Midnight Dolphin (26 page)

‘
The miners
who helped him were local men from Merwater, were they?’ Megan
asked. Rachel nodded. ‘Maybe they knew the caves had a special
significance locally and just decided to protect them.’

‘
Who knows’
replied Rachel shrugging. ‘Old Owen Davidson is certainly very
pragmatic in his article anyway. You wonder why he wrote it at all
if he wanted to keep the caves secret.’

‘
What about
the mineral he took a sample of. Did they ever find out what it
was?’

‘
Not really’
replied Rachel. ‘Owen Davidson claimed it was unknown to science.
It’s not in his article. Jane told me that he left for a position
as mine geologist soon after in Pittsburgh, but his ship was lost
at sea and with him the mineral samples that he took.’ Just then
Mum appeared in the cottage doorway.

‘
Are you ready
to get going love?’ she called over to Megan. ‘We’re heading off in
five minutes.’ Megan turned to Rachel.

‘
I’m sorry.
I’ve got to go I guess. The thing is though, that we’re no closer
to finding these caves at all are we?’ Rachel shook her head. Megan
felt defeated. How could they discover anything worthwhile in the
few days before she had to leave Cornwall and go back home. It
seemed impossible.

‘
Don’t worry,
we’ll think of something’ Rachel replied, trying to be up-beat,
but. neither she nor Megan really believed it though.

‘
Come on,
let’s get going’ called Mum. Megan turned to Rachel and
sighed.

‘
See you
tomorrow, I hope’ she said. Rachel got in her Citroen and Megan
reluctantly climbed into the back of the family car.

‘
You’ll really
like where we’re going Megan’ said Bethany excitedly as she
squeezed in next to her elder sister. Megan shrugged.

‘
No really,
you will. You’ll see’ said Bethany thinking about what she’d seen
at Old Man’s Cove the last time she was there. Bethany hadn’t
wanted to tell her sister. She wanted it to be a surprise if the
dolphin came again. Somehow, Bethany was just sure that it
would.

It was only a
short drive, and although the small engine of Dad’s car struggled
with some of the hills, they were soon there. They parked up at the
side of the road next to a stile and a gate into a field. Mum and
Dad pulled out a surprising amount of things from the back of the
car, but Megan ran on ahead across the field.

‘
Come on
Megan!’ she called back in an excited voice. Mum and Dad lumbered
behind with picnic things, towels, a net bag with balls and a beach
break. ‘Look!’ exclaimed Bethany as Megan caught up with her. Below
them, down a steep path, was a tidy little cove with a crescent of
sand and then pebbles behind. The sea lapped gently on the shore
and the summer sun was rising rapidly in the sky. It looked like
the perfect place to spend the day thought Megan. Ordinarily she
would be happy to spend the day with her younger sister, playing on
the sand and looking for sea urchins in the rock pools. Instead she
could not dispel the knot of anxiety she felt inside her. Despite
all the progress that she had made with Rachel, they seemed no
closer to finding the Trinity Caves. She had already lost her link
with Jet and for every hour that past, the chances of regaining it
became more slight. Very soon the family would be leaving Cornwall
and taking the long depressing drive home where life would be
duller, greyer and emptier. She wanted to share Bethany’s
enthusiasm for rock-pooling, but it felt very hard. Megan sighed
inwardly as they started slipping and sliding their way down the
path.

At the bottom
of the cove Mum and Dad settled down on beach towels to sunbathe
and read. Mum insisted on slathering sun cream on them both
although Megan had already turned a nice brown colour. Dad produced
a bucket and spade from a bag and she and Bethany went off to look
in rock pools.

They crouched
down and peered into the tiny world of perfectly clear water below
them. At first neither of them could see anything underneath the
fronds of green weed, but then a tiny fish darted across. Bethany
swooped with her net but it came up empty.

‘
Is that a
hermit crab?’ whispered Megan. Shyly, legs emerged from an empty
cockle shell and the tiny crab started its hesitant way over the
rock. As they watched, their breath bated, other creatures started
moving too. Bethany spotted a small star fish clinging to a rock
and the limpets seemed to adjust their shells. Finally the
miniscule fish of the rock pool came out again and sunned
themselves in the middle.

As they
crouched, Megan realised that Bethany kept glancing up to scan the
sea, as though she was expecting something.

‘
Come on’ said
Megan eventually, ‘let’s stand up. My legs are killing me with all
this crouching.’ They made their way stiffly across a ledge of rock
which jutted out into the sea. They sat down and dangled their legs
into the gently lapping water to cool down.

‘
Ooh what’s
that?’ exclaimed Bethany suddenly. They both scanned the sea again,
but there was nothing there.

‘
I don’t see
anything’ smiled Megan. ‘What are you looking for?’

‘
Oh, nothing’
replied Bethany unconvincingly but her eyes still looked out at the
grey-green sea.

Presently, Mum
called them over for their picnic lunch. The four of them drank
orange squash and ate egg and watercress sandwiches, which had
already turned up slightly at the edges. Sitting on the beach
towels, Megan couldn’t help but notice Bethany’s surreptitious
glances over her shoulder at the sea. What was it that Bethany was
trying to spot?

After their
picnic, Mum and Dad showed every sign of settling down for a snooze
while Bethany and Megan decided to play with the table-tennis
rackets and ping pong ball that they had brought. Despite her
worries, Megan enjoyed the game, even though they spent more time
trying to retrieve the ball from the pebbles than actually hit
it.

After a while,
Megan paused to swig some more orange squash while Bethany went to
pick up the ball yet again from the shore line. Mum and Dad were
both dozing peacefully. Dad had turned a lobster red colour but at
least the sun had moved round now so that he was in the
shade.

‘
Megan!’
whispered Bethany loudly. ‘Megan! It’s your friend.’ Megan turned,
wondering what on earth her sister was talking about, when she saw
him in the waves, just off the shelf of rock to one side of the
beach.

‘
Jet!’ she
exclaimed, and ran to the water’s edge. She could tell immediately
from his dorsal fin who he was. She stopped and looked at Bethany
for a moment, who seemed to have known all along that Jet would be
coming. She glanced back at Mum and Dad again, sleeping quietly in
the shade.

‘
Go!’
whispered Bethany excitedly. ‘Go!’ Megan smiled in thanks, before
she dived into the water and swam out to Jet.

‘
It’s so good
to see you Jet’ she said, tears in her eyes as she got to him.
Although they never could speak when they met like this, a look of
understanding passed between them.

Megan hugged
Jet briefly and before she knew it, he was pulling her out through
the water while she clung on to his pectoral fin. It felt
exhilarating and wonderful to be with him in the open sea like
this. Jet swam out away from the coast before turning back towards
the line of granite cliff in front of them.

‘
Tell me I
haven’t lost you’ she whispered to Jet. Then, as he swept her
along, a powerful feeling came over Megan; something that she had
never felt before and which she knew she would never truly
understand. She felt that she was being guided by someone or
something that seemed to stretch across time itself to reach her.
It seemed that Jet felt the same thing too. He turned and swam
towards the edge of the cliff. Megan realised that he was going to
dive, and took a lung full of air just before he did so. Sea water
boiled up into her eyes and ears and then it cleared
again.

There in front
of them was a hole in the rock that looked as though it had been
worn smooth by ten thousand years of tides. It was narrow, but
seemed perfectly designed for a dolphin to pass through. Megan
realised that Jet could not pass into it with her on his back, and
released her grip to set him free. Jet turned to look at her for a
moment, but then with a convulsive flick of his tail he disappeared
into the smooth hole and out of view. Megan stayed under water for
as long as she could, but after a minute or so her lungs began to
hurt and she had to break the surface to breath.

Suddenly Jet
was with her again and swimming around her in such an excited way
that she wondered what it was that he had found. Then she realised.
The caves! If Jet had found his way in, then her way in must surely
be somewhere in the cliffs above her. Megan looked up. There,
almost at the top of the cliff were some gorse bushes obscuring a
lip of overhanging rock. Surely she must be able to find a way in
somehow!

Chapter
Sixteen
:

Lucy shivered
and pulled her coat around her as she and Paul walked back up the
track from the blocked-off entrances to the tunnels. The snow was
falling heavily now. Great fat flakes came fluttering down around
them as they walked. The buddleia bushes were already sagging under
the weight of snow and a thin layer had settled on the rough ground
so that their shoes crunched as they stepped upon it.

‘
I love snow’
exclaimed Lucy looking around her. In the space of a few minutes
the whole landscape seemed to have been transformed. The world
around them sounded muffled and almost silent. Snow was even
settling in their hair.

Water was
still running across the bed of the walled stream, but Lucy could
see that ice was spreading from the edges of the stones.

‘
Watch out’
said Paul a few steps ahead of her. ‘It’s like an ice rink here.’
They slithered along until they came back to the old orchard where
the leafless, silhouetted trees had already turned white. It seemed
to Lucy for a moment as though they were the last people on
earth.

‘
Whaoh!’
exclaimed Paul in surprise. Standing at the top of the bank stood a
slim, pleasant-looking woman in her late forties wearing a heavy
woollen coat. She appeared to have been staring down on the town
below them at the base of the hill, lost in thought.

‘
What is it?’
asked Lucy, looking up in alarm.

The woman
didn’t seem at all surprised to see the two children clambering up
out of the walled gulley. Instead she almost seemed to be expecting
them.

‘
It’s that
lady from the funeral’ said Paul.

‘
What are you
doing there?’ Lucy asked her. The woman smiled.

‘
Oh, I used to
live here’ she replied, glancing down at the town below them again.
‘I don’t get to come back here very often. I just thought I’d come
and have a look at the old place.’ Lucy frowned. ‘I used to play in
these gullies when I was young just like you two’ the woman went
on.

‘
My dad
recognised you at the funeral yesterday’ replied Lucy
distrustfully. ‘He said he saw you at the hospital where I was only
a few days before that. What’s going on?’ The woman looked back and
levelled her gaze at Lucy again.

‘
Well Lucy,
it’s true’ she replied. ‘I have been keeping my eye on you from
afar. She paused and wiped a snowflake from her face. ‘And I had
been hoping to bump into you’ she added.

‘
I don’t
understand’ exclaimed Lucy, becoming increasingly agitated. ‘Who
are you?’

‘
Well you see’
replied the woman, pausing a moment. ‘I’m an old friend of your
mother.’

‘
You, you
what?’ asked Lucy, barely knowing what to say. Paul looked at the
woman, and then back at Lucy again uncertainly.

‘
My name’s
Rachel. Rachel Greenwood. I met Megan down here years ago when she
was just a girl and I was barely a few years older. We have been in
touch ever since till…. well, you know.’ Lucy stood there, rooted
to the spot, staring at the woman in front of her, waiting for her
to go on. The woman glanced up at the sky. Snow was tumbling down
towards them in a grey swirl.

‘
Look, we
can’t speak here. Maybe you’d like to walk into town and have a cup
of tea with me’ she went on. Lucy shook her head.

‘
I can’t.
Mary’s picking me up in half an hour. But… I’ll make it into town
tomorrow’ Lucy replied. ‘I can say I’ve got some Christmas shopping
or something to do.’

‘
Well I’ll be
in the Arts Café at midday’ said Rachel Greenwood. ‘I do hope you
can join me’. She started to turn to walk back up through the
orchard to the main road. ‘By the way, did you get it?’ she
asked.

‘
Get
what?’

‘
The book,
the
Flora and Fauna of the Cornish
Coast
’ Rachel Greenwood replied. ‘It was
Megan’s, your mother’s I mean. I thought you should have it back. I
thought it might be useful’. Lucy nodded.

‘
Yes, yes I
did’

‘
Good, I’m
glad’ Rachel Greenwood smiled. ‘See you tomorrow I
hope.’