‘But I said…’ started Lucy, already feeling a little deflated. The woman cut in.
‘I know what you said young lady and when you’re clean and dry I will talk to you, not before then.’ The woman spoke authoritatively and Lucy felt compelled to comply. She glanced down at herself. She did look a state and the mud she was covered in smelled unpleasantly. She looked back at Star-Gazer, but the dolphin had disappeared temporarily from view. Reluctantly, Lucy gestured to Paul to follow her and the woman into the house. They waited for Paul to wade round the edge of the lake to reach them and then both children squelched behind her round to the door at the side.
They entered a general utility and storage room which opened off the kitchen.
‘Wait here’ the woman said. ‘I can’t let you into the rest of the house in this state. I’ll get you both something to wear and then you can get out of those clothes. Young lady, you will need a shower. Fortunately I have some of my granddaughter’s things that I think might fit you while I give your own clothes a quick spin in the washing machine. Young man, it’s only your jeans that are dirty and wet, but I don’t have anything your size for you to wear so I’ll have to put you in some old jogging trousers until your own are clean and dry.’
The woman was so commanding and business-like that it felt as though they were being told off by a head teacher. Both children fell silent as they waited for her to return. When she came back, Lucy made Paul turn the other way while she changed and she did the same while Paul took off his wet trousers and put on the jogging bottoms. The woman bundled their clothes into a washing basket and disappeared into the kitchen to put them in the machine.
‘What now?’ asked Paul. Lucy was still very angry with the woman for imprisoning Star-Gazer, but she had an instinct that the woman wasn’t a bad person and she was so used to being polite to grown-ups that she was prepared to wait.
‘Let’s hang on a bit’ she replied. ‘Then I’ll talk to the lady.’ To their surprise another woman appeared who seemed to be wearing a sort of nurse’s uniform and ushered Lucy silently to a downstairs shower room. A shapeless dress and a pair of underwear had been left for her to change into. Lucy showered quickly and then pulled the dress over her head. Lucy hardly ever wore dresses and it felt strange to put one on like this.
Paul had got muddier than it initially appeared and it was his turn to shower next. There were no spare clothes for him to change into though and he had to wrap himself up in the bathrobe afterwards until his clothes were washed and dry.
Without speaking, the nurse showed them back to the kitchen and indicated that they should sit down at the table in the large and well appointed room.
Lucy peered through the window, but it looked out of the side of the house and she couldn’t see the lagoon or Star-Gazer. She felt anxious about her. It was evident that Star-Gazer was sickening. Lucy could tell from the touch and colour of her skin and the energy that she gave off. Compared to the other dolphins in the pod in the sea, she was very weak. Lucy feared that she couldn’t last much longer at all. When Lucy had reached out to Star-Gazer with her mind, she had pleaded with Lucy to help release her. Lucy was determined that she would.
The two children heard footsteps approaching and the door opened and the woman came back into the room. She looked disapprovingly at them before pulling up a chair and sitting down opposite them.
‘So what do you two think you’re doing trespassing on private land then?’ the woman asked sharply. Lucy wasn’t going to take this without a fight.
‘We’ve come to save Star-Gazer. You’ve no right to keep her trapped here in that lagoon.’
‘Star-Gazer? I think you mean Flipper’ the woman answered. ‘We’ll talk about the dolphin in a minute. Do your parents know you’re here?’ Lucy paused before replying. She didn’t know whether it was better to pretend that her dad did know where they were, or to admit that he didn’t.
‘Our parents trust us to do the right thing’ said Lucy defiantly.
‘Well you did the wrong thing by breaking into private property’ the woman replied tartly.
‘It’s only because you’ve got something to hide that you care’ replied Lucy, her hackles rising. Paul seemed to have shrunk back into his chair and was silently following the exchange between Lucy and the woman. The woman glared at Lucy.
‘I do not care for the way you are speaking to me young lady’ she answered, ‘and I’ll thank you to address me more courteously. I care about two children trespassing onto private land without their parents knowledge and then swimming out into treacherous water where they could easily have got into trouble and drowned.’
‘Star-Gazer would never have let that happen’ replied Lucy defensively. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘Do you? Does he?’ the woman replied, nodding towards Paul. Lucy blanched slightly. She had been so focussed on Star-Gazer that she had not realised that Paul had waded out into the water. The mud was so thick and glutinous that it would have been easy for him to get stuck there. He was the younger kid and she knew that it was up to her to look after him. Lucy glanced down guiltily.
‘You’ve got to let Star-Gazer go’ Lucy said again, more quietly this time but still defiantly.
‘Why do you persist in calling him Star-Gazer?’ the woman asked.
‘Coz that’s her name. She’s a she, not a he. Lucy’s a Dolphin-Child see?’ said Paul. The woman stared at Paul and then at Lucy.
‘I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean young man’ the woman answered eventually. She sighed and as she did so she seemed to soften. ‘I’m going to make you both a hot chocolate drink to warm you up and then I’m going to tell you a story.’
As they watched the woman go to the fridge and then get a pan out to warm up the milk in, Lucy could see that she was old and tired. Her hands shook slightly as she poured the milk into the saucepan and sprinkled in the chocolate powder. It felt hard for Lucy to answer back to a woman like this but keeping Star-Gazer prisoner was wrong and if she didn’t tell the woman, who would?
The woman brought the steaming mugs of chocolate milk to them and Lucy and Paul sipped them gratefully. The woman sat down.
‘My name is Annabel Penrose’ she said. ‘And you are…?’ The children mumbled their names in reply. ‘Well Lucy Parr and Paul Treddinick. Let me tell you my story. My husband Norman and I came down here to retire some twenty years ago. We were both passionate sailors and our yacht, the Lady Jane, was moored down near the entrance to the estuary. We have sailed all around the coast of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles from here and a more beautiful place I have never known’. She glanced down at her hands for a moment before continuing.
‘Right from the beginning, the dolphins were our friends. They have always sought out our yacht and swum alongside us at the bow, or greeted us with a jump out of the water. Other sailors that we spoke to said that they hardly ever saw dolphins, but we never missed them when we went out sailing. We even learned to recognise several of them by sight, from the scars and wounds on their dorsal fins and we studied them closely. I’ve got books and books about dolphins in the living room. We loved the dolphins and our life here felt complete.’
Lucy frowned into her chocolate milk. That didn’t give her the right to trap one of them, she thought. She should know better than to take one of them from the wild. Lucy remained silent though and let the lady continue.
‘About a year ago we had just put out from the mouth of the estuary in the Lady Jane. A scientific vessel was sailing down the coast and conducting some sort of survey of the underwater landscape. We raised it on the radio and had a brief chat with its skipper. It was using an experimental type of sonar. We hoped the dolphins wouldn’t be affected by it but we couldn’t see them so we thought it would be okay and expected them to be too far out to be affected. Then a squall blew up unexpectedly and we decided not to sail out into the open sea after all.’ Lucy could see the woman’s expression change as she remembered the events.
‘The squall died down almost as quickly as it had blown up. Then we saw a dolphin lying listlessly on his side on the surface of the water, his blow hole nearly submerged. We guessed that the sonar had disorientated him and that he must have banged his head on a rock or something. There was blood coming from a gash on his head. If he rolled in the water anymore he would drown. From the markings on his dorsal fin we recognised him as the one we called Flipper.’
‘It’s Star-Gazer’ Lucy thought to herself, but she still didn’t say anything. She wondered what would happen next in the story and let the lady continue instead.
‘My husband Norman was well over seventy at this point. He jumped into the rubber dinghy that we always had behind the Lady Jane and with a lot of effort, he was able to lash Flipper with some spare rope into an upright position between the yacht and the dinghy, so that we could head back into the estuary using the out-board motor. Flipper was badly injured and we were really worried that he would bleed to death before we got there. We didn’t know what to do with him once we got back, but then Norman hit upon the idea of keeping him in the lagoon at the front of our house while he recovered.’ Lucy couldn’t contain herself any more.
‘But why is Star-Gazer still trapped here?’ she asked. Mrs Penrose’s expression clouded.
‘We had to cordon off the lagoon until Flipper had recovered’ she continued as though Lucy had not said anything. ‘We used the closed link fence to block off the exit to the rest of the estuary.’ She paused. ‘Norman was exhausted by the effort of saving Flipper’ she continued in a quieter voice. ‘I think the strain of it all was too much for him. About a week later my poor Norman suffered a massive stroke.’ She remained silent for a few moments and pain from the memory showed in her face. ‘Do you know what a stroke is?’ Paul shook his head and Lucy wasn’t sure, so she didn’t say anything.
‘It’s when there is a blood clot in one of your veins and it blocks the blood flowing to your brain. It happens in older people sometimes. Your brain is starved of oxygen and it gets damaged. That’s what happened to Norman. He’s paralysed now on one side and he cannot speak. But …’
‘But what?’ asked Lucy. Mrs Penrose took an intake of breath.
‘But he can still write on a pad and communicate with me even if he cannot talk. He tells me that he feels, no he knows that he and Flipper are connected somehow. I believe him. Flipper will help Norman get better. I’m sure of it.’
‘That’s not true!’ Lucy blurted out impulsively. ‘They’re not connected in the way that you say. Star-Gazer would have told me if they were.’
‘And he has been making progress, just as Flipper has been getting better’ Mrs Penrose continued. ‘Norman’s regained some movement in his paralysed arm. The Doctor says its almost a miracle.’ Mrs Penrose’s face lit up in hope again. ‘And its all down to Flipper. It’s taken time for both of them but we’re getting there. I’m sure we are’. Mrs Penrose paused and sniffed.
‘The nurse that you saw helps me care for Norman and I’ve been caring for Flipper too, feeding him fish every day and seeing that he gets strong again. Of course Flipper is able to move around well enough, but he still swims lopsidedly sometimes. It makes me think of Norman being lopsided because he’s paralysed. I don’t think that Flipper’s ready to go back to the sea, not yet. In any case, Norman needs him. Sometimes Norman comes out in his wheelchair to see Flipper and it always makes him feel better. I can see it in his face.’
‘No no’ exclaimed Lucy with rising anxiety. ‘You’re wrong!’ Mrs Penrose fixed Lucy with a stare.
‘Just because you hitched a ride on Flippers back a short while ago, doesn’t mean that you know all there is to know about dolphins. Norman and I have been studying them for years. I think we know a little more than you young lady.’
‘You may have helped Star-Gazer originally’ replied Lucy passionately, ‘but now you’re killing her. Dolphins are meant to swim in the sea with their own kind. They are intelligent and sociable. Just imagine if you were locked up on your own for a year without anyone to keep you company. You’d go mad. That’s what it’s like for Star-Gazer. You may be feeding her fish, but the loneliness is killing her’.
Lucy hoped that her words were having their effect on Mrs Penrose and that the old lady had accepted that imprisoning a dolphin was wrong. She could see a cloud pass across Mrs Penrose’s face as she absorbed Lucy’s words. Then she shook her head, as if to dispel the negative thoughts.
‘I still don’t know why you keep calling him Star-Gazer’ Mrs Penrose replied with a hint of irritation in her voice, ‘but you are clearly a girl whose head is full of quite fanciful ideas. Flipper is not lonely, he sees Norman or myself every day and he gets more fish than he could dream of. He has plenty of water to swim in too. He comes to us when we walk down to the landing stage and he allows us to pet him. We look after him well and when he and Norman are well enough, we will let him choose whether to remain with us or to return to the sea. Not before. Only when the time is right.’
Lucy was so astounded by the idea that anyone could think it was right to keep a dolphin prisoner like this, that for a few moments she was lost for words. Then she had a flash of inspiration.
‘You can’t just keep a dolphin. It’s not allowed. You need a licence or something.’ Lucy could tell immediately that she had hit a nerve and that the woman didn’t have permission to keep a dolphin. A look of fear seemed to pass across her features, but then she seemed to harden again.
‘Norman and I saved Flipper’s life. Norman would be distraught if Flipper left us. It’s the only thing that keeps him going. It’d be the death of him if Flipper goes. I can’t do that to Norman. You can’t do that to him either. Not if you’ve any heart.’
‘What if Star-Gazer dies of loneliness. How will you and your husband feel then?’ Lucy asked. She almost felt like crying.
‘It’s not going to happen. I won’t let it happen’ Mrs Penrose replied quietly but defiantly. Just then the washing machine juddered to the end of its drying cycle. Mrs Penrose glanced at her watch. She stood up. ‘I must be going. I have errands to attend to. I’ll get Mathew our handyman to run you into Merwater once you’re back in your dry clothes. I’m not having you traipsing through the woods and clambering over walls.’
She left and a few seconds later the nurse appeared and pulled out their clothes which were now crumpled but at least dry and ready to put back on. Lucy realised that she’d been out-manoeuvred. She could report Mrs Penrose to the authorities, but if she did and if her husband got sicker, then how would she feel then? Besides, it might take weeks for the authorities to do anything about it. By then it might be too late for Star-Gazer.
As she and Paul sat in the back of Mathew’s car and rattled up the pot-holed drive from Mrs Penrose’s house a few minutes later, Lucy stretched out with her mind to reach Star-Gazer. All that the sad and lonely dolphin was able to say was ‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me. You’ve got to get me out of this horrible place.’ Lucy was quickly jolted out of her trance when they bumped through a particularly bad pot-hole before she had barely had a chance to say anything comforting to Star-Gazer. She had to speak to Spirit as soon as possible. Maybe he had some idea about what to do next.
They persuaded Mathew to drop them off by the railway embankment close to where they had hidden their bikes.
‘What now then?’ Paul asked gloomily as soon as they were alone. Lucy had so hoped that Mrs Penrose would relinquish and simply agree to let Star-Gazer go, that now she felt drained and empty. Paul seemed disappointed too. They had achieved nothing.
‘I, I don’t know’ she replied flatly. ‘But I’ll think of something’ she added with more resolve. She looked at her watch. ‘I’d better get going or my Dad is going to kill me. But I’ll get away again and come back and see you. Look outside at six o’clock. If there’s a pebble on your gate post, it means I’m waiting for you in the recreation ground. I don’t want to knock on your door again. Your mum
still doesn’t trust me.’
They cycled along some way together, but then they parted at a fork in the road.
‘See you later’ said Paul doubtfully. He didn’t see what Lucy could do now. He really wondered if Lucy would be there at six pm as she said she would be. As he pedalled along, Paul imagined swimming with a whole pod of dolphins, free and happy at last. When he got near home though, he saw two familiar figures on the pavement.
‘Where’s your girlfriend Paulie?!’ shouted Baz.
‘What, isn’t she with you to wipe your nose and keep you out of trouble?’ jeered Mike. Paul kept going, trying not to take any notice of them.
‘Go on back home, you mummies boy!’ sneered Baz. ‘We’ll catch up with you soon enough’ he added menacingly. Paul shuddered inside. He couldn’t take much more of this. He just couldn’t. He got home and wheeled his bike through to the back yard. He glanced up at the sky as he put it in the shed. It was dark and brooding and it looked like rain.
Lucy got back to the cottage. Dad was in the pocket-handkerchief sized garden at the back, which looked onto the fields beyond. He was sitting on a garden chair in his shorts and t-shirt reading a book, but the sun had gone in and he was beginning to feel cold. He glanced up as she approached him.
‘Hey Luce’ he smiled. ‘I was beginning to wonder if you were going to come back. You’re only twenty minutes late though’ he added, glancing at his watch.
‘You want to tell me what you’ve been up to this morning?’ he asked. Lucy shrugged shyly. She didn’t really.
‘Oh you know, just dolphin stuff with my friend Paul’ she replied noncommittally. She wanted to reach out to Spirit straight away and tell him what had happened, but Dad insisted on spending time with her and she didn’t have the chance.
Dolphin Child Page 22
