A Dolphin Wish

by Natalie Grant

  “Between the unnatural water and the unlikely sight of Captain Swashbuckler hovering over their ship, the pirates panicked. They climbed over one another in their haste to abandon ship.”

  As the last pirate dove overboard, the seabirds set Captain Swashbuckler onto the ship’s deck. The curtain of water fell back into the sea, and the dolphins and other creatures began to swim and leap. Seabirds danced in the sky. Again, the music swelled as Captain Swashbuckler raised his sails.

  “From that day forward, a pod of dolphins led the way every time Captain Swashbuckler set sail. Not one pirate dared touch his ship again,” the storyteller boomed.

  The ship sailed out of the lagoon to a final refrain of music.

  “Wow,” Lulu said, as the final applause died down and they stood up to go.

  “Want to add some water and fire to your next show?” Dad asked Mom.

  “No, thank you.” She laughed. “Though that was spectacular, I must say.”

  Mia thought that if she couldn’t be a dolphin trainer, then maybe she’d want to be an actor playing a dolphin. “Do you think it’s hard to swim like that?”

  “Terribly,” Dad said. “But anything is possible with practice.”

  “I’d want to be one of the birds,” Lulu said. “Or a pirate. En garde!” She raised her imaginary sword, and Dad scooped her up onto his shoulders before she impaled anyone in the crowd.

  “A well-spent day,” Dad said. “But now it’s time to cash in those passports. Onward, Glimmer girls!”

  On their way out of the park, they showed their completed passports to the pirate at the gate. She gave them the choice of dolphin pendant necklaces or pirate hats. Lulu chose the hat, but both Mia and Maddie chose necklaces.

  “It’s the perfect treasure,” Maddie said. Mia had to agree.

  SEVENTEEN

  Mia woke up in the dark. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. Then she heard waves breaking outside her window and the pieces fell into place. The beach bungalow. San Diego. Her dream had been of a lone dolphin, injured, trying to outswim a shark. She’d found herself eye-to-eye with the dolphin—a real one, not one played by an actor. It was as though she could hear the dolphin’s thoughts, feel his terror. She shivered, goose bumps crawling from her shoulders down to the tips of her fingers. Even if it was only a dream, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to do something, anything, to help the dolphins and the park’s other animals. Before it was too late.

  “What’s wrong, Mia?” Maddie whispered, rolling over to face her sister.

  Like in London, the twins were sharing a king bed. Even though it was plenty big for all three girls, Lulu had chosen the trundle bed. This was fine with Mia, because Lulu always flailed in her sleep.

  Mia pulled the covers tight around her shoulders. “Nothing.”

  “Nightmare?” Maddie asked.

  “It’s not right, the animals being let out.”

  “When I asked you to run across London with me, chasing after Mr. Hughes, you did. I’ll help you, Mia, if you want me to.”

  If she wanted her to. Mia heard the question in Maddie’s voice, and realized she wasn’t the only one who felt the distance between them. Now was the time to say something. Only Mia couldn’t think what to say.

  Finally, she said, “What if we convince Mom and Dad to let us go to the park again tomorrow? Lulu’s scrap of paper might be a clue after all. Maybe it’s a schedule of when someone planned to let the animals out. Or something.”

  “Maybe. We can try,” Maddie whispered. “It’s their date day tomorrow—they said we could choose together what to do as long as all three of us agreed.”

  “So all we have to do is convince Lulu?” Mia’s mouth quirked up in a smile. Just convince Lulu; no big deal.

  “We didn’t ride all the rides,” Maddie said. “She may say yes.”

  “Okay.” Mia lay back down. “And Maddie? Thanks.”

  It was the best she could do, as close as she could come to saying that she loved her sister and wanted things back the way they used to be. Why was the truth so hard to say? Maybe because it wasn’t a fair thing to want, Mia realized. No one stayed the same forever.

  “Mmm . . .” Maddie murmured, already halfway back to sleep.

  Mia wasn’t nearly as quick to fall asleep. She rolled ideas around and around in her mind, trying to come up with the perfect way to convince Lulu that going to the park would be the perfect way to spend their day, trying not to think about everything that felt so different between her and Maddie.

  When she opened her eyes the next morning, Mia blinked. Why was she so tired? Then, it all came rushing back—her dream, her talk with Maddie, and their plan to convince Lulu to go back to the park. Maddie’s side of the bed was empty. When she peeked over the side of the bed, Mia saw that Lulu’s trundle bed was empty too. She pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top, and went in search of her sisters. She found them out on the sand, making a multilevel sand castle.

  “Maddie said you wanted to go back to the park today,” Lulu said.

  Mia couldn’t tell from Lulu’s expression whether she thought this was a good idea or not. “We didn’t ride the Undersea Treasure Dive or the Bermuda Triangle ride yet,” Lulu said.

  “Plus, we didn’t go see the walrus,” Maddie added, clearly trying to be helpful. “Or the parrots.”

  “And I want to ride the alligator ride again,” Lulu said. “Even without Dad, it would still be fun.”

  Miss Julia opened the screen door and crossed the sand to join the girls. “What are you girls chatting about?”

  “Mom and Dad said we could choose what to do today, right?” Mia asked. “Because they’re having a date day?”

  “Yes,” Miss Julia said. “I was wondering if you girls would like a day to play on the beach.”

  “Well,” Mia said. “What if we went back to the Adventure Park?”

  “I don’t know . . .” Miss Julia said, glancing back at the bungalow. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen, cooking breakfast.

  “We didn’t ride all the rides,” Lulu said.

  “Is that why you want to go back?” Miss Julia nailed Mia with a probing look. “Not because of an unsolved mystery?”

  Mia traced a line in the sand. “Well, if we happened to find some clues, I wouldn’t be upset.”

  “Wait. We’re going to look for clues all day?” Lulu asked. “No way. We already did that yesterday.”

  “We did not spend all day looking for clues,” Mia said. “We hardly found any clues at all.”

  “Except the one I found, the one you said wasn’t a clue,” Lulu shot back, almost knocking over the sand castle as she added her next handful of sand.

  “Well, now I’m not so sure,” Mia said. Lulu gave her a disbelieving look.

  “Honestly, Lulu.” Maddie shored up their sand castle from the other side. “Mia told me last night that she thought your schedule might be important.”

  “If it’s the thief’s schedule, it’s definitely important,” Mia said.

  “So, if we go back to the park, are we only looking for clues?” Lulu pressed.

  “We’ll ride rides,” Mia said.

  “And see animals too,” Maddie said.

  “If,” Miss Julia pointed out, “your parents say it’s okay. But you girls all want to go?”

  “Yes,” Mia and Maddie said immediately.

  They both looked at Lulu with please-please-please in their eyes. “Fine,” Lulu said. “Yes, I want to go.”

  Maddie and Mia grabbed Lulu’s hands and twirled her around. Miss Julia went inside to check with Mom and Dad. Soon, all three were back.

  “I’m not sure I like this newfound passion for solving mysteries,” Mom said. “Last time—”r />
  “Last time we solved the mystery!” Maddie said.

  “Right, by sneaking out,” Dad said. “I know it’s intriguing to hear about a problem and it’s natural to want to solve it, but this mystery is none of our business, girls.”

  “But can’t we just go back to the park to have fun?” Mia asked. “And if we see a clue, then we see a clue?”

  “As long as you girls promise to follow Miss Julia’s instructions. Keeping track of three Glimmer girls in a park all by herself won’t be the easiest thing to do. I expect you to make her life easy by sticking close and listening. And, if you don’t see any clues today, you need to let this mystery go. Deal?”

  Mia threw her arms around Mom and Dad in a giant hug. “Deal. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  EIGHTEEN

  When they arrived at the park, the pirates were already busy training someone else to sword fight. Mia didn’t mind. Today, she didn’t need any distractions.

  “Do you think there’s only this one entrance into the park?” Mia asked. “Could the criminal be coming in through here?”

  The woman in front of them turned around and eyed the girls.

  “Maybe he needs a code name—you know, so we don’t attract too much attention calling him a . . . criminal.” Maddie whispered this last word.

  “Or her,” Mia said, remembering the London thief.

  “Or her,” Maddie agreed.

  “What about Dr. Dolittle?” Lulu asked.

  “But Dr. Dolittle helped animals,” Mia protested.

  “It’s actually a pretty good code name,” Maddie said. “Doctor could be male or female, and maybe this person is trying to help the animals, in his or her own way. You never know.”

  “But letting the animals out—” Mia said, cutting herself off when the same woman turned and looked again.

  “Shhh . . .” Lulu said, drawing even more attention.

  “I know!” Mia whispered. “Okay, fine. Dr. Dolittle isn’t helping the animals, that’s all I’m saying.”

  “Do you think Dr. Dolittle comes in through the front gate?” Maddie asked. “Wouldn’t they start to notice the same person coming in every single day?”

  “Especially if he had shifty eyes,” Lulu said, demonstrating, just as she had the day before.

  Then she broke into her mystery-solving theme song. So much for being on the down-low. At that moment, the ticket attendant called them over, gave each a ticket, and stamped their hands.

  “Didn’t I see you here yesterday?” the woman asked, confirming Maddie’s suspicion about the park attendants noticing people. “Your necklaces gave you away.”

  Mia fingered the dolphin pendant around her neck.

  “We loved it so much, we had to come back,” Miss Julia said.

  “Where will you start?” the woman asked. “Favorite rides or animals?”

  “Cotton candy!” Lulu announced, making everyone laugh.

  “Actually, I think we’re off to the Underwater Treasure Dive,” Miss Julia said. “We didn’t have time for that one yesterday.”

  “That’s one of my favorites. While you’re down there, be on the lookout for the golden key. Oh, and speaking of . . . There’s a day two challenge instead of passports.” The woman handed over three rolled-up scrolls. “Have fun!”

  As soon as they’d moved out of the way of the incoming crowd, Lulu unrolled her scroll. “Ooh! A treasure hunt.”

  Mia and Maddie checked out their scrolls. Sure enough, the challenge was to find fourteen items scattered across the park. Once found, they should fill in the blanks with the locations. If you found at least eight by the end of the day, you could choose a prize.

  “We might not have time to find all these,” Mia warned. “Not if we’re looking for clues too.”

  “But we’ll be looking so closely at everything that we’ll probably find clues and all the treasure,” Lulu insisted.

  Mia had a feeling the treasure hunt was going to be a disaster. Lulu would be on a mission, dragging them all over the park, rather than letting her follow any real clues that showed up.

  “Come on, Mia,” Maddie said. “It will be fun. And Lulu’s right, the treasure hunt will give us a reason to keep paying close attention.”

  “Ooh, and look!” Lulu pointed toward the center of Buccaneer’s Island.

  They’d all seen and heard the weathervane at the center of the park, with its spinning gears and chimes and colorful trinkets. Now, looking again, Mia saw what Lulu had spotted.

  Maddie had seen it too. “There’s a dancing penguin on top!”

  One item spotted, thirteen to go. They all wrote it into their scrolls and passed them back to Miss Julia.

  “Should we start with the Underwater Treasure Dive, then?” Miss Julia asked.

  Mia followed her sisters and Miss Julia, dragging her heels. She was positive they wouldn’t find any clues in the Underwater Sea Dive. But, afterward, maybe they could go check out one of the animal exhibits. As she walked, she ran through the park map in her mind. She had almost memorized it on the way to the park this morning. Parrots, penguins, flamingos, seals, sea turtles, maybe sea otters. She would focus on the animals that could actually go somewhere if they got out of their exhibits.

  Underwater Treasure Dive was in the Southern Atlantic Sea area. Since they’d already done the passport thing yesterday, there was no need to stand in line to talk to Captain Barnacle. The line for the ride was short. Soon they sat, along with about ten other people, in a miniature submarine.

  “Do they really mean underwater?” Maddie asked. “As in, we’re going underwater now?”

  As the motor whirred to life, they plunged down, down, down. Yep. Really and truly underwater. After the first wave of bubbles cleared away from the portholes, the water was clear—a sparkling aqua. It teemed with a surprising number of fish.

  “There’s a zebra fish,” Maddie said. “And a clown fish.”

  “But where’s the golden key?” Lulu asked.

  “Is that an octopus?” Maddie asked.

  “It might be,” Miss Julia said. “A small one. I think I see eight legs. Actually, an octopus has two arms and six legs, but they all look like legs to me.”

  “I can’t see the golden key.” Lulu leaned forward and backward in her seat.

  “Keep your eyes open,” Miss Julia said. “I’m sure we’ll see it. In the meantime, let’s enjoy all these fish. Look at that bright red one. What’s that, I wonder?” She tapped her phone. “No Wi-Fi down here. I’ll have to look it up later.”

  Fish of all shapes and sizes swam past the window, some of which they could name. Miss Julia kept telling them to remember this or that fish so they could look it up later. Once they had circled the cove, the submarine began to rise.

  “It’s over?” Lulu asked. “But we didn’t see the golden key!”

  “It’s only one of the fourteen items,” Miss Julia said. “As long as we find eight, you can still earn your prizes. Plus, think of all the fish we saw.”

  Lulu folded her arms, not in the mood to be cheered up. “Hmph.”

  Maddie put her arm around Lulu and pulled her close. “It’s okay, Lulu.”

  The submarine’s motor shut off, and the captain came out of his little cockpit to open the hatch and let them all out. Everyone stood to go, but something in his hand caught Mia’s eye. When no one but Mia was watching, he hung it on the wall just outside the cockpit door. A large golden key.

  NINETEEN

  Mia thought about writing the location of the golden key into her scroll. She also thought about telling her sisters what she’d seen. But one look at Lulu’s pout, and Maddie anxiously trying to cheer her up, made Mia decide not to. Maybe later, when they were almost done with the hunt
, she’d tell everyone what she’d seen. But not now. For now, the golden key was her secret.

  “Can we go see the seals now?” Mia asked.

  “Sure,” Miss Julia said. “What do you say, Lulu? We didn’t see the ones outside the hospital yesterday. They’re over in the cove right next to where we saw the dolphins.”

  Mia checked the map and led the way. Miss Julia looked up the fish they’d seen. “That grumpy looking gray-green fish with the orange spots and the puffy lips was a monkey-faced eel.” She showed the girls as they walked. “And guess what the one that looked like a lemon was?”

  “An ocean lemon?” Maddie asked.

  “Close!” Miss Julia laughed. “A sea lemon.”

  “Is it actually a fish?” Maddie asked.

  Miss Julia studied the screen. “No, it’s an invertebrate. Like an octopus or a snail, and, apparently, it has a citrus smell and acidic taste, just like an actual lemon.”

  Mia looked up from the map. “A living, thinking lemon? Weird.”

  “I’m not sure about the thinking part,” Miss Julia said. “But living, yes. Ooh! Remember that rainbow fish with the bulging eyes and the delicate fins? That was a coralline sculpin.”

  Maddie leaned over to look. “That one was my favorite, I think. How about you, Lulu—did you have a favorite?”

  “Mmph.” Lulu still wasn’t over the key.

  Mia felt a twinge of guilt. But honestly, the treasure hunt was a game, wasn’t it? And weren’t games about winning? She would obviously tell her sisters if either of them needed one last item for their lists. But it would feel good to have found something no one else had. Particularly if she ended up not solving the mystery. As this thought floated through her mind, Mia remembered the dolphin from her dream and his dark, frightened eyes. No. Not solving the mystery wasn’t an option.

  “Whoa!” Maddie stopped to take it all in.

  Ahead, a wooden platform overlooked a rocky cove peppered with seals. Open ocean stretched beyond the inlet. A natural arch of stone broke the waves before they foamed their way into and out of the cove. The seals barked to one another, some splashing into the water to swim and others climbing back up onto the rocks to lounge in the sun.