Midnight Dolphin (17 page)

‘
If that was
happening, then normally I’d just run out of energy and I’d fade
into the water and return to my body on dry land’ said
Lucy.

‘
That’s true’
said Dancer, ‘but if your body’s hurt, maybe it doesn’t work like
that.’

‘
I just can’t
worry about that now’ said Lucy insistently. ‘What about the caves?
Ask the others if they know about the Three Green Caves.

Spirit asked
Storm and the others, but no one seemed to know about
them.

‘
Between us we
know this coastline pretty well’ said Storm. ‘There are caves of
course. Some are exposed when the tide is low and some are hidden
entirely beneath the water. But I can’t think of any of the sort
that you describe.’

‘
Well you must
take me there’ replied Lucy when Spirit explained what Storm had
said. ‘There’s not a moment to lose.’

‘
Lucy, I
desperately want to find out how we can keep this thing going’
Spirit said. ‘But it’s dangerous for you. You could die.’ Lucy
looked at Spirit with determination in her eyes.

‘
It’s a risk
I’m just going to have to take’ she replied emphatically. The pod
spoke more amongst themselves and Storm reluctantly agreed to take
them to see the caves he knew along the coast. The pod moved off,
all in one group.

‘
What’s the
matter doctor?’ asked Dad. Doctor Goodman was standing by Lucy’s
bed with a couple of junior doctors next to her. She was puzzled by
Lucy’s monitors. Brain activity was as active as ever, but her
heart rate and blood pressure were dropping rapidly. Doctor Goodman
had been discussing what the problem might be. She turned to
Dad.

‘
I really
don’t know Mr Parr’ she replied. ‘I can’t explain it. So far all
we’ve done is keep Lucy stable and give her body a chance to
recover at its own pace. Yet her physical condition appears to be
deteriorating. It doesn’t fit in to our normal understanding of the
symptoms for MTBI, or concussion, at all. We’ll be applying some
medication to help restore her heart beat and then we’ll review the
situation again later on this afternoon.’

Doctor Goodman
turned back to her colleagues to continue their discussion. Bethany
had just returned to the ward with yet another styrofoam cup of
coffee and was looking at them all with a look of incomprehension
and worry on her face. Dad felt the same way.

As they all
approached the grey granite cliffs, Spirit glanced back at Lucy.
Ordinarily she glided effortless along in the water next to him,
but now she seemed to be straining to keep up. Her face looked pale
and drawn. If they hadn’t been traveling more slowly due to
Summer’s calf No-Name, she wouldn’t have managed it at all. It was
clear that Lucy was getting much weaker now. Spirit didn’t know how
much longer she could keep going. They paused under the grey wall
of cliff.

‘
Here’s the
biggest cave that I know about’ said Chaser, who had been leading
the pod for the last ten minutes or so. ‘The only entrance to it is
from under the water. Spirit, you come with me, it isn’t safe for
all of us to go.’

‘
Hang on, I’m
coming too’ said Lucy defiantly. Chaser, Spirit and Lucy swam down
past the great tumbled boulders at the foot of the cliff. The light
grew fainter the further down they went, and Lucy could see
something like an eel slither along from the shadows down into a
crevice out of the way of the approaching dolphins.

‘
Are you sure
you’re okay down here?’ Spirit whispered to Lucy. She nodded. He
knew that was how she’d respond, though she clearly wasn’t alright
at all.

‘
The mouth of
the cave is just below us’ said Chaser, nodding towards a black
jagged hole in the rock. ‘Be careful, it’s very dark.’ Because of
their ability to detect things around them with their clicking
echo-location, Chaser and Spirit weren’t impeded by the lack of
light. For Lucy though, it was pitch black inside the cave and she
couldn’t see a thing.

‘
Stay close to
my side’ whispered Spirit. He moved slowly in the darkness. Now
they were in the cave it seemed to rise up and Lucy could hear the
two dolphin’s rapid clicking as they made their way along. It felt
claustrophobic to be enclosed by the dark rock after the freedom of
the wide ocean and Lucy didn’t like the feeling it gave her at all.
The chamber seemed to widen out before tapering away to a crack. It
was entirely full of water and there seemed to be no living thing
in there.

‘
It can’t be
this cave’ whispered Spirit anxiously to Lucy. There’s no way a
human could get in here unaided and it certainly isn’t linked to
any other caves. It’s not green either.’

‘
Let’s get out
of here’ said Chaser. ‘I’ve never been all the way into here
before, but I don’t think it’s this one.’

It was a
relief to return to the light outside the cave and to re-join the
others. Lucy had to pause and rest for a few moments. She could
feel Star-Gazer’s worried eyes fixed upon her. Star-Gazer reminded
her of the way her own mother used to look at Lucy when she was
still alive. It was nice to be mothered sometimes she thought, but
this wasn’t one of those times.

‘
That can’t be
it’ said Lucy to Spirit and Dancer. ‘There must be other caves that
we can visit.’

‘
Storm says
that there’s another cave just a ten minute swim from here’ said
Dancer. ‘We’re going there next.’ Spirit wished that he could give
Lucy a lift with his dorsal fin like he could when she was
physically there. Now though she was just a fading apparition in
the water and there was nothing he could do to help her as they all
swam along.

Eventually
they came to the cave that Storm had been referring to. Lucy
glimpsed at it over the surface of the water. It was much more how
she would imagine a sea cave. It looked as though the cliff had a
gash in the side that opened up a hole of about ten meters at water
level. The sun was playing on the water and compared to the other
cave, this one looked inviting.

‘
What are we
waiting for?’ asked Lucy, keen to get on. Just then though they
heard an engine, and an open boat with an out-board motor came into
view. There was a group of ten or so people in the boat and they
seemed to be heading towards the entrance of the cave. The dolphins
were not keen to be seen and dipped below the surface of the
sea.

‘
Storm says
that boats often come here from the town’ whispered Dancer. ‘Humans
like looking in the cave apparently.’ Lucy felt her optimism rise.
Perhaps this could be the one.

It felt like a
really long time before the boat with the humans inside eventually
left again and they were free to enter. This time the entire pod
swam into the cave to look around. It was maybe five meters from
the surface of the water to the rocky bottom, but the thing that
impressed Lucy was how high the cave went. It felt like the vaulted
ceiling of a cathedral. She thought she could make out bats
roosting high above them, but she couldn’t be sure.

They were
moving slowly now, but even Lucy could feel her energy ebbing away.
She knew she didn’t have long. What if Star-Gazer was right? What
if she wouldn’t be able to return to her body in the hospital bed
so far away. What if she’d just die? Lucy started looking around
the cave with renewed urgency. It was no good though. It wasn’t
green and it wasn’t linked to any other caves. It wasn’t the right
one.

‘
Come on,
let’s get out of here’ said Spirit eventually. They swam outside
again.

‘
Lucy, you
look really unwell now. This can’t go on’ said Star-Gazer, full of
motherly concern.

‘
But what
about the next cave? We’ve got to go to the next cave’ protested
Lucy weakly.

‘
Summer says
she knows one but its more than an hour’s swim from here’ said
Dancer.

‘
We could go
on looking all week and never find the cave that Sunlight told us
about’ said Star-Gazer.

‘
Look’
whispered Dancer to Spirit. ‘She’s sinking again. She’s sinking
downwards.’

‘
Listen to me
Lucy’ said Spirit urgently. ‘I don’t think you’re going to last
much longer. You’ve got to return to your own body in the hospital.
You’ve got to do it now. If you don’t I’m afraid that you’ll…that
you’ll die.’

‘
She’s so
faint she’s hardly here’ said Summer, full of concern.

‘
But I don’t
want to lose you’ said Lucy, her voice small and
unhappy.

‘
I don’t want
to lose you either’ said Spirit. ‘But we have a clue now. Dancer
and I can keep on looking for the three green caves at this end.
You can continue looking at your end, in the world above the
water.’ Spirit looked imploringly at her. He knew that Lucy was
stubborn and headstrong. Would she listen to him?

‘
Okay, I’ll
try to return to my body now’ said Lucy at last. ‘I don’t want to
though. I want to remain here with you all for ever.’

‘
We
will
see each other
again’ said Spirit. ‘We
will
!’ With one last look deep into
Spirit’s eyes, Lucy dissolved into a swirl of atoms. Then she was
gone.

‘
Alright,
let’s give her a hundred milligrams of adrenalin’ said Doctor
Goodman, ‘And if that doesn’t work we’d better get the
resuscitation team on standby. At this rate her heart’s going to
stop beating in less than a minute.’ There was a small crowd of
doctors and nurses surrounding Lucy’s bed now as her condition
quickly deteriorated. A junior doctor got ready to administer the
injection. Dad grasped Lucy’s hand, desperate for something,
anything to bring his daughter back to him.

Before
anything further could be done though, the heart-rate monitor
suddenly started beeping more rapidly and firmly again. Dad felt a
movement in Lucy’s hand and glanced towards her face. Her eyes
fluttered and then opened.

‘
Lucy, have
you come back to us?’ whispered Dad, barely able to believe what he
was seeing. She turned to look at him.

‘
Hello Dad’,
she said.

Chapter
Eleven
:

Young Bethany
felt envious and disappointed when Rachel beeped her car horn
outside the cottage gate. Megan dashed to collect her things and
run out to join her. Bethany was being left behind yet again with
Mum and Dad. The day suddenly seemed greyer and flatter than it had
done half an hour before.

‘
Don’t worry
love’ said Mum as they heard Rachel’s Citroen drive away, ‘we’ll
think of something fun to do today.’ Bethany stared glumly into her
cornflakes, pushing them around with her spoon.

‘
So do you
think we’ll find out something useful?’ Megan asked Rachel eagerly
as they bumped up the track that led to the main road. The older
girl was wearing a light cotton dress and cowboy boots and had a
scarf in her hair. Megan’s Dad would have said she looked like a
hippy, but Megan thought that Rachel was cool. Megan herself was
dressed in her habitual shorts and T-shirt and felt very young in
comparison. Rachel shot her a winning smile.

‘
Well we’ll
soon find out won’t we? Don’t build your hopes up too much though
Megan’ she went on. ‘Maybe the mice have eaten through the Rev’s
papers already.’

They chatted
about this and that as Rachel drove down the quiet hedge-lined
lanes towards Merwater. Despite being glad to have Rachel as a
friend, Megan still couldn’t help but wonder why she was being so
nice and helpful. Surely there must be other things she’d rather
being doing, other people she’d rather be seeing. Megan would have
liked to have asked, but didn’t know how to. The best friend she’d
ever had was Jet, and they had understood each other in a way that
transcended words. Now that she was cut off from him Megan needed
all the friends she could get. She daren’t risk losing Rachel by
asking too many questions.

Soon they
pulled up outside Owl Books. It was half-day closing and all shops
would be shutting up at lunchtime. Megan would help Rachel and her
Mum in the bookshop till one pm and then they’d all drive up to
Toby Smith’s house. First Rachel and Megan spent an hour or so
unpacking a consignment of second-hand books that had come in. They
were all dusty and a couple of them had mould growing on the pages.
Rachel priced them up with an experienced eye and organised them
into subjects. Then Megan helped Rachel put them on the shelves in
the bookshop. There was a special ladder to get to the higher
shelves and Megan enjoyed going up it to get a good look down on
everybody from above. As she did so she spied one of the customers
browsing the shelves, surreptitiously slip a book into his
jacket.

Megan felt her
heart beat faster in indignation. No one was going to steal a book
from her friend’s mum’s shop

‘
Rachel!’ she
whispered fiercely. Her friend turned and looked up. Megan gestured
wildly and Rachel nodded back in silent understanding. She went up
to the cash register and murmured something into her mother’s ear.
A faint smile passed across both their faces.