‘I know Dad’ she said quietly. ‘I feel the same too.’
‘When I’m rushing around at work or doing chores at home I can block those thoughts out’ he continued, quickly brushing his hand across his eyes as if to hide any trace of tears. ‘Maybe that’s why I haven’t been there for you as much as I’d like Luce. But that’s going to change, starting with this holiday. You’re growing up fast. Before I know it you’ll be off to University. I don’t want to find you’ve suddenly grown up without my noticing.’
Lucy felt for Dad but didn’t know quite what to say, so she stretched out her hand instead and gave his a quick squeeze. She’d wished that he could have said something like that so much over the past few months. Now there was so much going on in her life, but she still didn’t feel able to talk to Dad about it.
‘I’m so glad to be down here and to be able to meet Spirit’ she said, steeling herself against his response. Not so long ago he would have hit the roof if she’d started talking about dolphins with him. She still didn’t fully understand why. She sensed Dad stiffening a little, though he tried hard not to show it.
‘Yes I know you’re going through this stage with dolphins’ Dad replied. ‘I dread to think what risks you’ve taken to see that friend of yours Spirit and what’s her name, Dancer. But I suppose I’m glad you’re able to while you can.’ Lucy didn’t know quite what he meant by that, but let the comment pass.
‘You won’t stop me seeing Spirit will you Dad, now that you’re down here too?’ Dad sighed and then forced a smile.
‘I guess not Luce’ he replied eventually. ‘After all, we won’t be here that long will we?’
‘Can I go and see Spirit tomorrow morning?’ she asked. Dad sighed again.
‘I suppose so, but I’m coming too to make sure you’re safe. Let’s enjoy ourselves today though. There’s this castle I thought we could go and see. They say you can see for miles and miles from the ramparts.’ Lucy felt a knot of anxiety rising in her chest.
‘But you know that boy Paul I told you about Dad’ she said. ‘There’s something he needs to show me. It’s… It’s important.’ She could see that Dad was hurt and didn’t really understand.
‘Can’t you see that boy some other time Luce?’ he asked. ‘I really hoped that we could, well, hang out together.’
‘Oh please Dad’ she pleaded. He looked exasperated.
‘I suppose so’ he answered eventually. ‘But we’re going to the castle this morning. You can go and find this Paul boy this afternoon if it’s so important. Now let’s have breakfast. I’ve got bacon and eggs. Do you want your eggs fried or scrambled?’
Later that morning, they both stood on the castle ramparts, looking down at the fields below them. The castle keep was tall and stark. Its interior had long since been ruined, whether by some siege or other or simple neglect, but the outer walls and tight spiral staircases still remained and wooden gantries had been built so that the tourists wouldn’t fall from the landings. Lucy loved castles and liked to picture in her minds eye what it must have been like all those years before, with peasants toiling in the fields and knights riding out to joust on their heavy chargers.
Lucy wandered along the ramparts, peering out of the arrow slits. Dad lingered behind her, reading a notice. From the west corner of the castle keep Lucy could just glimpse the sea. At that spot, carved into the stone work, was a creature leaping from the water. It looked to Lucy like a dolphin, though she couldn’t be sure. She traced her fingers round the rough stone carving, wondering who it was that had put it there so many years before and why. She missed Spirit right now and wished that she could reach out to him, or swim with him again. She wondered where Paul might be right now and how she would find him. They had a leisurely lunch in the café next to the castle and then set off again. By this time Dad was happy to go back into Merwater again for an ice-cream and to wander round and this suited Lucy just fine. She would slip off for half an hour, find Paul and then… Well, she wasn’t sure, but she’d figure something out.
Paul had been disappointed not to see the dolphin in the lagoon the day before and to compensate his mind raced with dramatic stories and adventures. He imagined evading the henchmen patrolling the grounds and climbing over the wall just in time while shots rang out behind him and bullets whizzed through the air inches from his head. He pretended that every car on the country lane he pedalled along back home was full of the bad guys searching for him and pictured himself hiding in the verge until they had passed. It was, he decided a criminal gang intent on training dolphins to smuggle drugs and he imagined how impressed the police would be when he helped them smash the operation. The day dream sustained him all the way home and he was still thinking about it the next day when his Mum sent him out to play in the recreation ground.
Afterwards, he couldn’t remember quite what he had said at first, but he’d boasted to a younger kid that he knew where a criminal gang was operating from. Before he knew it a couple more kids joined them and started asking him more questions. As he tried to justify what he had just said, one of the children started jeering and that attracted a group of boys that had been playing football to come over. Then, as he knew they would, Baz and Mike appeared and he found that all the kids were jeering at him and calling him names, even children he used to play with a month or two before.
Then one of the gang of kids picked up a clump of earth and threw it at him. The hard dry earth stung where it hit his arm, but then another lump hit him and suddenly it seemed like half the children there were reaching down for bits of earth to throw at him while they encircled him and called out sneering insults. He tried to be tough, to show them he did not care, but then a pebble caught him on the neck. Paul seemed to fold in on himself and he started to cry quietly, his tears streaking the dusty earth that was stuck to his face; his hands at his sides, his head bent to deflect the worst of the blows.
After she left Dad down by the harbour, Lucy had taken the route up the walled stream bed which was the quickest way she knew to get up to the part of town where the recreation ground was. She had no idea if she’d find Paul, but it was the only place she could think of where he might be. She knew where his house was, but she was afraid of his mother and wouldn’t dare knock on the door.
Then she heard the noise and the group of kids near some bushes on one side of the recreation ground and made her way over, curious about what was causing all the commotion. As she got nearer, she could hear that the atmosphere was nasty and threatening and Lucy started to run. The kids were so tightly packed in a circle, that at first it was impossible to see what was the object of their derision, but then at last she saw Paul, standing alone in the middle and in tears, while the children flung anything they could at him, no longer knowing or caring why.
One of the larger boys had just levered up a big clump of earth from a flower bed and was making a great play of getting ready to lob it at Paul. Fury overtook Lucy and she rushed at the boy, giving him an enormous shove between his shoulder blades and sending him sprawling at Paul’s feet, his lump of earth dropped. Several of the other kids began to titter.
‘Get off him you bully!’ Lucy shouted angrily at Mike.
‘Oi, who do you think you are coming here and spoiling our fun?’ shouted Baz. Lucy turned on him furiously. She was shorter than the boy by a head and was much slighter than he was, but she detested bullies and was so angry that nothing was going to stop her. A few months ago Lucy’s friend Amy had showed her some Ju Jitsu self defence moves and they’d spent the afternoon practicing them in the garden. Without thinking of how much bigger and heavier he was than her, she pulled him off balance and with an outstretched foot sent him crashing down too. Baz clutched his knee in pain and writhed on the ground.
The other kids were so surprised by what had just happened to the two biggest boys that they started to scatter.
‘Clear off you cowards!’ she yelled after them. Mike staggered to his feet and made to come towards her.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ she said to Paul. Paul knew better than to argue with his deliverer and followed her as they marched off at a swift pace back across the recreation ground the way that Lucy had come.
As they walked Lucy still seethed with anger at how kids could pick on a lone boy like that, but as they strode along in silence, she became more aware of her heart racing. She’d never had to do anything like that before and now that they were out of danger, her legs felt as if they were turning to jelly. She thought that she might cry too, but she didn’t want to show herself up in front of Paul.
They crossed the road and clambered across the broken down fence into the old orchard which the walled stream ran through.
‘Lets sit down’ she said and they both collapsed onto the grass verge. Paul was still crying and sniffed loudly as he wiped his eyes, streaking the mud on his face even more.
‘You okay?’ Lucy asked Paul, turning to look at him. He looked terrible, but she didn’t feel that much better herself. He nodded silently and they sat there for a while, trying to compose themselves.
‘What was that all about then?’ she asked. Paul half shrugged.
‘I, well I don’t know’ he stammered. ‘They like make fun of what I say and…’
‘What do you tell them?’ Lucy was puzzled.
‘Well, you know, just things I’ve seen. Like the lake and the house…’
‘You didn’t tell them about the dolphin did you?’ she asked, suddenly worried.
‘No, no’ he replied truthfully enough. He hadn’t got that far before they started jeering at him. ‘It’s just, you know, they say I make things up.’ Paul sniffed again and wiped his eyes with his t-shirt.
‘And do you?’ Lucy asked. She suddenly felt a clutch of worry at the pit of her stomach. She’d had an uneasy feeling about Paul already. What if he’d made it all up and all the stuff he’d told her about dolphins was just a fantasy?
‘Well, you know, sometimes, a bit’ he sniffed.
‘And did you make up your story to me about the dolphin?’ Lucy asked sharply. Paul turned his head and looked her directly in the eye.
‘No’ he said firmly. ‘I saw the dolphin in the lagoon. It’s trapped there. They’re keeping it there. I still don’t know why. It’s true that when I went back there yesterday after you didn’t turn up I couldn’t see it. But it’s there. I know it is.’ Paul sniffed again and half a sob caught at the back of his throat. He caught Lucy’s eye for half a second more, then looked away down at the ground between his knees where he was sitting. Lucy knew instinctively that he was telling the truth.
‘We’ve got to help that dolphin’ said Lucy urgently. I keep dreaming about her like I did with Spirit before I knew how to reach out with my mind and speak to him. She’s desperately alone and she needs her pod.’ She turned to look at him again. ‘We’ve got to save her.’
‘Why didn’t you come with me yesterday then, if she’s so important to you? I waited for you for over an hour’ Paul sniffed. It was Lucy’s turn to hesitate now.
‘I, I couldn’t. My Dad came down to Cornwall earlier than we thought and he wouldn’t let me.’ Thinking of Dad, she glanced at her watch. She was already ten minutes late to get back to the car.
‘What are we going to do then?’
‘I, well, I don’t know. Not today anyway’ she replied, glancing at her watch again. They sat in silence for a bit longer.
‘Why can’t you just talk to the dolphin in the lake like you talk to Spirit?’ asked Paul eventually.
‘No it’s only Spirit and Dancer…’ Lucy started to answer before trailing off. Then she began to think. Why couldn’t she speak to the dolphin in the lake? If she could speak to Dancer when she wanted to, she could probably reach out to others as well.
‘Maybe you’re right. It’s worth a try’ she replied after a moment. But how? She had no idea where the lake was even, or what it looked like.
‘You’ve got to tell me everything you know’ she said urgently to Paul. ‘You’ve got to describe to me in as much detail as you can exactly the route that you took to get there yesterday, so I can see it in my mind’s eye!’
Lucy closed her eyes as Paul started to describe. At first he didn’t have the words to tell her and she kept making him stop to describe things again more clearly, asking about this or that detail. Slowly, hesitantly, she started to visualise the squat church on Bussey Lane and then the route that Paul had cycled up the wooded hill out onto open fields, before he came to the raised embankment of the railway track.
Paul described how he continued on foot along the overgrown gravel of the disused railway track until he turned off and climbed up the tree so that he could get over the long stone wall, with ferns growing out of the top. Sometimes Lucy found it hard to visualise what Paul was telling her, but then it felt almost as if she were slipping into a trance and the picture came vividly into her mind’s eye.
It was like tuning in to an obscure and distant radio station. Sometimes the signal came through clearly, before it was lost once more to static crackle. Paul continued to describe the leap from the stone wall and the walk through the pine trees until he came to the bank of rhododendron bushes. The image in Lucy’s mind became weaker here and she had to get him to go over it again. Only when Paul told her how he had pretended that he was evading guards and snipers bullets, did the picture became vividly clear to Lucy again.
Then they came to the side of the lagoon and Paul described as clearly as he was able how it was really an inlet from the estuary river which had been blocked off at one end by a chain mail fence and had a house at the other end. With her eyes still closed, Lucy held the image as sharply and clearly as she could in her mind’s eye, whilst at the same time trying to focus and then relax her thoughts, so that she could find the portal in the corner of her mind that would enable her to slip through.
It felt incredibly difficult and twice the image started to fade away, so Lucy had to get Paul to go back and describe it all afresh to her. Finally, her mental energy already running low, it was almost as if Lucy tripped by accident and fell through into the world beneath the waves.
The water was as muddy and murky as in her dream and the bed of the lagoon was shallow. Even at its deepest point it was barely more than two meters deep; certainly not enough for a fit and active dolphin. Little grew in the brackish water, as Lucy could see as she effortlessly glided along. Lucy thought that she could make out the flash of a dolphin’s tail, but as she moved towards it, it seemed to disappear again into the murk.
‘What if the dolphin is trying to get away from me?’ wondered Lucy as she glided along. What if she’s scared by the ghost of a human being in the water? Even though she could not yet see the dolphin, Lucy felt that she had to trust in her belief that it was actually there.
‘I am your friend’ she called out into the murk. ‘I am a Dolphin-Child of the pod of Storm, Spirit, Dancer, Breeze, Chaser, Moonlight and Summer. I have come to help you!’ Lucy stopped gliding forward and for a moment all was still. Then she sensed that something was approaching through the murk and for a second she was scared. Then she saw the dolphin. It approached her slowly and cautiously. The dolphin looked unhappy and its eyes were troubled.
‘You know Spirit?’ asked the dolphin incredulously.
‘Yes, yes I do’ replied Lucy hesitantly. ‘What is your name?’
‘My name is Star-Gazer’ replied the dolphin sadly.
Chapter Fourteen:
It was growing dark and the dolphins idled in the water in the quiet of the late afternoon before night fell. It had been a busy day. Chaser and Breeze had ridden the bow of a fast sailing boat and were full of stories of their adventures. There were other sailing boats as well and they seemed to be engaged in some sort of a race. Chaser and Breeze had chosen
the most beautiful and fastest of the vessels to accompany. They could easily have out-swum the boat if they had wanted to as it sliced through the water, but it was a pleasure to swim alongside the bow as though they were escorting it to the winning post.
Summer, Spirit and Dancer were making up stories. Dancer would start and tell the first bit. Then Summer would take over and make up a bit more. When it was Spirit’s turn, he would try and give the story a twist and take it in a different direction to the story that Dancer had started. The story became more and more convoluted, but it was fun to tell and it set their imaginations on fire. Storm and Moonlight listened as they made their tale even more wild and improbable, laughing and commenting as it progressed.
Afterwards, they lazed together, staring up at the night sky which was particularly clear.
‘Do you think there are dolphins living on the moon?’ asked Dancer idly. They all looked up at the full moon high above them.
‘I don’t think there’s much water up there to swim in’ chuckled Storm.
‘Maybe they don’t need water’ continued Dancer. ‘Perhaps they can just float in the air.’
‘You mean like birds do?’ asked Chaser.
‘Who knows?’ said Dancer with a yawn. ‘Anything might be possible on the moon!’ Spirit smiled.
‘Sometimes I dream that I swim straight out of the water and just keep swimming towards the clouds’ he continued. ‘In my dream I go higher than the birds, higher than the clouds even and when I look back down, the planet just looks so small and insignificant, I think I might as well keep swimming to the stars.
‘That’s a beautiful dream’ said Summer, her young calf nuzzling at her side. ‘It’s the kind of thing that Star-Gazer would have dreamt about. What was it that she said that stars were made of?’
Dolphin Child Page 16
