The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins (10 page)

‘
Maybe it’s just my imagination’ he thought to himself. ‘Or
perhaps I was just tired. I need a rest.’ It was true that after
his and Storm’s experience with the orcas, he had felt scared and
exhausted. When they’d got back, the rest of the pod had gathered
around, touching Spirit gently with their noses to comfort
him.

‘
He’s such a young calf still’ said Breeze sympathetically.
‘He’s lucky to be alive.’

‘
He wasn’t lucky, he was smart’ had been Storm’s reply. ‘If
Spirit hadn’t taken us to shelter behind the boat, I don’t know
what would have happened.’ Storm was an old dolphin. He’d lived
through many experiences and many dangers himself. He didn’t like
to admit it, but he’d been truly scared when the orcas had
attacked, not for himself, but for Spirit. He knew what orcas might
do to a young dolphin calf and he’d known that Spirit still wasn’t
strong enough to withstand the chase. Storm had been immensely
relieved when the orcas had turned and left the scene. He didn’t
like humans, but he’d been truly grateful of the boat and the two
sailors on board it.

Spirit had been grateful for the comfort that the pod had
given him when they’d got back. He’d been practically shaking with
shock and exhaustion when they’d returned, but his friends soothing
song and gentle nuzzling had calmed him down and after an hour or
so he’d been almost his usual self again. Only Dancer, it seemed,
had noticed a subtle change. Something that was not explained by
his experience with the whales. Or had Storm noticed something too?
Several times Spirit caught Storm glancing at him with a thoughtful
look in his eyes.

Spirit thought over recent events and what they meant to
him.

‘
Do you think that if we swim back to the wreck, we will see
that human there again?’ he asked.

‘
We might do’ replied Dancer. ‘Do you want to?’ They told the
pod what they were doing, promising to be back in time for council
and set off at an energetic pace, round the headland, towards the
cove where the wreck was to be found. Spirit felt that the brisk
swim made him feel better and helped put energy back in his sinews
and muscles. Dancer did not ask Spirit why he wanted to see a human
again, but sometimes she felt that patience brought answers when
questions did not.

They approached the rocky shelf where the island jutted out
underwater and swam slowly through the kelp forest until they broke
through the seaweed and into clear waters again. Then they saw the
old, decaying ship, sagging against the rocks where it lay. Spirit
was in luck. The wreck was frequently visited by divers and a small
boat bobbed above them. A line of rope trailed down to the wreck
and the shapes of three divers swam slowly around it with
flashlights so they could peer inside, with trails of bubbles
tracing up to the surface every time they breathed.

Spirit hesitated and he and Dancer took refuge amongst the
strands of kelp to observe the divers unseen. The humans were clad
in black and had things over their faces that were connected by
pipes to a long tube-like thing on their backs. Their feet were
black as well and it looked as though they had fins extending from
the end of each foot. Spirit had not really had a chance to look at
the humans on the fishing boat when he and Storm had taken refuge
from the orcas. He had never seen other humans except
…..

‘
Is that what humans look like then?’ he asked Dancer in a
whisper.

‘
The only ones I’ve seen look like that’ Dancer replied, ‘but
Moonlight told me that they have special skins they can change
depending on what they’re doing. This is their skin for swimming
underwater.’

‘
So they have different skins to wear? They must have skin
underneath all of that.’

‘
Moonlight says that she saw them once with only a small
outer-skin round their middle near the beach one summer. She says
that underneath, some are sort of pinkish-pale and others are
brown.’

‘
That makes sense’ said Spirit, thinking of his vision…..A
small human, pale but with a trace of pink on its arms and legs and
face. The human had long black fur like very fine seaweed on its
head. Over the main part of the human’s body he remembered there
had been a sort of shroud, floating in the water. The human he had
seen had no flippers at all on its feet and there was no black
second skin like the divers they were looking at now. The human had
floated near to him in the water and seemed able to keep up with
him without really trying to swim; like a gull wheeling in the sky,
he thought. When he had looked at the human, the corners of its
mouth had turned up, a bit like a dolphin’s. He could see small
regular teeth in the human’s mouth. Because the human had upturned
corners of its mouth, it had looked friendly and, although he’d
been shocked, he was not scared. Somehow it had felt natural that
the human was so close to him. Then, in a way that he did not
understand, without any dolphin clicking, a word had passed from
the human to him and that word had been ‘hello.’ Then in the same
way, speaking to the human with his mind and without any whistles
or clicking, he had replied ‘hello’ as well. It was the same human
he knew from his dreams.

‘
Come on’ said Dancer, ‘let’s get closer to the humans.’ They
sidled through the water, from the safety of the kelp, keeping
close to the rocks and shadows as they approached. They could see
the humans better now. The thing over their faces was clear and
occasionally they could catch sight of their eyes behind it. The
tube passed into their mouth and air bubbled out of it regularly.
Spirit could see now that even though these humans were clad in
black, there were patches of pink skin showing in places. They did
not have fins like dolphins, but their front limbs ended in small
paddles or hands and Spirit could see with surprise that each hand
could hold things. He saw one diver pass an object from the ship to
its companion, who turned it over, carefully looking at it, before
putting it in a sack attached to its middle. The two divers swam
slowly round to the other side of the ship without having spotted
Spirit and Dancer.

As the two dolphins swam closer, the third diver rounded a
corner and they found themselves looking at each other. Although
all three humans looked the same to Spirit, he could see that this
one appeared to be older because its face was lined and not smooth.
The diver had shorter, patchy hair. Dancer and Spirit stopped
uneasily in the water.

‘
Is that the one we saw before?’ whispered Dancer
nervously.

‘
I think so’ replied Spirit just as cautiously. Then, overcome
with a sense of curiosity, he swam forward again slowly, until the
diver was within a metre of him. The diver floated still in the
water, looking towards him, a hand extended in a friendly open
gesture. Spirit desperately wanted to see the divers face better,
but it was mostly obscured by the clear mask and breathing pipe. He
wanted to look into the diver’s eyes more deeply and to know what
kind of creature it really was. He stared intently at the
human.

The diver kept his hand extended and slowly Spirit let himself
float closer and closer, until the diver’s hand almost touched him.
He kept staring at the diver’s mask and could see his eyes clearly
now. They looked like a dolphin’s eyes. He knew that the eyes of a
fish or a shark were empty and did not show the nature of the
creature behind them. This human’s eyes though, did seem to give
off a kind of warmth and it reminded Spirit of the look in his own
mother’s eyes before she had disappeared.

Just then, the other two divers appeared suddenly from the
other side of the wreck. Spirit and Dancer instinctively shied away
and retreated back to the safety of the kelp. They glanced back.
All three divers had stopped and were looking towards the two
dolphins now. The diver he had got close to had raised his arm now
and he waved it slowly through the water.

‘
Goodbye!’ thought Spirit, as he turned and swum away with
Dancer at his side. The two were silent for a while.

‘
Do you think they can talk?’ asked Spirit.

‘
Not down here’ replied Dancer, ‘and not with that thing in
their mouths. Moonlight says that above the surface they can make
noises, but that it’s not talking like dolphins can.’

‘
Surely they must be able to talk?’ said Spirit
again.

‘
Well I don’t know’ answered Dancer. ‘If they can talk, it’s
certainly not proper talking.’

Spirit thought back to his vision. ‘My name’s Lucy’ it had
said, or at least those words had passed somehow from the human’s
mind into his. The voice was soft and light. ‘I’m Spirit’ he had
replied. They had stopped to look at each other and Spirit had
wanted to touch this small pale human, but had a feeling that
somehow he would pass through her if he tried, as though she wasn’t
entirely there.

They surfaced to take in air through their blow holes and
Dancer looked up at the sun above them. The wind had got up now and
the sea had turned choppy. There were clouds on the
horizon.

‘
We’d better get back to the pod’ said Dancer. They sped
along.

‘
So before the council starts Spirit, can you tell me what’s
going on?’ asked Dancer as they swam. Spirit stopped and turned to
look at his friend.

‘
I….I’ve seen a human’ he said simply.

‘
Haven’t we both?’ asked Dancer in reply.

‘
Yes…., but something more than that. I’ve seen a small human
in the water, without a diver’s skin, swimming with me, talking to
me. It was far from the coast’ he added. ‘It was….extraordinary!’
Dancer smiled.

‘
Surely that was just a dream’ she said.

‘
I don’t think so. It… it was something more than that.’ Dancer
did not understand, but whatever was troubling her friend, she knew
that she wanted to help him.

‘
Let’s tell the council when we get back. They’ll be able to
tell you what you saw.’

‘
Yes,… no’ answered Spirit hesitantly. ‘I don’t know if I’m
ready to tell them yet.’

‘
But Storm is as old as the sea itself’ replied Dancer. ‘If
anyone knows, he will.’

‘
I don’t think he’s so keen on humans though’ said Spirit
anxiously. ‘And I don’t even really know what I’ve seen. I don’t
think I’m ready to tell the council yet. Promise you won’t tell
them.’

‘
I promise’ said Dancer in a definite way. Spirit immediately
knew he could trust her.

As they approached the pod, they could hear dolphin chatter
spreading out through the water. There was not just their own pod,
but many other dolphins as well. As they came closer, Breeze swum
up close to them.

‘
Where have you two been? You’ve been missing all the fun.’ He
explained that this was a council of all eight pods who lived in
this region of the sea. Though Spirit and Dancer had never
experienced it in their own lifetimes, the pods would sometimes
come together into a great group and stay together for hours or
even days at a time. Sometimes this was to fish. Other times it was
for council to take place. There must have been forty or so
dolphins altogether, though it was nearly impossible for Spirit to
count them all as they swam around below and past him, all talking
and playing together.

The older dolphins all seemed to know each other and talked
happily. Some younger dolphins, like Spirit and Dancer, had never
met the young of the other pods before, but before long they were
all chasing each other in a mad headlong rush, challenging one
another to who could take the highest leap out of the water or turn
most quickly from one direction to another. They dove deep and
leapt high. They soon got to know each other and revelled in the
chance to show off and tell stories. They chased fish and looked
for crustaceans on the rocks below.

Though Storm had wanted to call council together when the sun
was highest, the dolphins were so engrossed in the fun of catching
up and playing that it was half way between noon and dusk before
Storm was able to exert his influence and call council together.
The elder dolphins floated just under the surface of the water, as
they were the most senior. The young grown-ups could participate if
they wished, but the youngsters like Spirit had been told clearly
that they could watch but not take part. Gradually sufficient
calmness fell in anticipation of council that Storm was able to
start.

‘
It is a long time since we came together in council’ Storm
begun. ‘Too long. Our ways are many and our lives take us far apart
from each other. Yet we are all connected and it is that that makes
us stronger. We are an ancient race, the wise ones of the seas.
Through millennia we have guarded the seas and sought to live in
harmony with all living creatures. Our lives depend on theirs and
theirs on ours and it is that knowledge which sets us apart from
the fish and sharks and creatures of the deep. Our cousins, the
whales. know this too. Even the orcas, dangerous though they are,
know it is for us to pass the ancient knowledge forwards. Since
before the time of my Great Great Grandfather now, man has
plundered our seas and poisoned our waters. They are to be feared.
While some are good, too many are bad. We cannot protect the seas
from man as we once did.’