‘I agreed with Storm’ said Summer, her calf nuzzling into her flank. ‘We must think about the old stories.’
‘That’s right’ said Dancer, ‘And Lucy has already saved Spirit.’
‘I say that it is still too early. I trust Lucy but I do not trust other humans. We cannot use Spirit’s gift when we do not yet know what it is’ said Storm.
There was a murmur of assent around the group. Breeze was silent. The conversation passed on to other things. Moonlight wanted Spirit to tell the story of how they saved the little girl all over again and Dancer was happy to oblige. Spirit felt shy and let himself drift off a short distance from the pod. Chaser was debating with Storm the best way to tell when a shoal of sprat might be approaching. Summer, noticing that Spirit seemed withdrawn, swam over to him with her calf by her side.
‘One thing I know’ she said, ‘is that Star-Gazer would be proud of you’. Spirit looked back at her, worried and unhappy.
‘Do you really think so Summer?’ he asked.
‘I do’ she answered decisively. ‘She was my good friend. I wish she was here to see the dolphin you have grown up to be.’
‘I wish she was here now too’ replied Spirit. ‘I still wonder what became of her.’
‘So do I Spirit’ she replied. ‘It must be twelve full moons ago that Storm and I swam out with Star-Gazer. You know the story. We were separated when a squall blew up. A ship crossed our path and the terrible noise of its engines confused all three of us. After the ship had gone, I found Storm easily enough and then we both wondered where Star-Gazer was. She’d disappeared. Storm thought there were traces of her blood in the water, but I wasn’t so sure. I wish I knew where she was now.’
‘Do you think maybe she’s alive now?’ asked Spirit anxiously. Summer shook her head.
‘I really don’t know Spirit’ replied Summer. ‘I wish I did. It would be great if she was, but then why hasn’t she come back to us? I don’t want to build your hopes up. You know she’s probably joined the stars up in the night sky that she so loved to look at. If she’s looking down on us from up there, she’ll be smiling at you.’
At that moment Summer’s calf No-Name started to wander off and with an apologetic look, she went after him.
It had been a long day and Spirit needed to rest. That evening, the sky was especially clear and bright with what looked like a million stars. Whilst the others dozed off into their waking sleep, Spirit stared up at the stars spread above him in the night sky as his mother had done so many times.
Chapter Five:
For some reason that she could not quite understand, the form that swam through Lucy’s dream upset her. She could not see well, as the water in her vision was murky and all she could really make out was a vague silhouette in the shallow brackish water. It seemed to be restless and turned fretfully this way and that, not as though it were looking for a means of escape, but more like a creature that needed to do something, anything, rather than just hang there in the water. Lucy could barely make out the shape of the animal, but she knew it was a dolphin. There was nothing else around it, just the muddy water and there were no other dolphins to keep it company. Lucy could sense a deep, painful loneliness in the dolphin, but was powerless in her dream to do anything about it.
When Lucy awoke, she could not tell if it was a vision of an actual living dolphin, or merely an imaginary scene conjured up out of the depths of her subconscious. She lay there in the camp bed on the platform in Bethany’s studio, staring up at the rafters, feeling anxious and unsettled. ‘It must just have been a nightmare’ Lucy said to herself. ‘I’m sure that’s all it was’. Yet despite her attempts to convince herself otherwise, Lucy just couldn’t be sure.
Sometimes when Lucy had a bad dream, it would hang over her like an oppressive cloud even though she had already woken up. She worried that she would fall back to sleep again and slip back into the nightmare she had just escaped from. Lucy forced her eyes wide open and blinking, looked around her. The morning light was streaming through the studio windows below them, but Bethany was still fast asleep.
Lucy looked at her watch. It was a little before seven o’clock. There was still time to cycle up the hill to old Man’s Cove with the hope of swimming with Spirit. She hurriedly pulled on her clothes and slipped out while Bethany was still sleeping. Lucy felt intensely private about swimming with Spirit and didn’t want anyone to see her when she did. If she left too late there would be too many people around.
In any case she could not put the image of the solitary dolphin out of her head. She thought about what might have caused it. It must have been brought on by her conversation with that strange boy Paul Treddinick the previous day, she thought to herself.
An hour and a half later when Lucy got back, she went straight to the kitchen area and made herself some warm chocolate milk. Bethany was not there and she guessed that she’d popped over to the farm office for a chat with Mary. Lucy sat down at the kitchen table to drink it. Even though she’d been out swimming with Spirit, it was the first morning of her holiday down here in Cornwall that she didn’t feel all that happy.
Lucy’s encounter with Paul’s mother the day before had really upset her. She recalled how she’d found Paul in the recreation ground when he told her about the dolphin trapped in the lagoon. Lucy had been sitting there on the low bough of the tree next to the recreation ground, conscious that the wetness of the branch was seeping through her jeans and making her bottom uncomfortably damp. Paul had been whittling a piece of wood with his penknife, but now that she had suddenly appeared next to him, he put his penknife down on the branch next to him. Lucy noticed enviously that Paul was sitting on a plastic carrier bag. His bottom was still dry. Lucy could understand why the other kids called him scrawny; he really was very thin and his mass of curly hair merely accentuated the slightness of the rest of his body.
Lucy wondered whether Paul might be a liar like those big kids had claimed, yet when he described the grounds of the house where he said a dolphin was kept in a saltwater lake, she wasn’t so sure. He seemed to tell her with utter sincerity and a kind of shyness that made her realise he wasn’t just saying it to show off.
‘Where is this place?’ asked Lucy curiously. ‘Can you take me there?’
‘I go cycling on my own’ replied Paul. ‘I don’t take no one with me.’
‘Oh go on, you could take me’ Lucy urged him. ‘You told me all about it the other day.’
‘No’ said Paul defiantly. Now he wished he hadn’t said what he told her the other day, even if she was supposed to be a Dolphin Child. With a fluid and practised twist of his hips, he half jumped and half slid from the low branch that they were both sitting on, landing on the wet grass of the recreation field with a thud.
‘Hey, come back!’ Lucy called, too nervous to jump down herself and looking around for the nails driven into the tree trunk which she had used to climb up in the first place. Paul started walking away from her towards the swings. Lucy hastily clambered back down the tree, ripping the sleeve of her t-shirt on one of the nails in her anxiety to get down and go after him. She jumped the last bit and ran to catch up with him.
‘What’s with you then?’ she asked.
‘You’ve got your dolphins in the sea’ he said, turning to look at her. ‘You get to swim around with them. You’re a Dolphin-Child. You come from a big town and your aunt’s a well-known artist. Everything’s easy for you.’ Lucy wanted to say that things certainly weren’t easy for her, but she knew her words would sound hollow and insincere if she said so.
‘I just thought I could….help’ Lucy replied simply.
‘Well I don’t need your help’ he answered sharply. ‘I shouldn’t have told you what I did. I can sort things out on my own. My Mum said…., well...’ He trailed off and then turned to walk towards the gate to Truro Road. Lucy remembered that Thelma said he lived just next to the park in the end-of-terrace house with peeling paint and weeds in the garden. Lucy followed Paul. S
he wanted to say something more to him, but she wasn’t sure what.
‘I don’t even know what a Dolphin-Child is’ she said eventually as he neared the road. ‘Why can’t you help me?’
‘Go look in the museum’ he replied, without looking back at her. Lucy just could not understand why he should suddenly switch like this. Just then Mrs Treddinick emerged from the house. She wore a shapeless cardigan and looked tired beyond her years.
‘Paul, who is that?’ she shouted across the road at her son.
‘It’s, well…..’
‘It’s not that girl you told me about is it?’ Paul didn’t deny it. ‘Come over here this instant’ she called to Paul, anger catching in her voice. Lucy stopped where she was, while Paul crossed the road over to where his mother stood at their front gate.
‘You stay away from my boy, you hear!’ Mrs Treddinick shouted back across at Lucy. ‘You and your kind are dangerous. You stop following him around. You’ll be the death of all of us!’ She marched her son into the house and banged her door shut behind her.
Lucy stood there, shocked and disbelieving, unable to comprehend what had prompted the outburst from Paul’s mother. She had no friends of her own here in Merwater and even Paul, who was picked on by other kids, had turned his back on her. Now his mother was shouting at her and she didn’t understand why. Lucy burst out into bitter tears. She turned to walk back down the road to Thelma’s house where she and Bethany were still chatting over the tea things.
‘Lucy, whatever is the matter?’ exclaimed Bethany as she walked back into Thelma’s kitchen. Lucy’s eyes were puffy and red. It was obvious she’d been crying. Lucy hesitantly recounted the story of her encounter with Paul and what his mother had said to her.
‘That Rachael Treddinick’ said Thelma angrily. ‘I’ll be having a word with her when I next see her, you mark my words.’
‘But what did she mean?’ asked Lucy miserably.
‘Oh I shouldn’t worry about her’ said Bethany, her arm around her niece’s shoulders. ‘She’s not a happy woman. Some people say thoughtless things when they’re miserable themselves.’
‘That’s right young Lucy’ added Thelma. ‘She doesn’t know what she’s saying. Take no notice now.’
Bethany had been ready to leave when Lucy got back and so after a few more minutes they thanked Thelma and made for the door.
‘My Nate was wondering if you’d like to go out in the tourist boat with him and Bob tomorrow afternoon’ said Thelma as they stood by the door. ‘They’ll be going out seal watching. He reckons you’ve got a good pair of eyes for that kind of thing. Now what do you say?’
‘How about it Kiddo?’ asked Bethany. ‘It’ll get you out of the studio sure enough.’
‘Yes I’d love to’ smiled Lucy wanly, still feeling tearful.
‘Good. I’ll let Nate know to expect you’ replied Thelma. They waved and walked back to Bethany’s Land Rover. As they drove through the town on their way back to the studio, Lucy stared out of the window, half expecting to see Paul Treddinick on the street again, but she saw no one she knew and they were soon rattling down the lane that led to the farm.
Later on, after her daily phone call to Dad and Bethany had announced it was time to get ready for bed, Lucy’s thoughts turned back to Paul Treddinick and his mother.
‘That boy said I was a Dolphin-Child’ she told Bethany, but I don’t know what that means, not really.’
‘Well I suppose it means that you’ve got a special gift’ replied Bethany cautiously.
‘Like Mum did?’ asked Lucy.
‘Yes, yes I suppose so.’
‘Did people call her a Dolphin-Child?’ Bethany paused before replying.
‘Not that I know of Kiddo’ she said eventually. ‘Now come on, let’s get you off to bed.’
‘And then Paul’s mum said my kind were dangerous. Do you know what she meant by that?’
‘One thing I’m certain about Kiddo’ said Bethany with passion in her voice, ‘is that there’s absolutely nothing wrong, bad or dangerous about you and your gift. Don’t listen to that woman. She’s just silly and confused.’
Despite the assurances of Bethany and Thelma, Lucy had laid awake for a long time, staring up into the rafters and wondering about what Mrs Treddinick had said. When eventually she had drifted off to sleep, it had been into fitful and restless dreams. Then just before waking up, she had had the unsettling dream of the lone dolphin in the murky saltwater lagoon.
Later today she’d be going out on the tourist boat with Nate and Bob to look for seals. She had some time to kill before that though and wondered what she might do. A lazy morning reading her book in the field behind the studio would be just the thing she decided.
It was like an electric shock when Spirit had broken through to her, telling her quickly about the little girl trapped on the rocks at the beach. It jolted her upright and although she was pleased and amazed that Spirit had been able to reach out to her instead of the other way round, it had been an almost painful sensation when he did.
When Spirit had told her of the danger that the little girl was in, she realised that she had to do something that instant. She’d burst into the farm office to get Mary to call the coastguard, but could hardly believe that Mary or anyone else would listen to her. Yet Mary had unquestioningly picked up the receiver and called the coastguard straight away, telling them that there was a little girl in trouble on the rocks at the side of Black Gull Sands. When Mary put down the receiver, she looked up at Lucy, who was standing anxiously in the doorway of the small office.
‘I just hope you’re right’ she said, ‘or I’m going to have some serious explaining to do.’ Lucy was relieved that she was right too, though then she realised that she might still have trouble explaining how a twelve year old lying in a field chewing a stalk of grass might know that a little girl was in trouble at a beach two miles up the coast.
Mary had to drive into town later in the van for an appointment and offered to give Lucy a lift into town. Bethany would pick her up again at the end of the afternoon.
Mary dropped her off at the side of the harbour in Merwater.
‘See you later then Lucy’ called Mary. The van door clunked shut behind her and with a wave Mary drove off. Lucy glanced up at the sky. It was bright and sunny, but there were clouds on the horizon and she wondered if it might rain later. The ever-present gulls swooped and soared above the town, looking out for a discarded fish head or a half eaten sandwich on which to feast. In nesting season gulls could swoop down aggressively on anyone who happened to be walking up the street. Fortunately at the moment they were more interested in looking out for their next meal. There were many unsuspecting tourists in town for them to prey on.
Lucy crossed over the road to the harbour wall. In the mornings Nate and Bob went out in their fishing boat the Lady Thelma to check their lobster pots. In the afternoons, especially in tourist season, they took out visitors in the tourist boat ‘The Merry Widow’ round the coast to look for seals or even if they were lucky enough, a glimpse of a dolphin or a whale. ‘It’s easier to haul in a few tourists than a few lobster’ Nate would say. Making a living from fishing had never been easy and now it was just getting harder.
Lucy walked up to where the Merry Widow was moored. Nate was sitting on one of the plastic chairs bolted to the foredeck drinking tea from a chipped mug. He was a comfortably built, middle-aged man with thinning grey hair above his friendly red face.
‘Ahoy there young Lucy’ he greeted her. ‘You’re a full fifty minutes early. Still though, you’re welcome to come on board now and wait. The tourists will start arriving soon I expect.
‘Do you think there’ll be good sailing today Nate?’ she asked. ‘Do you think we might see some dolphins?’
‘Well Lucy, with you on the lookout who knows, maybe we will’ Nate laughed.
‘I hope so.’
‘My friend Steve from the coastguard station tells me that there was a strange call from
a farm recently. Turns out a little girl was stranded on some rocks at the edge of Black Gull Sands. The woman on the farm told them exactly where to find the little girl, but how could she have known, he asked me. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that now would you young Lucy?’ Nate turned to look at her with a half knowing, amused expression on his face.
Lucy shifted from one foot to the other. If she didn’t know him any better, she’d have thought that he was putting her on the spot. Instead she realised that he was only half serious in asking the question.
‘I might’ she replied with a smile on her face. Nate grinned back at her.
‘Strange things have been going on down here since you turned up my gal’ he joked. ‘You best keep your eyes peeled for them dolphins this afternoon. Make some tourists happy and keep yourself out of trouble!’ He gave a chesty laugh. ‘Anyhow, you’re a tad early for the boat ride, so if you don’t want to wait here, you feel free to wander into town for half an hour or so.’
‘I might just do that’ replied Lucy. She strolled back towards the town again, past the booth selling tickets for the boat trip, wondering how she might spend the time.
Just then Lucy saw a sign; ‘Merwater Museum’. In fact she’d passed the museum half a dozen times at least. It was a small building, run by the local council and situated just close to the harbour. It was one of those places that Lucy thought she might go to on a rainy day, but she’d always had some excuse or other not to go and so she had never actually ventured inside. Now, as she passed, she remembered what Paul Treddinick said to her the day before when she’d asked what a Dolphin-Child actually was.‘Go look in the museum’ he’d said in answer to her question. The museum was free and Lucy thought she may as well take a look around inside.
There were only three rooms to the museum which Lucy quickly realised, really was very small indeed. Half a dozen tourists were quietly looking around. A display with an old wooden fishing boat and a fisherman’s net dominated the main room. Lucy read the sign of the exhibit explaining how fishing nets were made and maintained. She turned to look at the sequence of glass cases running around the edge of the other side of the room. There were various old photos, clay pipes and tinder boxes on display. Lucy ambled around haphazardly, looking at the exhibits out of order.
Dolphin Child Page 6
