The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins (26 page)

‘
Yes of course’ she said. ‘But the reception’s terrible here.
We’ll have to walk up to the top of the hill to get a better
signal.’ She glanced out of the window. It was beginning to rain.
‘Second thoughts, I’ll ask Mary in the farmhouse if we can use
their landline. She’ll understand. This is no weather to be
traipsing up the hill. Come on then’ she said, guessing Lucy’s
emotions from her face, ‘we’d better get it over and done
with.’

They went out together and crossed the muddy yard to the
farmhouse. Just at the farmhouse door, Lucy stopped and looked up
at her Aunt imploringly.

‘
Do you think you could speak to him first, while I wait
outside? I just…’ She trailed off uncertainly.

‘
Yeah, I know’ said Bethany. ‘I’ll speak to him first, but then
you need to come in and talk to him too, ok?’ Lucy
nodded.

Bethany disappeared into the farmhouse. She was in there a
long time. Eventually Bethany came to the door.

‘
Come on in’ she said. ‘It’s ok, he won’t bite your head off.’
They walked into the hall together to the phone on a small table at
the foot of the stairs. Bethany handed Lucy the receiver with a
sympathetic smile.

‘
Hey Dad’ she said nervously, holding the handset to her
mouth.

‘
Hello Lucy’ he replied. Lucy could tell immediately that he
wasn’t angry, at least not anymore. Instead there was a sort of
broken, cracked sound to his voice.

‘
So I’ve spoken to Bethany and you’re going to stay with her
for a few days. Then I’m going to drive down and pick you up. I
just want you to remember two things though Luce.’

‘
What’s that Dad?’ asked Lucy shyly.

‘
The first thing is that I love you. The second thing is that
you must keep yourself safe. No crazy acts of heroism you hear? No
swims in the sea. Nothing silly or dangerous. Do exactly as Bethany
tells you.’

‘
Of course Dad.’ Lucy could hardly believe it. She had no idea
what Bethany had said to him, but it had evidently
worked.

‘
Promise me now!’ he said.

‘
I promise’ replied Lucy. They spoke for a minute or two more
and then he asked to be handed back to Bethany. They spoke about
practicalities, like toothbrushes and changes of underwear and then
they rang off.

Bethany thanked Mary for the emergency use of the phone and
they walked back hand in hand to Bethany’s studio. The drink that
she had made Lucy earlier had gone cold and so she made her a mug
of chocolate milk and Lucy sat at the kitchen table to sip at the
hot frothy drink, while Bethany went up to the raised platform to
get out the linen and make up the spare bed. The tension and
excitement of the day had been too much for Lucy. Physically and
mentally exhausted, her eyes dipped closed as she sat, resting her
head in her hands, elbows propped on the kitchen table.
She slipped off into a light sleep.

Chapter Fifteen
:

After his initial struggle to free himself, Spirit realised
that nothing that he could do was helping him to break free. The
length of thick steel cord was tightly fastened, like a lasso
around his tail and try as he might, he could not rid himself of
it. If he started to struggle again, it would cut into his skin and
hurt him more than it hurt him already. He felt panicked at the
thought of being restricted and unable to swim freely wherever he
wanted. He had never been trapped before and the thought of it now
horrified him. His heart beat fast as the gravity of the situation
became clear to him. Unless he could escape, or some dolphin or
person was able to free him, he would remain there until he
died.

The threat was not immediate, because the rope was
sufficiently long to enable him to surface and breathe through his
blowhole. The tide was at its highest and so he knew that he would
not be drowned when the tide turned. However he was trapped and
could not escape. He would soon die of hunger and even if he found
some means of feeding himself, he risked being dashed against the
rocks in a storm, or if there was a heavy swell of the sea. The
granite cliffs loomed above him. The sun had gone behind the cliff,
leaving the rock face in shadow; dark and menacing. With all his
thrashing when he had first ensnared himself in the steel wire, he
had pulled himself clear of the kelp, swaying under the water and
at least he had a clear view of his surroundings. Other than his
beating heart, everything seemed calm around him. The swell of the
sea was rhythmic and peaceful. He looked at the limpets moving
infinitesimally slowly across the rocks. A crab scuttled by
sideways across another rock, whilst a sea anemone swayed its
tentacles in the current, hoping to catch morsels of food floating
past. This was a familiar scene for Spirit, one he had seen a
thousand times before. Ordinarily he would not give such creatures
a second glance, but now he was forced to. This was their home and
they could live their entire lives on barely a metre of submerged
rock. Spirit though, could not.

Spirit was hungry again. He had not eaten as much as he would
like that day and the few fish that he had grabbed had been barely
more than a snack and certainly not a meal. The urge to eat was an
insistent feeling in the pit of his stomach. He eyed the rocks
again hungrily. Anything he could see was too small to eat. He
would not be able to knock the limpet free, let alone prise the
creature from its shell and the crabs were too adept at scuttling
into cracks in the rock when danger came close. The anemones he
knew tasted bitter. He saw a shoal of small fry darting round the
rocks and he lunged hungrily, snatching one, but with the rest
escaping.

An octopus regarded him balefully from a crevice, before
emerging tentatively, its tentacles feeling its way cautiously
across the rock. Octopuses were good to eat and Spirit struck out
towards it, but the octopus squirted out a stream of water,
propelling itself away. Spirit was pulled up short by a pain in his
tail from where the thick steel wire cut into his flesh. The
octopus slipped away in an easy, fluid movement, out of reach.
Spirit turned disconsolately away and instead put his head up to
the surface of the water. He could not leap out of course, but
Spirit glanced over the surface of the water, between the lapping
waves to see if, by any chance, there was any sign of salvation on
the horizon. Of course there was none.The sea was perfectly clear.
There were no boats or anything that might come to his
rescue.

He was quite alone. Dancer, Storm, Moonlight and the other
dolphins of his pod had absolutely no idea where he might be. He
called and called in the hope that some dolphin swimming nearby
might hear him and come to his assistance, but there was no
answering call and he did not seriously think that there would be a
dolphin for miles around. Even if another dolphin could come to
him, there was nothing they could do. The steel wire was too strong
to bite through; he had already tried and hurt his mouth in the
process.

It was only the night before that he had struck out bravely on
his own to take his coming of age swim, without Storm’s agreement
or the blessing of the rest of the pod. It seemed like a lifetime
ago that he and Dancer had swum together so happy and free. For a
while he had felt special, different, with a destiny that no other
dolphin that he knew shared. Now he felt so small and foolish. His
impetuous actions would be his last, he thought. He would end up
eaten by the crabs that he himself eyed so hungrily.

As he fretted over his fate, Spirit could see the shadows
drawing over the water. The sun was getting low and soon it would
be night. Normally the darkness was a familiar and comforting
place, where he would float happily, in his waking sleep, lulled by
the lapping waves. Tonight, in this strange and unfamiliar corner
of the coast, trapped by the steel wire cutting into his flesh, he
could not imagine being able to sleep at all. Yet he had swum
through the dark hours the night before. He was exhausted and,
despite himself, as the sun went down he felt the urge to rest his
fevered mind.

‘
Lucy!’ he thought, ‘Lucy will help me!’ But how could she? His
tired mind struggled to think. The girl seemed like a dream to him
now and maybe he had only ever imagined her. Perhaps she did not
really exist outside his own head. Although it had felt at the time
that she had come to him when he was threatened by the Jet Ski,
maybe it was just a corner of his own mind that had given him the
inspiration to jump at just the right moment. Certainly she had not
come to him now, even though he was in more danger than he had been
just a couple of hours before. Feeling sad, lonely and afraid,
Spirit slipped into an uneasy sleep as the night engulfed the coast
and plunged the sea into darkness.

Lucy had been startled to find herself thrust into Spirit’s
world so quickly when she closed her eyes briefly at Bethany’s
table; she normally only dreamt of her little dolphin towards
morning time. It had been scary to see Spirit so distressed by the
hideous metallic noise of the Jet Ski’s engine and she was filled
with relief when she had been able to help him escape from the
terrible machine. She’d woken up from her reverie as quickly as she
had fallen into it and it took her a few moments to realise that
she was with Bethany in her studio, miles away from Dad and all the
pressures of home.

‘
You certainly are tired!’ said Bethany, ‘but I’d better feed
you before getting you off to bed.’ Bethany chatted about her work
and about her studio while she cooked up some pasta in the kitchen
area. Lucy thought about Spirit as Bethany talked away. It’d be
good to tell Bethany about Spirit and maybe she would understand,
but not tonight. Tonight she was just glad that Spirit was safe
again and that she was safe and warm in Bethany’s home in the hills
behind Merwater. Lucy imagined trailing her fingers in the sea as
she leant over the edge of a boat and touching the smooth skin of
Spirits head. She wondered where he might be, but she had no real
way of knowing. He was probably many miles from here. At least she
was close to the sea and just by being near the sea, in a way she
felt closer to Spirit.

The pasta that Bethany cooked up was simple, but filling and
Lucy felt happy in her aunt’s company.

‘
Right, let’s get you to bed Kiddo’ said Bethany after they had
finished eating. ‘I’ve dug you out a pair of pyjamas and got the
spare bed ready, so let’s get you into both of them.’

After she brushed her teeth, Lucy stumbled into bed and
quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Her mind was too tired
to stretch out to Spirit and he too was sleeping and unable to
reach out to her. Before she knew it, she woke up to the noise of
Bethany boiling a kettle and getting the breakfast things together.
Lucy yawned and stretched happily, got out of bed and padded down
the creaking wooden steps from the sleeping platform to the ground
floor.

‘
Hey Kiddo. How are you feeling?’

‘
Much, much better thanks Bethany’ replied Lucy smiling and
yawning at the same time. She looked out of the window. It was a
bright clear day.

Fancy some breakfast?’ asked Bethany. Lucy certainly was
hungry. ‘It’s toast, toast, or toast. Basically toast is all I’ve
got. I wasn’t expecting visitors you see.’

‘
I guess I’ll have toast then’ laughed Lucy, sitting down at
the kitchen table. Bethany passed Lucy a mug of chocolate milk and
a plate with a couple of pieces of buttered toast.

‘
No jam I’m afraid’ continued Bethany. She grinned. ‘We live
simply in the country. Well it’s a Saturday and by chance I have
absolutely nothing planned. What do you fancy doing
Kiddo?’

‘
I want to swim in the sea’ answered Lucy immediately. ‘And
then I want to explore the rock pools like I did with Mum when I
was younger.’ Bethany smiled again thoughtfully.

‘
Didn’t I hear you tell your Dad last night that you weren’t
going to be throwing yourself into the sea?’

‘
Oh I’ll be ok’ answered Lucy airily. ‘You’ll be there with
me!’

‘
Oh will I!’ exclaimed Bethany laughing. ‘It’s still pretty
cold you know. Maybe a spot of gentle paddling. I’m not so sure
about anything more adventurous than that.’

‘
Okay’ replied Lucy between mouthfuls of toast. She was
determined to swim in the sea, but was willing to bide her time for
a day or so.