Dolphin Child (34 page)

‘
Hullo there Lucy’ smiled Nate Merryweather. ‘Thought I’d hitch
a ride on this tub for old time’s sake and who should they pull out
of the water but young Paul Treddinick and young Lucy Parr. Now
however did they come to be out here on a wet and stormy night I
wonder?’ He smiled. ‘Well I’m right glad we found you both. And in
the nick of time too I reckon.’

The lifeboat came ashore on the beach under the Man Overboard,
where the flashing light of an ambulance was waiting for them. Lucy
leant back and gave a silent prayer of thanks that they were both
alright.

Chapter Twenty: Epilogue

It was a hospital bed that Lucy woke up in the next morning.
They’d been scared that she and Paul would suffer from hypothermia
and the doctors had decided to keep them both in overnight under
observation at the local cottage hospital. Lucy had felt utterly
exhausted and had slept deeply through the long hours of darkness
after the storm.

When she awoke bleary eyed the next morning, Dad and Bethany
were sitting by her bed. It looked as though they’d been dozing in
their chairs and they both looked tired and drawn.

‘
Hello Dad’, Lucy said in a small voice. She didn’t like to
think what he might say to her.

‘
Hey Luce’ he whispered, giving her hand a squeeze. She
couldn’t tell if he was angry with her or just glad she was okay.
He was about to say something when a male nurse appeared at her
bedside. The nurse busied himself with taking Lucy’s temperature,
checking her heart rate and updating the chart at the foot of her
bed. He turned to Dad and Bethany and smiled brightly.

‘
Well the doctor will have to come round later, but I think
she’ll give Lucy the all clear. She’s been stable all night and
there’s been no sign of exposure developing. Lucy had a very lucky
escape.’

‘
Please, what about Paul?’ asked Lucy, struggling to sit
upright.

‘
You lie down now Lucy’ replied the nurse.

‘
He’s okay Kiddo’ Bethany broke in. ‘He’s just down the
corridor. It looks like he’ll be fine too. I was chatting to his
mother a bit earlier. They were a bit worried about his vital signs
over night, but he stabilised an hour or two ago.’ The memory of
last night came back vividly to Lucy.

‘
I, I didn’t mean it to happen like this’ she stammered. ‘He
got it into his head that he could actually turn into a dolphin or
something. He started swimming out after Dancer. I tried to reach
him, really I did. But if it hadn’t been for…..’ she trailed off as
she thought of the lifeboat. Another minute and it might have been
too late, she thought. Lucy could see Dad’s face clouding again but
Bethany spoke before he could.

‘
It’s alright, we know’ Bethany reassured her. ‘Nate went with
Paul in the second ambulance. Paul was quite upset but he told Nate
about the bullying and then wanting to turn into a dolphin like
those children who swam out with that Susan Penhaligon all those
years ago. You couldn’t have known Kiddo, really you
couldn’t.’

You should never have been there in the first place, neither
of you’ muttered Dad darkly. Lucy didn’t seem to hear
though.

‘
What was Nate doing there anyway?’ she asked.

‘
You know he used to be a lifeboat volunteer himself for many
years’ Bethany continued. ‘Well he was having a chat with one of
his life-boat pals when the call came through. He hitched a lift
when he heard you and Paul mentioned. Paul’s Dad used to be a
lifeboat volunteer too so he knows the Treddinick family quite
well. It was Mrs Penrose who raised the alarm when you both
disappeared down the estuary on the dolphin’s backs.’

‘
Just as well too’ said Dad, frowning. ‘Your Aunt and I nearly
went spare when we realised you’d given me the slip and ran off
like that into the storm. You must have been mad. I must have been
mad to ever think about letting you come down here in the first
place’.

‘
I’m so sorry Dad, really I am. I know what I did was wrong
but….’

‘
But nothing’ broke in Dad, his anger getting the better of
him. ‘It’s not going to happen again. We’re going home tomorrow far
from the sea where you’ll be safe. You’ll be waking up one morning
soon and you’ll realise that you can’t communicate with your
precious dolphins anymore. That’s what Thelma says. That’s what
your Mrs Penhaligon from school says. That’s what happens with all
these Dolphin-Children. It will all just fade away. Then I can have
my daughter back again. It’s not going to be like it was with
Megan. You’ll just grow out of it. It’ll be over at
last.’

Lucy looked from Dad to Bethany and back again.

‘
That, that can’t be true!’ she exclaimed. Dad looked angry and
Bethany had a pained sympathetic expression on her face. The
thought of not having Spirit in her life felt like having her heart
torn out.

‘
That’s not what happened to Mum is it?’ she asked. Dad leant
forward hotly and seized both her arms as though he was going to
shake her. He looked passionately and angrily into her
eyes.

‘
Your Mum would be here today if it weren’t for all of
this…...’ He gestured around him as though he meant Merwater, the
sea, dolphins and everything else. Lucy knew what he meant. He
expected her to just forget about dolphins and to live an empty
grey life instead.

‘
NO!’ cried Lucy full of anguish ‘I can’t lose Spirit. I won’t.
I’m not going to let it happen!

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‘
Midnight Dolphin’. What is the secret of Lucy’s mother’s
death? What are ‘The Three Sisters’? What links three generations
of children and their dolphins? Read the third book of the trilogy
and find out the answers to these questions.