Dolphin Child (14 page)

‘
Not yet Mum!’ he shouted back at her. It was true. His room
was a mess. He just couldn’t see the point of tidying it up,
because a day after doing so it would just be as bad as it was
before. When his Mum really insisted, he just shovelled everything
loose under the bed. It was done in five minutes and if Mum did put
her head around his door, she would be satisfied. She never did
take too close a look. Paul knew that just as quickly as she would
get worked up about the chaos in his room she would forget it
again, no matter how bad it was.

She was like that. One day she’d be full of enthusiasm for
something, then she’d forget all about it again. When she felt
really low, she’d just sit there, staring out of the dirty window,
smoking cigarette after cigarette, a plate in front of her full of
cigarette butts and ash. Paul hated the smoke and hated it when his
Mum fell into one of those low moods. He’d have to look after his
younger sister Hayley as best as he could when she did. He’d cook
cheese on toast for tea and walk Hayley to school all by himself.
Dirty plates would pile up in the sink and she’d forget to put the
bin bags out. Fortunately Mum had been okay for the last couple of
months and she’d really been trying hard to get a job, but you
never knew when she might change again. It was like waiting for a
reed to snap in the wind.

Paul looked out of the window. The paint was peeling off the
wood and in places he’d picked at the putty holding the glass in
place with his penknife. In the depths of winter icy crystals would
trace their way along the inside of the glass, but at the moment it
was hot and sunny and he stared out of the window towards the
recreation ground. The trees seemed bleached of colour and the
listless wind shovelled a couple of frail clouds along high in the
sky.

Paul was always delighted when the school holidays began, but
after a fortnight or so of freedom, they began to drag. They
couldn’t afford to go away on holiday and each day merged into the
next. When his best friend Richard still lived in Merwater, they
would spend hours and hours together, but now that Richard’s family
had left and moved to Bristol, Paul had no one to spend time with.
Even Hayley could go round to her friend’s house two doors down the
road. Paul didn’t really have anyone else now that Richard had
gone.

When he could, Paul would take his bike and cycle off for
whole afternoons down the country lanes to explore the fields and
woods beyond the town, or up along the coastal paths at the top of
the cliffs. He’d let his imagination fly free and pass the time as
he cycled with fantastical make-believe stories, in which he was
always the hero, saving someone’s life or fighting off
smugglers.

For the last few days his bike had had a puncture. Mum said
she’d buy a bicycle puncture repair kit, but first she forgot and
then she said she didn’t have enough change. She always had enough
money to buy cigarettes though, thought Paul ruefully. It was for
this reason that he’d been stuck round town for the past few days,
waiting for the kit to repair his bike so he could go off exploring
again.

Paul wondered what to do. He hated staying indoors, but going
out was fraught with risks as well. Just recently Baz and Mike had
started picking on him. Now the other kids had turned against him
as well. The more he tried to stick up for himself, the more they
just ridiculed him.

Paul looked around his room again. He made a vague attempt at
tidying up and then trudged downstairs. He’d agreed to see Lucy the
next morning at first light, but he had the sneaking feeling that
she wouldn’t turn up, or that she’d join in with the other kids and
start laughing at him. He didn’t dare let himself look forward to
it. If he couldn’t repair his bike before the next day, he might
not get there anyway.

‘
Your sister’s playing next door. Why don’t you get out into
the sunshine instead of hanging round here all day’ said Mrs
Treddinick, fingering an unlit cigarette.

‘
Yes Mum’ replied Paul obediently.

‘
And you tell me if that girl approaches you again. You keep
away from that one you hear me? She’s no good.’

‘
Yes Mum’ Paul replied again, his head down. He didn’t want to
get drawn into another argument. He didn’t understand what Mum had
against her. He wished he’d never said anything about her in the
first place.

‘
Don’t forget my puncture repair kit’, he added. His Mum fished
in her purse, pulling out a fistful of loose coins.

‘
Here’s some money. You go to the bike shop and buy yourself
one. I want my change back now mind.’

‘
Thanks Mum!’ Paul said, seizing up the coins and thrusting
them into his pocket. e He made He made for the door. At least he
had somewhere to go now. He cut across the recreation ground to get
to the parade where the bike shop was. He’d almost got to the exit
on the other side when Baz and Mike walked into the park from the
other direction. They hung around the gate waiting to confront him.
Paul would have gone the other way if he could, but he had to pass
them.

‘
Well look who it is’ said Baz loudly. ‘If it isn’t that little
liar Paulie Treddinick.’ He thought for a moment that they were
going to block his way, but he could tell that they weren’t going
to cause him too much trouble today. Even so, his heart thudded in
his chest and his tongue went dry.

‘
Found any ditched space-ships? Saved any dolphins this week
then have you?’ sneered Mike.

‘
Yeah, like we so believe you’ snorted Baz. Paul put his head
down and kept walking. He’d been out by the Brenham farm last week
and seen burn marks in the cornfield there, which he was sure were
from where a spaceship had landed. He’d blurted it out, trying to
impress the other kids in the recreation ground, but instead
everyone had just laughed at him. Now he couldn’t go anywhere
without someone throwing it back in his face, even the little kids
that his sister Hayley played with.

‘
I’ll get you next time!’ called Baz threateningly behind him
as he walked on towards the bike shop. ‘You’ll get more than just
mud down your neck then!’

At the bike shop, Paul had just enough change to buy the
puncture repair kit and then headed back home to fix his bike. He
hoped that Baz and Mike would have disappeared by then, but instead
they were still hanging around in the recreation ground, messing
around on the swings just next to the path.

‘
Where’s your girlfriend then Paulie?’ Mike jeered.

‘
Is she blind?’ added Baz, laughing.

Paul wanted so much to fit in and for Mike and Baz and all the
others to stop sneering at him. He was dying to tell them that Lucy
was actually a Dolphin-Child and that the next day she was going to
let him meet her dolphin. He thought how jealous they would be when
they knew and how much they’d be in awe of him. They’d stop jeering
at him then he thought. It was so tempting just to tell them. It
would be so easy. This time they’d listen to him for
sure.

Paul stopped and started to open his mouth. Before he could
say anything though, a piece of dry mud whizzed across and caught
him square on the face. Baz and Mike burst out laughing and Baz
made to throw another lump in his direction. Paul turned and ran up
the path towards his house.

‘
So you want to bring another human child with you, a boy?’
asked Spirit. He was a little surprised by Lucy. She’d never
mentioned this other human child before and he couldn’t understand
why she wanted one to come now. He felt that it was special when
they could meet in real life. She’d be able to gently stroke his
flank, or they would play together in the water. It was obvious
though that Lucy wanted to say something more, but wasn’t sure
whether to or not.

‘
Yes, he … err asked me and I, err, said I thought it would be
okay’. She sounded edgy and uncertain.

‘
I’m not sure’ he replied. ‘It doesn’t seem, well, right.’ In
her heart of hearts, Lucy felt the same thing. But still she needed
Spirit to agree to meet with Paul.

‘
Please Spirit!’ implored Lucy. ‘There is a reason, but I’m not
sure if I can tell you yet. Not till I know more
anyway’.

The apparition of Lucy floated in front of Spirit in the
water, her hair floating around her head like a cloud. The late
afternoon sun dappled the water above them. They were in the
shallows, three or four metres up from the sandy seabed. The other
dolphins were swimming off in the distance. He knew of course that
she wasn’t physically there and that if he nudged her with his
beak, he would pass straight through her. Yet when she came to him
like this, she seemed so real that he could hardly imagine
otherwise. He wished that he could visit her world in the same way
that Lucy visited his. Right now that dream seemed a long way
off.

‘
But I tell you everything’ he replied, feeling left out. He
had decided to tell her all about what Sunlight had told him the
day before, though he had not yet had a chance to.

‘
Yes I know’ said Lucy with a frown on her face. ‘I want to
tell you, but I need to find out more first. If I said something
now and I was wrong, it would just upset you
needlessly.’

‘
Alright then’ decided Spirit eventually. ‘But you tell me as
soon as you’ve found out. I’ll meet this boy, I suppose’ he added
grudgingly.

He told Lucy briefly what he had found out from Sunlight. He
said that there were some dolphins that believed that humans had
turned into dolphins, but that even though Sunlight was from that
pod, she wasn’t sure. What’s more, he said, none of the local pods
believed it either.

‘
What do you think?’ asked Lucy.

‘
I just can’t say for certain. If I can communicate with you,
then maybe humans did once turn into dolphins. It doesn’t seem so
extraordinary to me. In Sunlight’s pod, they were all given human
names. Her name was Susan and the others were….’

‘
Did you say Susan?’ Lucy asked incredulously, thinking of her
visit to the museum and the story of Susan Penhaligon.

‘
Yes, that’s right’ replied Spirit. The others were Edgar,
Simeon, Mirabel, Florence, Jethro and…oh I can’t remember the
others. Human names are harder to remember for dolphins.

‘
That’s amazing!’ exclaimed Lucy. She told him what she had
found out in the museum in Merwater. ‘Whatever actually did happen
to those kids, it’s more than just a story. Something must have
happened to make both dolphins and humans remember it all these
years later.’

‘
Storm says that humans have weak and gullible minds’ said
Spirit. ‘He says that it is too easy to believe in a dream and
promises of escape from ordinary life. He thinks that’s why those
human children swam out with Susan Penhaligon. Life was so horrible
for them on land and seemed easier and better in the sea with the
dolphins. He says that that type of dream never comes true. But
then I look at you and you’re almost like a dream in front of me
now. I don’t know what to believe.’

‘
My science teacher says that if something seems too good to be
true, it probably isn’t true’ replied Lucy thoughtfully. ‘She says
never accept what people tell you at face value. She says we should
always question what their motivation is for telling you something
and test what they say. According to her a lot of people out there
are willing to con you and won’t tell the truth, or don’t even know
what the truth is themselves.’

Spirit didn’t know what science was or what conning was
either, but still, he got the idea of what Lucy meant.

‘
Sunlight says that she thinks that Midnight, the Child-Seer of
that girl Susan, was so overcome with grief after those children
swam out to sea and died that he gave other dolphins in his pod
human names to make himself feel better’ said Spirit.

‘
That makes sense’ replied Lucy. ‘My science teacher says that
if there are two explanations for something, you should generally
choose the one that is the most likely. I guess it’s more probable
that he gave the dolphins human names, than that humans turned into
dolphins don’t you think?’

Spirit started to tell her more about what Sunlight had told
him the day before, but when he glanced back at Lucy, he realised
that her image had faded away into the water. Her energy must have
run out again. There was just the faintest outline of her shape
still hanging there and then it was washed away in the
current.

‘
Till next time Lucy’ he said to himself quietly.

Paul woke up at first light. He didn’t need his alarm clock,
though he had set it just in case. Despite himself, he felt tense,
nervous and excited about the prospect of meeting Lucy’s dolphin.
He’d hardly been able to sleep at all and when he did eventually
drop off, he kept waking up every half hour or so, as though the
morning might take him by surprise if he didn’t.

Paul glanced at his watch. It was five thirty. He’d agreed to
meet Lucy at Old Man’s Cove where he’d seen her with the dolphin a
few days before. It wasn’t unusual for him to leave the house early
and his Mum wasn’t particularly bothered if he did. She let him run
wild, his aunt had said, adding that they’d better not let Social
Services find out. He’d never crept out this early before though
and he was wary in case she put two and two together and realised
that he was meeting Lucy. Anyone would think Lucy had committed
mass murder the way Mum went on about her.