Maddy's Dolphin (3 page)

‘Hello?' Imogen answered. That was great. They were hoping that she was in.

After the initial greetings, with both Maddy and CJ talking at once and pushing to listen to the receiver, Imogen asked if Ishbel knew they were on the phone. ‘Yes, of course, Imogen,' they quickly replied. The conversation turned to Indigo. Even before Maddy was born, Imogen had been interested in dolphins. She had swum with them in the Bahamas, Israel, Ireland and England. Although she didn't know it, Chisel, a dolphin who she had swum with in England, had been one of the Chosen Ones.

Maddy explained that Indigo had returned to the bay and they were having fun together. CJ then started to say that Indigo had said… Maddy quickly kicked him and pulled a face for him to shut up. Although Imogen knew all about dolphins, she was an adult and wouldn't believe that Maddy could talk to one. Both Maddy and CJ had to keep it a secret.

Maddy, pushing CJ from the phone, said, ‘I heard at school that dolphins are being hurt with a noise in the oceans. Do you know anything about it?'

Well, that was all it needed; Maddy knew when Imogen answered, ‘Well, yes,' that they would soon know all about the problem.

Imogen explained that the military used sonar throughout the oceans and seas of the world to identify any potential threats or enemies to their respective countries. Since the terrorist attacks on America, the Americans put more and more money into protecting their country. As well as operating the mid-frequency active sonar, a low-frequency active sonar started to be introduced. And when the Americans start using something, the other countries do as well.

Unfortunately, the sound that is emitted seems to affect whales and dolphins, causing them to strand themselves on beaches, and even giving them symptoms like divers who get the bends. Imogen said that whales and dolphins have died because of the sonar in the seas.

Both Maddy and CJ were silent. It was bad, it was really bad. Imogen said that people were trying to highlight the problem to governments and stop it, but that governments, especially the American government, thought it was more important to protect their country.

At least they knew they always heard the truth from Imogen, even if it wasn't nice to hear. Maddy asked, ‘What can we do? We have to do something.'

‘Yes, what can we do, Imogen?' said CJ.

There was silence on the line for a bit, then Imogen said, ‘I know! You can write to the President.'

‘Sir, General MacDee is on the phone.' The President nodded that he would be right through, then turned back to his daughter.

‘Lucy, you know I'm busy, the country doesn't run itself you know, honey.'

‘But Dad, I don't want to go to Greece, let me stay, please Dad, I'm tired of going on all these trips with you.'

There was a cough from the doorway. Michael was trying to hurry him up and the look on her dad's face changed, clouded over, and she knew he wouldn't listen any more. That was it. There was no point. He had turned off to her and she would be going.

‘Honey, you will have fun, it's a lovely country. The weather will be great, and it's the only way we can spend a bit of time together.' He then turned around and headed off to the other room to take his really important phone call. Whoever said it would be fun being the President's daughter? Well whoever it was, they couldn't have been more wrong.

Lucy was bored of traipsing around the world in the tow of her dad, the President of the United States of America. She had to have a bodyguard with her everywhere she went, and had to behave and look tidy all the time. It was not fun at all, and Lucy was totally fed up.

She threw herself down on the chair, then pushed herself backwards out from the desk, letting the chair wheels slide her back along the marble floor until the chair collided with a little table full of papers. She hadn't pushed hard, but it was hard enough for the chair to hit the table and cause it to wobble slightly. The wobble was just enough to make the pile of papers fall off, down to the floor.

Oh no, that was all she needed. Her dad's secretary Michael would say, ‘What have you done now?' She jumped out of the chair and started picking the papers up. Boring, boring letters! Why did all these people write to her dad anyway? What was the point? He never listened to her, why should he listen to anyone else?

Dear President,

Me and my brother CJ (I am Maddy) are writing to you because we think you might be able to help us. Well, not us, but the dolphins and whales in all the seas of the world.

We have a dolphin that lives in Loutraki, so we know what lovely animals they are. We swim with him every day and have found out so much about them. They have been in the seas for so long and contribute to life on our planet. Humans should not hurt them just to protect humans. We don't own the planet. We share it with all the animals and fish and every other living thing on the planet.

My aunty says that the sonar used by your submarines to stop attacks by terrorists or anyone else who wants to attack Americans is hurting the whales and dolphins and Indigo (the dolphin we play with) agrees. I know you are not the only country to use sonar but you are the biggest.

You can come to Greece to see Indigo, if that will help you see what we mean, but please don't just throw this letter away, it is very important.

Maddy and CJ

Lucy held the letter and read it through again. Well, OK, not all the letters were boring. They swim with a dolphin! How lucky are they! She would love to do that. What was it with the sonar, though; did it really hurt the dolphins? Dad said it was important to protect America, and she had heard them all talking about sonar from time to time. Wasn't there another way of doing it so that no dolphin would be hurt?

‘Oh Lucy, what have you done? You are so clumsy.' Here he was then – Michael, true to form. ‘What have you done now; come on, out now.' Lucy grabbed hold of the letter, putting it behind her back as she backed out of the room, apologising to Michael as she went. On getting to the door, she turned and ran off to her bedroom, thinking about what she would do in Greece and how she would get to see the dolphin.

Nearly two weeks had gone by since Maddy and CJ had sent the letter off to the President and they hadn't heard anything back at all. They checked the post every day, and every day they were disappointed. They had had lots of fun, of course, and had settled into quite a routine – a morning swim with Indigo, then a nice breakfast, some shopping, doing something with their mum or cycling, then a light lunch before Jorgos picked them up from the beach in his boat and they went out waterskiing. Indigo would join them, and he would swim and jump around them, enjoying the feel of the wake on his skin.

After a sociable meal at the taverna they both would go and play football with the other Loutraki children. Maddy would always be first to leave, though, leaving CJ laughing and joking around with the others while she went off to join Indigo for a quiet chat. Anyone standing on the waterfront, away from the crowd, would see a young girl sitting on the step down at sea level with a dolphin bobbing about in the water next to her. It would almost appear that they were chatting together like best friends.

CJ would race up to them, when he had dragged himself away from the other boys, and loudly crash down beside them. He was never quiet, but both Maddy and Indigo liked him joining them. Conversations would usually get quite interesting when he turned up. Of course, all good things come to an end, and their days would end by the sound of Jorgos coming along the waterfront on his little motorbike, having been sent to find them by Ishbel. Then they would run along beside him as they followed him home.

But today they had gone down for their early morning swim and Indigo was nowhere to be seen. Maddy was worried, because although they had been having fun, Indigo always had his thoughts on the problem of the noise which was hurting the whales and dolphins.

They were on the balcony now eating their breakfast. Ishbel was talking to CJ about wearing his swimming trunks to bed every night. ‘You have some perfectly good pyjamas to wear; you can't wear your trunks to bed.'

‘Why not, Mum? It makes it easier in the morning if I do. It saves me changing.'

‘But they will be dirty, wearing them all night.'

‘Oh no, Mum, I go straight out for a swim in them. That cleans them up.'

Ishbel looked exasperated. Why was he always in such a rush? But before she could come up with another argument, CJ knocked his chair back as he jumped out of it shouting, ‘Indigo!'

Indigo had powered into the bay and now needed to get Maddy's attention, so he jumped and jumped, causing the water to splash loudly as he crashed back into the sea. That had done it; he could feel Maddy shouting out, ‘Indigo, what's wrong?' The dolphin's eyesight out of the water wasn't good enough for him to see Maddy and CJ up on their balcony waving down at him. Sight wasn't the most important sense for dolphins. He had found that if he was within shouting distance of Maddy they could still talk to each other, and the distance they could do this at had grown as Maddy had got older. Indigo didn't know if this distance would grow further still. The Keeper had told him that in the past a special human and dolphin had been able to communicate however far apart they were, but that had only happened once that he was aware of.

‘Maddy, I need you to come to the lake as soon as you can. You need to see this.'

‘See what, Indigo?'

‘It's too difficult to explain, but bring some fish with you.'

And with that, Indigo turned and shot off up the bay and was lost to sight in no time. Well, he's in hurry today,' said Ishbel, returning to the breakfast table.

‘We need to go the lake,' Maddy whispered to CJ.

He knew there wasn't any time for explanations, so when Ishbel asked him what the two of them had planned for the day CJ said, ‘We thought we could cycle to Lake Vonliagmeni with a picnic.' And that's what was then quickly arranged. Ishbel made them up a picnic and agreed that Jorgos would meet them there at 3 p.m. with the boat. They would go waterskiing there for a change and then he would give them a lift back. Well, that was as good as it would get; Maddy hoped that whatever it was Indigo was going to show them was going to be OK for her dad to go waterskiing with.

‘Hey, kids, grab hold, I'll help you up the hill.' It was Costas. He worked at one of the outlying farms and was on his way out there in his truck. Jorgos had taught them a year ago the easy way of getting their bikes up the hill that led out of Loutraki towards the lake. Lots of people did it, but he had sworn them to secrecy. They must not let Ishbel know or she would go mad. They both took hold of the truck with one hand and let the truck do the rest. It pulled them up the long winding hill until they hit the level, then they let go and waved thanks to Costas as they started peddling for themselves again.

It was still a long way, but they were fit and used to cycling, so got to the lake within about an hour of setting off. Maddy heard Indigo say, ‘Come to the far side.' So they took the left fork and cycled on and around. They soon ran out of road and went onto the grass, heading towards the hole in the cliffs that led out into the sea. It was a saltwater lake and was fed directly from the sea through a small channel in the huge cliffs.

‘There's Indigo,' CJ shouted, pointing in front of them; but that's not all Maddy saw when she looked up and followed CJ's finger out into the lake.

‘Is that a whale?' She gasped. CJ, at this point, was just standing still, catching flies with his mouth wide open.

‘Yes, Maddy, it's a whale,' said Indigo.

Indigo had been fishing the night before, well out into the Gulf of Corinth. He had his special areas of the sea where he fished and didn't mind swimming a good distance for it. Just as he was about to come in for the final lunge and grab at the flatfish he had been trailing with his sonar as it swam, concealed, under the sand, his attention was drawn by a sperm whale's call.

It couldn't be, though, he thought, as the flatfish swam away out of his reach. Sperm whales don't come into the Gulf of Corinth and, although their song could travel a long way through the seas, he had not heard it here before. Just as he had convinced himself he was wrong, he heard it again, and this time he heard what it was saying. ‘Lunar, Lunar, Lunar.' It was being repeated over and over again.

This meant the whale was in trouble. It also meant that the whale was called Lunar. Whales and dolphins, when they are distressed or need help, will repeatedly call out their own names. Indigo didn't know why they did this; it had just always been the case…

The call was coming from the direction of the lake. Indigo forgot all about food and swam off as fast as he could. As he had approached the entrance to the lake, he was just in time to see the sperm whale being battered from side to side as it passed thorough the small gap into Lake Vonliagmeni. The channel into the lake is only about five metres wide and the water at its deepest is only two metres. The tidal forces of the water passing through this small gap make it very dangerous to pass.

‘Lunar, Lunar, Lunar,' she called, as she collided with one side and then the other, raking her skin across the jagged rocks. Then she was through and into the lake, but she kept calling her name over and over. Indigo didn't understand why she was so upset and why she had even tried to enter the lake. Sperm whales like really deep water; they can dive for an hour at a time, going deeper than Indigo had ever gone down, in search of food like squid. The Gulf of Corinth wasn't deep enough. There were a lot of groups of sperm whales who lived in the seas of southern Greece, but not here.

Indigo had swum into the lake a number of times before. It was dangerous even for him, but if he read the water right and picked his time he could get through easily. He waited there at the edge, waited and waited, and then, when the time was just right, he flicked his tail with as much force as he could and he was off, powering his way through the gap into the lake.