‘Spirit. Have you ever heard of the Three Green Caves?’ said Sunlight eventually. Spirit shook his head. ‘I thought perhaps Storm or one of the others in your pod might have told you the story. There was once an old dolphin in this part of the ocean. Shimmer was her name.’
‘Yes I have met Shimmer’ replied Spirit. ‘But she is no longer with us.’
‘That is right’ Sunlight went on. She paused while Spirit translated for Lucy. ‘When I was young my mother told us the story of the Three Green Caves. I thought it was just a story from my pod. The thing is when I met Shimmer years later, she told me that she had heard the same story as well.’
‘And what is that story’ asked Spirit curiously. Sunlight paused.
‘It is said that if dolphin and child meet at the green caves when the full moon is highest in the sky, that their union will last for all their lives.’
‘But where are these caves?’ asked Lucy excitedly through Spirit. Sunlight looked sadly at Spirit and Lucy.
‘I wish I knew’ she replied.
‘They must be somewhere along the coast round here’ said Lucy, fired with enthusiasm. ‘It’s just a matter of looking isn’t it?’ Sunlight sighed and regarded Lucy with compassionate eyes.
‘But Shimmer’s own sister was a Child-Seer’ exclaimed Spirit. ‘She told me that her sister became weak because she spent so much time with a human child and neglected her pod. She told me that her sister spent long periods of time away from her own pod, and then disappeared. She said that she thought that her sister was weakened and then killed by orcas. She warned me against doing the same thing.’
‘Did Shimmer know where the Three Green Caves were?’ asked Lucy insistently.
‘She did not’ replied Sunlight quietly. ‘Shimmer told me that she believed that it was because her sister had been looking for those caves so hard that that is how she came to be killed.’
The three of them swum slowly back across the sea to join the rest of their own pod. It was Star-Gazer that noticed first.
‘Lucy, you’re looking paler’ she exclaimed when the three of them reached the others. Spirit looked at Lucy, but couldn’t see any difference.
‘Yes, she’s definitely looking less clear. You can almost see right through her’ agreed Chaser.
‘She’s fading’ said Summer. Now that Spirit looked again, he could see that Lucy was becoming more indistinct than she had been the day before, or even that morning.
‘No, it can’t be’ said Lucy in alarm when Dancer explained what everyone was saying. ‘I’ve only just got here. I want to stay with you and look for the Three Green Caves.’
‘But your real self, your physical self is sick. The energy it takes for you to project yourself here with your mind must be enormous. You’ve never sustained it for so long before. Maybe your body just can’t manage it any more’ speculated Star-Gazer, full of worry.
‘If that was happening, then normally I’d just run out of energy and I’d fade into the water and return to my body on dry land’ said Lucy.
‘That’s true’ said Dancer, ‘but if your body’s hurt, maybe it doesn’t work like that.’
‘I just can’t worry about that now’ said Lucy insistently. ‘What about the caves? Ask the others if they know about the Three Green Caves.
Spirit asked Storm and the others, but no one seemed to know about them.
‘Between us we know this coastline pretty well’ said Storm. ‘There are caves of course. Some are exposed when the tide is low and some are hidden entirely beneath the water. But I can’t think of any of the sort that you describe.’
‘Well you must take me there’ replied Lucy when Spirit explained what Storm had said. ‘There’s not a moment to lose.’
‘Lucy, I desperately want to find out how we can keep this thing going’ Spirit said. ‘But it’s dangerous for you. You could die.’ Lucy looked at Spirit with determination in her eyes.
‘It’s a risk I’m just going to have to take’ she replied emphatically. The pod spoke more amongst themselves and Storm reluctantly agreed to take them to see the caves he knew along the coast. The pod moved off, all in one group.
‘What’s the matter doctor?’ asked Dad. Doctor Goodman was standing by Lucy’s bed with a couple of junior doctors next to her. She was puzzled by Lucy’s monitors. Brain activity was as active as ever, but her heart rate and blood pressure were dropping rapidly. Doctor Goodman had been discussing what the problem might be. She turned to Dad.
‘I really don’t know Mr Parr’ she replied. ‘I can’t explain it. So far all we’ve done is keep Lucy stable and give her body a chance to recover at its own pace. Yet her physical condition appears to be deteriorating. It doesn’t fit in to our normal understanding of the symptoms for MTBI, or concussion, at all. We’ll be applying some medication to help restore her heart beat and then we’ll review the situation again later on this afternoon.’
Doctor Goodman turned back to her colleagues to continue their discussion. Bethany had just returned to the ward with yet another styrofoam cup of coffee and was looking at them all with a look of incomprehension and worry on her face. Dad felt the same way.
As they all approached the grey granite cliffs, Spirit glanced back at Lucy. Ordinarily she glided effortless along in the water next to him, but now she seemed to be straining to keep up. Her face looked pale and drawn. If they hadn’t been traveling more slowly due to Summer’s calf No-Name, she wouldn’t have managed it at all. It was clear that Lucy was getting much weaker now. Spirit didn’t know how much longer she could keep going. They paused under the grey wall of cliff.
‘Here’s the biggest cave that I know about’ said Chaser, who had been leading the pod for the last ten minutes or so. ‘The only entrance to it is from under the water. Spirit, you come with me, it isn’t safe for all of us to go.’
‘Hang on, I’m coming too’ said Lucy defiantly. Chaser, Spirit and Lucy swam down past the great tumbled boulders at the foot of the cliff. The light grew fainter the further down they went, and Lucy could see something like an eel slither along from the shadows down into a crevice out of the way of the approaching dolphins.
‘Are you sure you’re okay down here?’ Spirit whispered to Lucy. She nodded. He knew that was how she’d respond, though she clearly wasn’t alright at all.
‘The mouth of the cave is just below us’ said Chaser, nodding towards a black jagged hole in the rock. ‘Be careful, it’s very dark.’ Because of their ability to detect things around them with their clicking echo-location, Chaser and Spirit weren’t impeded by the lack of light. For Lucy though, it was pitch black inside the cave and she couldn’t see a thing.
‘Stay close to my side’ whispered Spirit. He moved slowly in the darkness. Now they were in the cave it seemed to rise up and Lucy could hear the two dolphin’s rapid clicking as they made their way along. It felt claustrophobic to be enclosed by the dark rock after the freedom of the wide ocean and Lucy didn’t like the feeling it gave her at all. The chamber seemed to widen out before tapering away to a crack. It was entirely full of water and there seemed to be no living thing in there.
‘It can’t be this cave’ whispered Spirit anxiously to Lucy. There’s no way a human could get in here unaided and it certainly isn’t linked to any other caves. It’s not green either.’
‘Let’s get out of here’ said Chaser. ‘I’ve never been all the way into here before, but I don’t think it’s this one.’
It was a relief to return to the light outside the cave and to re-join the others. Lucy had to pause and rest for a few moments. She could feel Star-Gazer’s worried eyes fixed upon her. Star-Gazer reminded her of the way her own mother used to look at Lucy when she was still alive. It was nice to be mothered sometimes she thought, but this wasn’t one of those times.
‘That can’t be it’ said Lucy to Spirit and Dancer. ‘There must be other caves that we can visit.’
‘Storm says that there’s another cave just a ten minute swim fro
m here’ said Dancer. ‘We’re going there next.’ Spirit wished that he could give Lucy a lift with his dorsal fin like he could when she was physically there. Now though she was just a fading apparition in the water and there was nothing he could do to help her as they all swam along.
Eventually they came to the cave that Storm had been referring to. Lucy glimpsed at it over the surface of the water. It was much more how she would imagine a sea cave. It looked as though the cliff had a gash in the side that opened up a hole of about ten meters at water level. The sun was playing on the water and compared to the other cave, this one looked inviting.
‘What are we waiting for?’ asked Lucy, keen to get on. Just then though they heard an engine, and an open boat with an out-board motor came into view. There was a group of ten or so people in the boat and they seemed to be heading towards the entrance of the cave. The dolphins were not keen to be seen and dipped below the surface of the sea.
‘Storm says that boats often come here from the town’ whispered Dancer. ‘Humans like looking in the cave apparently.’ Lucy felt her optimism rise. Perhaps this could be the one.
It felt like a really long time before the boat with the humans inside eventually left again and they were free to enter. This time the entire pod swam into the cave to look around. It was maybe five meters from the surface of the water to the rocky bottom, but the thing that impressed Lucy was how high the cave went. It felt like the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral. She thought she could make out bats roosting high above them, but she couldn’t be sure.
They were moving slowly now, but even Lucy could feel her energy ebbing away. She knew she didn’t have long. What if Star-Gazer was right? What if she wouldn’t be able to return to her body in the hospital bed so far away. What if she’d just die? Lucy started looking around the cave with renewed urgency. It was no good though. It wasn’t green and it wasn’t linked to any other caves. It wasn’t the right one.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ said Spirit eventually. They swam outside again.
‘Lucy, you look really unwell now. This can’t go on’ said Star-Gazer, full of motherly concern.
‘But what about the next cave? We’ve got to go to the next cave’ protested Lucy weakly.
‘Summer says she knows one but its more than an hour’s swim from here’ said Dancer.
‘We could go on looking all week and never find the cave that Sunlight told us about’ said Star-Gazer.
‘Look’ whispered Dancer to Spirit. ‘She’s sinking again. She’s sinking downwards.’
‘Listen to me Lucy’ said Spirit urgently. ‘I don’t think you’re going to last much longer. You’ve got to return to your own body in the hospital. You’ve got to do it now. If you don’t I’m afraid that you’ll…that you’ll die.’
‘She’s so faint she’s hardly here’ said Summer, full of concern.
‘But I don’t want to lose you’ said Lucy, her voice small and unhappy.
‘I don’t want to lose you either’ said Spirit. ‘But we have a clue now. Dancer and I can keep on looking for the three green caves at this end. You can continue looking at your end, in the world above the water.’ Spirit looked imploringly at her. He knew that Lucy was stubborn and headstrong. Would she listen to him?
‘Okay, I’ll try to return to my body now’ said Lucy at last. ‘I don’t want to though. I want to remain here with you all for ever.’
‘We will see each other again’ said Spirit. ‘We will!’ With one last look deep into Spirit’s eyes, Lucy dissolved into a swirl of atoms. Then she was gone.
‘Alright, let’s give her a hundred milligrams of adrenalin’ said Doctor Goodman, ‘And if that doesn’t work we’d better get the resuscitation team on standby. At this rate her heart’s going to stop beating in less than a minute.’ There was a small crowd of doctors and nurses surrounding Lucy’s bed now as her condition quickly deteriorated. A junior doctor got ready to administer the injection. Dad grasped Lucy’s hand, desperate for something, anything to bring his daughter back to him.
Before anything further could be done though, the heart-rate monitor suddenly started beeping more rapidly and firmly again. Dad felt a movement in Lucy’s hand and glanced towards her face. Her eyes fluttered and then opened.
‘Lucy, have you come back to us?’ whispered Dad, barely able to believe what he was seeing. She turned to look at him.
‘Hello Dad’, she said.
Chapter Eleven:
Young Bethany felt envious and disappointed when Rachel beeped her car horn outside the cottage gate. Megan dashed to collect her things and run out to join her. Bethany was being left behind yet again with Mum and Dad. The day suddenly seemed greyer and flatter than it had done half an hour before.
‘Don’t worry love’ said Mum as they heard Rachel’s Citroen drive away, ‘we’ll think of something fun to do today.’ Bethany stared glumly into her cornflakes, pushing them around with her spoon.
‘So do you think we’ll find out something useful?’ Megan asked Rachel eagerly as they bumped up the track that led to the main road. The older girl was wearing a light cotton dress and cowboy boots and had a scarf in her hair. Megan’s Dad would have said she looked like a hippy, but Megan thought that Rachel was cool. Megan herself was dressed in her habitual shorts and T-shirt and felt very young in comparison. Rachel shot her a winning smile.
‘Well we’ll soon find out won’t we? Don’t build your hopes up too much though Megan’ she went on. ‘Maybe the mice have eaten through the Rev’s papers already.’
They chatted about this and that as Rachel drove down the quiet hedge-lined lanes towards Merwater. Despite being glad to have Rachel as a friend, Megan still couldn’t help but wonder why she was being so nice and helpful. Surely there must be other things she’d rather being doing, other people she’d rather be seeing. Megan would have liked to have asked, but didn’t know how to. The best friend she’d ever had was Jet, and they had understood each other in a way that transcended words. Now that she was cut off from him Megan needed all the friends she could get. She daren’t risk losing Rachel by asking too many questions.
Soon they pulled up outside Owl Books. It was half-day closing and all shops would be shutting up at lunchtime. Megan would help Rachel and her Mum in the bookshop till one pm and then they’d all drive up to Toby Smith’s house. First Rachel and Megan spent an hour or so unpacking a consignment of second-hand books that had come in. They were all dusty and a couple of them had mould growing on the pages. Rachel priced them up with an experienced eye and organised them into subjects. Then Megan helped Rachel put them on the shelves in the bookshop. There was a special ladder to get to the higher shelves and Megan enjoyed going up it to get a good look down on everybody from above. As she did so she spied one of the customers browsing the shelves, surreptitiously slip a book into his jacket.
Megan felt her heart beat faster in indignation. No one was going to steal a book from her friend’s mum’s shop
‘Rachel!’ she whispered fiercely. Her friend turned and looked up. Megan gestured wildly and Rachel nodded back in silent understanding. She went up to the cash register and murmured something into her mother’s ear. A faint smile passed across both their faces.
The man with the book hidden in his jacket made his way towards the door.
‘Oh Mr Edwards!’ called Rachel’s mum with friendly familiarity. He turned guiltily towards her. ‘Two pounds please.’ The man frowned.
‘I….’ began the man hesitantly.
‘I think you’ll find that the book you picked up is marked two pounds.’ Rachel’s mother smiled in a brisk manner and tapped impatiently on the counter with her pencil. She nodded in the direction of the man’s jacket where the bulge of the book was now distinctly visible.
With great reluctance the man eventually opened up his wallet and extracted two one pound notes.
‘See you soon Mr Edwards!’ called Rachel’s mum brightly as the shop door-bell clanged shut behind him.
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‘Mum that book would have only been marked at seventy five pence’ admonished Rachel with a smile. Her mother grinned.
‘Serves him right for trying it on with us.’ She looked up at Megan who was still on the ladder. ‘Well done you!’
Once Rachel’s mother locked the shop door and turned the sign to ‘closed’, they went upstairs. Bilbo Baggins got up languidly from his sun-spot in the window, stretched and then followed them up the narrow stairs in the hope of getting fed titbits.
Rachel’s Mum made cheese sandwiches from crusty, home-made bread which she proudly announced she’d made that morning. Megan, who preferred ready-sliced white bread found them almost indigestible but bit through the rock-hard crusts, too polite to say what she really thought of them.
‘Right’ said Rachel’s mum eventually. ‘Rachel you go and get the Reverend Smith’s journal out of the locked case and we can all go off to see Toby Smith.
‘I must say I’m quite intrigued to see his house’ she went on. ‘Of course he comes in to the shop occasionally and we do chat sometimes. He’s got quite a reputation and it’ll be good to get a better look at him in his own habitat, so to speak. I’d been biding my time before approaching him about the journal, but this is as good a time as any’ she went on, almost thinking out loud. So if he wants to buy the Reverend Smith’s journal back, then so much the better!’ she added brightly.
The three of them clambered back into the old Citroen. Megan wondered if Bilbo Baggins might join them, but he strolled on over to the Owl Pub instead.
‘He’s quite partial to the occasional pork scratching’ said Rachel as they saw him go. ‘There’s always some afternoon drinker or other willing to indulge him.’ Megan felt a mixture of anticipation and nerves as they drove the short distance up the hill to Toby Smith’s house. What would they find there in his loft?
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