Dolphin Child (30 page)

‘
When I went down sick with the flu last winter, my dog Pip
wouldn’t leave me. She kept licking me and nuzzling in to me until
I got better again. What’s the difference between my Pip and the
compassion which you say that dolphins show.’

‘
Yes of course dogs are loyal to their master and mistresses,
but the remarkable thing about dolphins is that they are wild and
free. They owe no allegiance to any human being. But time and time
again they have come and helped us humans in trouble for no other
reason than that they wanted to. I don’t think that dogs are like
that, do you?’

‘
No, I suppose not’ replied Mary thoughtfully as she leant on
the fence. ‘But are they really that smart? Pip is a clever dog,
but I know she’s not going to start opening her mouth and talk to
me.’

‘
Dolphins spend more of their time in social interaction than
they do in searching for food’ replied Bethany, warming to her
subject. ‘They use complex whistles and clicks to communicate with
each other which we humans have yet to understand.’

‘
That’s just meaningless noise isn’t it? Like a bird singing in
a tree.’

‘
A dolphin’s brain is pretty much the same size as our own’
continued Bethany. ‘Scientists haven’t been able to crack the code
of what they are saying to each other, but we know they cooperate
in complex social groups. They wouldn’t need a brain that size if
they weren’t interacting with each other in a sophisticated way.
It’s a bit like with Egyptian hieroglyphics. For a long time
scholars had no idea what they meant. Then they found the Rosetta
Stone and that meant they were able to crack the code and figure
out what it all meant. With dolphins, we just haven’t found a
Rosetta Stone yet.’

‘
No I see what you mean, really I do. But as you know, it’s my
Darren who’s the local boy. I’m not from these parts. I don’t have
this thing with dolphins like some of the local people round here
do. But what I don’t reckon on is how Lucy could speak to dolphins
somehow. That’s just beyond me.’

‘
I don’t know either’ replied Bethany, ‘but somehow it happens.
How else could Lucy have known about that little girl trapped on
the rock. If it weren’t for her ability to communicate with
dolphins, who knows what might have happened to that
girl.’

‘
That’s true enough’ replied Mary. ‘The coastguard were amazed
when I rang up from the farm and said there was a girl stuck on a
rock just off the beach. I could hardly believe it myself when I
phoned up. I suppose there are just some things that can’t be
readily explained.’

‘
I guess not’ sighed Bethany. ‘But still, I worry about Lucy.’
Mary glanced up at the sky.

‘
Weather’s on the turn’ she said. ‘There’s a storm forecast’.
I’d better press on and get a few things sorted out round here
before the rains reach us. Catch up with you later
Bethany!’

With that, Mary strode off purposefully in the direction of
the top field. Bethany stayed leaning on the fence for a few
minutes more, studying the placid cows, before she too went inside
to resume her work. She wondered where Lucy was now.

When Lucy had turned up at his house and asked him to show her
the lagoon where the dolphin was trapped, Paul felt something
inside that he hadn’t expected. It wasn’t just that he felt needed,
or that now he had a friend who was actually seeking him out. It
was that he was proud that in some way he could help. He didn’t
know what was going to happen, but at least he could guide her to
the big house by the lagoon. They were a team.

As they cycled along, Paul wanted to tell Lucy all about his
daydreams of guards running around the grounds with guns and
mantraps, but he realised that it would be silly to do so and in
any case, it all seemed less important now.

To be a Dolphin-Child seemed to Paul to be an amazing thing.
His mum had told him that Dolphin-Children were dangerous and that
generations ago a Dolphin-Child called Susan Penhaligon had led
their ancestors to a watery grave. She warned him against Lucy and
told him to stay away from her. Yet Lucy had been the only one to
stand up against his bullies and tormentors. Even his mum seemed to
recognise now that Lucy was a good person. Why else would she have
let him cycle off up the road with her?

The time that he had swum in the sea with Lucy and her dolphin
friend had been magical and electrifying. He could still barely
believe it, but it felt as though it were the most important thing
that had ever happened to him.

Paul glanced at Lucy as they cycled. She seemed so confident
and self-possessed. He was convinced that she didn’t need any other
human being because she had her dolphin friends instead. Who needed
people anyway? After the last few days, he knew that he didn’t. If
Lucy could be a Dolphin-Child, why couldn’t he? It had to be
possible, it just had to be.

Paul felt nervous as he showed Lucy the route over the wall to
take her into the Penrose estate. He was still half convinced that
they would have to dodge bullets on the other side. When they
clambered through the rhododendron thicket and came out at the
waters edge, Paul could see Lucy focus on the water of the inlet,
scanning it for life. Covertly, he tried to do the same too, but
was startled when Lucy had strode out from the bank, wading out
into the briny water.

Paul didn’t know what to do except just stand there, hoping
that in some way Lucy would include him too. Instead she forgot
everything else but the sight of the dolphin trapped in the muddy
lagoon. Lucy looked and touched the dolphin in a way that showed a
level of understanding between girl and creature that Paul could
only imagine. He ached to be able to do the same.

In the end he ineffectually waded out a few yards into the
water, his feet sinking down into the soft mud as he did so. He
didn’t quite know why he did it; he just wanted to be involved in
some way. Instead the dolphin pulled Lucy along the length of the
inlet all the way up to the closed-link fence that blocked it off
from the rest of the estuary and kept the creature
trapped.

As they turned, Paul became aware of the tall figure of the
old woman standing watching them from the landing stage in front of
the big house. He half expected guards to creep up behind him and
seize him there and then. He was ready to turn and run, but instead
of turning away, he couldn’t believe that Lucy would confront the
woman instead.

When she shouted ‘Let this dolphin go!’, it felt like an
electric shock running through his entire body. He looked with a
mixture of awe and fear from Lucy to the severe-looking woman,
wondering what was going to happen next.

Chapter Eighteen:

‘
You’d better come in’ the woman said curtly. ‘You can’t walk
around in those wet things, even on a summer’s day like this’ she
continued, looking disdainfully at Lucy’s wet and muddy clothes.
‘It’s overcast and I think it’s going to rain.’ She glanced in
Paul’s direction where he was now standing thigh deep in the water.
‘That goes for your friend there too.’

‘
But I said…’ started Lucy, already feeling a little deflated.
The woman cut in.

‘
I know what you said young lady and when you’re clean and dry
I will talk to you, not before then.’ The woman spoke
authoritatively and Lucy felt compelled to comply. She glanced down
at herself. She did look a state and the mud she was covered in
smelled unpleasantly. She looked back at Star-Gazer, but the
dolphin had disappeared temporarily from view. Reluctantly, Lucy
gestured to Paul to follow her and the woman into the house. They
waited for Paul to wade round the edge of the lake to reach them
and then both children squelched behind her round to the door at
the side.

They entered a general utility and storage room which opened
off the kitchen.

‘
Wait here’ the woman said. ‘I can’t let you into the rest of
the house in this state. I’ll get you both something to wear and
then you can get out of those clothes. Young lady, you will need a
shower. Fortunately I have some of my granddaughter’s things that I
think might fit you while I give your own clothes a quick spin in
the washing machine. Young man, it’s only your jeans that are dirty
and wet, but I don’t have anything your size for you to wear so
I’ll have to put you in some old jogging trousers until your own
are clean and dry.’

The woman was so commanding and business-like that it felt as
though they were being told off by a head teacher. Both children
fell silent as they waited for her to return. When she came back,
Lucy made Paul turn the other way while she changed and she did the
same while Paul took off his wet trousers and put on the jogging
bottoms. The woman bundled their clothes into a washing basket and
disappeared into the kitchen to put them in the machine.

‘
What now?’ asked Paul. Lucy was still very angry with the
woman for imprisoning Star-Gazer, but she had an instinct that the
woman wasn’t a bad person and she was so used to being polite to
grown-ups that she was prepared to wait.

‘
Let’s hang on a bit’ she replied. ‘Then I’ll talk to the
lady.’ To their surprise another woman appeared who seemed to be
wearing a sort of nurse’s uniform and ushered Lucy silently to a
downstairs shower room. A shapeless dress and a pair of underwear
had been left for her to change into. Lucy showered quickly and
then pulled the dress over her head. Lucy hardly ever wore dresses
and it felt strange to put one on like this.

Paul had got muddier than it initially appeared and it was his
turn to shower next. There were no spare clothes for him to change
into though and he had to wrap himself up in the bathrobe
afterwards until his clothes were washed and dry.

Without speaking, the nurse showed them back to the kitchen
and indicated that they should sit down at the table in the large
and well appointed room.

Lucy peered through the window, but it looked out of the side
of the house and she couldn’t see the lagoon or Star-Gazer. She
felt anxious about her. It was evident that Star-Gazer was
sickening. Lucy could tell from the touch and colour of her skin
and the energy that she gave off. Compared to the other dolphins in
the pod in the sea, she was very weak. Lucy feared that she
couldn’t last much longer at all. When Lucy had reached out to
Star-Gazer with her mind, she had pleaded with Lucy to help release
her. Lucy was determined that she would.

The two children heard footsteps approaching and the door
opened and the woman came back into the room. She looked
disapprovingly at them before pulling up a chair and sitting down
opposite them.

‘
So what do you two think you’re doing trespassing on private
land then?’ the woman asked sharply. Lucy wasn’t going to take this
without a fight.

‘
We’ve come to save Star-Gazer. You’ve no right to keep her
trapped here in that lagoon.’

‘
Star-Gazer? I think you mean Flipper’ the woman answered.
‘We’ll talk about the dolphin in a minute. Do your parents know
you’re here?’ Lucy paused before replying. She didn’t know whether
it was better to pretend that her dad did know where they were, or
to admit that he didn’t.

‘
Our parents trust us to do the right thing’ said Lucy
defiantly.

‘
Well you did the wrong thing by breaking into private
property’ the woman replied tartly.

‘
It’s only because you’ve got something to hide that you care’
replied Lucy, her hackles rising. Paul seemed to have shrunk back
into his chair and was silently following the exchange between Lucy
and the woman. The woman glared at Lucy.

‘
I do not care for the way you are speaking to me young lady’
she answered, ‘and I’ll thank you to address me more courteously. I
care about two children trespassing onto private land without their
parents knowledge and then swimming out into treacherous water
where they could easily have got into trouble and
drowned.’

‘
Star-Gazer would never have let that happen’ replied Lucy
defensively. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘
Do you? Does he?’ the woman replied, nodding towards Paul.
Lucy blanched slightly. She had been so focussed on Star-Gazer that
she had not realised that Paul had waded out into the water. The
mud was so thick and glutinous that it would have been easy for him
to get stuck there. He was the younger kid and she knew that it was
up to her to look after him. Lucy glanced down guiltily.

‘
You’ve got to let Star-Gazer go’ Lucy said again, more quietly
this time but still defiantly.

‘
Why do you persist in calling him Star-Gazer?’ the woman
asked.

‘
Coz that’s her name. She’s a she, not a he. Lucy’s a
Dolphin-Child see?’ said Paul. The woman stared at Paul and then at
Lucy.

‘
I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean young man’ the
woman answered eventually. She sighed and as she did so she seemed
to soften. ‘I’m going to make you both a hot chocolate drink to
warm you up and then I’m going to tell you a story.’

As they watched the woman go to the fridge and then get a pan
out to warm up the milk in, Lucy could see that she was old and
tired. Her hands shook slightly as she poured the milk into the
saucepan and sprinkled in the chocolate powder. It felt hard for
Lucy to answer back to a woman like this but keeping Star-Gazer
prisoner was wrong and if she didn’t tell the woman, who
would?