Dolphin Child (29 page)

‘
I’m worried about Lucy’ he said, ‘very worried. ’I’ve given
her the freedom to spend time down here with Bethany and these
dolphins of hers despite all my misgivings. I’ve tried to
understand her obsession. This morning I went with Lucy down to the
beach to meet this dolphin friend of hers, but when he didn’t show
up she begged me to allow her to disappear off on her own and do
something she thought was important.’

‘
And did you?’ Thelma asked quietly.

‘
Yes, yes I did’ he replied. ‘I was left standing there on the
beach of that cove while she cycled off to goodness knows where.
‘Now all I can do is worry and hope that she comes back safe and
sound. But all the time I know that association with dolphins can
be … fatal.’

Thelma stopped for a moment and looked up at Dad, a
sympathetic expression on her face.

‘
John Parr, I know now that you have reason for that fear. Your
life has been struck by tragedy and you don’t want anything bad to
happen to young Lucy because she’s your only daughter and all that
you have left.’ Dad nodded.

‘
And a few months ago I told you that Lucy would outgrow all
this dolphin malarkey soon enough and will get into what all the
normal kids of her age like doing.’ Dad nodded again.

‘
Let me tell you a little story’ continued Thelma as they
started walking again in the direction of the hill into
town.

‘
In all my life I’ve only known two Dolphin-Children before
your Lucy came along. As you know in any generation here in
Merwater, there will generally be at least one Dolphin-Child. This
young girl that I knew was fascinated by dolphins and the sea and
spent all her spare time up on the cliffs or down at the harbour
trying to persuade the fishermen to take her out with them in their
boats. In primary school her exercise books were full of drawings
of dolphins’ Thelma adjusted the bag she was carrying before she
continued.

‘
At first no one realised that she was a Dolphin-Child, though
she showed all the tell-tale signs. She didn’t tell anyone you see,
not even her sister who she was really close to. Then one morning
she was gone from her bed and their mum thought something terrible
must have happened.’

‘
What did happen?’ asked Dad.

‘
It was their father who found her’ Thelma continued. ‘He was a
fisherman too like many folk round here in those days. He’d left
before dawn to put out to sea and didn’t know his daughter had gone
missing, but he must have had a feeling in his bones. He thought he
saw a pod of dolphins in the distance and as they sometimes show
where the shoals of fish are, he put his eye-glass up to his face.
There was a girl riding on the back of one of them beasts and
although he couldn’t see from that distance, he had a horrid
feeling that it was one his own little girls that he’d thought he’d
left tucked up safe and sound in bed.’

Thelma paid attention to the traffic for a moment while she
and Dad crossed a road and started down the hill.

‘
The girl’s father turned his boat around and followed the pod
of dolphins. They weren’t far from the shoreline and as he watched,
dolphins brought her in uncommonly close and the girl swam back to
the beach. He was unable to get his boat that close but he could
see that it really was his very own little girl.’

Dad glanced at Thelma as they walked. He could see that she
had a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered.

‘
Well that girl’s mother and father were mighty worried when
they found out that she was a full blown Dolphin-Child.’

‘
So what happened then?’ asked Dad curiously. Thelma
smiled.

‘
Well they just let her be’ she said. ‘They let it run its
course like you might with a fever. She was like that for a year or
two, you know swimming with her dolphins and whatnot. Then one
morning she found that she couldn’t speak with those dolphins using
her mind anymore. Then her dolphin dreams lost their colour and she
stopped having those too. She was growing up see?’ Dad
nodded.

‘
And how did the girl cope with it?’ he asked. Thelma
sighed.

‘
Well as you can well imagine, she felt she’d lost her closest
friends. She was distraught. For a while she used to go out with
her father on his boat and search for those dolphins and would weep
buckets when she couldn’t find them. Then her dad banned that,
saying it wasn’t good for her. She got over it in the end, but it
took a while. She moved on. She’s all right now you know. She’s got
kids of her own and they’re all grown up and left home
too.’

‘
This girl’ said Dad. ‘It wasn’t you by any chance was it?’
Thelma smiled sadly.

‘
No, no it wasn’t. It was my sister. But I almost wished it had
been me you know. When I was young I was quite envious of her. It
must have been great…’

‘
Does she live locally? Can I go and speak to her?’ asked
Dad.

‘
Oh she moved away.’ Thelma sighed again, shaking her head.
‘She doesn’t like to talk about those things now. I think she still
feels the loss. She lives in a big town up north, a long way from
the sea.’

‘
Is she happy?’

‘
Happy enough I reckon’ replied Thelma. ‘I don’t speak to her
that much now save for Christmas and birthdays. Our lives went in
different directions I suppose. I stayed here and married Nate and
she moved far away.’

By now Dad and Thelma had walked all the way down the hill and
were close to the harbour. They paused and Thelma gestured for them
to sit down and continue their conversation on a bench.

‘
And does it pass down the generations, from mother to
daughter?’ asked Dad. Thelma smiled again.

‘
I know why you’re asking that John Parr’ she replied. ‘It can
do, like with your Megan and your Lucy. But mostly it doesn’t. It’s
not just girls that become Dolphin-Children you know’ Thelma added.
‘The other one I knew was a boy. But that’s another
story.’

‘
Is that why the town’s called Merwater?’ asked Dad curiously.
‘I mean, is there a link between Dolphin-Children and well,
mermaids?’ Thelma nodded in the direction of the small town museum
just across the road next to the public toilets.

‘
If you pop your head in over there, there’re all sorts of
stories about the name of the town, but I reckon you might be onto
something.

‘
Is there more stuff about Dolphin-Children in there?’ asked
Dad, glancing in the direction of the museum.

‘
Well there’s the tale of that sad girl Susan Penhaligon. But
she must have lived a couple of hundred years ago now I reckon.
There’ve been no stories like that about Dolphin-Children since
then that I know of, not in modern times at least. They mostly all
grow out of it by their early teens.’ Dad looked down.

‘
I know of one girl that didn’t’ he said quietly. ‘It cost her
her life. I can’t take that risk with Lucy.’ For a moment Thelma
thought he was going to be overcome with emotion and she briefly
grasped his hand to comfort him.

‘
Let nature take its course’ she assured him. ‘It won’t be like
with your Megan. Not this time. Things will work out for the best,
you mark my words.’ Just then they heard shouting across the
street.

‘
Oh it’s that pair Baz and Mike again’ exclaimed Thelma
disapprovingly. ‘I really don’t like those two boys.’

‘
Who?’ asked Dad.

‘
Oh you know’ replied Thelma. ‘They’re the two that have been
ganging up on Paul, that friend of young Lucy. I don’t trust them
further than I can throw them. I wonder what they’re doing hanging
around here.’ They watched for a few moments before the two boys
suddenly turned and ran off up the street.

They chatted for a while longer and then Thelma apologised
saying that she really must get off to her appointment in town.
They went their separate ways and as Thelma bustled off, Dad pushed
his bike across the road and walked up to the entrance of the small
museum, lost in thought.

The bow of the Lady Thelma broke through low choppy waves. A
wind had picked up and Nate could feel the small trawler rise and
fall with the sea as they ploughed on. Bob was repairing a lobster
pot at the back.

‘
Wind’s rising!’ Nate called to him from the cramped
cabin.

‘
You heard the weather forecast?’ Bob called back.

‘
I thought it was going to be clear for this morning’ Nate
replied. ‘But it looks to me like the weather’s on the change.’ He
thought about raising the Coast Guard on the radio to get a weather
update, but he didn’t like to bother them unless it was really
necessary. They were heading back to port anyway and they’d be
there long before the sea got rough enough to worry about. A while
later Nate glanced over his shoulder. The sky was clear and the sun
bright, but on the horizon a wall of grey blue cloud seemed to be
rolling in towards them.

The pod rested in deeper waters a couple of miles off the
coast. Wind picked the sea into tongues that flicked spray up into
the air. A cloud of jelly fish drifted glumly into view but the
dolphins ignored them disdainfully. Storm took a low leap and
surveyed the conditions above the surface of the water.

‘
We will have rain before tonight and lots of it’ he said.
Spirit had been floating idly in the water, lost in
thought.

‘
Rain?’ he asked, suddenly paying attention.

‘
A summer storm’ continued Storm. ‘The clouds are piling up
over there and they are heavy and dark. There will be lightning
too. It should be quite a show.’

‘
You know what Star-Gazer said?’ Dancer asked. Spirit caught
her eye.

‘
Yes, she said that if there is rain, then the silt around the
fence to the entrance of the lagoon will be washed away. Then there
may be a chance of finding a way through. We might find some way to
set her free.’ They both turned to look at Storm. The others were
all looking in their direction and listening too. He swam a long
slow circle while he thought it over.

‘
That might just work’ he said quietly, almost to
himself.

Bethany strolled out of the studio and across the farmyard.
She had been working hard on a painting and needed to go outside,
breath in some fresh air and look at the view. She leant on a gate
and stared out across the field to where the cows stood
meditatively chewing the cud. Mary came up and leant companionably
against the gate beside her.

‘
Handsome beasts aren’t they’ she said, ‘and good milkers too’.
Bethany nodded absently. ‘What’s on your mind then Beth?’ Mary
asked.

‘
Oh I was just thinking about Lucy and John’ Bethany
replied.

‘
Anything in particular?’

‘
I’ll really miss Lucy when she goes back home and starts
school again. But in the meantime I’m worried about her.

‘
This dolphin business?’

‘
That’s right’ replied Bethany. ‘The dolphin she has this
connection with, Spirit his name is. Well his mother has been lost
but now they think that they’ve found her in an inlet off the
estuary by a big house.’

‘
That would be the old Penrose place that Darren was talking to
Lucy about?’

‘
Exactly’ Bethany replied, ‘have you been there?’

‘
Actually I have’ said Mary. ‘Norman Penrose was one of those
financial wizards who made a lot of money in the City and then came
down here with all his money to live in the lap of luxury. He and
his wife were really into sailing in regattas and that kind of
thing. They used to have a big party in the summer at their house.
Lovely place it is. It looks down an inlet from the estuary. The
house has got massive grounds and woods on both sides. They’d
invite anyone and everyone to their summer parties and that’s how I
wangled an invite. I had a great time sipping their champagne and
nibbling their canapés. Kept thinking I’d get slung out though.’
Mary paused.

‘
Don’t know what’s happened to them actually. Haven’t heard a
peep about them for ages. I guess they just got old and quietened
down. So you think this dolphin’s mother might be stuck there.
That’s a bit rum isn’t it?’

‘
I know’ replied Bethany, ‘and Lucy’s still not really over the
death of her own mother. She’s been through so much in the last
year or so and I’m afraid that she’s going to feel even more hurt
now, whether that dolphin trapped there is Spirit’s mother or
not.’

‘
Do you really believe all this stuff about dolphins?’ asked
Mary. ‘I mean, they’re just another animal aren’t they? Don’t get
me wrong. I think dolphins are lovely, but I work with animals
every day and I’ve learned not to be so sentimental about them.
Maybe Lucy’s imagination has got the better of her.’

‘
Well Lucy doesn’t think so and neither do I’ replied Bethany,
feeling a little defensive.

‘
But what is it about dolphins that sets them apart?’ asked
Mary. Bethany could tell from her expression that she was genuinely
curious. Bethany thought for a few moments. It wasn’t an easy
question to answer.

‘
It’s not just the intelligence you see in their eyes when you
look at them’ Bethany answered eventually. ‘It’s more than that.
Since the time of the ancient Greeks there have been stories of
dolphins saving people in trouble at sea. They show empathy and
compassion which is uncannily like our own.’ Mary frowned a
little.