Dancer darted forward through the water to try and protect Summer’s calf, with Spirit just behind. The orca closed in on No-Name rapidly and it looked like they would not be fast enough to save the lone calf. Dancer gave a last burst of speed and slammed into the side of the killer whale just in time, forcing it off to one side, just before it was able to close its jaws on Summer’s calf.
Spirit got there a moment later and used his body to shield the calf against any further attacks. Summer swam up anxiously moments later and in no time at all the whole pod had come to No-Name’s rescue, circling around him defensively.
The orca, recognising the overwhelming force of numbers on the part of the dolphins, gave up and disappeared back into the vastness of the ocean.
‘Thank goodness you got to him in time!’ Summer said to Dancer, relief in her voice.
‘Yes, that brute nearly got him. You did well Dancer. No special powers needed there’ added Moonlight pointedly. Dancer had been winded badly when she slammed into the side of the hefty Orca and took a while to calm down and recover her breath.
‘It was Spirit who saw the orca coming’ Dancer said eventually, suspicious that Moonlight’s compliment might be at Spirit’s expense.
‘We work better as a whole than as individuals’ intoned Storm, his voice calm and serious. ‘It is vital that we all look to the security and wellbeing of each other. We had better take extra care if there are orcas in these waters at the moment.’
The dolphins swam on, scouting for shoals of fish. The sun made its way across the sky. The pod was extra vigilant for any signs of orcas and No-Name stayed close to his mother. Spirit, still thinking about his conversation with Lucy that morning, swam up and joined Storm by his side.
‘Storm’ he said eventually, ‘have you ever heard about humans turning into dolphins?’ Storm almost jumped in surprise.
‘Where have you heard of such a thing?’ he asked.
‘Lucy came to me and Dancer this morning’ Spirit replied, nervous at Storm’s reaction. ‘She said that she thought it was silly, but that some humans told stories of other humans turning into dolphins. I don’t think that could happen, but humans know about a lot of things that we don’t. Storm snorted contemptuously, but then he stopped and turned to look Spirit in the eye.
‘We do not tell such stories in this pod because we do not believe them’ he said seriously. ‘But you should know that there are some dolphins that do believe it to be true and tell stories of humans becoming dolphins. There are some dolphins who actually believe that they are descended from the humans that swam out into the sea. It’s nonsense of course and we don’t abide with such old superstitions.’
‘But how do you know its nonsense?’ asked Spirit. ‘After all, I myself have connections to humans that we do not understand.’
‘That is true’ replied Storm. ‘Humans may be able to do many things that we cannot, but we remain the wiser, older and more superior creature. They cannot be capable of transforming themselves into us.’
‘I do not think of Lucy as any lesser an animal than I am’ replied Spirit. I think of ourselves as equal.’ Storm smiled.
‘Perhaps you are right Spirit. Maybe I can be too harsh about humans. But always remember that they are dangerous, more so than orcas, or sharks or any other predator in the sea.’
‘Who are the dolphins that believe they are descended from humans?’ asked Spirit.
‘I knew that you would ask me that’ said Storm resignedly. ‘They live many days swimming from here and though I know of them, I have never met them myself. They live too far away from us to come together in the great dolphin council.’
‘So there is no easy way of contacting them then?’ asked Spirit, immediately disappointed. Storm sighed.
‘Not quite’ he replied. ‘In fact I believe you have already met one. It is Blue’s mother, Sunlight’. Immediately Spirit thought back to his recent mission. Blue had run away from one pod and joined another. He had not met Blue’s mother then, but had probably done so at an earlier council of the dolphins.
‘Is she one of them then?’ he asked in surprise.
‘She believes she is’ replied Storm. ‘She came from that same pod far away.’
‘So she ran away from her own pod and now her son Blue has run away from his?’
‘I am not sure what led Sunlight to leave her own pod’ replied Storm cautiously. ‘but she is born of those dolphins who believe themselves descended from humans.’
‘Can I speak to her about it?’ asked Spirit eagerly. Storm sighed once again.
‘I think that you must’ he said. ‘Until you do you will never rest. Her pod is not so far away, just to the east of the islands. A couple of hours swimming will bring you there.’
‘Then can I go?’
‘I’d be happier if you took Dancer with you. That orca will still be in these waters and besides, they’re a strange pod.’
Spirit hastened away to tell Dancer the news. Soon they were skimming the surface of the sea together as they swam along towards the waters to the east of the islands. Small waves picked up on the surface of the sea. Clouds blotted out the sun and looked heavy with rain. The weather was changing. Dolphins have a sense for the weather. They are so in tune with the currents and the temperature of the water, that it is almost as though they can smell it. Spirit felt reassured. There might be rain, but there would be no storm.
‘So what are you going to say to Sunlight when you meet her?’ asked Dancer quizzically as they swam along.
‘Well, I just want to ask her what her kin told her about being descended from humans’ Spirit replied.
‘It’s not going to be easy you know. You were sent out on a mission to speak to her son Blue. Now you come to her and want to talk about some far-fetched old tales. She’ll just want you to tell her about her son.’
‘Well that’s no problem’ Spirit replied, I can do that too.’
‘And do you want to find out just to answer Lucy’s question this morning?’ she asked. Spirit thought for a moment, as they swum on towards the islands.
‘It’s not just that I want to answer Lucy’s question. It’s more than that. There’s something between humans and dolphins, something between Lucy and me that I don’t understand. I want to know the answer to Moonlight’s question; what’s the point of my gift at all?’ Spirit felt the unanswered questions boiling up inside him. ‘If there’s anything at all to these stories about humans turning into dolphins, then it must help me, mustn’t it?’
At that moment the image from his dream of the night before returned to him; the dolphin that he could just make out through the murk of the water, but who, try as he might, he could not get close to.
Presently they could make out the calls of dolphins echoing outwards from the seas just east of the islands and they honed in on their target. They found the pod at rest, after having just eaten. The eldest and most senior dolphin in their pod of twelve or so was called Speed, because in her day she had been the fastest dolphin in all of the seas hereabouts. She was old now and bad tempered. Spirit and Dancer offered the traditional greeting and said that they wanted to speak to Sunlight.
As her name implied, Sunlight was a positive, warm and open dolphin, but she had been hurt and upset when Blue had left them to join another pod. She was eager for news of him and Spirit was happy to oblige. While Dancer chatted to the other members of the pod, Spirit filled Sunlight in on his recent visit to Blue.
‘Do you think he will come back to us?’ she asked anxiously.
‘I cannot say for certain’ said Spirit cautiously, ‘but I think that he is less angry than he was and that must surely be a good thing. It is my belief that before long he will visit you again.’ They talked on for a while about Blue, while Spirit wondered how he could bring the conversation round to what he really wanted to speak about.
Later, when Spirit felt that he had said all that he was able to tell Sunlight about Blue, he thought that it was safe to chan
ge the subject.
‘Sunlight. I am trying to learn as much as I can about all of the stories of the dolphins. I have heard that you originated from a pod far away from here’. Immediately Sunlight’s face clouded with worry and she glanced down.
‘I don’t like to talk of those times’ she replied. Spirit started to worry that he would not be able to get Sunlight to tell him anything at all. He tried again.
‘You see it is important for me. I am what the others call a Child-Seer, that is I am able to communicate with a human child that comes to me in visions. I have met her in real life too. I have heard that in the pod of your birth, it is believed that you were all descended from humans. Is that true?’
Sunlight looked at Spirit with anxiety in her eyes.
‘I thought I had left all that behind me.’ She glanced away into the depths of the ocean, memories swimming before her eyes and then looked back at Spirit.
‘My real name is not Sunlight’ she said in a quiet voice. ‘That is the name I took after joining this pod. In the pod in which I grew up, we are given names at birth. My birth name is Susan. It is a human name for a girl and it has been passed down the generations.’
Spirit looked at Sunlight. The name Susan meant nothing to him. The only human name he knew was Lucy and which she had told him meant light. Sunlight was evidently troubled by what she was telling him, but he was intensely curious and did not want her to stop.
‘There were twelve dolphins in my pod and there had always been the same number as long as any dolphin there could remember. The eldest were Edgar, John and Mirabel. Then there were Florence, Jethro, Jane, Agnes and Michael. The youngest were Anne, Simeon, Arthur and myself. These are all human names you see, the same names as the humans carried when it is said they changed from their human form many years ago.’ Sunlight and Spirit turned and swam along slowly just under the surface of the water.
‘When I grew up, the older dolphins would tell us young ones stories of what it was like to live on land, of the dark cold boxes that humans lived in and green hills and tall things called trees that were like rigid kelp. It was said though that our human ancestors were not free, and had do what other humans told them and work many hours of the day. They could not roam the land like we roam the seas. Sometimes the males would be sent to dig in deep dark holes in the ground, in what were called mines. Many of them died there, or became ill and died while still young. It was a hard desolate life, full of toil and sadness.’
This all seemed strange to Spirit. He thought that humans were as free as dolphins. He knew that they lived in tiny boxes and that Lucy had to go to a place called a school to learn things, but she was mostly happy to be there he thought. He had not heard about humans dying young as Sunlight described.
‘Why did they leave the land?’ he asked.
‘It is said that there was a young girl that could visit a particular dolphin in visions and communicate with him. His name was Midnight and he was a Child-Seer like you. The girl was terribly unhappy. She could see the freedom and the beauty of the seas when she visited, but hated her life on the land. She persuaded other children that life was better out here on the seas and that if they wanted to, they could join her out here and live forever in freedom and happiness.’
‘What happened then?’ Spirit asked. Sunlight sighed. ‘It is told that a number of human children swam out from the land, but were engulfed in a storm and that their shattered bodies scattered back to the shore like so many broken twigs. But it is also told that the spirits of a few of the children became dolphins and that their descendents form the pod into which I was born.’
Spirit gasped. He was shocked at the death of the children. He was all too aware of how frail and vulnerable any human was in the sea. Even Lucy, who was a good swimmer, easily tired and he could see that she was no match for the currents and tides that swelled and surged along the coast.
‘You keep saying it is told’, he said to Sunlight. ‘Do you believe in the stories yourself?’ She gave a small shake of her head and looked away again for a moment before replying.
‘I was brought up on those stories. Something must have happened to inspire them, I know that. Now my pod lives a long way away from the waters around the human town of Merwater, from where the human children are said to have swum. As a young calf growing to maturity, I could not accept or believe that our ancestors could be born of such a sad and terrible story. I left my pod to travel back here to try and discover what really happened. None of the dolphins that live in these parts now believe the story I just told you. Neither do I anymore. I could not go back to my pod to live a lie so I stayed here and have sought out happiness and peace where I can.’
‘Why do you think the stories are told then, if they did not really happen?’ asked Spirit.
‘I think perhaps that Midnight, the Child-Seer, was so overcome by grief that he invented the story to comfort himself. It is the only explanation that makes sense to me.’
‘And the human girl, that told the others to swim out to sea. What was her name?’ asked Spirit.
‘It was Susan. Yes’, Sunlight smiled sadly. ‘The name I was given by my pod at birth.’
Chapter Seven:
At first Lucy thought that she would just walk past Paul, sitting there on the harbour wall, and pretend that she had not seen him. It didn’t look as though he was aware of her presence and it seemed to be a coincidence that he happened to be there as she came off the Merry Widow after her trip with Nate and Bob and the tourists to go seal watching. But Lucy had become used to confronting difficult situations and knew that she could not walk on by without saying at least something to him. She went up to him.
‘Hey’ she said.
‘Hey’ he replied quietly. Paul did not turn to look at her, but instead continued to stare determinedly out to sea, as if by returning her gaze he would reveal some weakness. She realised that he was trying not to cry. Something must have happened to upset him.
‘What’s up?’ she asked. Paul gave a slight shake of his head, as if to say he would not tell her, while still looking away from her. Lucy glanced around her, as if by doing so she could see the cause of his distress. There was no one in sight other than a few tourists and visitors to the town.
‘Was it those kids again?’ she asked, guessing at the truth. Paul gave the slightest of nods, but still would not return her look.
‘Will I see you around?’ she asked. He gave a shrug.
‘I’m not supposed to talk to you’ he mumbled eventually.
‘Well suit yourself.’ Lucy walked away feeling rejected. She saw that Bethany had pulled up in the car park behind the harbour. She hooted the horn and waved out of the open window when she saw Lucy coming in her direction.
‘Hey Kiddo, hop in!’
Lucy was glad to climb into Bethany’s old Land Rover and sit down. It had been a surprisingly tiring afternoon. Just as she got to the car she cast a last look back in Paul’s direction. He was staring down at his feet.
Later on, after a dinner of salad and freshly caught plaice that Bob had wrapped up for Lucy to take home, it was time for Lucy to call Dad. Bethany and Lucy sat outside after they’d washed up, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. Swifts skimmed along the hedgerows and over the meadow like miniature fighter pilots, catching insects on the wing.
‘I can’t believe those tiny little birds fly all the way up from North Africa to spend each summer here’ said Bethany admiringly, gazing up at them in the sky.
‘It’s time to call your Dad’ she added after a while. ‘Bet you’ve got lots to tell him.’
‘Well yes and no’ said Lucy noncommittally. Although Dad knew that Lucy was what Paul called a Dolphin-Child, she was keenly aware that he did not like it and did not approve. He was so adamantly opposed to it, that she felt she could not tell him anything about Spirit and the other dolphins at all. It seemed better just to keep quiet and avoid trouble. Yet the strange thing was that not so long ago he’d objected to her ev
en doing swimming practice at lunchtimes. Now he’d agreed to her coming down to Cornwall to stay with Bethany alone and without his supervision. It didn’t make any sense.
‘He’ll be coming down in a few days, you looking forward to it?’ Lucy pulled a face. ‘Hey, he’s your Dad you know and he loves you. He’s stuck in that office working while you’re down here enjoying the summer. You’ll have a great time when he comes down I’m sure.’
‘But will I be able to see Spirit though when he comes?’
‘I thought that might be worrying you Kiddo’ replied Bethany. ‘I guess it won’t be quite as easy, but we’ll have a word with him and make sure you still can. Don’t forget, it’s been tough on both of you after your Mum died, but he’s had to look after you, carry on working in a difficult job he doesn’t like very much and keep the house and home together. Maybe he’s starting to relax a bit now. A holiday will be good for him. It’ll be good for both of you.’
‘I guess so’ said Lucy. She wasn’t so sure, but didn’t like to say. It would be their first holiday together since Mum died. It didn’t seem right to be away with Dad unless Mum was there too. She’d just about got used to living at home with only Dad, but a holiday with him would bring all the memories back to her and that great aching sense of loss.
Lucy dutifully went over to the farmhouse to call Dad. Mobile phone reception was still bad at the farm. Darren opened the door then Mary came out from the living room.
‘Hello there Lucy’ she said amiably. ‘Just before you call your Dad, I thought I’d tell you that I had a bit of a surprise visit from the Coast Guard this afternoon. They wanted me to tell them how I knew there was a little girl stranded on the rocks off Black Gull Beach.’
‘What did you tell them?’ asked Lucy nervously.
Dolphin Child Page 8
