‘Mum, I need to borrow the car to drive Megan home’ Rachel announced as they walked into the shop. ‘And I’ve got some exciting news too. We’re all going round to Toby Smith’s house tomorrow afternoon and he may want to buy the Reverend Jeremiah Smith’s journal from you.’
‘Well you two have worked fast’ exclaimed her mother. ‘I only told you about Toby Smith this morning! It’s a good thing its half day closing tomorrow so I can come along with you both. Will your parents be okay with that Megan?’ she asked, turning to look at the younger girl standing a little shyly by the book-shop door. Megan nodded. Rachel seized the car keys from her mother’s outstretched hand.
‘See you later then!’ Rachel and Megan went back outside, the door bell clanging noisily behind them. Parked at the curb a few yards away was a red Citroen Deux Cheveaux. ‘It’s not much to look at’ said Rachel, ‘but it does get you around.’ They climbed in and sat down on the hard seats. Rachel pulled out the choke and turned the key in the ignition several times before the car eventually spluttered into life. They jerked forward a few inches and then the engine cut out again. ‘Let’s have another go’ said Rachel patiently.
This time the car was more responsive and they moved out into the busy streets of the town, which was flooded with late afternoon sunshine. Just as they did so a bundle of fur landed in Megan’s lap and she half jumped out of her seat in surprise.
‘Bilbo Baggins! What are you doing here?’ laughed Rachel. She glanced at Megan’s surprised face. ‘Oh this cat of ours is a real tear-away. He loves going on car journeys. He even hitched a ride on the local bus once. He must have slipped out of the shop behind us when he saw me take the car keys.’ The cat looked out of the window from his vantage point of Lucy’s lap with a look of haughty indifference.
The car strained its way up the hill out of Merwater and before long they were driving through country lanes back to the holiday cottage.
Mum, Dad and Bethany were all sitting in the garden when the red Citroen pulled up outside the cottage. Bethany ran up to the gate with unrestrained curiosity as Megan and Rachel climbed out of the car. For Megan it seemed like an eternity since Megan had swum out from the beach towards the dolphin and then ran off in tears. So much seemed to have happened since then. Bethany had been fretting unhappily about it all afternoon though. Mum and Dad hadn’t seemed at all their normal selves either.
Bilbo Baggins wound himself around Rachel’s feet as they walked up the garden path.
‘Hello, I’m Rachel’ she said, shaking Mum and Dad’s hand formally. They exchanged greetings. ‘Megan came into my mother’s bookshop in Merwater the other day and we got chatting. I bumped into her again today and ended up giving her a lift home.’
‘Mum?’ said Megan. ‘Can I hang out with Rachel tomorrow?’ Mum and Dad exchanged a quick glance. It seemed too good to be true that Megan had got over her upset of that morning and had found herself a new, older and more responsible friend to take her mind of all this dolphin business.
‘Well only if you’re sure’ replied Dad cautiously. He wondered why Rachel would be happy to spend time with a girl like Megan who was so much younger than herself. They chatted for a short while before Rachel and Bilbo Baggins made their way home in the red Citroen.
Megan experienced a strange mix of feelings as Rachel drove away. She felt proud that she’d made friends with a student like Rachel, who seemed so much more grown up than she felt. She was delighted to have made so much progress in her research about the Reverend Jeremiah Smith and his own enquiries into nineteenth century dolphin-children. Yet despite all of that she still felt this powerful and gnawing sense that she had lost her connection with Jet and the other dolphins in the pod. Whatever they might find out when they visited Toby Smith the next day, perhaps it was already too late for her. Maybe they wouldn’t find out anything useful at all. She glanced at her younger sister who was running excitedly around the garden pretending to be an aeroplane.
It was Dad’s turn to cook, which normally meant fish-fingers, peas and mashed potato and he disappeared into the kitchen to clatter around noisily with aluminium pots. He switched on a transistor radio and the sound of crackly chatter wafted out of the window into the late afternoon air.
‘Darling, you are feeling alright are you?’ Mum asked Megan with a concerned expression on her face. ‘We got a bit worried about you earlier’ she went on. Megan didn’t know what to say. She felt so locked up in her own private worries and concerns that she hardly knew where to start.
‘I suppose’ she replied noncommittally.
‘You will tell me anything that worries you?’ her mother continued. Megan nodded, though she knew that she wouldn’t. ‘Rachel seems very nice.’ Megan smiled and nodded. ‘I’m glad that you’ve made a friend, even if she is so much older than you.’
After dinner Megan helped wash up and then wandered outside again.
‘I think I’ll go for a stroll’ she said to Mum absently.
‘Can I come too?’ pleaded Bethany. Megan smiled.
‘Why not?’ she answered. They walked out onto the dunes together, kicking at the sand and looking out for interesting bits of driftwood. Bethany said she was looking for hidden treasure and Megan joined in with the make-believe to keep her young sister entertained.
‘If I was a pirate I’d hide my treasure under that bush there’ she joked, pointing at a scrubby plant a short distance away. Bethany went over and started peering under it enthusiastically. ‘Well maybe not that bush, but one like it.’
There was a smell of wood smoke in the air and when they came over the top of a dune they could see that a mother, father and two kids had lit a fire and were cooking sausages on sticks over the flames which crackled from the fat dripping down from the meat. It would have made Megan feel hungry if she hadn’t just eaten. She eyed the family enviously. They seemed so happy and carefree. Even though she was on holiday too, it didn’t feel like it. Every time she started to enjoy herself, she remembered the anxiety gnawing away at her inside.
Megan looked out to sea. She couldn’t help but scan the waves for any tell-tale signs of a dolphin swimming in the water, but of course there were none. She wondered where Jet was now, and whether she would ever be able to speak to him again.
‘Are you looking for the dolphins?’ asked Bethany brightly. Feeling suddenly sad, Megan turned and strode away from her sister without answering. Bethany ran to keep up with her. ‘It’ll be okay’ Bethany said. ‘You’ll see.’ Megan turned to smile at her, but her heart felt heavy and she wasn’t so sure.
Then Megan thought about Rachel, Toby Smith, and the journals of the Reverend Jeremiah Smith. She still had the battered edition of the Reverend’s book in her pocket. Despite her despondency, she felt that she had made progress. Something had to help her to get back to Jet, it just had to. Looking back towards the sea, she could see that the rosy-coloured sun was flecking the waves with red. It was a beautiful view and despite everything, she was glad to be there. Bethany came up next to her and together they looked at the sunset.
‘Come on’ said Megan after a while, ‘we’d better head back’ she added, draping an arm companionably across Bethany’s shoulders to walk back together across the dunes as the sun sank below the horizon and tipped the world into darkness.
Chapter Ten:
It was the familiar chugging noise that stirred Lucy into consciousness the next morning. She’d been worried about slipping away from Spirit and the pod if she fell asleep, but she’d been able to doze comfortably next to Spirit, lulled to sleep by the waves. She caught glimpses as she slept of a Victorian girl in a bonnet again in her restless dreams, but why, she had no idea. Lucy was still with them all the next morning. The sound that she heard on waking was of an engine. Its low rhythmic vibrations reverberated a long way through the green water of the sea around her. The engine spluttered occasionally but kept puttering on.
‘I recognise that engine noise’ said Lucy quietly. She could
n’t quite place it though.
‘Yes, it’s the engine of the boat that brought the man who helped cut me free of the steel rope’ answered Spirit. He knew all the sounds of the ocean and the noise of an engine, once heard, was immediately ingrained in his memory.
‘You mean it’s Nate’s boat, the Lady Thelma?’ Lucy asked. She rose towards the surface of the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Lady Thelma’s homely hull.
‘The boat’s about two miles from here’ replied Spirit.
‘But it sounds so close’ said Lucy. ‘Can we go and see it, please?’ Spirit suppressed a chuckle.
‘Of course’ he replied. ‘Why not?’ He glanced at Dancer who’d just swum over. ‘Are you coming too?’ he asked.
‘What are you waiting for?’ she replied. ‘I bet I get there before you two sleepy heads!’ With that, Dancer was off. Spirit sped off in pursuit leaving Lucy to catch up. She glided through the water effortlessly, but it was still hard for her to go as fast as the two dolphins. Spirit hung back a little till she reached him. Dancer was far ahead now and he had no chance of catching up with her.
Before long they swam up to the Lady Thelma. Lucy and the dolphins broke the surface of the water and she saw the familiar shape of the small fishing vessel. The Lady Thelma still needed a lick of paint and had seen better days, but Lucy had a lot of affection for the old tub, as Nate called it. There was the small wheel-house on top. They approached from the front of the boat. Spirit and Lucy caught up with Dancer and the three of them swam along abreast of each other. Lucy could see that Nate was standing at the prow, leaning with his face on his hands staring absently out to sea. Bob must be in the wheel-house, Lucy thought.
The two dolphins broke the surface of the water in shallow leap, and so did Lucy. She wondered if Nate could see her too. She knew that ordinary people would not be able to do so, but perhaps Nate was more attuned to the mysteries of the deep. He was a fisherman from Merwater after all. Maybe he would see her with Spirit and Dancer and think that she was a mermaid.
She could see that the two dolphins had certainly drawn his attention, but she could not tell if he saw her too. It was strange to be so close in this altered state to someone she knew so well. What would he think if he knew? He looked sad though. Normally Nate’s ruddy middle-aged face was set in an expression of warmth and cheerfulness. This time she could see that he looked morose and unhappy. She wondered why. She certainly couldn’t ask him, even though now they were barely three metres away from him. Spirit, Dancer and Lucy turned and swam alongside the vessel, even if it was much slower than they were.
‘Can we leap high enough for me to see Nate’s face better?’ asked Lucy. Spirit inclined his head in agreement and a moment later all three of them were in mid-air, as high as the wheel-house of the boat. Nate turned to see the spectacle and Bob was calling something from inside, but Lucy could see that his baggy eyes were red and his face looked drawn. The three of them sliced back cleanly into the water. After a while they left to return to the pod. Lucy felt worried for Nate and for Thelma too. What could cause a tough resilient fisherman like Nate to look so miserable?
The clear morning light was shining through the windows of the hospital. Curtains had been drawn back and nurses bustled in and out of the ward as the building stirred into life and its staff went about their everyday routines. Lucy lay there, as perfectly still as she had been the day before. Not a muscle in her face or body had moved. Dad sat there in the day chair next to her, his arms folded and his eyes closed, his head lolling to one side uncomfortably as he slept. The rays of the sun stirred Dad from his slumbers and he blinked slowly as he regained consciousness. His neck felt stiff and uncomfortable and he massaged it with his hand. A nurse came up to check on Lucy’s heart-rate and blood-pressure monitors. Everything was as it had been when the last nurse had checked in the middle of the night. The nurse’s shifts changed at six thirty and now the nurse was an efficient-looking Afro-Caribbean lady with a warm accent.
‘No change to Sleeping-Beauty?’ asked the nurse with a sympathetic smile. Dad shook his head.
‘Well maybe her prince will come today.’ Dad still felt exhausted and hardly had the energy to reply. ‘But you looked very tired Mr Parr. If Lucy’s not come round by tonight it would be good for you if you sleep in your own bed getting some proper rest.’
‘We’ll see’ he replied. He knew he wouldn’t leave Lucy’s side till she was on the mend but he wasn’t going to tell her that. The nurse went on to another patient. ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Dad thought to himself. If only it was as easy as a kiss. He leant over and pressed his lips gently to Lucy’s forehead. She didn’t move. ‘Well I suppose a father’s kiss doesn’t count anyway.’
‘I think that Lucy should pay a visit to Sunlight’ announced Storm when the three of them returned to the rest of the pod. ‘She knows more than most of us about the relationship between dolphins and humans.’ Lucy had found out in the Merwater museum about the story of Susan Penhaligon and how more than two hundred years ago she had led a group of children into the sea where they believed they would turn into dolphins. Sunlight was from a strange pod of dolphins who believed themselves to be descended from those children. She had escaped that pod for another to lead a life free from that sad legacy and had taken the name Sunlight to renounce her past.
Half an hour later Lucy felt optimistic as she, Spirit and Dancer sped along, breaking the tips of the low waves as they journeyed towards the part of the ocean where they knew that Sunlight’s pod tended to stay. Spirit and Dancer were hungry and they broke their journey to hunt a shoal of sprat that they came across by chance. Lucy didn’t feel any hunger at all and she hung in the water, watching with amusement as the two dolphins turned lithely, hunting the flashes of silver-backed fish in the water. After the two dolphins had had enough to eat they continued on their way.
Dancer called ahead, her whistles echoing far across the ocean to announce their imminent arrival, and presently they heard the reply of the other pod, not so very far away. Sunlight and the other dolphins of her pod were resting in the midst of a kelp forest that rose up from a few meters below them. The green tendrils of kelp swayed languorously in the water. They had fed well that morning and were content to rest, play and talk.
They were immensely curious as Dancer and Spirit arrived, accompanied by Lucy. They crowded around, looking at the human girl with keen interest, emitting echo-location clicks to study her, but were surprised when no echoes bounced back from where Lucy was in the water.
A young calf swam up to touch Lucy, but instead the calf simply glidinged through where it appeared that Lucy was floating.
‘It’s as though she’s a ghost’ exclaimed one of the pod.
‘This is Lucy’ explained Spirit. ‘You all know that I am a Child-Seer and that Lucy is a Dolphin-Child. Normally she only comes to me for short visits, but this time her real self has been hurt in an accident and somehow she is able to stay with me much longer. We wanted to speak to you Sunlight’ he continued, turning to look at the older dolphin.
Dancer and Spirit spoke politely to the elders of the pod for a short while, exchanging the traditional greetings and news. Eventually Spirit caught Sunlight’s eye again.
‘Come, swim with me’ she said to Spirit and Lucy. Dancer sensed it was better for her to stay and to continue to talk to the pod elders. Spirit and Lucy followed Sunlight as they worked their way through the kelp forest.
Presently Sunlight turned and they paused in an open patch of water just near the kelp.
‘Can I talk to you Lucy?’ asked Sunlight, almost shyly. All Lucy could hear though were whistles. She was able to speak to Spirit with her mind, without the use of either human words or dolphin whistles. She could speak to Dancer in the same way, but she had never been able to do so with Storm or the other dolphins in the pod. She’d thought that since Sunlight was born of a pod that carried human names, they might also be able to communicate telepathically. She was disappoin
ted that they could not.
‘I can translate’ said Spirit to Sunlight. He explained in more detail how Lucy had come to them. Sunlight looked at Lucy with troubled, searching eyes.
‘The name handed down to me through the generations is a human one; Susan Penhaligon. My pod believed that by some magic they were descended from humans that gave up arms and legs for fins and tails and became dolphins in the sea. I could not share that belief and fled them to find a life elsewhere.’
Spirit translated. Lucy was anxious to find out something, anything that might help her in her plight.
‘Tell her that before I had my injury I was worried about losing my gift; that I thought I’d never be able to see or speak to you again.’ Spirit turned to Sunlight and recounted what Lucy had said. ‘Tell her I’m worried that if I return to my physical body, I will never see Spirit or the rest of you all again.’ Lucy’s eyes flicked between the two dolphins in front of her. ‘And I so desperately want to stay here with you. More than anything!’
‘Dear Lucy’ replied Sunlight, looking at the slight human girl floating in front of her in the water. ‘I have no answers and know no truths. The story of the pod I was born into is a sad one. If humans turned into dolphins, why do some say that human bodies were washed up on the shore all those years ago?’ She shook her head. ‘Were those children transformed into dolphins, or did my ancestors take human names because of their guilt and remorse? I wish I knew.’
‘Sunlight’ said Spirit. ‘Please tell us anything you can that might be able to help us. We don’t know who else to turn to for guidance. If there is anything that you can remember from your time as a calf, anything at all, please tell us.’
Sunlight looked off into the distance, as if she was looking back in time. It felt to Lucy that they waited a long time before the older dolphin replied.
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