Midnight Dolphin (12 page)

Dancer quickly
came back with Star-Gazer. Storm and the rest of the pod were not
far behind.

‘
You were
right to be concerned’ said Star-Gazer, ‘there’s something
seriously wrong with her. Do you know if she’s been injured at
all?’ Spirit shook his head.

‘
Lucy, Lucy!
Pay attention. Has anything happened to you dear? Have you been
hurt?’ Star-Gazer asked urgently.

‘
Well,…I,…I’m
not sure’ Lucy replied eventually, gazing around her as though she
wasn’t aware the dolphins were there at all.

‘
What’s she
saying?’ asked Storm, unable to comprehend her answer.

‘
Nothing
really’ said Dancer. ‘She seems dazed and confused. It’s a bit like
that time that Summer got hit by that plank of wood in the
storm.

‘
That’s right’
said Summer. ‘If you hadn’t held me upright in the water, I’d have
drowned.’

‘
Do you think
that’s what’s happened?’ asked Spirit anxiously as Lucy continued
to drift down slowly through the water.

‘
Let’s pick
her up and take her to the surface then’ said Chaser, moving
towards Lucy.

‘
That’s just
the thing’ said Spirit. ‘She’s not physically here. We cannot touch
her or move her.’

‘
I feel so
peaceful’ murmured Lucy to no-one in particular. Chaser swam up to
her and tried to nudge her with his beak. He seemed to pass right
through her.

‘
Lucy, swim to
us. Come back to us!’ urged Dancer. She didn’t respond.

‘
I don’t
believe she can hear you now Dancer’ said Star-Gazer quietly as
Lucy’s eyes quietly closed.

‘
It’s as
though the life is ebbing away from her’ observed Storm. Spirit
turned to him in desperation.

‘
How can you
just float there and say that? There must be something we can do.
We can’t just let it happen.’

‘
Storm’s right
though’ said Star-Gazer sadly. ‘I can feel the energy flowing away
from her. I can almost see it.’ Spirit looked at Lucy again. He
realised that what Star-Gazer said made sense. He could feel it
too. He didn’t know what to say.

‘
Hang on’ said
Dancer after a moment. ‘Energy passes from her to us, from us to
her. Why can’t we give her energy back.’

‘
That’s right’
said Spirit, seizing upon the idea. ‘If we all focus….’

‘
But I don’t
have that connection with her that you do’ replied Chaser. ‘Neither
does Summer or the rest of us.’

‘
Well Dancer,
Star-Gazer and I do’ replied Spirit. ‘We’ve got to make it
work.’

He started to
focus and could see that Dancer and Star-Gazer were doing the same.
Lucy seemed oblivious, but her slow descent steadied and then
stopped. Spirit could almost see the energy flowing from him and
the others back into Lucy, but he was unable to tell whether his
mind was simply playing tricks on him. The rest of the pod fell
silent as they watched.

‘
Is she
getting better?’ asked Moonlight.

‘
I’m not sure’
answered Storm. ‘The question is; how much energy does she need?’
Spirit was unable to pay any attention to what the others were
saying. All he could focus on was Lucy. Then with a jolt he
realised that she was slipping down again.

‘
Try harder!’
he implored the other two.

‘
I’m tired’
replied Dancer. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.’
Lucy’s hair was floating up around her face as she sank downwards
again. She looked beautiful, thought Spirit, but the idea that this
might be the last time he saw her was almost too much to
bear.

‘
Listen’ said
Storm. ‘I think that you need to reach into her mind Spirit. You’re
the only one that can do that.’ Spirit broke his gaze away from
Lucy and looked at Storm.

‘
But she needs
our energy’ he replied.

‘
Lucy needs
you more’ Storm went on. ‘The rest of us here can focus our
thoughts to support Lucy. Spirit, you have a more special task, a
more special destiny. I think you always have had.’

‘
But I don’t
know how’ said Spirit plaintively. The thought that he could do
more to help Lucy excited him, but the idea that he might fail
filled him with fear.

‘
Trust in
yourself young Spirit’ said Storm. ‘Believe in
yourself.’

‘
That’s right’
said Star-Gazer. ‘Let your mind flow through the water to her.’
During the summer Spirit had become aware that if he needed Lucy
urgently enough, she would realise and would come to him. He’d
never actually reached into her mind though. There was nothing for
it but to try.

The rest of
the pod fell silent again as they focused all their energy upon
her. Lucy stopped sinking and gradually began to float upwards
again. Spirit did not know where to begin but then, without
consciously trying, it felt as though there was no distance between
him and Lucy at all. Everything else he could see around him swam
out of focus. Spirit started to look more deeply than he had ever
looked before.

It was a shock
to Spirit to find himself floating in the air in one of those tiny
white rooms that humans liked to inhabit. There was Lucy below him,
lying with her eyes closed on a flat thing. Filaments, like strands
of fine seaweed, connected her to a mechanical thing that beeped.
Looking down he could see a man holding Lucy’s hand and a figure in
white. ‘
Lucy
’ he
murmured.

Then
everything was dark around Spirit and he didn’t know where he
was.

‘
Lucy’ he
whispered again, more loudly this time. There was silence for
moment.

‘
Where are we
Spirit?’ a voice replied.

‘
We’re inside
your mind’ he replied gently. ‘Something’s happened to you. I don’t
know what but you’re hurt. You’re fading. In our world you’re
floating downwards, and if you don’t fight back, I’m afraid that….
Well, I’m afraid for the worst. Can you fight it Lucy? Can you do
it for me?’

‘
I don’t know
Spirit. It’s hard.’ Lucy’s voice seemed to be nowhere and
everywhere around him at the same time.

‘
When we first
spoke together Lucy, you told me that your name meant
light
. I need you to
live up to your name now for me Lucy.

‘
I’ll try
Spirit. I’ll try’ echoed Lucy’s voice through the dark
void.

‘
You can do it
Lucy’ he urged her. ‘Come back to me now.’ Suddenly there was a
change in the atmosphere around him. Energy seemed to pulse across
the black void and tiny lights began to appear all around him,
flickering at first and then in stronger waves.

Suddenly
Spirit was back with the others all gathered in a circle focusing
their attention on Lucy in the water. She looked up and glanced
round at all of them.

‘
It’s okay’
she said. ‘I’m feeling better now I think’ she added, struggling
slowly back up to them all.

Chapter
Eight

Dad walked
down the corridor from the vending machine, a polystyrene cup of
coffee in his hand. ‘
Why is it that these
places always sell such bad coffee?
’ he
asked himself as he walked back towards Lucy’s bed. It was the
middle of the night, yet the neon strip lights in the corridor were
as bright as day. A nurse bustled along with a clipboard in her
arms. His eyes felt tired but mostly he felt emotionally exhausted.
He’d been sitting by Lucy’s bed for hours now but no one quite
seemed to know what was the matter with her.

The doctors
said that Lucy was badly concussed but that she’d probably wake up
soon enough. There was a risk of swelling to the brain or other
complications but it was too early to say, they told him. It was a
matter of waiting and watching, the doctors had said earlier in the
evening. Her form teacher Mr Baines had left hours before and he’d
been on his own by Lucy’s bed side for some time now. The junior
doctor on duty seemed as tired as he felt but was constantly on the
move, making her way from one bed to another. Dad didn’t like to
disturb her as she did her rounds and when she did come up to
Lucy’s bed she just checked her blood pressure and pulse briefly
and then moved on again.

There’d been a
period earlier on in the day when Lucy’s heart-beat had dropped to
a dangerously low level and the doctors had started to get worried.
Then after a while, for no obvious reason, her vital signs had
stabilised again and the doctors had shrugged their shoulders and
moved on to the next patient.

It was the not
knowing that really got to Dad. If he
knew
that Lucy would regain
consciousness at ten am the next morning, it would be easy for him.
If he knew that she was brain damaged, at least he’d know what to
feel. Yet he felt caught in a kind of emotional limbo and didn’t
really know how to react at all. On the one hand he wanted to be
upbeat and positive. On the other hand, he wondered whether he
should ready himself for more bad news if Lucy didn’t recover
consciousness quickly.

Dad glanced
out of the window. The street lights glowed dimly and he watched a
night bus rumble slowly along the street. He returned to Lucy’s
bed. If it weren’t for the wires linked up to the monitors, he’d
think she was just asleep. Even the bandage over the gash to her
head didn’t spoil the effect. They’d had to stitch it up but
fortunately the wound was in her hair line so even if it did scar,
Lucy’s hair would cover it up.

Dad glanced at
the monitor to the side of Lucy’s bed. He’d be worried if any of
the lines went flat, but apart from that they didn’t mean much to
him. As it was, he was reassured by the regular beep that it
emitted.

It was when
Dad’s eyes were starting to droop that Bethany appeared at his
side. He jumped up with a start.

‘
Bethany!’ he
exclaimed in surprise, ‘it’s four in the morning.’

‘
I didn’t get
your message until quite late’ she explained. ‘I just felt I had to
drive up straight away.’

‘
You must be
exhausted’ Dad replied. He didn’t always see eye to eye with
Bethany, but her commitment to Lucy was unwavering. Bethany’s eyes
looked red and tired from the driving and her mass of unruly blond
hair was even more unkempt than usual. She wore a shapeless
pullover over her jeans.

‘
You look
pretty tired yourself John’ she replied eyeing him in the same way
that he had just regarded her. She stood and looked for a long calm
moment at Lucy lying there unconscious in the hospital
bed.

‘
How’s the
patient?’ she asked. Dad filled her in as best he could. Bethany
went to the side of the bed and took Lucy’s hand in hers. ‘You can
do it Lucy’ she said quietly, willing her niece to regain
consciousness.

They sat and
talked quietly for a while before both Dad and Bethany dozed off in
the chairs they were sitting in next to Lucy’s bed. By seven
o’clock the ward was beginning to get busy again and they both woke
up stiff-necked as a trolley rattled by in the corridor. A
fresh-faced young nurse who had evidently just started her shift
came up and checked Lucy’s monitors.

‘
No sign of
movement?’ she asked Dad. He replied that he hadn’t seen any. In
fact, he reflected that Lucy was unnaturally still. Someone who’s
merely asleep tends to shift around all the time. Lucy on the other
hand hadn’t moved a muscle.

Bethany yawned
and stretched lazily.

‘
Well I still
feel wiped-out, but maybe not quite as knackered as I felt three
hours ago’ she said. She went down the corridor to get coffees from
the vending machine and Dad went to the bathroom to freshen up.
When he got back, another doctor was examining Lucy, shining a
pen-light into her eyes as the other doctor had done
before.

‘
What do you
think doctor?’ he asked nervously.

‘
Well she’s
still out cold isn’t she’ the doctor replied, looking at the notes
in his hand. ‘How long has it been now?’ Dad told him that it was
about eighteen hours since the accident had happened.

‘
Is it unusual
to be so long?’ he asked.

‘
I should
emphasise that I’m not a neurologist’ the doctor replied. ‘We’ll
have to get the consultant in for a proper opinion. But yes, it is
unusual for it to take so long for a patient to regain
consciousness. The failure to come round suggests a more
deep-rooted problem. The MRI scan didn’t reveal any significant
abnormalities, so we’ll have to look at some other
options.’

‘
Is she in a
coma?’ Dad asked. The doctor gave him a sympathetic smile in
reply.

‘
Let’s not
jump to conclusions now’ he replied, trying to reassure Dad. ‘The
consultant neurologist will be around to examine your daughter
later. She’s highly respected in her field. She’ll get to the
bottom of this if anyone can.’

Just after the
doctor left, Bethany came back with the coffees.

‘
I had to go
downstairs to the cafeteria in the end. That machine down the
corridor’s out of order now. I got a couple of croissants for us
while I was at it. I reckon we both need a bit of sustenance to
keep us going.’ Neither of them were hungry though and in any case
Dad wasn’t listening to her. He was becoming more worried about
Lucy with every hour that passed.