As they swam back Dancer and Spirit occasionally broke the surface of the water, taking in the view of the world above the waves as they did so. The sun seemed particularly large today and was tinged with orange and red as it made its slow descent towards the horizon. Sunlight sparkled off the gentle lapping waves, dazzling them as they made their steady progress back to their home pod. When he was younger, Star-Gazer had told him that she thought that the sun was like a big ball of fire in the sky and that it was their world that went around the sun, and not the sun that went around them.
Moonlight had said that it was a ridiculous idea. He said that it was a disc of fire that the dolphins at the edge of the world in the East set aflame every morning and then flung up into the sky. He said that when it came down again it would fizzle out in the sea and the world would turn dark again for another night.
Star-Gazer told Spirit that there was no edge to the world and that if you swam far enough in any particular direction, then providing there was no land in the way, you would eventually come back to the same spot. She asked how dolphins could set anything aflame, as they lived in water and did not have the power of fire. Moonlight tried to stick up for his theory, saying that perhaps it was humans or some other creature that set the disc alight every morning, but that that was definitely what happened.
Another time when Spirit was young, Chaser tried telling him that the world is contained in a huge shell and that every night the lid of the shell simply closes. The stars you can see are nothing more than pricks of light that penetrate through the ancient shell where it has worn thin. Then Star-Gazer asked why you could not see the edge of the shell as it came down. She said that the world went dark when the Sun disappeared over the horizon and that if Chaser’s theory was right, the Sun would always stay in the same place in the sky.
It was Star-Gazer that pointed out to him that when the Moon is at it’s fullest, the tides are at their highest. She spent many hours trying to understand the power that the Moon exerted over the waters of the seas, but she never could make sense of it. ‘It’s as if the Moon was pulling the sea’ she would say, ‘but how can that be?’ Even Moonlight, despite his name, was unable to offer an answer to that question.
There was much that dolphins did not understand. Spirit had asked once whether humans knew more than they did. Storm said that humans might know more about certain things than dolphins, but that they understood much less. He said that it was their lack of understanding of the harmony of all living things that made them so dangerous. Occasionally he wondered whether it was humans that had caused his mother Star-Gazer to be taken from him. Perhaps he would never know for certain.
Spirit and Dancer reached their own pod just as the Sun descended into the west, glad to play awhile before resting.
‘Paul, have you tidied up your room yet?’ Mrs Treddinick called upstairs.
‘Not yet Mum!’ he shouted back at her. It was true. His room was a mess. He just couldn’t see the point of tidying it up, because a day after doing so it would just be as bad as it was before. When his Mum really insisted, he just shovelled everything loose under the bed. It was done in five minutes and if Mum did put her head around his door, she would be satisfied. She never did take too close a look. Paul knew that just as quickly as she would get worked up about the chaos in his room she would forget it again, no matter how bad it was.
She was like that. One day she’d be full of enthusiasm for something, then she’d forget all about it again. When she felt really low, she’d just sit there, staring out of the dirty window, smoking cigarette after cigarette, a plate in front of her full of cigarette butts and ash. Paul hated the smoke and hated it when his Mum fell into one of those low moods. He’d have to look after his younger sister Hayley as best as he could when she did. He’d cook cheese on toast for tea and walk Hayley to school all by himself. Dirty plates would pile up in the sink and she’d forget to put the bin bags out. Fortunately Mum had been okay for the last couple of months and she’d really been trying hard to get a job, but you never knew when she might change again. It was like waiting for a reed to snap in the wind.
Paul looked out of the window. The paint was peeling off the wood and in places he’d picked at the putty holding the glass in place with his penknife. In the depths of winter icy crystals would trace their way along the inside of the glass, but at the moment it was hot and sunny and he stared out of the window towards the recreation ground. The trees seemed bleached of colour and the listless wind shovelled a couple of frail clouds along high in the sky.
Paul was always delighted when the school holidays began, but after a fortnight or so of freedom, they began to drag. They couldn’t afford to go away on holiday and each day merged into the next. When his best friend Richard still lived in Merwater, they would spend hours and hours together, but now that Richard’s family had left and moved to Bristol, Paul had no one to spend time with. Even Hayley could go round to her friend’s house two doors down the road. Paul didn’t really have anyone else now that Richard had gone.
When he could, Paul would take his bike and cycle off for whole afternoons down the country lanes to explore the fields and woods beyond the town, or up along the coastal paths at the top of the cliffs. He’d let his imagination fly free and pass the time as he cycled with fantastical make-believe stories, in which he was always the hero, saving someone’s life or fighting off smugglers.
For the last few days his bike had had a puncture. Mum said she’d buy a bicycle puncture repair kit, but first she forgot and then she said she didn’t have enough change. She always had enough money to buy cigarettes though, thought Paul ruefully. It was for this reason that he’d been stuck round town for the past few days, waiting for the kit to repair his bike so he could go off exploring again.
Paul wondered what to do. He hated staying indoors, but going out was fraught with risks as well. Just recently Baz and Mike had started picking on him. Now the other kids had turned against him as well. The more he tried to stick up for himself, the more they just ridiculed him.
Paul looked around his room again. He made a vague attempt at tidying up and then trudged downstairs. He’d agreed to see Lucy the next morning at first light, but he had the sneaking feeling that she wouldn’t turn up, or that she’d join in with the other kids and start laughing at him. He didn’t dare let himself look forward to it. If he couldn’t repair his bike before the next day, he might not get there anyway.
‘Your sister’s playing next door. Why don’t you get out into the sunshine instead of hanging round here all day’ said Mrs Treddinick, fingering an unlit cigarette.
‘Yes Mum’ replied Paul obediently.
‘And you tell me if that girl approaches you again. You keep away from that one you hear me? She’s no good.’
‘Yes Mum’ Paul replied again, his head down. He didn’t want to get drawn into another argument. He didn’t understand what Mum had against her. He wished he’d never said anything about her in the first place.
‘Don’t forget my puncture repair kit’, he added. His Mum fished in her purse, pulling out a fistful of loose coins.
‘Here’s some money. You go to the bike shop and buy yourself one. I want my change back now mind.’
‘Thanks Mum!’ Paul said, seizing up the coins and thrusting them into his pocket. e He made He made for the door. At least he had somewhere to go now. He cut across the recreation ground to get to the parade where the bike shop was. He’d almost got to the exit on the other side when Baz and Mike walked into the park from the other direction. They hung around the gate waiting to confront him. Paul would have gone the other way if he could, but he had to pass them.
‘Well look who it is’ said Baz loudly. ‘If it isn’t that little liar Paulie Treddinick.’ He thought for a moment that they were going to block his way, but he could tell that they weren’t going to cause him too much trouble today. Even so, his heart thudded in his chest and his tongue went dry.
‘Found any dit
ched space-ships? Saved any dolphins this week then have you?’ sneered Mike.
‘Yeah, like we so believe you’ snorted Baz. Paul put his head down and kept walking. He’d been out by the Brenham farm last week and seen burn marks in the cornfield there, which he was sure were from where a spaceship had landed. He’d blurted it out, trying to impress the other kids in the recreation ground, but instead everyone had just laughed at him. Now he couldn’t go anywhere without someone throwing it back in his face, even the little kids that his sister Hayley played with.
‘I’ll get you next time!’ called Baz threateningly behind him as he walked on towards the bike shop. ‘You’ll get more than just mud down your neck then!’
At the bike shop, Paul had just enough change to buy the puncture repair kit and then headed back home to fix his bike. He hoped that Baz and Mike would have disappeared by then, but instead they were still hanging around in the recreation ground, messing around on the swings just next to the path.
‘Where’s your girlfriend then Paulie?’ Mike jeered.
‘Is she blind?’ added Baz, laughing.
Paul wanted so much to fit in and for Mike and Baz and all the others to stop sneering at him. He was dying to tell them that Lucy was actually a Dolphin-Child and that the next day she was going to let him meet her dolphin. He thought how jealous they would be when they knew and how much they’d be in awe of him. They’d stop jeering at him then he thought. It was so tempting just to tell them. It would be so easy. This time they’d listen to him for sure.
Paul stopped and started to open his mouth. Before he could say anything though, a piece of dry mud whizzed across and caught him square on the face. Baz and Mike burst out laughing and Baz made to throw another lump in his direction. Paul turned and ran up the path towards his house.
‘So you want to bring another human child with you, a boy?’ asked Spirit. He was a little surprised by Lucy. She’d never mentioned this other human child before and he couldn’t understand why she wanted one to come now. He felt that it was special when they could meet in real life. She’d be able to gently stroke his flank, or they would play together in the water. It was obvious though that Lucy wanted to say something more, but wasn’t sure whether to or not.
‘Yes, he … err asked me and I, err, said I thought it would be okay’. She sounded edgy and uncertain.
‘I’m not sure’ he replied. ‘It doesn’t seem, well, right.’ In her heart of hearts, Lucy felt the same thing. But still she needed Spirit to agree to meet with Paul.
‘Please Spirit!’ implored Lucy. ‘There is a reason, but I’m not sure if I can tell you yet. Not till I know more anyway’.
The apparition of Lucy floated in front of Spirit in the water, her hair floating around her head like a cloud. The late afternoon sun dappled the water above them. They were in the shallows, three or four metres up from the sandy seabed. The other dolphins were swimming off in the distance. He knew of course that she wasn’t physically there and that if he nudged her with his beak, he would pass straight through her. Yet when she came to him like this, she seemed so real that he could hardly imagine otherwise. He wished that he could visit her world in the same way that Lucy visited his. Right now that dream seemed a long way off.
‘But I tell you everything’ he replied, feeling left out. He had decided to tell her all about what Sunlight had told him the day before, though he had not yet had a chance to.
‘Yes I know’ said Lucy with a frown on her face. ‘I want to tell you, but I need to find out more first. If I said something now and I was wrong, it would just upset you needlessly.’
‘Alright then’ decided Spirit eventually. ‘But you tell me as soon as you’ve found out. I’ll meet this boy, I suppose’ he added grudgingly.
He told Lucy briefly what he had found out from Sunlight. He said that there were some dolphins that believed that humans had turned into dolphins, but that even though Sunlight was from that pod, she wasn’t sure. What’s more, he said, none of the local pods believed it either.
‘What do you think?’ asked Lucy.
‘I just can’t say for certain. If I can communicate with you, then maybe humans did once turn into dolphins. It doesn’t seem so extraordinary to me. In Sunlight’s pod, they were all given human names. Her name was Susan and the others were….’
‘Did you say Susan?’ Lucy asked incredulously, thinking of her visit to the museum and the story of Susan Penhaligon.
‘Yes, that’s right’ replied Spirit. The others were Edgar, Simeon, Mirabel, Florence, Jethro and…oh I can’t remember the others. Human names are harder to remember for dolphins.
‘That’s amazing!’ exclaimed Lucy. She told him what she had found out in the museum in Merwater. ‘Whatever actually did happen to those kids, it’s more than just a story. Something must have happened to make both dolphins and humans remember it all these years later.’
‘Storm says that humans have weak and gullible minds’ said Spirit. ‘He says that it is too easy to believe in a dream and promises of escape from ordinary life. He thinks that’s why those human children swam out with Susan Penhaligon. Life was so horrible for them on land and seemed easier and better in the sea with the dolphins. He says that that type of dream never comes true. But then I look at you and you’re almost like a dream in front of me now. I don’t know what to believe.’
‘My science teacher says that if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true’ replied Lucy thoughtfully. ‘She says never accept what people tell you at face value. She says we should always question what their motivation is for telling you something and test what they say. According to her a lot of people out there are willing to con you and won’t tell the truth, or don’t even know what the truth is themselves.’
Spirit didn’t know what science was or what conning was either, but still, he got the idea of what Lucy meant.
‘Sunlight says that she thinks that Midnight, the Child-Seer of that girl Susan, was so overcome with grief after those children swam out to sea and died that he gave other dolphins in his pod human names to make himself feel better’ said Spirit.
‘That makes sense’ replied Lucy. ‘My science teacher says that if there are two explanations for something, you should generally choose the one that is the most likely. I guess it’s more probable that he gave the dolphins human names, than that humans turned into dolphins don’t you think?’
Spirit started to tell her more about what Sunlight had told him the day before, but when he glanced back at Lucy, he realised that her image had faded away into the water. Her energy must have run out again. There was just the faintest outline of her shape still hanging there and then it was washed away in the current.
‘Till next time Lucy’ he said to himself quietly.
Paul woke up at first light. He didn’t need his alarm clock, though he had set it just in case. Despite himself, he felt tense, nervous and excited about the prospect of meeting Lucy’s dolphin. He’d hardly been able to sleep at all and when he did eventually drop off, he kept waking up every half hour or so, as though the morning might take him by surprise if he didn’t.
Paul glanced at his watch. It was five thirty. He’d agreed to meet Lucy at Old Man’s Cove where he’d seen her with the dolphin a few days before. It wasn’t unusual for him to leave the house early and his Mum wasn’t particularly bothered if he did. She let him run wild, his aunt had said, adding that they’d better not let Social Services find out. He’d never crept out this early before though and he was wary in case she put two and two together and realised that he was meeting Lucy. Anyone would think Lucy had committed mass murder the way Mum went on about her.
Paul climbed out of bed. The floor boards in the house had an unfortunate habit of creaking and it sounded all the louder so early in the morning when the rest of the house was quiet. Mum was a restless sleeper too and more than once he’d almost jumped out of his skin when he’d gone downstairs early and found her silently smoking a ci
garette on her own in the front room. He slipped on his jeans and tee-shirt, and then put on his trainers. They were his prized possession, but had seen better days. There was a big hole where his toe protruded through the fabric. His trainers were another thing that Baz and Mike made fun of.
He contemplated climbing out of his bedroom window and shinnying down the drainpipe. That’s what kids did in movies, but by the looks of the drainpipe on his house, it’d just collapse if he tried that. The safer option was to go downstairs, as quietly as he possibly could, taking particular care over the third and fourth steps, which were especially creaky. Luckily, neither Mum nor Hayley seemed to hear him and he was soon out in the backyard where he kept his bike.
He was dead lucky, he thought, that Mum had given him the money for the puncture repair kit the previous afternoon. He didn’t know how he’d get to Old Man’s Cove otherwise. He wheeled his bike out, making sure that the gate didn’t bang behind him. The street outside his house was perfectly still and the early morning light filtered weakly through the trees of the recreation ground. The only sound was of the birds singing in the trees. It was as though he was the only person up. It felt quite eerie. He couldn’t even detect the sound of the milk float doing its rounds.
Dolphin Child Page 10
