’er was his boat spied upon the horizon. The girl despaired, believing her young sailor to be lost to the depths. Heart-broken, she swum out into the deep waters, knowing not where and the currents carried her out, far far from the island. Her grandmother, sensing the girl was gone, hurried out from their low cottage to the cliff edge and spied the girl far off in the sea. The old woman cried out but the girl could not hear her over th
e cry of the seagulls and the beating of waves against the rocks below her. As the old lady wrung her hands and cried, she saw the dolphins come to the girl lost to the sea and carry her away, until she could see the girl and the dolphins no more.
The next day the young sailor returned and the girl’s grandmother, sad and alone, told him her unhappy tale. The old lady refused to leave the island and, wracked with guilt, the young sailor returned to his boat and set forth to find the girl that the dolphins had borne away.
The young sailor searched and searched for many days and nights. Then a beautiful young dolphin came to his boat and he knew that he had found his love. He stepped from his boat and he too was borne away by the dolphins, leaving his boat adrift and empty. It is said that the two young lovers still swim together as dolphins to this very day, forever united as they had never been as human mortals.
Lucy felt as though she had heard this story before, but she could not think where. Then she remembered. Her mother had told Lucy the story, sitting on the edge of her bed as Lucy snuggled under the covers. It must have been years ago and Lucy had forgotten the tale until now. She looked around and saw the others in the class starting to write their own folk-lore tales. She picked up her pen.
There was once a girl who dreamt of dolphins. She lived far from the sea and never saw them for real. But her dreams were so real that she knew that they must be out there. She longed for the day that she could actually swim with dolphins and touch their warm skin. The more she dreamt of the dolphins, the more that she knew that she had to be with them.
One day the girl found a magic doorway that led her through to the dolphins’ world. She loved it there and never wanted to come back, so she didn’t. Her father searched for her for a little bit, but then he got busy with something else and forgot. He never found out where she had disappeared to. The End.
The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins Page 8
