Dolphin Child (23 page)

‘
I, I couldn’t. My Dad came down to Cornwall earlier than we
thought and he wouldn’t let me.’ Thinking of Dad, she glanced at
her watch. She was already ten minutes late to get back to the
car.

‘
What are we going to do then?’

‘
I, well, I don’t know. Not today anyway’ she replied, glancing
at her watch again. They sat in silence for a bit
longer.

‘
Why can’t you just talk to the dolphin in the lake like you
talk to Spirit?’ asked Paul eventually.

‘
No it’s only Spirit and Dancer…’ Lucy started to answer before
trailing off. Then she began to think. Why couldn’t she speak to
the dolphin in the lake? If she could speak to Dancer when she
wanted to, she could probably reach out to others as
well.

‘
Maybe you’re right. It’s worth a try’ she replied after a
moment. But how? She had no idea where the lake was even, or what
it looked like.

‘
You’ve got to tell me everything you know’ she said urgently
to Paul. ‘You’ve got to describe to me in as much detail as you can
exactly the route that you took to get there yesterday, so I can
see it in my mind’s eye!’

Lucy closed her eyes as Paul started to describe. At first he
didn’t have the words to tell her and she kept making him stop to
describe things again more clearly, asking about this or that
detail. Slowly, hesitantly, she started to visualise the squat
church on Bussey Lane and then the route that Paul had cycled up
the wooded hill out onto open fields, before he came to the raised
embankment of the railway track.

Paul described how he continued on foot along the overgrown
gravel of the disused railway track until he turned off and climbed
up the tree so that he could get over the long stone wall, with
ferns growing out of the top. Sometimes Lucy found it hard to
visualise what Paul was telling her, but then it felt almost as if
she were slipping into a trance and the picture came vividly into
her mind’s eye.

It was like tuning in to an obscure and distant radio station.
Sometimes the signal came through clearly, before it was lost once
more to static crackle. Paul continued to describe the leap from
the stone wall and the walk through the pine trees until he came to
the bank of rhododendron bushes. The image in Lucy’s mind became
weaker here and she had to get him to go over it again. Only when
Paul told her how he had pretended that he was evading guards and
snipers bullets, did the picture became vividly clear to Lucy
again.

Then they came to the side of the lagoon and Paul described as
clearly as he was able how it was really an inlet from the estuary
river which had been blocked off at one end by a chain mail fence
and had a house at the other end. With her eyes still closed, Lucy
held the image as sharply and clearly as she could in her mind’s
eye, whilst at the same time trying to focus and then relax her
thoughts, so that she could find the portal in the corner of her
mind that would enable her to slip through.

It felt incredibly difficult and twice the image started to
fade away, so Lucy had to get Paul to go back and describe it all
afresh to her. Finally, her mental energy already running low, it
was almost as if Lucy tripped by accident and fell through into the
world beneath the waves.

The water was as muddy and murky as in her dream and the bed
of the lagoon was shallow. Even at its deepest point it was barely
more than two meters deep; certainly not enough for a fit and
active dolphin. Little grew in the brackish water, as Lucy could
see as she effortlessly glided along. Lucy thought that she could
make out the flash of a dolphin’s tail, but as she moved towards
it, it seemed to disappear again into the murk.

‘
What if the dolphin is trying to get away from me?’ wondered
Lucy as she glided along. What if she’s scared by the ghost of a
human being in the water? Even though she could not yet see the
dolphin, Lucy felt that she had to trust in her belief that it was
actually there.

‘
I am your friend’ she called out into the murk. ‘I am a
Dolphin-Child of the pod of Storm, Spirit, Dancer, Breeze, Chaser,
Moonlight and Summer. I have come to help you!’ Lucy stopped
gliding forward and for a moment all was still. Then she sensed
that something was approaching through the murk and for a second
she was scared. Then she saw the dolphin. It approached her slowly
and cautiously. The dolphin looked unhappy and its eyes were
troubled.

‘
You know Spirit?’ asked the dolphin incredulously.

‘
Yes, yes I do’ replied Lucy hesitantly. ‘What is your
name?’

‘
My name is Star-Gazer’ replied the dolphin sadly.

Chapter Fourteen:

It was growing dark and the dolphins idled in the water in the
quiet of the late afternoon before night fell. It had been a busy
day. Chaser and Breeze had ridden the bow of a fast sailing boat
and were full of stories of their adventures. There were other
sailing boats as well and they seemed to be engaged in some sort of
a race. Chaser and Breeze had chosen the most beautiful and fastest
of the vessels to accompany. They could easily have out-swum the
boat if they had wanted to as it sliced through the water, but it
was a pleasure to swim alongside the bow as though they were
escorting it to the winning post.

Summer, Spirit and Dancer were making up stories. Dancer would
start and tell the first bit. Then Summer would take over and make
up a bit more. When it was Spirit’s turn, he would try and give the
story a twist and take it in a different direction to the story
that Dancer had started. The story became more and more convoluted,
but it was fun to tell and it set their imaginations on fire. Storm
and Moonlight listened as they made their tale even more wild and
improbable, laughing and commenting as it progressed.

Afterwards, they lazed together, staring up at the night sky
which was particularly clear.

‘
Do you think there are dolphins living on the moon?’ asked
Dancer idly. They all looked up at the full moon high above
them.

‘
I don’t think there’s much water up there to swim in’ chuckled
Storm.

‘
Maybe they don’t need water’ continued Dancer. ‘Perhaps they
can just float in the air.’

‘
You mean like birds do?’ asked Chaser.

‘
Who knows?’ said Dancer with a yawn. ‘Anything might be
possible on the moon!’ Spirit smiled.

‘
Sometimes I dream that I swim straight out of the water and
just keep swimming towards the clouds’ he continued. ‘In my dream I
go higher than the birds, higher than the clouds even and when I
look back down, the planet just looks so small and insignificant, I
think I might as well keep swimming to the stars.

‘
That’s a beautiful dream’ said Summer, her young calf nuzzling
at her side. ‘It’s the kind of thing that Star-Gazer would have
dreamt about. What was it that she said that stars were made
of?’

‘
Fireflies!’ answered Breeze quickly and they all laughed. ‘I
swallowed one once by accident when was leaping from the water. I
thought my insides would explode with light!’

‘
You know in the depths of the ocean there are strange fish
that can generate their own light’ said Storm conversationally.
‘Angler fish they are called. It is so dark down there that they
cannot see otherwise. Of course it is not possible for us dolphins
to descend to such depths, but I have seen one or two that have
come up to the surface. They use the light as bait to lure their
victims to them. Strange ugly looking fish they are. They look like
they might have come from outer space. I give them a wide
berth.’

The dolphins chatted on for a while and then one by one they
started to drift off into their waking sleep.

Just then Spirit felt a prickling sensation, like a wave of
energy pass through his flank. He knew by now what this meant and
swam a short distance from the others. A larger pulse of energy
flowed through him a few moments later and then suddenly Lucy was
there in the water next to him, her hair floating around her like
tendrils of fine seaweed, her night dress billowing around her like
a jelly fish.

‘
Lucy!’ exclaimed Spirit keenly. ‘Where have you been?’ Even
though he could not read the expressions on human faces in the way
that other humans can, Spirit was able to sense immediately that
there was something wrong. Lucy greeted him as warmly as ever, but
then took a long time to compose herself.

‘
Spirit, there’s something I need to tell you’ she said. He
waited expectantly for her to continue speaking.

‘
There’s a narrow estuary along the coast, where a river flows
into the sea. There are various inlets along it and one inlet is
fenced off. In that fenced-off inlet or lagoon, there’s …., well.’
Lucy paused again before continuing. ‘There’s a dolphin kept there.
It’s your mother Star-Gazer.’

Spirit was dumb-struck and at first didn’t know what to say or
how to react. A whirl of thoughts passed through his
brain.

‘
I…., you.., how do you know?’

‘
You know that boy Paul?’ continued Lucy. ‘The one who I
introduced you to the other day and who swam with us? He told me
that he’d seen a dolphin kept prisoner in a lake. I didn’t know
whether to believe him at first, but I kept dreaming about the
dolphin and I started to wonder if it was linked to you in some
way. I didn’t want to say anything to you in case Paul was making
it all up, or if I was entirely wrong. But I’ve been able to reach
out to the dolphin, like I do with you. I’ve met her. It’s
Star-Gazer.’

It was almost all too much for Spirit to take in.

‘
Why would she be held prisoner like that? Why would humans do
that to her?’ asked Spirit, shaking his head in shock and
confusion.

‘
I, I don’t know Spirit’ admitted Lucy. ‘I haven’t been able to
find out yet.’

‘
Is she well? Is she safe?’ asked Spirit anxiously.

‘
I think she’s terribly unhappy’ admitted Lucy. ‘She’s fed
alright, but she hates being there. She’s lonely and she misses you
and the pod.’

‘
Humans!’ exclaimed Spirit. ‘Humans did this, like they hunt
for pilot whales and catch us in their nets. Why can’t they just
leave us alone?’ Spirit pulled away slightly from Lucy. ‘I love you
Lucy, but I don’t like humans. They do bad stuff to us.’

‘
I don’t know what to say Spirit’ she replied. ‘But I won’t
rest until we’ve been able to rescue her.

‘
If it weren’t for you Lucy, maybe I’d believe everything that
Storm says about humans. But I know you and I know that humans can
be good and loving. It just makes it harder to understand when they
do something terrible like this. What can we do? How can we save
Star-Gazer?’ Spirit looked intently at Lucy, but already her image
was starting to fade in the water. He could tell that she was
starting to tire and that soon she would disappear altogether. They
only had a few seconds left.

‘
If only she could jump over the fence, or find a gap at the
edge of it and force her way through, then she would be able to
swim down the estuary and back to the sea’ replied Lucy. ‘Otherwise
we will have to set her free.’ Lucy’s image faded into the water
like a drop of ink. She was gone.

Spirit was left with a great and overwhelming sense of relief
at the knowledge that his mother was alive, but also a terrible
anxiety at the thought of her lonely plight. He looked back at
where the rest of the pod were resting. Storm and Dancer had awoken
and were quietly looking his way, as though they already knew that
something was wrong.

‘
Storm, Dancer!’ whispered Spirit so as not to wake the others.
‘I need your help.’

Dad had enjoyed the castle, with its views across the hills
towards the sea. He was beginning to feel more relaxed now and some
of the stresses of his working life were dropping away. He’d missed
Lucy and worried about her, but when he saw her again in the
farmyard the other day when he’d arrived she’d seemed so happy and
alive, that he realised that he’d been right to give her the
freedom she needed. ‘You shouldn’t deny Lucy her true self’ Thelma
had said a few months before. ‘If you deny Lucy her true self now,
she will never be complete. There will always be a ghost of what
might have been. She will be restless and unhappy for all her
days.’

Dad had thought about Thelma’s words many times since he’d met
her and he pondered them again as he walked along the High Street
of Merwater after Lucy had gone to find that boy Paul. ‘But a
Dolphin-Child doesn’t stay a child for long’ she’d continued.
‘Within a year her gift will leave her’ she went on ‘and she’ll be
just a regular girl again into pop music and whatnot’. Thelma’s
words had assured him. He hoped she was right. What Lucy had
inherited from Megan was both a blessing and a curse. He was well
aware that all Lucy could think about were the blessings. All Dad
could think about was the danger and the curse. Every day he wished
that Megan was alive and well still. Every day her loss ached
within him.

Dad had spoken to Thelma on the phone once or twice in the
intervening months and several times since Lucy had come down to
stay this summer. He looked forward to seeing her soon, but today
he hoped to find Mrs Penhaligon. He’d come across the business card
she’d given to Lucy at the supermarket the other day and Lucy had
mentioned that she was helping out her sister in the shop. The
door-bell tinkled as he pushed open the door of the gift shop and
walked in.