Spirit paused again and looked at her with soulful eyes.
‘If I was Storm, I might have wise words for you’ he said, ‘but I don’t. I think that you will find a way though. I believe that you are braver than you think you are.’ They smiled at each other. ‘Will you come to me sometimes while I am swimming alone?’ asked Spirit uncertainly.
‘Of course I will’ Lucy assured him.
‘Then I think that I will feel safer too!’ With that Spirit took a great leap out of the water, high into the air before slicing back elegantly through the waves. Lucy followed him and felt the exhilaration as she did so. He touched her momentarily with a fin and Lucy felt warmth flow through his skin into hers. She felt a glimmer of happiness again. They swum on together for a while, but then Lucy felt the world of water slipping away again.
‘I have to go now, goodbye’ she called to Spirit. Before she knew it, he became a blurred spot in the distance and then she was in her room again, sitting on the floor, staring towards the window in front of her.
There was a knock on the door. Dad put his head around the opening.
‘How are you feeling this morning Luce?’ he asked tentatively. Though Lucy felt a little better inside now, she didn’t want to tell him that.
‘I’m ok’ she said in a flat voice, not giving anything away. She looked down at the floor. It seemed like Dad wanted to say something more, but then he glanced at his watch.
‘Look at the time Luce. You’d better get ready. I’d better get ready’ he exclaimed. ‘I…., you…., we’ll …...’ He trailed off. Lucy shrugged.
‘I’ll be down in a minute’ she said.
Lucy dressed and went downstairs. She got her bowl of cereal and a glass of chocolate milk and sat eating, trying to avoid Dad who was leaning against the kitchen counter, attempting to eat a slice of toast whilst simultaneously sending a text on his mobile phone. He looked up.
‘I suppose we’d better think what we’re going to do with you during half term next week’ he announced. ‘Maybe you can spend a day with Amy and there’s the stables where I can book you onto another Own Your Own Pony Day and there’s always the activities the after-school club lay on in the school holidays …..’ he trailed off.
‘You know what I want to do’ said Lucy quietly and defiantly.
‘No, what’s that?’ replied her Dad.
‘I want to go to Cornwall and see Bethany.’
‘What? No. I told you that’s just not possible.’ Lucy could tell that Dad was trying to moderate his tone and avoid another confrontation like the one they’d had last night. He quickly thought up some excuses. ‘You can’t travel down there by yourself, you’re too young and I certainly can’t take the time off to come down with you, you know that. Besides, Bethany’s really busy down there. She’s got all sorts of commissions and exhibitions and things she has to do. She can’t have you trailing around after her all week, getting under her heels.’ Lucy knew it would be impossible talking to him, but she answered back anyway.
‘She said she’d like me to come down’ replied Lucy.
‘Oh I’m sure she’d like you to come down some time’ said Dad, warming to his theme, ‘but you can’t just organise these things on the spur of the moment, they take planning.’
Lucy thought of all the things she could say to Dad, of how angry she could become with him when she knew perfectly well that Bethany would love her to come down and that it could easily be sorted out if only he wanted to.
‘You don’t ever want me to go and see Bethany’ she said simply. Dad put his mug down slowly.
‘You’re right Lucy, I don’t’ was all he said.
‘But why?’ exclaimed Lucy, her voice full of anguish. Dad took a deep breath.
‘There are some things I just can’t explain to you. Not yet, not till you’re older. There are dangers; dangers I need to protect you from. You’re all I’ve got left.’ Lucy could hear the emotion creeping into his voice. ‘I’ve got to look after you Luce.’
‘Well you’re not doing it very well!’ she shouted back angrily, her voice full of hurt. She stood up abruptly, pushing back her chair and making for the door. She grabbed her bag and coat and banged angrily out of the house before Dad had a chance to reply. She walked up the street towards school quickly, tears smarting in the corners of her eyes. The sky was as grey and flat as she felt and there was a light drizzle in the air. But as she walked she started thinking and as she thought a plan came into Lucy’s mind and then things didn’t seem quite so grey after all.
Chapter Eleven:
After his first burst of enthusiasm, Spirit felt nervous, swimming alone on his own across the dark ocean at night. Away from the comforting presence of the pod, the sea was as black as ink and seemed unfriendly and unwelcoming. It was a cloudy night and so not even the moon lit the way. Spirit swam on, knowing that he had to put as much distance between him and the pod as he could before first light. He could only just make out the tips of the low waves above him. His main fear was that instead of going in a straight line, he would go round and round in circles all night without a means of navigating and find himself hardly any distance from the pod again in the morning.
His other worry was the larger predators, such as sharks and orcas. At night though they would be resting too and so he would not be at risk under the cover of darkness. It was instead in daylight that he would be open to attack; a lone young dolphin, far from the safety of the pod. He knew that last time, when the orcas had attacked, if he had not been with Storm and if he had not taken safety close to the fishing boat, he would not have got away. Next time, he may not be so lucky.
The safest thing would be to seek the seas close to the coast where the rocks and kelp beds would give him cover and places to hide. If he remained in the open sea alone, he could not out-swim the big hunters. For this reason, Spirit had to head for the coast, but not towards the islands which he and Dancer had explored together. They were too near to the waters where the pod normally stayed. He would have to go further and head on towards the mainland. That was a day’s swimming at least. He thought back to Storm’s portentous warnings about humans. He would keep his distance from them too, but he already knew, far better than Storm would ever understand, that humans could be good creatures too.
Spirit swam on, thinking that the best thing was to act decisively and hope that things would turn out alright. Luck was with him and before long the sky cleared of cloud. He still could not see the moon, but instead above him there were a sprinkling of stars and that was better. They might not light up the sea like the moon would have, but the stars could show him his way. He could see the clam shell constellation, the starfish cluster and the octopus formation high above him as he skimmed the surface of the shallow waves. He wondered what humans called them. As long as he could keep the star-fish constellation to his right, with the north star behind him, he knew he would not go far wrong.
As the bell rang and children streamed out of school, Lucy headed off across the wet playground to the after-school club. At best it was a dreary couple of hours, with raucous boys throwing things and yelling at each other while she tried to do her homework. None of her friends generally went there anymore, but Dad insisted that she shouldn’t go home on her own and be a latch-key kid, as he called it. Today though, she had things she needed to research. She walked through the door, hoping that the computer desk would be free. It wasn’t. Toby Nugent had already claimed it for himself. She peered over his shoulder with irritation. He was playing some game and she was worried he’d be on it for the next two hours if he had the chance. She sighed. She sat herself down as close as she could and got out her homework book.
‘Toby, how long are you going to be on that game?’ she asked. Toby ignored her. ‘Hey Toby!’ she said, louder this time.
‘What?’ he replied as he carried on gaming.
‘I need fifteen minutes on the computer’ she announced. Toby ignored her again. ‘I said I need fifteen minutes on
the computer!’ she repeated.
‘What?’ he asked again. She gave him an exasperated prod and thrust a piece of paper in front of his nose on which she’d written ‘I need the pc for 15 min.’ He glanced down.
‘No way!’ he exclaimed. ‘I’m half way through the level.’
Lucy decided to give him an extra few minutes. If she wanted, she could reach our with her foot under their desk and flick the switch at the power socket which would shut down the machine. It was a very tempting thought. She slipped her shoe off and let her foot hover close to the switch. Guiltily, Lucy cast a sly look over her shoulder to see if the coast was clear. Fortunately she caught the supervisor Ben’s eye. He was well used to fights over computer use. Lucy seldom asked to use the computer so it was only fair that she have a turn just this once. He came up behind Toby.
‘Toby Nugent, if you’re not off that thing in five minutes I’m dragging you off it myself. Lucy needs a turn.’ Lucy shot Ben a grateful smile. Toby, distracted, glanced up a moment too long.
‘What!? Oh no I’ve lost my last life line’ Toby exclaimed clearly annoyed, looking back at the screen again. He crashed back down to the previous level.
‘Well you may as well finish and come with me’ continued Ben. ‘I’ve got something for you to do.’ Toby stomped off after Ben and Lucy quickly slid into Ben’s vacant chair in front of the screen.
Lucy went online and started searching. It wasn’t the kind of thing that she was used to looking for. On the other hand there were so many choices of sites to look at that she knew she could easily spend ten minutes just finding the right one. Not only that, but she needed to find one that offered good prices. After five minutes she found a promising looking site, but to get a good price she had to book for a certain time on a particular date with a specific return. Then she realised. Of course! She had no means of paying. Instead she had to jot down the times and prices into the back of her exercise book.
‘Wotcha doing?’ Toby appeared at her shoulder, standing uncomfortably close, hoping she might quit the computer and let him back on it.
‘Nothing!’ replied Lucy smartly, clicking off the web browser with the mouse. ‘It’s all yours’ she said with a smile, getting up. If she could not book online, she would have to pay a visit, but when would be a good time? She decided she’d have to confide in Amy. Well it wasn’t a hard decision. Really she was itching to tell her friend her plans. They’d figure it out together.
The rest of the after-school club was as boring as ever. Lucy almost hoped that Dad wouldn’t turn up to pick her up as normal, after their argument and the way she had stormed out that morning. She suddenly began to feel hollow inside and anxious.
‘Hey, why the long face?’ asked Ben sympathetically as he walked past.
‘It’s a long story’ Lucy replied. She knew he didn’t have time to hear it.
‘Give me five minutes and I’m all ears’ answered Ben brightly. Soon parents started picking their children up and the club got quieter.
‘So what’s up with you then’ Ben asked, appearing again at Lucy’s side while she read a book. Lucy looked up, wondering what she could say to him.
‘It’s sort of like me and Dad have had an argument’ she started uncertainly. ‘I slammed the door in my Dad’s face this morning and now, well….’ Before she could continue a familiar voice called out across the room.
‘Hey Lucy, time to go home’ called Dad. She turned her head and saw Dad standing there in the doorway, with his rain coat over his suit, hands thrust deep into his coat pockets.
‘Well you can tell me more next time if you want Lucy’ said Ben quietly getting up. ‘Any time you want a chat.’
Reluctantly, Lucy got her things and her coat and left with Dad. Both of them opted not to say anything at all, rather than risk their argument flaring up again. The drive home wasn’t long and they were both lost in their own thoughts.
‘Let’s watch a bit of telly’ said Dad as they walked into the cold house. ‘We can eat dinner on our laps. I’ll just go and rustle something up.
‘Just four more days to go’, Lucy thought to herself as she sat there. ‘That’s all.’ They ate their dinner in companionable silence as they watched TV. Lucy washed up. She knew that Dad hoped that things had blown over and that everything was back to normal. ‘No chance’ she thought to herself as she put the plates away. Before she knew it, it was bedtime.
Lucy gladly went to get ready for bed. Dad came in and gave her a peck on the forehead as she lay in bed in her pyjamas reading a book.
‘I love you, you know’ he said. Lucy gave him a wan smile.
‘Night Dad’ she said.
‘Lights out in ten’ he said, quietly closing her bedroom door. She heard a step creak as he went downstairs.
Lucy got out of bed and went over to her bookshelf. She’d had her birthday a few weeks before. It had been a miserable affair without Mum, but she’d been given money by several aunts and assorted relatives and she still hadn’t got round to putting it into her savings account. She’d hidden the bank notes in the back of her old copy of Alice in Wonderland and the loose change was in her purse. She quickly counted it up. She had forty seven pounds.
Lucy jumped into bed and was soon asleep.
The sun was red in the sky as dawn broke across the sea. The storm winds had completely passed now and the sea was quiet, almost still. Spirit had swum all night and was tired, but he had to keep going. He was pleased with himself though. He’d put a good distance between himself and the pod and hopefully they would only just be waking and hadn’t realised that he’d gone. The thought made him feel guilty though. What would Dancer think when she realised that he’d gone without saying goodbye?
‘Don’t think about it’, he said to himself, ‘just keep swimming.’ He mustn’t let himself forget what he was aiming to achieve. He would swim solo, as all young dolphins had to do to pass into adulthood and then when he returned he’d earn the respect of the pod. They would listen to him then, even Storm and he’d be the equal of any dolphin in the seas. Still though, he couldn’t help remembering that normally when a dolphin embarked on a coming-of-age swim, all the pod would see the adventurer off, singing the old songs as he swam away. It wasn’t like that for Spirit though. No one had sung to him as he left, not even Dancer. It didn’t feel right, but it was too late to turn back now. He’d feel terrible if he turned and went back to the pod after barely a day. He had to prove himself.
As he swum, Spirit tried to imagine Lucy there next to him, moving without effort in the water by his side. He knew she wasn’t there, but the thought comforted him and made him feel less alone. He hoped that she would come to him soon. He spied a small shoal of fish and dived upon them hungrily, snatching two from the rest before the shoal disappeared down into the depths.
To a human the seas are vast and featureless. To a dolphin though, it was like moving through a constantly changing landscape. Even though he was still quite young, Spirit had learned to sense the subtlest changes in the water and everything about it helped tell him where he was; the saltiness, the current, the warmth of the water, the particles on its surface, the smell of the water itself. It was as natural to Spirit as breathing.
Last night’s storm had churned up a lot of debris from the depths but he could also sense the waters washing out from the land’s edge, even though he could not see it. He would soon be safe in the shadow of the coast. In the meantime, even if he knew it was too soon to relax, his worries suddenly seemed less serious. The sea was calm and the sun was high in the sky. It was going to be a good day.
‘You’re doing what?!’ Amy exclaimed, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Lucy felt shy, almost self-conscious, even though Amy was her best friend. They were sitting on Amy’s bed round at her house a day later after school.
‘You can’t just go to Cornwall on your own’ her friend continued. ‘What will your Dad say?’ she asked incredulously.
‘He won’t know’ Lucy replie
d quietly.
‘Won’t the police arrest you or something if you get on a train without a grown up?’
‘Don’t be daft’ Lucy laughed, ‘I’ll not be doing anything wrong!’
‘But you’ll be running away from home’ said Amy.
‘Course not’ replied Lucy, I’m just going to go and see my Aunt for a few days.
‘She won’t let you do that will she, not without your Dad’s permission?’ Amy still could not believe her ears.
‘She won’t know either, not till I get there.’ They both heard Mrs Hodges coming up stairs and Lucy continued in a whisper. ‘Once I’m there there’ll be nothing my Dad can do about it. He won’t be worried coz he won’t even know I’ll be gone till he gets the call from Bethany when I get there. He’ll be too busy to come down and drag me back home. I’ve got it all figured out.’
‘If it was my Dad he’d hit the roof if I tried something like that’ exclaimed Amy. Lucy thought about how her Dad would react. She knew that he’d be pretty angry too, but she didn’t care. She had to do something.
‘What if some weirdo gets you’ Amy asked. ‘There’s all sorts of strange people out there Lucy, you know that. Some creepy guy could try to grab you or something.’ They’d all been taught at school about not talking to strangers, not accepting lifts from people they didn’t know, not accepting sweets or anything else and not having anything at all to do with strangers, especially strangers that might approach them. Dad was always drumming the same message into her and he said that suspicious people sometimes hung around train stations. He said that occasionally people seemed nice, but really they were weird and dangerous and you should stay away from them, just in case.
‘I’ll be ok’ said Lucy, though she didn’t feel it. ‘I’ll just use my common sense. I’ll tell anyone that asks me that I’m going to visit my Aunt and that she’s meeting me at the other end. It’s true, well, sort of.’
The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins Page 13