“Hey!” Zoe said suddenly, poking me in the shoulder. “Look who’s here!”
I glanced first toward the trail, expecting—hoping?—to see Emma coming to join us after all. But my other friends were all staring out toward the water. When I followed their gaze, my heart skipped. It was Squeak!
The dolphin was swimming back and forth in the deep water, occasionally leaping out and splashing down again. “Excuse me,” I said, jumping up and peeling off my shorts. We’d planned to go swimming later—we wanted to get in as much fun in the water as we could before school started—so I had my swimsuit on underneath.
Soon I was splashing out to meet my dolphin friend. Squeak rushed to greet me, letting out his familiar little whistle-chirp as he bumped me with his nose.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, rubbing him all over. “I thought you might not be coming back. But I’m really glad you did.”
Suddenly I heard another whistle from off to one side. My eyes widened as another dolphin surfaced a few yards away—and another, and another. It was hard to count the sleek gray bodies leaping and swimming around over there, but I was pretty sure there were at least half a dozen of them.
“Squeak!” I exclaimed. “Is that your pod?”
Squeak chirped, then pulled away, swimming toward the other dolphins. Halfway there, he stopped and turned around, gliding back to me. Letting out another soft chirp, he rubbed against me, almost knocking me over.
I laughed and patted him, tears coming to my eyes as I realized what came next. “Good-bye, Squeak,” I said, rubbing his beautiful scarred face. “Thanks for coming to see me before you go.”
He nuzzled me one last time, then spun around and leaped out of the water, heading toward the rest of the pod. They whistled in greeting as he reached them, and the whole group swam off in the direction of the harbor.
“Good-bye, friend,” I whispered, not taking my eyes off the graceful gray forms leaping and dancing through the waves. “Good-bye.”
I kept my eyes on the water, still searching the horizon for the dolphins long after they’d disappeared. Would Squeak come back next summer? Or was he gone for good? Either way, I’d never forget him.
“Hey, Annie!” Zoe called from the beach. “We’re playing a game to see who gets the last cupcake. You want to join?”
I smiled, turning and splashing back toward my friends. “I’m in!”
Catherine Hapka has written many books for children and young adults. She lives in Pennsylvania and enjoys reading, horseback riding, music, gardening, and traveling.
Text and map copyright © 2016 by Catherine Hapka
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First printing 2016
Cover art © 2016 by Michael Heath
Cover design by Mary Claire Cruz
e-ISBN 978-0-545-91941-8
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Heart of a Dolphin Page 10