‘What I mean is that I can’t say why you and I have been given this gift. The most important thing for me though is that we are joined together somehow. I will do everything I can to save Star-Gazer. All I want is that we stay linked to each other for all our lives. That’s all that I ask for. It’s more important than anything.’ Lucy stretched out her hand to Spirit and though she could not physically touch him when she came to him as a vision, he could feel the tingle of energy pass from her ghostly hand to his flank.
‘What will you do now?’ asked Spirit simply. Lucy shook her head.
‘Well I’ve got to go and find a way to help Star-Gazer of course. Somehow I’ll get away from Dad and then I’ll go and find Star-Gazer for real this time’ she said. I’ll find the people who took her. And then….’
As Spirit looked on, Lucy started to fade away into the water. He realised that her energy had run out. A moment later she was gone.
‘Take care Lucy!’ he murmured quietly to himself as her shadow melted into the water around him.
By the time Lucy had scrambled to the top of the path from the cove where she had left Dad standing, she was completely out of breath. It was only once she got to the top that she realised that she was still wearing her wet-suit. Fortunately she had slung her bag with her normal clothes over her shoulder. There was no one else around except for a couple of disinterested-looking sheep and so she changed quickly there in the middle of the field while she recovered her breath.
She wondered whether Dad would appear at the top of the cliff telling her that he had changed his mind and that she must come back to the cottage with him, but he didn’t. Once she had changed she quickly found her bike and heaved it over the gate. She got on.
‘What now?’ she asked herself. There was only one thing for it. She had to find Paul and get him to take her to the Penrose place, as Darren and Mary had called it. She wondered what the house was really like and whether the people there would be friendly or hostile.
It was true that Paul had helped her visualise the path he had taken that had enabled Lucy to reach out to Star-Gazer, but she did not think she could find the route in real life on her own. She needed help, but the idea of knocking on Paul’s front door and speaking to Mrs Treddinick just made her feel anxious in the pit of her stomach. Paul’s mother was scary and clearly didn’t like her at all. There was nothing for it though. Lucy started pedalling.
When she got there Lucy was out of breath again and felt hot and sweaty. It was still relatively early and she wondered if Paul would be up or whether he would still be sleeping. She got off the bike and leant it against the wall in front of Paul’s house. The front garden was overgrown and she could see that the paintwork of the living room windowsill at the front of the house was old and peeling. After Dad had taken Paul home the other day while Lucy had waited in the car, Paul had appeared in the window above the front door. She hoped that that was his bedroom window.
In films people would always throw a pebble up at windows. The little stone would clatter on the glass and then the boy or girl inside would look outside to see who had thrown it. She looked around for a pebble, but she could not see one at first and then the only one she could find was incredibly small. She flung it up at the window pane but the pebble was so tiny she could not even tell whether she hit the glass or not. In any case it made no sound.
Lucy looked for another pebble in Mrs Treddinick’s front garden and this time found one that was so large it would be more likely to crack the glass instead. Lucy picked it up and looked at it uncertainly.
‘I think we’ve had enough of kids chucking stuff at Paul.’ The words made Lucy start with fright. She looked up and saw Mrs Treddinick standing in her dressing gown at the open front door with a milk bottle in her hand. She looked tired and drawn. ‘But it’s not you I’ve got to worry about on that score’ she sighed. ‘I suppose you’d better come in.’
Lucy felt desperately uncomfortable under Mrs Treddinick’s unsympathetic gaze, but she had no choice. She followed Paul’s Mum into the house.
‘Paul!’ called Mrs Treddinick. ‘Your friend’s here.’ Paul and his sister had been eating their breakfast in the kitchen and he was startled to see Lucy standing there when he came into the hallway.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, Lucy tried to play it cool.
‘Wanna go out on your bike?’ she asked. Paul glanced warily at his Mum to see how she would react. His mother seemed to have relaxed a little in her opposition to Lucy, but she was still hardly friendly.
‘I suppose it’s better her than the kids in the playground’ she said with a disapproving look. ‘But no funny business okay? I don’t want you two going down to the sea or along the cliffs together you hear me? And I don’t want any talk about you-know-what.’ Paul and Lucy eyed each other.
‘I promise we won’t go to the sea’ said Lucy. She didn’t like to lie to Mrs Treddinick, but thought it wasn’t exactly telling a fib if she left certain details out. Lucy just hoped she wouldn’t ask any more awkward questions.
‘I’ll get my bike out from round the back’ Paul said.
‘You remember what I told you!’ called out Mrs Treddinick behind them, as they cycled up the street together a couple of minutes later.
‘So where are we going?’ Paul asked as they rounded the corner.
‘You’re going to take me to see the dolphin in the inlet’ she replied.
‘But you said……’
‘I said we wouldn’t go to the sea and we aren’t. I never told your Mum we wouldn’t talk about dolphins, or go and see one did I?’
The country lanes that Paul led Lucy down seemed strangely familiar, though it was the first time she had been down them. Then she realised that Paul had helped her visualise them just the other day.
They cycled on between green hedgerows and overhanging trees. They free-wheeled down the hill and over the little bridge before pedalling laboriously up the other side. The lane levelled out and eventually they came to the railway embankment and dismounted, leaving their bikes hidden behind a bush. They crunched along the overgrown gravel bed of the disused railway track. Again Lucy experienced a strange sense of déjà vu.
‘So you’ll teach me how to be a Dolphin-Child won’t you? Like you are?’ Paul asked as they made their way along the path.
‘Listen Paul’ replied Lucy, ‘it doesn’t work like that. It’s not that easy. I can’t just teach you.’
‘Yes you can’ answered Paul testily. ‘You can if you want to. I want to be free like you are. I want to swim with dolphins like you do.’ Lucy shook her head.
‘I don’t even know how I do it, let alone tell you how to do it’ she replied.
‘I’ll teach myself if I have to’ he answered defiantly.
‘I’ll do what I can’ she said. ‘I never give promises unless I’m sure I can keep them. Besides, I don’t think you’re such a great swimmer. It’s dangerous in open water unless you know what you’re doing.’
As they clambered up the tree to climb over the stone wall, Paul’s attitude seemed to change. He started to look around him as though he expected someone to take them by surprise and stopped talking about becoming a Dolphin-Child.
‘Watch out and keep your eyes peeled’ he told Lucy warily. Lucy thought he was being a bit silly, but didn’t like to say anything. As they dropped down between the pine trees, Paul seemed to be behaving like he was a soldier in a war movie and he ran from tree to tree, as though someone was going to try to shoot him.
‘Don’t be daft’ Lucy muttered as they moved through the trees. Lucy was surprised to see the immense wall of green where the mass of rhododendron bushes had grown up. Paul plunged into the dense tangle of branches and leaves, whilst Lucy followed in his wake. They clambered up, over and through the rhododendrons until at last they saw the glint of blue water of the lagoon. Lucy immediately forgot about anything else and rushed the last few metres to get to the water’s edge.
‘Watc
h out soldier!’ Paul called under his breath, but by this time Lucy was out of ear-shot. She stood by the lapping water on grass cropped close by wild rabbits and looked around her. To her left low bushes and small trees hemmed in the inlet up to the point where the big house stood. It looked a little forlorn and rundown to Lucy and she wondered if anyone actually lived there. On the other side of the inlet taller trees crowded down the hill to the water’s edge. To her right Lucy could see the closed link fence that had been erected across the water to separate the inlet from the rest of the estuary beyond.
Lucy started to scan the water, searching for the distinctive sign of a dorsal fin breaking the water’s surface. Just then Paul came up to her side.
‘Keep out of sight, or we’ll get in trouble’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘We’re, like trespassing here you know.’ Lucy continued to scan the water.
‘I don’t care’ she replied. Just then there was a ripple on the surface of the water and they both stared intently at the spot. For a moment Lucy thought her eyes were deceiving her but then she saw it again. The tip of a fin slowly cruised along slicing through the water for a moment before disappearing again.
Without thinking what she was doing, Lucy just stepped off the grassy bank and into the water. She didn’t care about the trainers, shorts or tee-shirt that she was wearing. The water was shallow here and she started wading out determinedly through the briny water, with mud and silt boiling up around her legs.
‘Stop!’ hissed Paul anxiously, looking from left to right as though he expected to see guards running. ‘You’ll get us in trouble!’
Lucy didn’t even answer. She could see the faint ripples where the dolphin had been cruising through the water. Lucy had waded up to her chest now and started to swim. In her haste she’d forgotten that she was still wearing her trainers, but she could still swim well enough in them even though she knew it was better not to. She ducked her head under the water to look but it was too murky to see anything. ‘Just like it was in my dreams’ she thought to herself. She sensed that Paul was going frantic on the bank, but she didn’t look back and kept on swimming.
Just then there was a swell of water in front of her and Star-Gazer curved round her, brushing her upper arms and shoulder as she did so. Lucy gasped.
‘It’s me Lucy’ she whispered though she knew the dolphin could not understand her. ‘I’ve come to help you Star-Gazer.’ The water was still just shallow enough for Lucy to stand with her feet oozing into the mud and silt at the bottom. She stretched out with her arms to gently touch the dolphin’s flank, face and beak. Star-Gazer hung in the water and looked up at her with big, sad eyes. Lucy embraced her with both her arms and pressed her head to the dolphin’s side. Lucy could feel the life-force emanating from Star-Gazer through her finger tips and body, but it was a weak energy, sickly and disturbed. Star-Gazer had evidently lost a lot of her strength and Lucy feared that she would not last that much longer unless they did something to help her soon.
Lucy stood there in the water for a long time holding Star-Gazer to her side. She wished that she could speak to the dolphin then, but she was unable to do so. She felt anger growing deep within her at the thought of this beautiful dolphin being trapped in this tight, muddy inlet far from the wide sea and her own family.
Eventually Star-Gazer began to move and she guessed that she wanted to pull Lucy along through the water. Lucy held on to her dorsal fin and Star-Gazer propelled Lucy along, slowly and mournfully. They swam up as far as they could get to the closed link fence that cut her off from freedom.
Lucy slipped off Star-Gazer back into the water and waded up to the fence and shook it. It seemed to be firmly fastened. She wondered if there were any gaps below it and she ran her trainer along the bottom under the water. It was fixed to the bottom there too so that there was no way that a dolphin could slip underneath. Lucy felt exasperated and looked back down the length of the lagoon towards the house.
To her left she could see Paul. He had waded a short distance after her and was standing with water up to his knees, uncertain about what to do next. He was looking their way with an anxious and imploring look on his face. Lucy glanced beyond Paul to where the house was. To her surprise she could see a tall thin figure standing on the small landing stage, staring down the length of the inlet towards her. Star-Gazer nudged Lucy again and then slowly pulled her along through the water towards the figure that stood there so silently, watching her.
As they grew nearer, Lucy could see that it was an old woman who stood tall and thin, silhouetted against the house behind her. Her grey hair was cut in a neat, short style and she seemed well dressed in long flannel trousers and a cardigan. She wore a string of pearls around her throat that looked expensive.
Lucy felt incensed at the elderly woman for taking Star-Gazer hostage and was determined to confront her there and then. She gave Star-Gazer one tender stroke to the dome of her head and then slid off and started wading through the muddy shallows out of the water and towards the woman. Lucy’s clothes were soaked and covered with mud as she emerged from the water.
‘Let this dolphin go!’ she shouted angrily at the woman.
Chapter Seventeen:
It had been against all John Parr’s instincts to let Lucy go like that. He watched her bound up the steep path from the cove, still wearing her wetsuit but with her bag with its change of clothes slung over one shoulder. She seemed so full of purpose and energy. Lucy hadn’t told him what she needed to do, but he had a pretty good idea it was to do with her worrying obsession with dolphins.
Dad shuddered at the thought of the danger that she might be putting herself in. Yet wasn’t this a phase that she would grow out of? By giving her the freedom now, wasn’t he saving her from danger later? Dad wanted to believe that was the case, but really he didn’t know. He thought about running up the path behind her and telling her that he’d changed his mind. It was too late now though. Lucy was faster than him on the steep track and by the time he got to the top, puffing and panting, she’d have disappeared down the country lanes, but where to he had no idea.
As well as feeling worried about Lucy’s safety, he felt lonely and a little lost now that she’d gone. He’d just been starting to get used to hanging out with her again. He’d spent far too little time with Lucy over the past year. He’d been hoping to make up for his neglect during this holiday. Yet here he was standing alone on a thin crescent of beach at a ridiculously early time of the day. Dad sighed and started to trudge up the path back to the top of the cliff, while the sea frothed over the pebbles below him.
Dad reached the top and retrieved his bike. He was about to make his way back down to the cottage when he paused, lost in thought. Then he turned the handle-bars of the bike to face the other direction and started pedalling purposefully in the direction of Merwater.
Although it was fortunate that he remembered the name of road that Thelma Merryweather lived in, he could not bring to mind the house number. In any case he didn’t even know where the road was and after he’d asked three different people without success, he decided that the only thing to do was to buy a map of the town from the tourist office. The map led him up the steep hill out to the edge of town. Dad hadn’t cycled for years and knew that he’d never pedal all the way up there. He began to walk. Once he got to Thelma’s road he reckoned he’d ask again and then someone would be able to tell him where she lived. Just as he turned into Crab-Apple Lane though, he saw the short, plump figure of Thelma Merryweather bustling towards him, with shopping bags in one hand and her handbag in the other.
‘Mrs Merryweather!’ he exclaimed in surprise. ‘It’s you!’ Thelma glanced up and smiled.
‘John Parr’ she replied, ‘father of young Lucy. What brings you to this neck of the woods then?’
‘Well, I was looking for you actually’ he answered.
‘As it happens I’m off out’ Thelma said, ‘but if it’s young Lucy you want to talk about, I can make time of course.’
&nb
sp; ‘I don’t want to put you out’ replied Dad politely. ‘If it’s not an imposition, I can talk to you as we walk.’
‘That will do very nicely’, Thelma replied as they started making their way back down the hill that Dad had just come up, the bike at his side. ‘Are you and Lucy having a nice holiday?’ Dad didn’t want to get caught up in polite chitchat though.
‘I’m worried about Lucy’ he said, ‘very worried. ’I’ve given her the freedom to spend time down here with Bethany and these dolphins of hers despite all my misgivings. I’ve tried to understand her obsession. This morning I went with Lucy down to the beach to meet this dolphin friend of hers, but when he didn’t show up she begged me to allow her to disappear off on her own and do something she thought was important.’
‘And did you?’ Thelma asked quietly.
‘Yes, yes I did’ he replied. ‘I was left standing there on the beach of that cove while she cycled off to goodness knows where. ‘Now all I can do is worry and hope that she comes back safe and sound. But all the time I know that association with dolphins can be … fatal.’
Thelma stopped for a moment and looked up at Dad, a sympathetic expression on her face.
‘John Parr, I know now that you have reason for that fear. Your life has been struck by tragedy and you don’t want anything bad to happen to young Lucy because she’s your only daughter and all that you have left.’ Dad nodded.
‘And a few months ago I told you that Lucy would outgrow all this dolphin malarkey soon enough and will get into what all the normal kids of her age like doing.’ Dad nodded again.
‘Let me tell you a little story’ continued Thelma as they started walking again in the direction of the hill into town.
‘In all my life I’ve only known two Dolphin-Children before your Lucy came along. As you know in any generation here in Merwater, there will generally be at least one Dolphin-Child. This young girl that I knew was fascinated by dolphins and the sea and spent all her spare time up on the cliffs or down at the harbour trying to persuade the fishermen to take her out with them in their boats. In primary school her exercise books were full of drawings of dolphins’ Thelma adjusted the bag she was carrying before she continued.
Dolphin Child Page 20
