Dolphin Child (9 page)

‘
Like Mum did?’ asked Lucy.

‘
Yes, yes I suppose so.’

‘
Did people call her a Dolphin-Child?’ Bethany paused before
replying.

‘
Not that I know of Kiddo’ she said eventually. ‘Now come on,
let’s get you off to bed.’

‘
And then Paul’s mum said my kind were dangerous. Do you know
what she meant by that?’

‘
One thing I’m certain about Kiddo’ said Bethany with passion
in her voice, ‘is that there’s absolutely nothing wrong, bad or
dangerous about you and your gift. Don’t listen to that woman.
She’s just silly and confused.’

Despite the assurances of Bethany and Thelma, Lucy had laid
awake for a long time, staring up into the rafters and wondering
about what Mrs Treddinick had said. When eventually she had drifted
off to sleep, it had been into fitful and restless dreams. Then
just before waking up, she had had the unsettling dream of the lone
dolphin in the murky saltwater lagoon.

Later today she’d be going out on the tourist boat with Nate
and Bob to look for seals. She had some time to kill before that
though and wondered what she might do. A lazy morning reading her
book in the field behind the studio would be just the thing she
decided.

It was like an electric shock when Spirit had broken through
to her, telling her quickly about the little girl trapped on the
rocks at the beach. It jolted her upright and although she was
pleased and amazed that Spirit had been able to reach out to her
instead of the other way round, it had been an almost painful
sensation when he did.

When Spirit had told her of the danger that the little girl
was in, she realised that she had to do something that instant.
She’d burst into the farm office to get Mary to call the
coastguard, but could hardly believe that Mary or anyone else would
listen to her. Yet Mary had unquestioningly picked up the receiver
and called the coastguard straight away, telling them that there
was a little girl in trouble on the rocks at the side of Black Gull
Sands. When Mary put down the receiver, she looked up at Lucy, who
was standing anxiously in the doorway of the small
office.

‘
I just hope you’re right’ she said, ‘or I’m going to have some
serious explaining to do.’ Lucy was relieved that she was right
too, though then she realised that she might still have trouble
explaining how a twelve year old lying in a field chewing a stalk
of grass might know that a little girl was in trouble at a beach
two miles up the coast.

Mary had to drive into town later in the van for an
appointment and offered to give Lucy a lift into town. Bethany
would pick her up again at the end of the afternoon.

Mary dropped her off at the side of the harbour in
Merwater.

‘
See you later then Lucy’ called Mary. The van door clunked
shut behind her and with a wave Mary drove off. Lucy glanced up at
the sky. It was bright and sunny, but there were clouds on the
horizon and she wondered if it might rain later. The ever-present
gulls swooped and soared above the town, looking out for a
discarded fish head or a half eaten sandwich on which to feast. In
nesting season gulls could swoop down aggressively on anyone who
happened to be walking up the street. Fortunately at the moment
they were more interested in looking out for their next meal. There
were many unsuspecting tourists in town for them to prey
on.

Lucy crossed over the road to the harbour wall. In the
mornings Nate and Bob went out in their fishing boat the Lady
Thelma to check their lobster pots. In the afternoons, especially
in tourist season, they took out visitors in the tourist boat ‘The
Merry Widow’ round the coast to look for seals or even if they were
lucky enough, a glimpse of a dolphin or a whale. ‘It’s easier to
haul in a few tourists than a few lobster’ Nate would say. Making a
living from fishing had never been easy and now it was just getting
harder.

Lucy walked up to where the Merry Widow was moored. Nate was
sitting on one of the plastic chairs bolted to the foredeck
drinking tea from a chipped mug. He was a comfortably built,
middle-aged man with thinning grey hair above his friendly red
face.

‘
Ahoy there young Lucy’ he greeted her. ‘You’re a full fifty
minutes early. Still though, you’re welcome to come on board now
and wait. The tourists will start arriving soon I
expect.

‘
Do you think there’ll be good sailing today Nate?’ she asked.
‘Do you think we might see some dolphins?’

‘
Well Lucy, with you on the lookout who knows, maybe we will’
Nate laughed.

‘
I hope so.’

‘
My friend Steve from the coastguard station tells me that
there was a strange call from a farm recently. Turns out a little
girl was stranded on some rocks at the edge of Black Gull Sands.
The woman on the farm told them exactly where to find the little
girl, but how could she have known, he asked me. You wouldn’t
happen to know anything about that now would you young Lucy?’ Nate
turned to look at her with a half knowing, amused expression on his
face.

Lucy shifted from one foot to the other. If she didn’t know
him any better, she’d have thought that he was putting her on the
spot. Instead she realised that he was only half serious in asking
the question.

‘
I might’ she replied with a smile on her face. Nate grinned
back at her.

‘
Strange things have been going on down here since you turned
up my gal’ he joked. ‘You best keep your eyes peeled for them
dolphins this afternoon. Make some tourists happy and keep yourself
out of trouble!’ He gave a chesty laugh. ‘Anyhow, you’re a tad
early for the boat ride, so if you don’t want to wait here, you
feel free to wander into town for half an hour or so.’

‘
I might just do that’ replied Lucy. She strolled back towards
the town again, past the booth selling tickets for the boat trip,
wondering how she might spend the time.

Just then Lucy saw a sign; ‘Merwater Museum’. In fact she’d
passed the museum half a dozen times at least. It was a small
building, run by the local council and situated just close to the
harbour. It was one of those places that Lucy thought she might go
to on a rainy day, but she’d always had some excuse or other not to
go and so she had never actually ventured inside. Now, as she
passed, she remembered what Paul Treddinick said to her the day
before when she’d asked what a Dolphin-Child actually was.‘Go look
in the museum’ he’d said in answer to her question. The museum was
free and Lucy thought she may as well take a look around
inside.

There were only three rooms to the museum which Lucy quickly
realised, really was very small indeed. Half a dozen tourists were
quietly looking around. A display with an old wooden fishing boat
and a fisherman’s net dominated the main room. Lucy read the sign
of the exhibit explaining how fishing nets were made and
maintained. She turned to look at the sequence of glass cases
running around the edge of the other side of the room. There were
various old photos, clay pipes and tinder boxes on display. Lucy
ambled around haphazardly, looking at the exhibits out of
order.

One exhibit seized Lucy’s interest in particular. It was a
diorama; a sort of model of the town of Merwater in perspective,
showing how it might have looked two hundred and fifty or more
years ago, with a crowd of model people gathered at the harbours
edge. There were some figures who appeared to be drowning in the
water and some men in rowing boats struggling out through the high
waves towards them.

There was a telephone handset next to the exhibit with a
recorded voice to tell people what it was all about. Lucy picked it
up and sat down on the bench next to the exhibit to
listen.

‘
The town of Merwater was mentioned in the Doomsday book almost
a thousand years ago and as recently as two hundred and fifty years
ago was still famous for its fish and the tin that was mined
nearby. The scene in the exhibit in front of you shows a famous
story from the town’s past, which most people think is a
myth.

The town is called “Mer” Water because legend has it that Mer
people once lived here. Sometimes known as mermaids, Mer People
were as comfortable in the sea as on dry land. However they were
not the half-fish, half-woman that pictures and pirate stories
portray. So the stories go, the Mer people all had a special
connection with dolphins and so are sometimes known as Children of
the Dolphins, or Mer children. At one time, it is said that almost
a quarter of the population of Merwater were Children of the
Dolphins. Stories recount how the locals would swim out to be with
the dolphins and would work with them to bring fish to their
nets.

Since that time legend has it that there are only one or two
Children of the Dolphins born in every generation. About two
hundred and fifty years ago, a young girl aged ten or eleven called
Susan Penhaligon told everyone in the town that she was a Mer Child
too. She claimed that she could teach the other children how to
become Mer children as well. Two or three-score children became her
followers. The town people started to become concerned about what
Susan Penhaligon was telling their children and forbade them from
associating with her. Some people believed she was under the power
of dark forces and called for her to be tried as a witch. Susan
Penhaligon went into hiding, but her followers remained faithful to
her and would steal away at first light to see her and to be with
the dolphins, who they thought were a type of angel.

On Easter Sunday in 1756 it is said that Susan Penhaligon’s
followers left their homes and swam out to sea at sunrise, to
perform a mystical ceremony that she had devised and which she told
them would enable them to all become Mer Children like
her.

However that very morning a storm hit the coast. Of the thirty
or so children that followed Susan Penhaligon out into the waves,
only one boy survived. Ten or so children were drowned and washed
up on the coast. Susan Penhaligon and the other children were never
heard of again. They too were lost, presumed drowned at sea, but
legend has it that they turned into dolphins and lived on amongst
the waves.

Some local families still believe the old stories of Mer
Children and dolphins. To this day those families whose children
were never found are always kind to dolphins, believing that the
descendents of their lost children still swim with them. The
families of the children that were washed up drowned on the beach
are mistrustful of dolphins and anything to do with
them.

The diorama you see in front of you shows the townsfolk of
Merwater at the harbours edge vainly trying to save the children
from the storm.

Although this story was recounted in locally printed pamphlets
from about 1850 and has been passed down from mother to child for
generations, there are no contemporaneous records to corroborate
that these events ever actually occurred. The story of Susan
Penhaligon and the Mer Children is a legend that continues to
fascinate generations of visitors.’

The recording ended and Lucy put down the handset back on its
rest. Lucy felt shaky and had to sit down briefly on a bench to
steady herself. She felt a strange swirl of emotions. She was
pleased to learn that she was not alone and that other people might
have had similar experiences to her own in the past. The story of
Susan Penhaligon and the children she took to their death in the
seas disturbed her though. How could associating with something so
wonderful as a dolphin lead to death like that?

Lucy thought back to Paul’s mother Mrs Treddinick and what she
had said only yesterday. ‘You and your kind are dangerous’ she’d
said. ‘You’ll be the death of all of us!’ Those words cut into Lucy
like a knife. She wondered whether Mrs Treddinick believed the old
stories and what she’d said to her son Paul about Lucy.

Lucy glanced at her watch. She’d have to get back to Nate and
Bob in a few minutes. She wandered around the museum a little more.
There in another display case was one of the original pamphlets
telling the story of Susan Penhaligon and there was even an old oil
painting of what an artist imagined her to look like. It was a dark
picture, with a girl in the foreground and the sea and leaping
dolphins in the background. The girl’s eyes were too close
together, Lucy thought and the dolphins in the picture all looked
strange. The next room told the story of tin mining in Cornwall,
but Lucy didn’t have time to look at that properly and left the
small museum, still feeling disturbed by what she had just heard
and seen.

There were quite a few tourists already onboard the Merry
Widow and Nate greeted her again in a friendly tone.

‘
Hop on board young Lucy, we’re leaving in five minutes.’ Nate
looked at her more closely. ‘You okay?’

‘
You know. I’ve just been in the museum’ she replied quietly. A
look of understanding passed across Nate’s face. He could imagine
which displays she’d been looking at and what it meant to
her.

‘
Oh I see’ Nate replied simply. He had to busy himself with
preparations to cast off and leave the harbour. Lucy went and stood
at the stern of the Merry Widow. The weather had cleared up and a
light breeze was coming off the sea. There were twenty or so
tourists on board, cameras at the ready, eager for the glimpse of
seals basking on the rocks, a great plankton-feeding basking shark
perhaps, or even a dolphin.