Dolphin Child (27 page)

‘
Do I have a choice?’ he asked sadly and quietly. Lucy gave the
slightest of shakes of her head. He hated this, he really hated it.
All Dad’s instincts told him to tell her that no, she was his
child, that he would protect her and that she must stay with him.
Yet, as he looked into her eyes, he knew that it was pointless to
say so.

‘
Go on then’ he said eventually, giving her hand a little
squeeze. ‘But I want you back safe and sound by two’ he added ‘or
I’ll be coming to find you’. She squeezed his hand in return and
then without a moment’s hesitation Lucy turned and started to
clamber up the steep path out of the cove.

Chapter Sixteen:

‘
Well, what happened?’ asked Chaser expectantly as Spirit and
Dancer swum up to the mouth of the estuary. Dancer caught his gaze,
then looked away with a pained look in her eyes.

‘
So you couldn’t free her then?’ he asked.

‘
We found her’ replied Spirit defiantly. ‘We spoke to her. We
weren’t close enough to see her and we weren’t able to save her
there and then. But we’re going to’ he added. ‘We’ll figure out a
way, somehow.’

They swam on with Chaser until they joined the rest of the
pod. A light breeze had picked up. It whisked up the water into
small waves, carrying fine sea spray into the warm air. Sea gulls
wheeled lazily on the current and nearby a sailing boat was making
its way towards the mouth of the estuary, its sails taut against
the wind. Once they had found the rest of the pod, they all turned
and swum back towards the open seas again, talking as they swam
with the rhythmic undulating beats of their tail flukes.

‘
Star-Gazer’s okay then is she?’ asked Summer anxiously. ‘She’s
well?’

‘
We didn’t manage to speak properly’ Spirit replied. ‘It was
barely more than a few words really. But no, I don’t think she’s
well. She’s trapped and unhappy and she needs our help.’

Dancer quickly explained how they had approached the inlet
where Star-Gazer was being held, but that as the tide turned the
level of the water started to drop and they were afraid of finding
themselves stranded on the mud.

‘
So the inlet where Star-Gazer is held is behind a metal fence
like a stiff fishing net that is stretched across the opening?’
asked Storm once they had explained everything that had happened.
It was Storm’s habit to repeat back what he had just been told, so
that he was sure that he understood it clearly. ‘Star-Gazer would
have leapt the fence already if she could’ he went on thoughtfully.
‘Is there anything else that you learned that might
help?’

‘
Well’ replied Spirit. ‘It is the silt that stops us getting
close to the metal net thing. It seems to have accumulated around
the fence, perhaps because the metal slows the current there and
allows it to settle. But Star-Gazer said that when the rains come,
the silt will be washed away. Then we might be able to get near
enough to it to find a way of getting through.’

‘
But why have they imprisoned her there?’ asked Moonlight.
‘’What do they want with her? Why don’t they just set her
free?’

‘
I, I don’t know’ replied Spirit sadly.

‘
Who knows why humans do the things that they do?’ said Chaser.
‘We could study them for a hundred years and they would still be a
mystery to us. Humans say that they like us, then they trap us.
They are not to be trusted.’

Spirit would have liked to speak up for humans at that moment,
except that he himself was having doubts. He cared deeply for Lucy
and when he had been trapped the human from the fishing boat had
come and cut him free. But now that he knew that humans had trapped
Star-Gazer, he wasn’t so sure.

Storm seemed to sense his doubt and questioning. He himself
was wary of humans and had often warned Spirit and the other
dolphins against them, but this time he did not agree with Chaser
as he might have on other occasions.

‘
You have both done well young Spirit and young Dancer’ Storm
said as they all swam out into deeper waters. ‘You may not yet have
managed to free Star-Gazer, but you have learned more than you knew
before and knowledge is power. We can use it when the time is
right. What more can you discover about the humans that have taken
her prisoner?’ he asked.

Spirit knew what Storm wanted to say. He wanted to say ‘Speak
to Lucy. Find out what she knows’. It was the obvious thing to do.
Yet strangely, though he felt as close to Lucy as any other living
being, he felt reluctant to do so. He wanted to be an equal to
Lucy. She had saved his life once and he owed everything to her.
But that was all the more reason not to rush to her now, but
instead to try to figure out an answer to their problems
himself.

‘
I, well…. I want to prove to Lucy that we dolphins can look
after ourselves’ he replied eventually. Storm stopped swimming and
so all of the rest of the pod paused in the water to rest a while.
Storm took a long calm look deep into Spirit’s eyes.

‘
It is good that you are proud young Spirit and that you want
to find your own answers alone and without assistance. Yet now is
the time that you should make use of all of the gifts that you have
at your disposal. Star-Gazer is in trouble. Your special connection
to Lucy might enable us to save her.’

‘
That’s right’ added Summer, while No-name snuggled into his
mothers flank. ‘There was a time that we thought that you were a
Child-Seer in order to help us find fish. Now I’m starting to think
that you have been chosen as a Child-Seer for a much more important
reason. Perhaps your destiny is to save Star-Gazer and other fellow
dolphins who may be in trouble.’

‘
I agree’ said Storm. ‘Star-Gazer needs Lucy right now just as
much as she needs you. Star-Gazer’s fate is tangled up with the
humans that caught her. We need a human to guide us through the
world above water where we cannot go.’ Spirit looked from Storm, to
Summer and then to Dancer.

‘
But I can’t rely on Lucy to help every time we are in trouble’
replied Spirit in a small voice.

‘
Listen to me Spirit’ said Storm seriously. ‘You have an
extraordinary ability, one which no other dolphin that I know
shares. You are more closely bound to Lucy than we can understand.
She is almost part of you. To ignore the knowledge that she can
share with you is like ignoring the evidence of your own
eyes.’

Spirit let Storm and Summer’s words sink in. He knew that what
they were telling him was true. He had to stretch out to Lucy and
speak to her.

Spirit settled down and tried to focus his mind on his task.
It was difficult and he hardly knew where to start. He could not
appear to Lucy as she could appear to him. He had to somehow summon
her to him. It had come naturally and easily to him that time with
the little girl on the rock. This time he wasn’t so
sure.

All that he had learned was that he had to create a sense of
urgency in his own mind which he could then project into hers, so
that she knew that something was wrong and would come to him. He
had only tried this once or twice and it was still a new experience
for him. He felt the others all watching him, wondering what he was
going to do. That made him feel self-conscious and it became harder
than ever for him to focus his mind in the way that he knew he had
to. He tried turning away from the others so that he could not see
them, but they simply swam round him, curious to know what he was
doing. Exasperated, Spirit realised that it was not going to work.
He felt as angry with himself as he did with the others. With a
flick of his tail flukes he propelled himself away from them.
Fortunately they hung back and did not follow. He needed to compose
his mind before he tried again.

Suddenly though, the shape of Lucy seemed to swim into focus
in front of his eyes. There she was, her hair billowing out around
her in the water like the tentacles of a sea anemone.

‘
Lucy!’ he exclaimed, surprised at her appearance. ‘I’ve been
trying to reach you, but I didn’t think it was working. How did you
know I needed to see you?’ Lucy pulled the corners of her mouth up
into what Spirit now knew was called a smile.

‘
I didn’t’ she said. ‘I thought that you would meet me at the
cove this morning. I’ve been waiting there for you but you didn’t
come. I thought that it was because I was with my Dad and that he
had frightened you away.’

‘
No’ he said. ‘I didn’t know about your father. I would have
come to you but, well I went to see if I could find Star-Gazer.’
Spirit quickly explained all that had happened.

‘
So we’ve both found her in our different ways’ said Lucy when
Spirit had finished his story. ‘She must be glad to know that she
has not been forgotten. But she is unhappy and unwell and we still
have to do something to help her. Somehow we’ve got to save
her.’

‘
I know’ replied Spirit. ‘Storm and Summer believe that the
reason I am a Child-Seer is so that you can help us save Star-Gazer
and other dolphins like her. Do you think that’s true?’

‘
I, I don’t know’ replied Lucy hesitantly. ‘You know what
Spirit? Sometimes when I look at people walking down the street, I
half close my eyes and imagine what it must be like to look at them
through a dolphin’s eyes. I imagine that I am a dolphin disguised
as a human and walking on dry land. Normal life seems so strange
and weird when I do. Who needs cars and houses when you can glide
effortlessly through the water? If it weren’t for Dad and Bethany
and my friend Amy back home, I think I’d rather spend my life
living in the sea with you.’ Lucy paused and looked directly at
Spirit as she floated there, suspended in the water.

‘
What I mean is that I can’t say why you and I have been given
this gift. The most important thing for me though is that we are
joined together somehow. I will do everything I can to save
Star-Gazer. All I want is that we stay linked to each other for all
our lives. That’s all that I ask for. It’s more important than
anything.’ Lucy stretched out her hand to Spirit and though she
could not physically touch him when she came to him as a vision, he
could feel the tingle of energy pass from her ghostly hand to his
flank.

‘
What will you do now?’ asked Spirit simply. Lucy shook her
head.

‘
Well I’ve got to go and find a way to help Star-Gazer of
course. Somehow I’ll get away from Dad and then I’ll go and find
Star-Gazer for real this time’ she said. I’ll find the people who
took her. And then….’

As Spirit looked on, Lucy started to fade away into the water.
He realised that her energy had run out. A moment later she was
gone.

‘
Take care Lucy!’ he murmured quietly to himself as her shadow
melted into the water around him.

By the time Lucy had scrambled to the top of the path from the
cove where she had left Dad standing, she was completely out of
breath. It was only once she got to the top that she realised that
she was still wearing her wet-suit. Fortunately she had slung her
bag with her normal clothes over her shoulder. There was no one
else around except for a couple of disinterested-looking sheep and
so she changed quickly there in the middle of the field while she
recovered her breath.

She wondered whether Dad would appear at the top of the cliff
telling her that he had changed his mind and that she must come
back to the cottage with him, but he didn’t. Once she had changed
she quickly found her bike and heaved it over the gate. She got
on.

‘
What now?’ she asked herself. There was only one thing for it.
She had to find Paul and get him to take her to the Penrose place,
as Darren and Mary had called it. She wondered what the house was
really like and whether the people there would be friendly or
hostile.

It was true that Paul had helped her visualise the path he had
taken that had enabled Lucy to reach out to Star-Gazer, but she did
not think she could find the route in real life on her own. She
needed help, but the idea of knocking on Paul’s front door and
speaking to Mrs Treddinick just made her feel anxious in the pit of
her stomach. Paul’s mother was scary and clearly didn’t like her at
all. There was nothing for it though. Lucy started
pedalling.

When she got there Lucy was out of breath again and felt hot
and sweaty. It was still relatively early and she wondered if Paul
would be up or whether he would still be sleeping. She got off the
bike and leant it against the wall in front of Paul’s house. The
front garden was overgrown and she could see that the paintwork of
the living room windowsill at the front of the house was old and
peeling. After Dad had taken Paul home the other day while Lucy had
waited in the car, Paul had appeared in the window above the front
door. She hoped that that was his bedroom window.

In films people would always throw a pebble up at windows. The
little stone would clatter on the glass and then the boy or girl
inside would look outside to see who had thrown it. She looked
around for a pebble, but she could not see one at first and then
the only one she could find was incredibly small. She flung it up
at the window pane but the pebble was so tiny she could not even
tell whether she hit the glass or not. In any case it made no
sound.

Lucy looked for another pebble in Mrs Treddinick’s front
garden and this time found one that was so large it would be more
likely to crack the glass instead. Lucy picked it up and looked at
it uncertainly.