Midnight Dolphin

by James Carmody

  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.

  Then she remembered, years later, how pale and tired Megan had been the last time Rachel had seen her. By then Jet was an old dolphin and Megan was grown up and with a daughter of her own.

  The darkness was gathering along the horizon when Megan left Rachel’s lab and drove down to the cove. The wind had completely died away and the sails of the yacht that was moored beyond the rocks hung lifelessly. The sea lapped lazily along the pebbly shoreline.

  Megan sat down heavily on a rock and sighed. She felt exhausted, but she knew that in a couple of hours she’d have to get back into the car and start the six hour drive back home to John and Lucy. Rachel told her that she was too tired to drive, but Megan ignored her.

  Recently she’d felt so heavy in her soul, that even her blood felt tired. She knew that Jet felt the same. Recently when she reached out to him, she’d found him just drifting in the water.

  ‘Oh, I’m just floating’ he’d replied when she asked. ‘Floating in the emptiness. It just goes on forever’ he said, with a far-away look in his dark eyes.

  ‘Are you alright?’ she asked. He turned to look at her.

  ‘I’m old Megan’ he said. ‘One day I will swim out from the pod … and I won’t come back.’

  ‘What do you mean, you’re old?’ she asked jokingly, but fear flecked her eyes. The fact was that she knew he was right. Rachel had only recently pointed out that Jet was now one of the oldest dolphins she’d studied. He couldn’t go on just because she wanted him to.

  Jet was in the waters just outside the bay, and Megan had to see him before she drove home. There was a small r
owing boat pulled up on the edge of the curve of pebbles. She pushed the boat out onto the gently lapping surface of the sea and jumped in. Megan put the oars in the rowlocks and began to row out slowly to where the cliff curved round away from the cove. She used to find it easy to row. This time she barely had the energy to pull the boat through the water.

  ‘Everything changes, everything moves on’ Jet had told her once. She wondered about those words now. She didn’t want things to change. She didn’t want things to move on.

  ‘There you are’ said Megan. Jet slowly approached through the water, his dorsal fin ploughing the surface. Megan stowed the oars again. Once upon a time, she’d have just dived into the water to join him. Megan didn’t feel up to that today and besides, she had to keep her clothes dry for the drive home.

  She trailed her hand in the water from the edge of the boat, and then slipped the bonds of her mind and stretched out to Jet instead. As soon as she saw his eyes, she knew that he was near the end.

  ‘Oh Jet!’ she said, her voice choked with tears. ‘I don’t want to lose you.’

  ‘Imagine’ he said very slowly, ‘that we were young dolphins again, breaking the wave and chasing the bows of yachts.’ Megan smiled.

  ‘Yes, that’s a beautiful dream’ she replied.

  ‘Dream with me then’ replied Jet. ‘Let’s dream together’. He closed his eyes, and as he did so, Megan had an irresistible urge to close hers too.

  ‘Dream…’ she murmured.

  It was Rachel who found them, an hour or so later; Megan’s lifeless body drifting in the rowing boat, and Jets smooth form lolling in the waves. They looked so perfect; it was as though they had fallen asleep and simply forgotten to wake up.

  Lucy’s trance was more powerful than anything that had ever happened to her before; even more than her link to Spirit. It was as though she was drawn in by an irresistible force. Her inability to reach out to him felt like an aching loss. Now though she felt drawn along by two other human girls. It felt as though she was very close to them, but somehow she could not make out exactly who they were. Only by following this unseen hand that guided her up the dark cold lane from the farm would she find out. At one point Rachel Greenwood appeared in front of her, but it didn’t mean anything to her and her feet and legs carried her along until she was standing right at the top of the cliff. Even then she didn’t feel at all afraid, but scrabbled down the icy slope that led right to the edge of the sheer granite cliff. One slip and she would tumble over. Yet she wasn’t scared at all. It was only as she sat poised next to the wind-blasted bush that she became fully conscious again. There to her right was the crevice in the rock giving off an eerie green glow. This was it thought Lucy. This was the answer.

  Lucy eased herself inside the tight crevice. The dull green glow from the rock was just enough to let her see by. If she had been just a year older, she would be too big to squeeze herself through the narrow gap. Normally Lucy didn’t like narrow enclosed spaces but tonight she didn’t care. The further down the crevice she wormed herself, the less aware she was of the biting wind outside. The rock was mostly smooth but occasionally it was jagged. At one place a very old piece of ripped cloth had been caught on a sharp point. Lucy wondered who had been here before her.

  Eventually the crevice widened. She no longer had to wriggle on her belly and was able to shuffle along on her knees instead, careful not to bang her head on the rock above her like she had last time. The low tunnel bent upwards and the glow beyond it looked brighter somehow. She glanced at her watch and pressed the button that illuminated the dial. It was two minutes to midnight. Lucy pulled herself over the last shelf of rock and there she was. The roof of the cave arched up above her like the backbone of a great whale. It glittered with green crystals that encrusted the walls. There was a thin ledge that ran for about ten metres along the edge of the water.

  Slowly, Lucy stood up and gazed about her in wonder. Then a shiver of recognition ran through her body. She wasn’t alone. Two other girls were standing on the rock looking about them as well. They were there in front of her and yet,… they were only half there. She could only just make out the features of the two ghostly apparitions of girls that stood there. One was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and looked much like Lucy. The other wore old fashioned clothing and bloomers that she had seen pictures of in books. Somehow, they all seemed to catch each other’s eye at the same time. They smiled silently at one another.

  Just then then there was a splash in the water below them. Lucy gasped.

  ‘Spirit!’ Quickly Lucy ran to the edge of the water, all her attention focused on the sight of the dolphin circling quietly in front of her, his head above the surface, eyes sparkling with delight at seeing her. Lucy lost sight of the other two girls but had the sensation that they too were running to their own dolphins in their own time, whenever that might be.

  Without hesitation Lucy dived into the cold water, breaking its surface with barely a ripple. Then she was swimming round and round delightedly with her friend.

  ‘I thought I’d never see you again’ she murmured into his flank. Spirit clicked and whistled, but they were unable to speak as they did when she reached out to him with her mind. Lucy looked up at the glittering roof of the cave and it felt like she was staring up at a sweep of bright stars above her.

  Slowly, Spirit and Lucy drifted towards an opening in the rock. Spirit clearly knew where it led to, but Lucy had no idea. They floated through into a second cave; smaller this time but with larger and brighter crystals that to her dark-adjusted eyes seem so bright that she could hardly take them in. It felt as though all lines were blurred and that everything was in a state of flux. A strange feeling passed through Lucy’s head and body, but what it was, or what it meant, Lucy could not tell. The only thing she knew was that she was happy to be there with Spirit.

  Presently Lucy became aware of another opening that led to a smaller cave just beyond the second. There was barely enough room for Lucy to pass through by herself, let alone with Spirit. Lucy trod water for a few moments and looked deep into Spirit’s eyes. A world of understanding passed between them without a word being said.

  ‘Come on then’ whispered Lucy eventually as she smiled into her friends eyes. Silently they moved together towards the narrow opening, and as they did so, it seemed as though they merged into one.

  It was Bethany who found Lucy sitting at the top of the path to Old Man’s Cove, clutching her knees to her chest, wet in the cold wintery air. It was one o’clock at night on Christmas day.

  The first thing that Lucy was aware of was a flashlight playing on her from ten or so metres away.

  ‘She’s here! She’s here!’ yelled Bethany and then rushed up to her, flinging a blanket around her shoulders and hugging Lucy to her. Before a minute had passed Mary and Darren ran up to where they were, both with a flashlight in their hand, panting from the exertion. A few moments later Rachel Greenwood hobbled up to them, looking into Lucy’s face anxiously.

  Then Lucy could see a torch advancing towards them along the top of the cliff, and finally Dad appeared. He gathered her up into an embrace so tight that Lucy thought he’d squeeze all the breath out of her. She could feel his hot tears dropping onto her cheek as he held her.

  Eventually he eased his embrace and pulled back to look her fully in the face for the first time, clasping her shoulders with his hands as he did so. The look of joy and loving in his face passed and was replaced by a look of fear and worry.

  ‘You’ve gone and done it haven’t you?’ he said. ‘You’ve found the Trinity Caves and you’ve found that darned dolphin there. You’ve linked yourself to him forever.’

  Lucy nodded silently. Dad seemed completely overwhelmed and his red eyes filled with tears again.

  ‘You silly girl!’ he wept. ‘Don’t you see? Now that your life is forever linked to his, you will die when he dies!’ It looked as though he could barely talk for the pain that he was feeling. ‘Mum didn’t die in a car crash L
ucy’ he continued, pressing her head to his chest again. ‘She died when her dolphin Jet died! Mum and that Mary Pewsey woman. Neither of them were forty before they were stolen away from us. And now you’ve joined them!’ Lucy felt his body heave with sobs as he held her close again.

  A long time seemed to pass before she heard Bethany say in the background;

  ‘Come on John. We can’t stay here all night. We’d better get Lucy home.’ Dad loosened his grip and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He made to turn and walk up the path, taking Lucy’s hand in his own.

  ‘Dad?’ said Lucy. He stopped and turned back to face her. ‘Dad I don’t care. If I didn’t have Spirit I’d be half-dead already. I’d rather live a short full life than a long empty one. I am happy I’ve done what I’ve done.’

  Dad nodded, wiping his eyes again. He turned to the path and the small group made their way up to the road where the cars were parked in the frosty darkness of the Christmas morning. Behind her in the ocean, Lucy knew that Spirit was swimming back to Star-Gazer, Storm and the rest of the pod. She was as close to him now as she had ever been and she would be so for the rest of her days. Lucy breathed deeply and stepped forward towards the coming dawn.

  ****************************************

  Full Circle:

  In nature, there are few straight lines, but many circles. Life too, curves round on itself.

  Lying on an airbed in the shallows, the girl dozed, her back warmed by the summer sun. She could hear her sister playing catch with her mum and dad nearby. She dangled her hand into the water, and wondered if anyone could paddle across the ocean on an airbed.