Dolphin Child (19 page)

‘
Pengelly?’ asked Bethany. ‘Why that’s….’

‘
You don’t mean Mary and Darren do you?’ Lucy butted in. Dad’s
smile broadened into a grin.

‘
I might’ he replied with a laugh.

‘
That means we’re staying in the holiday cottages on the farm!’
exclaimed Lucy.

‘
That’s right’ replied Dad, ‘I believe that they’re just a
short walk up the lane, so even though I’ll be dragging you away
from Bethany and the studio, we won’t be very far away.’

‘
Oh that’s great Dad!’ Lucy exclaimed happily. Bethany smiled
too.

‘
Mr and Mrs Pengelly have been very, ah, accommodating’. He
chuckled at his own joke.

‘
So what do you think that you two will do down here?’ Bethany
asked Dad.

‘
Well there’s plenty to do here of course’ replied Dad. ‘I’m
sure that we won’t get bored. But mostly I shall be happy to just
hang out with my daughter. I feel that I have been neglecting her a
little recently.’

Lucy thought of all the times that she’d wished that Dad
wouldn’t be so distant and that he’d spend more time with her like
he did when Mum was alive. Now that he was down here though, Lucy
had mixed feelings. She had things she wanted to do and wondered
how amenable Dad would be to her going off for half a day at a time
on her own. Now wasn’t the time to raise it though. Bethany cut
them both a slice of cake.

‘
I’d like to tell you I baked it myself, but in fact I bought
it from the supermarket’ she admitted bashfully.

Lucy looked at Bethany with her mass of blond curly hair,
wearing an old striped tee-shirt and khaki shorts. Then she looked
at Dad, so pallid and out of place. These two people, who were so
important to her, seemed completely different from each other.
Sometimes she’d wondered what drew Mum to be with Dad in the first
place.

In between mouthfuls of cake Dad described his drive down at
length, complaining about the state of the roads and the queues of
cars and caravans on the motorway. Eventually he turned his
attention back to Lucy.

‘
Come on then Lucy. Let’s go and find your Mrs Pengelly and get
the keys to the cottage.’ They went across the farmyard to find
Mary filling out forms in the farm office. Mary and Darren had a
row of three cottages just a short distance up the back lane from
the farm. They used to be worker’s cottages once upon a time, but
now they let them out to the tourists during the summer. Lucy had
never been in them and was keen to find out what they were
like.

In fact the cottage Dad had rented was small, but clean and
cosy, with a pocket handkerchief-sized garden at the back with
views across the valley beyond.

‘
This is great Dad!’ she exclaimed as she explored the cottage,
her concern at moving out of the studio evaporating.

‘
I’m glad’ said Dad smiling. ‘I want us to have a nice time
together Luce.’ He looked at her shyly, as though he was afraid
that Lucy would drift away from him altogether. In a way Lucy knew
that she was. She was becoming more and more independent and the
world of Spirit and the other dolphins seemed far more compelling
than anything Dad could offer. Still, he was her father and she
loved him. She smiled.

‘
After you’ve unpacked, let me take you for a walk round the
farm.’

‘
It’s a deal!’ he replied.

As they walked across the fields, they chatted about what Lucy
had been up to and what the people were like in Merwater. Dad asked
about Thelma and Nate, whom he’d met several months before when
Lucy had come to the rescue of Spirit and laughed at her
description of the enormous tea that Thelma had provided last time
they’d visited. Lucy was careful to keep talk about dolphins to a
minimum, but told Dad about Paul and the way that the other kids
had picked on him.

‘
I’ve arranged to go cycling into the countryside with Paul
tomorrow in fact’ Lucy added, wary of how Dad would react. ‘There’s
this place he’s promised to show me.’

‘
Oh no you’re not’ Dad replied in a forceful tone while still
wanting to keep things light-hearted. ‘I’ve not driven two hundred
miles just for you to disappear on some cycle trip. We’re supposed
to be hanging out together Luce. I’ve seen precious little of you
as it is.’

‘
But Dad…..’ Lucy started plaintively, but she could tell that
he was having none of it.

‘
No! We’re spending this holiday together and that’s final’ he
replied with a firm edge to his voice. ‘I’m sure you can just call
and cancel. If he’s just some scrawny ten-year-old like you said,
he’s hardly going to be good company for you anyway, is
he?’

They walked on in silence for a while, both lost in their own
thoughts. Lucy couldn’t help but think of her dream of the murky
silhouette of the dolphin. Why was it so important for her to find
out about that dolphin? She couldn’t say why, but her gut feeling
was that even though she could not believe everything that he told
her, Paul could help her find out something important about the
dolphin in her dream. By now she’d learned that she should not
ignore her dreams. What would Paul think tomorrow if she didn’t
turn up? Would he ever talk to her again?

They came to the gate at the top edge of Long Field and Dad
bet Lucy he could hurdle it. It was a tall farm gate made of
galvanized steel. He said he’d been quite the hurdler when he did
athletics as a young man. Lucy looked at Dad and then at the gate.
She really wasn’t sure. Dad took a run at the gate and seemed ready
to leap, but just at the last moment he broke off. He looked at her
sheepishly.

‘
Maybe it has been a few years since I last practiced’ he
admitted as he opted to climb the gate instead.

The shadows were starting to lengthen across the fields as
they approached the cottage again. But even despite the lateness of
the afternoon, the air was still full of birdsong.

They walked up the short path to the cottage door, glad to be
able to get their shoes off and have a rest. A small yellow note
had been stuck to the door just by the lock. In neat handwriting it
said ‘Would you like to join us for supper at seven o’clock
tonight? Mary and Darren. PS. Bethany will join us too.’ Dad seemed
pleased to be invited. He didn’t have any food in the cottage and
didn’t relish the prospect of driving to the nearest shop to pick
up provisions. It was nice of Mary and Darren to ask, thought
Lucy.

They both went to get ready for dinner. Upstairs in her
bedroom at the cottage a sudden insistent feeling came over Lucy
that she had to reach out and contact Spirit, in the same way that
she had when the little girl was trapped on the rocks. Lucy let her
mind slip into the trance that she needed to find the secret door
in her mind that led to the world of dolphins and of water. She
slipped through and found the water thick with shadows in that last
half hour before the long summer evening turned into
night.

When Spirit asked her whether humans stole dolphins from the
sea, Lucy felt a wave of guilt sweep over her as though it was she
that was responsible for all the bad things that people did in the
world. She thought of the Sea World adventure park they had visited
when Lucy was much younger and the dolphins jumping through hoops
in return for fish. It had upset her then, but the though upset her
more now. She hardly knew what to say to Spirit at all.

‘
But why would humans capture dolphins?’ asked Spirit. ‘I don’t
understand’. Lucy thought of all the children and parents laughing
and admiring the dolphins performing tricks at Sea
World.

‘
People think dolphins are beautiful’ she replied, trying to
explain. ‘They want to see them closer.’

‘
Dolphins are made for the sea though’ continued Spirit. ‘We
can’t live in an over-sized swimming pool. We need to feel the
currents, to hear the waves crashing above us, to hunt for fish and
squid. We need to be free!’ Lucy nodded, her eyes
downcast.

‘
I know’ she replied quietly. Lucy thought about the dolphin in
the briny lagoon that Paul had described to her and which had
become such a recurring image in her nightly dreams. She longed to
tell Spirit, but daren’t do so, not yet. When she knew more then
maybe she would, but not now. She turned back to Spirit.

‘
It is wrong for humans to keep dolphins in captivity’ she said
firmly. ‘I will do whatever I can to set free any dolphin I find
that we have taken from the wild. You have my word.’ Spirit gave a
nod of his head.

‘
Thank you Lucy. It’s just that I started to think that I knew
humans, that I could trust them. I know I can trust you, but then I
realised that other humans are strange and dangerous and I don’t
know what to think anymore.’

Showered and rested, Lucy and Dad strolled down the lane the
short distance to the farmhouse. Darren and Mary soon made them
feel welcome. Bethany was already there and before long all five of
them were chatting and laughing, relaxed and happy. Darren had
cooked a dish that he’d found in an Italian-style cookbook and even
though it had burned rather badly on the top, nothing could dampen
the jollity of the evening. The grown-up’s sipped at Darren’s
home-made Crab Apple wine, which Dad said had a kick like a mule.
Lucy could see that Dad was starting to unwind, the cares of work
and city life falling from his shoulders like a cloak. It made him
look younger, she thought.

They ended the evening by playing charades and by the time Dad
and Lucy left to go back to the cottage, it was almost half past
eleven.

Back in her room in the cottage, Lucy opened her bedroom
window, propped her chin on her hands and stared out at the night
sky. There was not a cloud in sight and because there was no moon,
the stars seemed particularly bright. Out in the country away from
the towns, there was much less light pollution to spoil the view of
the stars. They seemed to be scattered across the heavens as though
the contents of a bottle of glitter had been spilled on water. Lucy
thought that she could make out the Milky Way, but wasn’t quite
sure. A pipistrelle bat flitted across the garden, hunting for
moths. Lucy looked down the valley. It was a shame they didn’t have
a view of the sea. She imagined Spirit’s pod, resting quietly on
the surface of the water, their dorsal fins casting dark shadows.
What must Spirit think of humans now?

If only she could cycle out with Paul tomorrow and find the
dolphin trapped in the murky lagoon. Then she really would have
something to tell Spirit. But it was impossible. Unless a miracle
happened between now and tomorrow morning, Dad simply wasn’t going
to let her go off with Paul for the day. She’d have to get a
message to him one way or another. But how?

She sighed, as she pulled her curtains closed and climbed into
bed. It was nice to be in a proper bed again, after the nights
she’d recently spent on Bethany’s camp bed. Yet it did not feel the
same. It felt so natural to live with Bethany at her studio.
Sometimes she liked to imagine that all Bethany’s paintings would
come alive as she lay there snuggled down under Bethany’s spare
duvet. She would imagine that the animals and people would emerge
from their squares of canvas and talk together quietly as Bethany
and Lucy slept. Lucy closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep to
dream of dolphins free to roam the wide oceans.

The next morning there was still no food in the cottage, so
Lucy persuaded Dad to go over to the studio for breakfast. He said
he didn’t like to impose, but Lucy could tell that after the
previous night he was feeling a bit more positive about Bethany and
that he was happy enough to go. Lucy still half hoped that he would
relent and let her go for her cycle ride with Paul, but Dad
announced resolutely over breakfast at the kitchen table in the
studio that they would go into Merwater that morning to buy some
groceries and then walk along the cliff tops in the
afternoon.

‘
You can show me the pirate coves and hidden treasure Luce’ he
joked.

Lucy said that she would tidy away the breakfast things while
Dad went back to the cottage to get ready. Once Dad had left, Lucy
turned anxiously to Bethany.

‘
I don’t know what to do’ she half whispered. I promised that
boy Paul that I’d go for a cycle ride with him today. It’s just
that he… Well, he says that he knows a lake or a lagoon or
something where a dolphin is kept prisoner. He was going to show me
today. There’s no way Dad will let me go, so I’ve got to get a
message to Paul to say I can’t come.

‘
Well you can’t blame your Dad for wanting to spend some time
with you when he’s just arrived Kiddo’ replied Bethany
sympathetically. I can sort of guess at how important it must be
for you to go and find this dolphin’ she continued, ‘if there
really is one. Are you sure he’s telling the truth?’

‘
If it wasn’t for these dreams that I’ve been having, I’m not
sure if I’d trust him either’ said Lucy. ‘But ever since he told
me, I’ve been having the same dream about a dolphin all alone in a
murky lagoon. I can barely make out its shape and the dolphin
always seems just out of reach. I…’ Lucy trailed off.

‘
It could be just a dream’ speculated Bethany.

‘
But my dreams about Spirit turned out to be real’ replied
Lucy. I have this feeling that….’, but she didn’t finish her
sentence because she didn’t want to put into words what was in the
back of her mind. Bethany put the tea towel down on the table to
come and give Lucy a hug for a few moments.