Dolphin Child (28 page)

‘
I think we’ve had enough of kids chucking stuff at Paul.’ The
words made Lucy start with fright. She looked up and saw Mrs
Treddinick standing in her dressing gown at the open front door
with a milk bottle in her hand. She looked tired and drawn. ‘But
it’s not you I’ve got to worry about on that score’ she sighed. ‘I
suppose you’d better come in.’

Lucy felt desperately uncomfortable under Mrs Treddinick’s
unsympathetic gaze, but she had no choice. She followed Paul’s Mum
into the house.

‘
Paul!’ called Mrs Treddinick. ‘Your friend’s here.’ Paul and
his sister had been eating their breakfast in the kitchen and he
was startled to see Lucy standing there when he came into the
hallway.

‘
What are you doing here?’ he asked, Lucy tried to play it
cool.

‘
Wanna go out on your bike?’ she asked. Paul glanced warily at
his Mum to see how she would react. His mother seemed to have
relaxed a little in her opposition to Lucy, but she was still
hardly friendly.

‘
I suppose it’s better her than the kids in the playground’ she
said with a disapproving look. ‘But no funny business okay? I don’t
want you two going down to the sea or along the cliffs together you
hear me? And I don’t want any talk about you-know-what.’ Paul and
Lucy eyed each other.

‘
I promise we won’t go to the sea’ said Lucy. She didn’t like
to lie to Mrs Treddinick, but thought it wasn’t exactly telling a
fib if she left certain details out. Lucy just hoped she wouldn’t
ask any more awkward questions.

‘
I’ll get my bike out from round the back’ Paul
said.

‘
You remember what I told you!’ called out Mrs Treddinick
behind them, as they cycled up the street together a couple of
minutes later.

‘
So where are we going?’ Paul asked as they rounded the
corner.

‘
You’re going to take me to see the dolphin in the inlet’ she
replied.

‘
But you said……’

‘
I said we wouldn’t go to the sea and we aren’t. I never told
your Mum we wouldn’t talk about dolphins, or go and see one did
I?’

The country lanes that Paul led Lucy down seemed strangely
familiar, though it was the first time she had been down them. Then
she realised that Paul had helped her visualise them just the other
day.

They cycled on between green hedgerows and overhanging trees.
They free-wheeled down the hill and over the little bridge before
pedalling laboriously up the other side. The lane levelled out and
eventually they came to the railway embankment and dismounted,
leaving their bikes hidden behind a bush. They crunched along the
overgrown gravel bed of the disused railway track. Again Lucy
experienced a strange sense of déjà vu.

‘
So you’ll teach me how to be a Dolphin-Child won’t you? Like
you are?’ Paul asked as they made their way along the
path.

‘
Listen Paul’ replied Lucy, ‘it doesn’t work like that. It’s
not that easy. I can’t just teach you.’

‘
Yes you can’ answered Paul testily. ‘You can if you want to. I
want to be free like you are. I want to swim with dolphins like you
do.’ Lucy shook her head.

‘
I don’t even know how I do it, let alone tell you how to do
it’ she replied.

‘
I’ll teach myself if I have to’ he answered
defiantly.

‘
I’ll do what I can’ she said. ‘I never give promises unless
I’m sure I can keep them. Besides, I don’t think you’re such a
great swimmer. It’s dangerous in open water unless you know what
you’re doing.’

As they clambered up the tree to climb over the stone wall,
Paul’s attitude seemed to change. He started to look around him as
though he expected someone to take them by surprise and stopped
talking about becoming a Dolphin-Child.

‘
Watch out and keep your eyes peeled’ he told Lucy warily. Lucy
thought he was being a bit silly, but didn’t like to say anything.
As they dropped down between the pine trees, Paul seemed to be
behaving like he was a soldier in a war movie and he ran from tree
to tree, as though someone was going to try to shoot
him.

‘
Don’t be daft’ Lucy muttered as they moved through the trees.
Lucy was surprised to see the immense wall of green where the mass
of rhododendron bushes had grown up. Paul plunged into the dense
tangle of branches and leaves, whilst Lucy followed in his wake.
They clambered up, over and through the rhododendrons until at last
they saw the glint of blue water of the lagoon. Lucy immediately
forgot about anything else and rushed the last few metres to get to
the water’s edge.

‘
Watch out soldier!’ Paul called under his breath, but by this
time Lucy was out of ear-shot. She stood by the lapping water on
grass cropped close by wild rabbits and looked around her. To her
left low bushes and small trees hemmed in the inlet up to the point
where the big house stood. It looked a little forlorn and rundown
to Lucy and she wondered if anyone actually lived there. On the
other side of the inlet taller trees crowded down the hill to the
water’s edge. To her right Lucy could see the closed link fence
that had been erected across the water to separate the inlet from
the rest of the estuary beyond.

Lucy started to scan the water, searching for the distinctive
sign of a dorsal fin breaking the water’s surface. Just then Paul
came up to her side.

‘
Keep out of sight, or we’ll get in trouble’ he whispered
hoarsely. ‘We’re, like trespassing here you know.’ Lucy continued
to scan the water.

‘
I don’t care’ she replied. Just then there was a ripple on the
surface of the water and they both stared intently at the spot. For
a moment Lucy thought her eyes were deceiving her but then she saw
it again. The tip of a fin slowly cruised along slicing through the
water for a moment before disappearing again.

Without thinking what she was doing, Lucy just stepped off the
grassy bank and into the water. She didn’t care about the trainers,
shorts or tee-shirt that she was wearing. The water was shallow
here and she started wading out determinedly through the briny
water, with mud and silt boiling up around her legs.

‘
Stop!’ hissed Paul anxiously, looking from left to right as
though he expected to see guards running. ‘You’ll get us in
trouble!’

Lucy didn’t even answer. She could see the faint ripples where
the dolphin had been cruising through the water. Lucy had waded up
to her chest now and started to swim. In her haste she’d forgotten
that she was still wearing her trainers, but she could still swim
well enough in them even though she knew it was better not to. She
ducked her head under the water to look but it was too murky to see
anything. ‘Just like it was in my dreams’ she thought to herself.
She sensed that Paul was going frantic on the bank, but she didn’t
look back and kept on swimming.

Just then there was a swell of water in front of her and
Star-Gazer curved round her, brushing her upper arms and shoulder
as she did so. Lucy gasped.

‘
It’s me Lucy’ she whispered though she knew the dolphin could
not understand her. ‘I’ve come to help you Star-Gazer.’ The water
was still just shallow enough for Lucy to stand with her feet
oozing into the mud and silt at the bottom. She stretched out with
her arms to gently touch the dolphin’s flank, face and beak.
Star-Gazer hung in the water and looked up at her with big, sad
eyes. Lucy embraced her with both her arms and pressed her head to
the dolphin’s side. Lucy could feel the life-force emanating from
Star-Gazer through her finger tips and body, but it was a weak
energy, sickly and disturbed. Star-Gazer had evidently lost a lot
of her strength and Lucy feared that she would not last that much
longer unless they did something to help her soon.

Lucy stood there in the water for a long time holding
Star-Gazer to her side. She wished that she could speak to the
dolphin then, but she was unable to do so. She felt anger growing
deep within her at the thought of this beautiful dolphin being
trapped in this tight, muddy inlet far from the wide sea and her
own family.

Eventually Star-Gazer began to move and she guessed that she
wanted to pull Lucy along through the water. Lucy held on to her
dorsal fin and Star-Gazer propelled Lucy along, slowly and
mournfully. They swam up as far as they could get to the closed
link fence that cut her off from freedom.

Lucy slipped off Star-Gazer back into the water and waded up
to the fence and shook it. It seemed to be firmly fastened. She
wondered if there were any gaps below it and she ran her trainer
along the bottom under the water. It was fixed to the bottom there
too so that there was no way that a dolphin could slip underneath.
Lucy felt exasperated and looked back down the length of the lagoon
towards the house.

To her left she could see Paul. He had waded a short distance
after her and was standing with water up to his knees, uncertain
about what to do next. He was looking their way with an anxious and
imploring look on his face. Lucy glanced beyond Paul to where the
house was. To her surprise she could see a tall thin figure
standing on the small landing stage, staring down the length of the
inlet towards her. Star-Gazer nudged Lucy again and then slowly
pulled her along through the water towards the figure that stood
there so silently, watching her.

As they grew nearer, Lucy could see that it was an old woman
who stood tall and thin, silhouetted against the house behind her.
Her grey hair was cut in a neat, short style and she seemed well
dressed in long flannel trousers and a cardigan. She wore a string
of pearls around her throat that looked expensive.

Lucy felt incensed at the elderly woman for taking Star-Gazer
hostage and was determined to confront her there and then. She gave
Star-Gazer one tender stroke to the dome of her head and then slid
off and started wading through the muddy shallows out of the water
and towards the woman. Lucy’s clothes were soaked and covered with
mud as she emerged from the water.

‘
Let this dolphin go!’ she shouted angrily at the
woman.

Chapter Seventeen:

It had been against all John Parr’s instincts to let Lucy go
like that. He watched her bound up the steep path from the cove,
still wearing her wetsuit but with her bag with its change of
clothes slung over one shoulder. She seemed so full of purpose and
energy. Lucy hadn’t told him what she needed to do, but he had a
pretty good idea it was to do with her worrying obsession with
dolphins.

Dad shuddered at the thought of the danger that she might be
putting herself in. Yet wasn’t this a phase that she would grow out
of? By giving her the freedom now, wasn’t he saving her from danger
later? Dad wanted to believe that was the case, but really he
didn’t know. He thought about running up the path behind her and
telling her that he’d changed his mind. It was too late now though.
Lucy was faster than him on the steep track and by the time he got
to the top, puffing and panting, she’d have disappeared down the
country lanes, but where to he had no idea.

As well as feeling worried about Lucy’s safety, he felt lonely
and a little lost now that she’d gone. He’d just been starting to
get used to hanging out with her again. He’d spent far too little
time with Lucy over the past year. He’d been hoping to make up for
his neglect during this holiday. Yet here he was standing alone on
a thin crescent of beach at a ridiculously early time of the day.
Dad sighed and started to trudge up the path back to the top of the
cliff, while the sea frothed over the pebbles below him.

Dad reached the top and retrieved his bike. He was about to
make his way back down to the cottage when he paused, lost in
thought. Then he turned the handle-bars of the bike to face the
other direction and started pedalling purposefully in the direction
of Merwater.

Although it was fortunate that he remembered the name of road
that Thelma Merryweather lived in, he could not bring to mind the
house number. In any case he didn’t even know where the road was
and after he’d asked three different people without success, he
decided that the only thing to do was to buy a map of the town from
the tourist office. The map led him up the steep hill out to the
edge of town. Dad hadn’t cycled for years and knew that he’d never
pedal all the way up there. He began to walk. Once he got to
Thelma’s road he reckoned he’d ask again and then someone would be
able to tell him where she lived. Just as he turned into Crab-Apple
Lane though, he saw the short, plump figure of Thelma Merryweather
bustling towards him, with shopping bags in one hand and her
handbag in the other.

‘
Mrs Merryweather!’ he exclaimed in surprise. ‘It’s you!’
Thelma glanced up and smiled.

‘
John Parr’ she replied, ‘father of young Lucy. What brings you
to this neck of the woods then?’

‘
Well, I was looking for you actually’ he answered.

‘
As it happens I’m off out’ Thelma said, ‘but if it’s young
Lucy you want to talk about, I can make time of course.’

‘
I don’t want to put you out’ replied Dad politely. ‘If it’s
not an imposition, I can talk to you as we walk.’

‘
That will do very nicely’, Thelma replied as they started
making their way back down the hill that Dad had just come up, the
bike at his side. ‘Are you and Lucy having a nice holiday?’ Dad
didn’t want to get caught up in polite chitchat though.