Midnight Dolphin (27 page)

Ten minutes
later Lucy was standing in the car park behind the harbour waiting
for Mary to pick her up and take her back to the farm. The cold was
creeping into her bones but she looked around her in wonder as the
hard lines of the buildings were softened by snow. The snow had
already turned to slush beneath her feet, but the top of each car
around her had a neat white blanket and the great flakes were still
fluttering down unhurriedly.

Lucy felt
disturbed in a way that she could not fully understand by the
appearance of Rachel Greenwood up in the abandoned orchard. She was
usually immediately attracted by anyone who helped her understand
her mother better. But it was weird that Rachel Greenwood should
turn up at the hospital, Thelma’s funeral and then in the old
orchard where she and Paul just happened to be. What was it that
this woman wanted?

‘
Looks like
we’re in for a white Christmas!’ said Mary as Lucy pulled the car
door closed. ‘And I need to get back to the farm and get my
livestock inside. This is no weather to be stuck in a
field.’

‘
Do you think
it will settle?’ asked Lucy as Mary ground through the gears on the
way up the hill out of town.

‘
Looks like
it’ answered Mary. ‘It doesn’t normally get that cold down here,
but I reckon this Christmas might be an exception. Talking of
which, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? There’s only two
shopping days to go.’

Lucy sat up
with a start. What with being in hospital and then coming down to
Cornwall for Thelma’s funeral she’d completely forgotten about
Christmas shopping.

‘
I’d better do
it tomorrow’ she replied, thinking of her appointment with Rachel
Greenwood.

‘
That’s if
we’re not completely snowed in at the farm by then’ joked Mary. As
she drove the car slipped slightly from the icy slush under the
wheels. ‘And I’ll need to put chains on these tyres as well while
I’m at it.

They turned up
onto the coast road that led towards the farm. Out here the snow
was settling in the middle of the road and on the verge. Only two
sets of darker tracks showed that cars were getting through and the
snow still showed no sign of easing off. The fields to the left and
the right of them looked crisp and white.

As they
approached a dip a sleek car approached from the other direction,
driving more slowly than usual as a result of adverse weather
conditions. Just as they got close the other car seemed to lose
control and slid slowly into the middle of the road in front of
them. For a moment Lucy thought that she and Mary would crash into
it but the car slid across so slowly that Mary had time to apply
the brakes and come to a stop.

‘
You okay?’
called Mary to the other driver, winding down the Land-Rover’s
window. The man in the car nodded and made a wave in thanks before
heading off up the road again, even more cautiously than
before.

Nothing really
happened, but the incident drew Lucy’s mind irresistibly to the
thought of Mum’s last journey in a car the night that she died. She
wondered what Mum had been thinking in the moments before
her
car had veered off
the road and crashed that wet and windy night less than two years
ago. She hoped they were happy thoughts. Mary put the Land-Rover
into gear and moved on up the road again. They didn’t see any other
vehicles before they turned off down the lane to the
farm.

When they
pulled into the farm yard they could see that Darren and Dad had
been busy getting the livestock in under cover. A mass of hoof
marks showed where the cows and sheep had come in through the gate
and into the cowsheds and the barn. Dad was forking out fodder for
the sheep. He was wearing an old -jacket of Darren’s and his face
was red with cold. He waved at Lucy and she could see that he
looked happy.

‘
This is what
I call winter!’ he exclaimed as she climbed out of the car. ‘And
I’ll tell you what; doing physical work like this is a darned-sight
more rewarding than tapping figures into a computer.’ Lucy wondered
whether to tell Dad about her encounter with Rachel Greenwood, but
something told her he wouldn’t like to hear about it. It’d be
better not to say anything for the time being. Just then Bethany
came out of one of the cowsheds.

‘
We’re all
going inside for a hot toddy’ she said, smiling. ‘Do you want to
join us?’

Later Dad and
Lucy sat companionably on the sofa in the farmhouse nursing their
empty mugs in their laps. Mary and Darren had gone back to look
after the livestock and Bethany had popped over to the
studio.

‘
How are you
feeling now Luce, all warmed up?’ asked Dad. Lucy nodded. ‘It’s
terrible that Thelma should pass away’ Dad went on, ‘but I am glad
to be able to come down here again. Now that I’ve lost my job
there’s nothing much to rush back for after all.’ He sighed and
stared down into the bottom of his empty mug.

‘
I used to
worry about what might happen to you when we came down here’ he
continued. ‘But I think we’re over that aren’t we? I think you’ve
moved on?’

Lucy didn’t
say anything but turned rigid with a mixture of anger and fear. She
remembered lying in the hospital bed after they’d rescued
Star-Gazer and being told by Dad that her gift would just fade
away. She hadn’t believed him at the time but now it looked as if
he and Thelma were right. If it hadn’t been for her time with
Spirit after she’d been knocked out at that swimming pool, perhaps
Lucy would have given up hope already. Instead she was desperate to
speak to Rachel Greenwood and go back to the old mine workings.
Lucy got up.

‘
I’ve got to
get some stuff sorted out’ she replied stiffly, avoiding the
questions that Dad asked her. She wasn’t going to give him the
satisfaction of thinking that he was right. At the door she
remembered the car sliding across the road that afternoon and
turned back to look at Dad.

‘
Dad. Do you
think that Mum was happy that night in the car. The night that she
died I mean.’ Dad didn’t answer immediately and seemed to struggle
with his conflicting thoughts before he answered.

‘
I hope so
Luce’ he replied hesitantly. He seemed about to say something more,
but then he faltered. ‘I hope so.’

Out in the
farmyard, Bethany was making her way back to the farmhouse from her
studio. It was too cold to live in the studio in this weather and
she had retreated instead to a spare room with Mary and
Darren.

‘
Listen
Bethany, can I speak to you for a moment, in private I mean’ said
Lucy.

‘
Sure Kiddo’
Bethany replied. ‘Let’s go and look at the sheep for a moment.’
Inside the barn smelled of wet wool and the sheep stood packed in
tight next to each other, bleating and baa-ing loudly.

‘
Before long
it’ll be lambing season’ observed Bethany, leaning on the wooden
fencing, ‘and then Mary and Darren will be up all hours delivering
lambs night after night.’ She turned to Lucy. ‘So, what’s up then
Kiddo?’

‘
Well I don’t
want to tell Dad’ Lucy started hesitantly, ‘but we met this lady
today, me and Paul that is. She, well, it was her that Dad saw
looking at my bed in the hospital and who was at Thelma’s funeral
yesterday.’ Bethany looked at her niece, concern written across her
face.

‘
Her name’s
Rachel, Rachel Greenwood’ said Lucy, ‘and she said she knew
Mum.’

‘
Rachel!’
exclaimed Bethany. ‘Can it really be her? I haven’t heard that name
in years, let alone seen her!’

‘
So you know
her then?’ asked Lucy curiously.

‘
Yes, well it
was when I was still young. We were down here in Cornwall one
summer. Megan was about thirteen I guess, and she was befriended by
Rachel. She was a few years older and must have been at university
at the time. They used to go round together in a beat up old
Citroen. In fact it was that summer that she…, that she seemed to
be losing her gift with dolphins. Then something happened… Rachel
Greenwood, what a surprise!’ Bethany smiled, lost in her own
thoughts for a few moments.

‘
Did you know
that they stayed friends?’

‘
What? No, I
had no idea.’

‘
And why would
she have been there at the hospital watching me, then at Thelma’s
funeral too’ asked Lucy. Bethany shook her head.

‘
Beats me’ she
said, frowning a little as she thought.

‘
The thing is’
Lucy went on, ‘that I’ve agreed to meet her tomorrow at a café in
town. I need to ask her stuff you see. I need to find out about her
and Mum.’

‘
Yes of
course’ replied Bethany. She looked out of the barn door. ‘That’s
if we can get out at all by tomorrow. The rate this snow is
falling, we’re going to be completely snowed in.’

‘
You’ve got to
help me’ said Lucy imploringly. ‘I thought maybe you could come
with me.’ Bethany smiled again.

‘
We’ll see
what we can do.’

Later on, when
it was dark and Lucy and her Dad had gone back to the holiday
cottage for the night, Bethany stood in the hallway, with the
telephone receiver in her hand speaking in a low voice.

‘
Nate?’ she
said. ‘I’m so sorry to trouble you at a time like this. It’s just
that there was someone at Thelma’s funeral that I’d like to catch
up with.’ Nate said something and Bethany smiled.

‘
Rachel
Greenwood…yes, yes that’s right? So she’s an academic at Exeter
University is she? But why did she know Thelma? … Oh, oh I see. So
Thelma helped her with her research into Dolphin-Children. Thanks
Nate, thanks.’ They spoke for a couple more minutes before Bethany
returned the phone to its cradle. Bethany stood there quietly for a
while, before walking back into the farmhouse kitchen. Despite the
fact that it was dark, Bethany could see that the snow lay heavily
upon the ground and that it was still coming down. Quite how she
would get Lucy into town the next day she wasn’t sure, but she was
determined that she would.

‘
How can you
have discovered where the Three Green Caves are?’ asked Dancer
incredulously, hearing Spirit’s excited announcement. ‘We’ve
searched all along the coast for miles and never found them. Now
you wake up and say you have?’

‘
I can’t
explain it’ Spirit replied. ‘I had this dream. It was so vivid and
wonderful. I was in the caves. There was this eerie green light and
these crystal formations. Then I swam out of the cave through this
narrow tunnel and I found myself in the sea again. But I recognised
the place where I came out. That’s how I know where the caves
are!’

‘
But it was
just a dream’ replied Dancer. It probably didn’t mean
anything.’

‘
Well I’ve got
to find out’ answered Spirit. ‘And the place I dreamt about is not
so far from here. We can just go and take a look.’ Dancer looked
around her, just as Star-Gazer swam up next to them
both.

‘
Let’s all
take a look’ said Star-Gazer, looking at her son curiously.
‘Sometimes you have to listen to where the spirit leads you. That
is what we did when we named you.’ Star-Gazer exchanged glances
with Storm, who had just glided up to join them.

‘
Yes’ said
Storm quietly. ‘You lead. We will follow you Spirit.’

The sea was
choppy and grey as they swam along through the wintery, cold
waters. Spirit felt proud that he was leading the pod, but was
painfully aware of the dolphins following behind him. What if all
he did was take them to a wall of rock?

‘
I think the
sky might turn to snow’ observed Summer.

‘
I hope that
young Spirit knows where he’s taking us’ muttered
Chaser.

Soon the
granite cliffs loomed up in front of them. At first Spirit could
not find his bearings, but then he seemed to instinctively know
which way to go. Spirit paused and broke the surface of the water
to look around him.

‘
This is it,
this is the place’ he said, excitement infecting his voice. There
at the top of the cliff were some gorse bushes obscuring a lip of
overhanging rock and seagulls wheeling in the sky. The sight seemed
both new and familiar to him, almost as though he was looking at
the scene through the eyes of another. ‘This way!’ he said, diving
again beneath the surface of the sea. One by one the members of the
pod dived again to follow him.

The sea under
the cliff was murky with particles that floated in clouds in the
turbulent water. Strands of seaweed swayed this way and that in the
eddies and currents.

‘
So where are
these caves then Spirit?’ called out Chaser sceptically.

‘
Be patient’
replied Storm. ‘Let him focus.’

Spirit
examined the wall of rock beneath the surface of the water
carefully. It was covered in thick, impenetrable black-green
bladder-weed that entirely carpeted the granite. He could see
nothing that suggested the opening to a cave.

‘
You know’,
said Dancer to Star-Gazer in a concerned tone, ‘that we must have
passed this spot at least two or three times when we were searching
for the entrance to the caves before. There can’t possibly be
anything here.’ They all watched Spirit search the submerged cliff
face, at first calmly, but then with increased
agitation.