Midnight Dolphin (32 page)

Megan felt a
shiver run through her. It was almost as though these words were
written specifically for her.

Chapter
Nineteen
:

That evening,
Spirit could not help himself. He had an irresistible urge to slip
away back to the caves while Dancer and the others slept. The sea
was choppy and a light wind had picked up from the west. The stars
glittered brilliantly in the night sky and now that Storm and
Star-Gazer had pointed them out, he could see the Three Sisters in
alignment clearly above him.

As he
approached the dark cliffs he could see the line of snow running
along the top. The wall of rock below the waterline looked
forbidding and cold. If he’d had to rely on his eyes alone, he
would never be able to find the opening. Fortunately with his
clicking echolocation he was able to find it easily enough and he
confidently swam into the narrow channel that led to the main
chamber.

Spirit was
worried that he might snag his flank on a jagged rock this time,
but he passed through easily and soon found himself in the expanse
of the main cave once more, lit by the iridescent glow of light,
shimmering from the walls. Again he had the sensation of being
entirely at home there in this strange, enclosed environment, even
though he had only been there once before. He could not understand
the glow of light from the walls. It was beyond his comprehension.
He swam slowly around the enclosed space of the main cave, careful
to avoid striking the walls of stone on each side, worn smooth by
the timeless tides. He knew that there were two other smaller
caves, but somehow it did not feel right to go there. As he swam
slowly around, entranced by the eerie light, he fell into a trance
in which sleep and wakefulness merged and became one.

Megan had been
intrigued to see Toby Smith and Rachel’s mum together. They laughed
at each other’s jokes and almost seemed to lean in towards each
other when they spoke. Megan imagined that her parents must have
been like that once, though they’d been married for so long that
perhaps they’d forgotten their early romantic days that Mum told
her about sometimes when Dad was out. The atmosphere in the small
flat above Owl Books was relaxing and fun. Megan was glad to leave
her troubles behind for a while at least and let the conversation
ebb and flow around her. Bilbo Baggins curled round her legs and
she ran her fingers through his soft black fur. He leapt up into
her lap and settled down to lapse luxuriantly into
sleep.

‘
Someone seems
to like you!’ exclaimed Rachel, looking down at the contended
cat.

Eventually,
his wine drunk, Toby Smith announced that he really had to get back
home. Rachel’s Mum walked him downstairs and they lingered outside,
laughing quietly.

‘
They’re
looking up at the stars’ said Rachel, peeking down through the
window at them. ‘What a pair they make’.

Rachel
disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back with a blanket
and sheets to make up a bed for Megan on the floor
cushions.

‘
It’s not
exactly the Ritz, but I think you’ll be okay for one night at
least’ she said.

‘
Oh it looks
great’ exclaimed Megan, stretching and yawning at the same time.
‘I’m dead beat’ she added. Reluctantly, she tipped Bilbo Baggins
down onto the floor.

‘
You watch out
for that one’ laughed Rachel. ‘You’ll wake up in the morning with
him sleeping on your chest if you’re not careful.’ Later, with the
light turned out and with Bilbo Baggins curled up beside her, she
lay looking up at the ceiling, wondering about Mary Pewsey,
dolphins and her own destiny.

Lucy’s head
jerked upright. She had been lolling over her book, her eyes
closed. The book had slipped out of her hands and the sound of it
hitting the floor had woken her up again. Lucy got up and went
stiffly to the bathroom to get ready for bed. It was another cold
night and ice was already extending its crystals across the window
panes. She climbed under the cold duvet and shivered. Dad was
reading in his room and presently she heard him switch off his
light and turn on his side to sleep. Lucy did the same, but now she
was wide awake and her mind stirred with a thousand restless
thoughts. Through a crack in the curtains she looked up at the
starry night outside and thought about Spirit, drifting silently
under the dark cloak of night.

Sometimes Mary
Pewsey was so aware of the other two, she could almost hear them
breath. It was as though she was staring into a mirror in a steamy
bathroom. There behind the condensation and vapour were two other
girls looking back at her. If only she could wipe away the steam
and see clearly. She would love to see what they truly looked like,
but they were always just out of view. She wanted to call out to
them but she was afraid they would not hear her. It felt as though
they were part of her, though she knew that they existed in a
different time and place. Her oil lamp threw flickering shadows up
onto the wall. She blew it out and was enveloped in
darkness.

It was two
o’clock in the morning when Rachel awoke with a start. Something
had happened but in her befuddled state she could not think what.
The night air sighed through her open window and she wondered
whether her dreams had got the better of her. She sat up and
turned, her bare feet resting on the hessian mat of her bedroom
floor. She listened to the sounds of the flat around her. She could
just about make out the steady breathing of her mother in the
bedroom next to hers. She strained her ears to hear the sounds of
Megan sleeping, but it was strangely quiet from the direction of
the living room where she’d made up a bed for Megan just a couple
of hours before. Rachel sat on the edge of her bed indecisively for
another minute or so before standing up. She would just peek in on
Megan she thought and then get herself a glass of water from the
kitchen.

The living
room was illuminated by the dim glow of a street light. The window
was open and a gentle breeze blew in. Rachel looked around. The
room was quite empty. Megan had gone. Panicking, Rachel sped round
the flat on bare feet, looking in the kitchen and the bathroom and
whispering Megan’s name hoarsely as she went. Finally, she went
down the creaking stairs into the bookshop. The tall book cases
felt like looming cliffs in the dark. There was no sign of Megan
there either though. An awful feeling of dread began to spread
through Rachel’s body.

Just then, she
heard Bilbo Baggins mewing. Rachel looked up. The cat was outside
looking in through the plate glass of the shop window. But how
could he have got out, unless… Rachel tried the door to the shop.
It was unlocked. She opened it gently. Megan couldn’t have gone
far. She stepped outside into the still air of the summer night,
not caring that she had no shoes on and was only wearing her
pyjamas. Quickly, she ran across the courtyard outside and looked
up the street. The road was empty but the corner was only twenty
yards away. She thought she’d just take a look round the turning.
It was as Rachel rounded the corner that she saw a familiar figure
in pyjamas walking up the street.

‘
Megan!’ cried
Rachel in a mixture of relief and agitation. The figure of Megan
neither turned, or changed its pace, but instead kept walking away
from her in a determined fashion. There was nothing for it. Rachel
started running up the street to catch up with Megan. What
was
she up
to?

‘
Megan!’
Rachel cried again, once she drew level with her. Megan didn’t seem
to notice. Rachel tried to catch her by the shoulder, but Megan
just kept on walking. In desperation she pulled at Megan’s sleeve
and waved her hand in front of Megan’s face, but it was no good.
Megan continued implacably, stepping onwards into the
dark.

Suddenly it
dawned on Rachel that Megan wasn’t awake, but in some sort of
trance. She’d read somewhere that it was dangerous to wake up
someone who was sleep-walking, but she didn’t know if that was an
old wives tale. In any case, Rachel’s curiosity was getting the
better of her now.
Where was it
that Megan was walking to? She decided to fall
into step with Megan, and see where the girl led her.

Years had
passed since that moonlit night with Megan as she had sleep-walked
up the road out of Merwater. Rachel Greenwood felt older all these
years later, and a lot colder on a night like this. Yet here she
was standing next to her car in a layby on a frosty road on
Christmas Eve. ‘
I must be
mad
’ she thought, as she huddled inside
her coat, yet something made her stay to watch and listen. The sky
cleared and as there were no streetlamps, the stars could be seen
quite clearly against the backdrop of darkness. Years ago Megan
told her that dolphins believe that the night sky is a clam shell,
pricked with holes that light shines through. She looked up. There
were the three stars high above her. ‘
Three Sisters
’ she thought to
herself, ‘
coming into perfect
alignment
’.

Suddenly,
Rachel saw the slender figure of Lucy appear at the top of the
lane, walking slowly and calmly, clad in nothing but her pyjamas
and dressing gown. She seemed impervious to the cold.

‘
Lucy!’ called
Rachel. ‘Can you hear me?’ Lucy showed no reaction at all. ‘You’re
in a trance’ Rachel continued cautiously as she approached the
sleep-walking girl. ‘I know you can hear me. You need to wake up
now. The place that you are being drawn to, it’s … It’s not safe.
It does not need to be your destiny. You can turn back now.’ Even
as she said it, Rachel Greenwood knew that she didn’t truly believe
her own words. It
was
Lucy’s destiny to reach the Trinity Caves. She didn’t want to
wake Lucy up or wrench her from her walking-trance, yet she knew
that she had to.

Lucy kept
walking towards the gate that led to the footpath along the top of
the cliffs. Rachel Greenwood took the young girl’s shoulders in her
hands to block her path.

‘
No!’ said
Rachel. ‘I cannot, I must not let you do this.’ Still locked in her
trance, Lucy stood there calmly in front of her, her cheeks blushed
red with the icy chill. ‘You’ll catch your death of cold’ Rachel
muttered to herself. Why hadn’t she brought a blanket or something
to drape around Lucy’s shoulders? ‘I’d better get you back home to
your dad’ she said with a sad heart.

Rachel
Greenwood took a step back. Her foot slipped out from under her on
a piece of snow that had melted then frozen into ice. In a split
second Rachel had tumbled back onto a bank of snow and twisted her
ankle painfully. Desperately, she looked around her. Lucy was
already in the field walking up the footpath towards the edge of
the cliff.

‘
No Lucy!’ she
cried desperately.

That night
Mary Pewsey had stood on the edge of the cliff ready to throw
herself down into the sea below. The stars glittered particularly
brightly, illuminating the gently lapping sea below her. When she’d
realised that she’d never be able to reach out to Sprite again, the
sense of loss had been almost too much to bear. She felt certain
that if she threw herself from the top of the cliff into the sea,
that Sprite would come and save her. They would be together again
for at least one last time. She didn’t care how foolhardy it was to
throw yourself from a cliff in the middle of the night into the
dark surging waters below. She just knew that she had to do
something to bring herself closer to Sprite.

As Mary
stepped forward she tripped on some loose shale and stumbled
forward. She slid painfully down some rocks until she stopped,
wedged between an overhang of rock and a wind-blasted bush. Cursing
her clumsiness she looked around her. There, hidden from view was a
crevice in the rock and from it came an eerie green glow. Her
skirts were snagged and torn. Pulling herself out of the folds of
cloth she emerged like an awkward moth from a chrysalis. With only
her bloomers covering her legs, she eased herself into the tight
crevice. She could see that it led somewhere and for some reason
she badly wanted to know where. A moment later she had disappeared
into the hole, leaving only her skirts fluttering in the
breeze.

Rachel became
increasingly anxious as Megan walked purposefully along the tops of
the cliffs. When would Megan awake from her trance? She started to
think about rugby-tackling Megan, just to make sure she would not
go any nearer to the edge of the cliff.

Megan stopped
abruptly and turned to face out to sea. Rachel stared curiously
into her young friend’s face. Suddenly she was aware that Megan was
conscious again.

‘
Don’t worry’
she whispered to Rachel with a smile on her lips. ‘It’s what I have
to do.’

‘
What….?’
began Rachel. Then, before she knew it, Megan was scrambling down
some rocks towards a blasted bush that clung to the cliff-face at
the top of the over-hang.

‘
Megan?’
called Rachel fearfully, but it was too late. It was almost as
though Megan had disappeared into the living rock
itself.

Rachel
Greenwood couldn’t believe that it was happening again. Twenty five
years before she’d seen Megan disappear in front of her very eyes,
almost by magic. Here on this frosty Christmas Eve, she was
panicking as she hobbled behind Lucy, cursing her twisted
ankle.