Dolphin Child (8 page)

‘
I think that humans are dangerous and not to be trusted’ said
Storm. ‘I’ve seen more bad come from involvement with humans than
good. We’re better off without them’. He paused. ‘But I’ve met Lucy
and though I could not speak to her in the way that Spirit and
Dancer can, I’ve looked into her eyes. There is something
dolphin-like about her. I believe her to be a good
human.’

‘
Great’ said Breeze. ‘All the better for us! Just think, Spirit
could send her instructions and she could get the humans to bring
us fish any time we need it.’ Spirit and Dancer looked back at
Storm. He was quiet for a moment, lost in thought.

‘
A long time ago we all gave Star-Gazer a promise, before
Spirit was named. We all vowed that we would look after Spirit,
come what may.’

‘
And now we have another youngster in the group and Spirit will
join us to pledge to look after Summer’s new calf’ replied
Breeze.

‘
You forget the stories of old’ Storm replied, ‘and what it
means to be a Child-Seer.’

‘
Who cares about the old stories?’ asked Breeze defensively.
‘We’ve all got to pull together to help each other. What use is
Spirit’s gift unless it puts fish in our stomachs?’

‘
I agreed with Storm’ said Summer, her calf nuzzling into her
flank. ‘We must think about the old stories.’

‘
That’s right’ said Dancer, ‘And Lucy has already saved
Spirit.’

‘
I say that it is still too early. I trust Lucy but I do not
trust other humans. We cannot use Spirit’s gift when we do not yet
know what it is’ said Storm.

There was a murmur of assent around the group. Breeze was
silent. The conversation passed on to other things. Moonlight
wanted Spirit to tell the story of how they saved the little girl
all over again and Dancer was happy to oblige. Spirit felt shy and
let himself drift off a short distance from the pod. Chaser was
debating with Storm the best way to tell when a shoal of sprat
might be approaching. Summer, noticing that Spirit seemed
withdrawn, swam over to him with her calf by her side.

‘
One thing I know’ she said, ‘is that Star-Gazer would be proud
of you’. Spirit looked back at her, worried and unhappy.

‘
Do you really think so Summer?’ he asked.

‘
I do’ she answered decisively. ‘She was my good friend. I wish
she was here to see the dolphin you have grown up to
be.’

‘
I wish she was here now too’ replied Spirit. ‘I still wonder
what became of her.’

‘
So do I Spirit’ she replied. ‘It must be twelve full moons ago
that Storm and I swam out with Star-Gazer. You know the story. We
were separated when a squall blew up. A ship crossed our path and
the terrible noise of its engines confused all three of us. After
the ship had gone, I found Storm easily enough and then we both
wondered where Star-Gazer was. She’d disappeared. Storm thought
there were traces of her blood in the water, but I wasn’t so sure.
I wish I knew where she was now.’

‘
Do you think maybe she’s alive now?’ asked Spirit anxiously.
Summer shook her head.

‘
I really don’t know Spirit’ replied Summer. ‘I wish I did. It
would be great if she was, but then why hasn’t she come back to us?
I don’t want to build your hopes up. You know she’s probably joined
the stars up in the night sky that she so loved to look at. If
she’s looking down on us from up there, she’ll be smiling at
you.’

At that moment Summer’s calf No-Name started to wander off and
with an apologetic look, she went after him.

It had been a long day and Spirit needed to rest. That
evening, the sky was especially clear and bright with what looked
like a million stars. Whilst the others dozed off into their waking
sleep, Spirit stared up at the stars spread above him in the night
sky as his mother had done so many times.

Chapter Five:

For some reason that she could not quite understand, the form
that swam through Lucy’s dream upset her. She could not see well,
as the water in her vision was murky and all she could really make
out was a vague silhouette in the shallow brackish water. It seemed
to be restless and turned fretfully this way and that, not as
though it were looking for a means of escape, but more like a
creature that needed to do something, anything, rather than just
hang there in the water. Lucy could barely make out the shape of
the animal, but she knew it was a dolphin. There was nothing else
around it, just the muddy water and there were no other dolphins to
keep it company. Lucy could sense a deep, painful loneliness in the
dolphin, but was powerless in her dream to do anything about
it.

When Lucy awoke, she could not tell if it was a vision of an
actual living dolphin, or merely an imaginary scene conjured up out
of the depths of her subconscious. She lay there in the camp bed on
the platform in Bethany’s studio, staring up at the rafters,
feeling anxious and unsettled. ‘It must just have been a nightmare’
Lucy said to herself. ‘I’m sure that’s all it was’. Yet despite her
attempts to convince herself otherwise, Lucy just couldn’t be
sure.

Sometimes when Lucy had a bad dream, it would hang over her
like an oppressive cloud even though she had already woken up. She
worried that she would fall back to sleep again and slip back into
the nightmare she had just escaped from. Lucy forced her eyes wide
open and blinking, looked around her. The morning light was
streaming through the studio windows below them, but Bethany was
still fast asleep.

Lucy looked at her watch. It was a little before seven
o’clock. There was still time to cycle up the hill to old Man’s
Cove with the hope of swimming with Spirit. She hurriedly pulled on
her clothes and slipped out while Bethany was still sleeping. Lucy
felt intensely private about swimming with Spirit and didn’t want
anyone to see her when she did. If she left too late there would be
too many people around.

In any case she could not put the image of the solitary
dolphin out of her head. She thought about what might have caused
it. It must have been brought on by her conversation with that
strange boy Paul Treddinick the previous day, she thought to
herself.

An hour and a half later when Lucy got back, she went straight
to the kitchen area and made herself some warm chocolate milk.
Bethany was not there and she guessed that she’d popped over to the
farm office for a chat with Mary. Lucy sat down at the kitchen
table to drink it. Even though she’d been out swimming with Spirit,
it was the first morning of her holiday down here in Cornwall that
she didn’t feel all that happy.

Lucy’s encounter with Paul’s mother the day before had really
upset her. She recalled how she’d found Paul in the recreation
ground when he told her about the dolphin trapped in the lagoon.
Lucy had been sitting there on the low bough of the tree next to
the recreation ground, conscious that the wetness of the branch was
seeping through her jeans and making her bottom uncomfortably damp.
Paul had been whittling a piece of wood with his penknife, but now
that she had suddenly appeared next to him, he put his penknife
down on the branch next to him. Lucy noticed enviously that Paul
was sitting on a plastic carrier bag. His bottom was still dry.
Lucy could understand why the other kids called him scrawny; he
really was very thin and his mass of curly hair merely accentuated
the slightness of the rest of his body.

Lucy wondered whether Paul might be a liar like those big kids
had claimed, yet when he described the grounds of the house where
he said a dolphin was kept in a saltwater lake, she wasn’t so sure.
He seemed to tell her with utter sincerity and a kind of shyness
that made her realise he wasn’t just saying it to show
off.

‘
Where is this place?’ asked Lucy curiously. ‘Can you take me
there?’

‘
I go cycling on my own’ replied Paul. ‘I don’t take no one
with me.’

‘
Oh go on, you could take me’ Lucy urged him. ‘You told me all
about it the other day.’

‘
No’ said Paul defiantly. Now he wished he hadn’t said what he
told her the other day, even if she was supposed to be a Dolphin
Child. With a fluid and practised twist of his hips, he half jumped
and half slid from the low branch that they were both sitting on,
landing on the wet grass of the recreation field with a
thud.

‘
Hey, come back!’ Lucy called, too nervous to jump down herself
and looking around for the nails driven into the tree trunk which
she had used to climb up in the first place. Paul started walking
away from her towards the swings. Lucy hastily clambered back down
the tree, ripping the sleeve of her t-shirt on one of the nails in
her anxiety to get down and go after him. She jumped the last bit
and ran to catch up with him.

‘
What’s with you then?’ she asked.

‘
You’ve got your dolphins in the sea’ he said, turning to look
at her. ‘You get to swim around with them. You’re a Dolphin-Child.
You come from a big town and your aunt’s a well-known artist.
Everything’s easy for you.’ Lucy wanted to say that things
certainly weren’t easy for her, but she knew her words would sound
hollow and insincere if she said so.

‘
I just thought I could….help’ Lucy replied simply.

‘
Well I don’t need your help’ he answered sharply. ‘I shouldn’t
have told you what I did. I can sort things out on my own. My Mum
said…., well...’ He trailed off and then turned to walk towards the
gate to Truro Road. Lucy remembered that Thelma said he lived just
next to the park in the end-of-terrace house with peeling paint and
weeds in the garden. Lucy followed Paul. She wanted to say
something more to him, but she wasn’t sure what.

‘
I don’t even know what a Dolphin-Child is’ she said eventually
as he neared the road. ‘Why can’t you help me?’

‘
Go look in the museum’ he replied, without looking back at
her. Lucy just could not understand why he should suddenly switch
like this. Just then Mrs Treddinick emerged from the house. She
wore a shapeless cardigan and looked tired beyond her
years.

‘
Paul, who is that?’ she shouted across the road at her
son.

‘
It’s, well…..’

‘
It’s not that girl you told me about is it?’ Paul didn’t deny
it. ‘Come over here this instant’ she called to Paul, anger
catching in her voice. Lucy stopped where she was, while Paul
crossed the road over to where his mother stood at their front
gate.

‘
You stay away from my boy, you hear!’ Mrs Treddinick shouted
back across at Lucy. ‘You and your kind are dangerous. You stop
following him around. You’ll be the death of all of us!’ She
marched her son into the house and banged her door shut behind
her.

Lucy stood there, shocked and disbelieving, unable to
comprehend what had prompted the outburst from Paul’s mother. She
had no friends of her own here in Merwater and even Paul, who was
picked on by other kids, had turned his back on her. Now his mother
was shouting at her and she didn’t understand why. Lucy burst out
into bitter tears. She turned to walk back down the road to
Thelma’s house where she and Bethany were still chatting over the
tea things.

‘
Lucy, whatever is the matter?’ exclaimed Bethany as she walked
back into Thelma’s kitchen. Lucy’s eyes were puffy and red. It was
obvious she’d been crying. Lucy hesitantly recounted the story of
her encounter with Paul and what his mother had said to
her.

‘
That Rachael Treddinick’ said Thelma angrily. ‘I’ll be having
a word with her when I next see her, you mark my words.’

‘
But what did she mean?’ asked Lucy miserably.

‘
Oh I shouldn’t worry about her’ said Bethany, her arm around
her niece’s shoulders. ‘She’s not a happy woman. Some people say
thoughtless things when they’re miserable themselves.’

‘
That’s right young Lucy’ added Thelma. ‘She doesn’t know what
she’s saying. Take no notice now.’

Bethany had been ready to leave when Lucy got back and so
after a few more minutes they thanked Thelma and made for the
door.

‘
My Nate was wondering if you’d like to go out in the tourist
boat with him and Bob tomorrow afternoon’ said Thelma as they stood
by the door. ‘They’ll be going out seal watching. He reckons you’ve
got a good pair of eyes for that kind of thing. Now what do you
say?’

‘
How about it Kiddo?’ asked Bethany. ‘It’ll get you out of the
studio sure enough.’

‘
Yes I’d love to’ smiled Lucy wanly, still feeling
tearful.

‘
Good. I’ll let Nate know to expect you’ replied Thelma. They
waved and walked back to Bethany’s Land Rover. As they drove
through the town on their way back to the studio, Lucy stared out
of the window, half expecting to see Paul Treddinick on the street
again, but she saw no one she knew and they were soon rattling down
the lane that led to the farm.

Later on, after her daily phone call to Dad and Bethany had
announced it was time to get ready for bed, Lucy’s thoughts turned
back to Paul Treddinick and his mother.

‘
That boy said I was a Dolphin-Child’ she told Bethany, but I
don’t know what that means, not really.’

‘
Well I suppose it means that you’ve got a special gift’
replied Bethany cautiously.