Daisy Dawson at the Beach (6 page)

“Pinchy, you’ve got to help me,” she said.

“But why?” asked Pinchy. “You’re a good dancer already.”

“I’m not talking about dancing,” said Daisy. “I’m talking about rescuing a dolphin.”

“Ha, ha! Very funny!” said Pinchy. “Wait, I don’t get it.”

“I’m being serious,” said Daisy. “There’s a dolphin caught in a net at the bottom of the ocean, and he needs our help.”

“¡Ay, caramba!”
said Pinchy. “But Pinchy has never rescued a dolphin before.”

“I’d never danced the cha-cha before, either,” said Daisy. “But thanks to you, I’m pretty good at it.”

“True.” Pinchy clacked his claws and did a little two-step shuffle on her hand. “OK. Let me go and talk to the others.”

“Please don’t be long,” said Daisy. “I don’t think we’ve got much time.”

Pinchy scuttled off her hand and plopped back into the water. As Daisy watched him sink to the bottom again, she felt a chill run through her and, looking up, she saw that the sun had gone behind a cloud. The sea had turned from blue to gray, and the world suddenly seemed much darker. When Daisy looked back into the water again, all she could see was swirling sand.

Daisy decided she had better swim back and tell her parents about the dolphin. They would know what to do, wouldn’t they? They always knew what to do. But as she turned toward the beach, something in the distance caught her eye.

Just around the corner in a small rocky cove, two gray dots were huddled together beneath the cliffs. They were surrounded by water, and as Daisy watched, she realized to her horror that the two dots were Rabsy and Raberta. Somehow they had managed to get stranded, and the tide was coming in.

In a few minutes, the beach where they stood would be completely underwater.

Without stopping to think, Daisy put her mask back on and swam as hard as she could toward the cliffs.

“Daisy! Daisy!” shouted the little rabbits when they saw her. “We’re over here!”

“So I see,” said Daisy, stumbling out of the water. “But what on earth are you doing here?”

“It was Rabsy’s idea,” said Raberta. “I said we should wait until you came back, but Rabsy said it would be all right because he was the best rabbity wave rider in the whole wide world.”

“I am, too,” said Rabsy.

“Uh, I don’t think so,” said Raberta. “The best rabbity wave riders don’t crash into rocks, Rabsy.”

“I don’t understand,” said Daisy. “You don’t have a surfboard.”

“I did,” said Rabsy, pointing to a piece of wood that was lying next to the rocks, “but it sort of snapped.”

“You went surfing on
that
?”

“I wouldn’t call it surfing,” said Raberta. “More like sinking.”

Daisy looked at the rising water and remembered that the two little rabbits couldn’t swim well. It was up to her to save them.

“Climb onto my shoulders,” she instructed. “I’m going to wade past the rocks and then swim around to the beach. Whatever you do, don’t let go, OK?”

“OK,” said Rabsy and Raberta. Daisy knelt down, and they scampered up onto her shoulders.

“All set?” Daisy asked as their little paws clutched at her hair.

“All set,” said Rabsy and Raberta.

“OK,” said Daisy. “Then, let’s go!”

As the water came up to her waist, Daisy took a deep breath, pulled down her mask and launched herself forward into the ocean. The rabbits clung to her neck and Daisy could feel them shivering.

“Are we nearly there?” whispered Rabsy. “I need to go and check on my carrots.”

“Soon,” said Daisy, trying to reassure him.

But although she was a strong swimmer, she began to worry that the little rabbits wouldn’t have the strength to hold on much longer. The sun was still behind the clouds, and the beach was far away. As Daisy looked around, all she could see was dark water around her and gray sky above her.

Then, ahead of her, a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds.

Daisy thought of home then, of her best friend, Boom, and the sun-bright meadow behind her house. And as the water sparkled and shone like a thousand diamonds, Daisy remembered what Boom had said to her before she left.

If you swim toward the sun, you’ll find your way home.

For some reason she couldn’t explain, Daisy began to feel braver and stronger. Then, as she swam closer to the sunlit water, Rabsy shouted, “Look! Down there!” Daisy noticed that something was moving beneath them. It gradually rose up from the depths of the ocean, faster and faster, and then suddenly Daisy felt herself being lifted out of the water. As she looked down, she realized to her surprise that she was on the back of a dolphin.

“Oh!” she cried happily. “Where did
you
come from?”

The dolphin flicked its tail, crested a wave, and swam smoothly into calmer waters.

“I wanted to meet you,” said the dolphin, and when it spoke, Daisy thought it was like listening to the most beautiful music she had ever heard. “I wanted to thank you for telling the crabs I was in trouble. They came in their hundreds to free me from the net, and so now you must tell me what I can do for you in return.”

“Could you take us back to the beach?” asked Daisy. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

“For you, nothing is too much trouble,” replied the dolphin. “But perhaps you would like to come for a ride first?”

“Yes, please,” whispered Daisy.

As the dolphin leaped through the waves, Daisy held on tightly and watched the water rushing past. But although they were moving at a great speed, the dolphin swam so smoothly that Daisy felt as if she were sliding through fields of blue silk. High above her, the clouds gave way to clear skies, and Daisy felt the warm sun on her back once again. Then, as they splashed across the tops of the waves, Rabsy and Raberta squealed with delight, and Daisy turned to see tiny rainbows dancing in the spray all around them.

“They’ve got green grass in them!” shouted Rabsy, pointing at the bright colors shimmering above the sea. “And yellow sun and blue sky and everything!”

Far below them, tiny fish swam through secret caves and played hide-and-seek in forests of blue and green seaweed. As the dolphin turned back toward the shore, a group of swifts flew alongside them, skimming the bright water before soaring up into the summer sky. Daisy thought of Flapperton sitting on the windowsill and dreaming of rainbows.

“That was wonderful,” she said as the dolphin stopped in the shallow water. She stroked the dolphin’s smooth back and stared out toward the horizon. “The ocean is very big,” she whispered. “Will you be all right out there on your own?”

“I won’t be on my own,” said the dolphin. “Listen.”

Daisy leaned sideways until her ear was touching the water, and from somewhere far away, she heard the faintest of clicking sounds.

She smiled. “Are those your friends?”

The dolphin nodded. “They’re singing because you found me,” he said. “And now they are calling me home.”

As Daisy and the rabbits waved good-bye to the dolphin, Daisy noticed something fall off its tail into the water. Bending down, she scooped it up, and there, sitting in the palm of her hand, was someone very familiar.

“Pinchy!” she cried. “What are you doing?”

Pinchy looked up at her and clacked his claws together. “My grandfather crab, he told me that riding on a dolphin feels like magic. So I hitched myself a ride.”

“And what did you think?”

Pinchy raised a claw and clacked it like a castanet. “It’s magic, all right,” he said.

He held out his other claw, and Daisy saw that he was holding a small piece of glass that had been washed smooth by the ocean.

“A gift,” he said, “for you.”

Then with a cry of “Keep dancing, Daisy!” he scuttled to the edge of her hand, jumped into the water, and disappeared beneath the waves.

“I wonder what it’s for?” said Daisy, turning the glass over in her hand.

“Maybe it’s so you don’t forget us when you go home,” said Raberta.

Daisy stroked her silky ears. “I’ll never do that,” she said. Then, noticing that both rabbits were still shivering, she gathered them up in her arms and took them to a sunny spot next to the cliff path.

“The walk home should warm you up,” she told them. “But if you’re still cold, just remember what Pinchy said: ‘Keep dancing!’”

Rabsy and Raberta giggled and hugged Daisy’s legs. Then they set off, dancing and waving until finally they were lost from sight.

“I always knew you were a good swimmer,” said Dad, wrapping Daisy in a towel, “but I didn’t know you were
that
good.”

“What do you mean?” asked Daisy.

“You looked as though you were riding on a speedboat.” Dad chuckled. “The funny thing was it looked like you had a couple of fluffy toys out there with you.”

Mom packed away the picnic basket and shook her head. “I think your dad’s been sitting in the sun too long,” she said.

“I think he has,” said Daisy. “I mean, it’s obvious that Rabsy and Raberta are rabbits.”

“Eh?” said Dad.

Daisy rolled up her towel and smiled.

“Never mind,” she said.

As they walked back up the beach, she felt the smooth glass in her pocket.

“Can we go to the shop?” she asked. “I need to get some presents for my friends.”