Midnight Dolphin (4 page)

‘
All the way
to the beach if we’re not careful’ Spirit called back to her above
the roar of the waves. Spirit looked to his right.

‘
A surfer!’ He
could see a man standing astride a surfboard wearing a black and
red wetsuit. He was in a half crouch position with his legs apart
in order to keep his balance. He was aiming his board along the top
of the wave that was creamy with foam along the breaking
ridge.

Dancer and
Spirit curved onto his path and within a few moments they were
accompanying him, effortlessly flanking the man on both sides as he
sped along. Eventually the man tumbled off his board and the salt
water and foam boiled up into his eyes, nose and mouth. The wave
carried on and the man and the two dolphins were left in the valley
between the wave they had just been on, and the next one that was
approaching.

The man pulled
himself up onto his board and sat on it, straddling it with his
legs. He wiped the water away from his eyes.

‘
Hey,
dolphins!’ he laughed. ‘You’re a lot better at this surfing game
than I am!’ The next wave washed past all three of them and Dancer
and Spirit hung in the water next to him, clicking and
whistling.

‘
This human’s
not bad’ clicked Dancer to Spirit. ‘You’ll have to teach Lucy to
surf with us next time she’s down here!’

‘
That’s a
pretty good idea’ Spirit clicked back to Dancer. Yet even as he
said so, he couldn’t help but wonder when that would be.

There was a
short rope at the front of the man’s surfboard and Dancer took it
in her mouth and started pulling the man along on his board. They
turned so that they were facing the same way as the oncoming wave
and Dancer gained speed so that when the wave caught up with them,
the man was able to jump up into a standing position on his board
again, and catch the wave as he had done before.

Even as he and
Dancer swam along, revelling in the man’s company, Spirit tussled
with the thought that kept going through his head. Other than Lucy,
said Storm, humans were dangerous and childish. It was better to
keep away from them. Yet despite those thoughts, the spontaneity
and joy of surfing the waves in the company of the man on his board
got the better of him. This really was just so much fun.

Eventually
they left the man and his surfboard and continued on their own. It
looked like he was getting tired and they thought that he might
want to go back to the shore.

Great surges
of frothy green salt water rose and fell in an ever changing
landscape and the two dolphins happily played amongst the swirls
and eddies of the sea. Dancer found a piece of driftwood being
tossed this way and that by the waves and the two of them nosed it
between them. It was a perfect afternoon.

Chapter
Three
:

Lucy was
genuinely puzzled by the old book that came through the post for
her and the piece of paper that fell out of it. Who could have sent
it to her? She took it upstairs to look at. She sat down
cross-legged on the rug in her room and started flicking through
the pages, brushing her long dark hair out of her eyes. At various
points in the text there were words which had been underlined and
notes written in the margins in the same open hand.

Lucy decided
to call her friend Amy to see what she thought. Amy knew all about
Lucy’s special connection with dolphins, and last year she’d helped
Lucy run away to Cornwall in the half term. Amy was only too
willing to come round and take a look at the mysterious book and
fifteen minutes later they were both in Lucy’s bedroom, sprawled
across the floor studying the book and the note
together.

‘
So you reckon
you know who wrote it then?’ Amy asked.

‘
Well, I’m
pretty sure it was Mum’ Lucy answered. There’s no name inside but
the handwriting is quite similar to Mum’s.’

‘
I suppose she
would have been younger when she wrote this’ said Amy thinking out
loud. ‘Her handwriting would have changed as she got
older.’

‘
That’s right’
said Lucy. ‘You see the book was published in 1976. That’s
practically the year she was born, but if it was given to her or
she bought it second hand a few years later, that would make
sense.’

‘
And who do
you think sent it to you’ asked Amy.

‘
I have
absolutely no idea at all’ replied Lucy.

‘
Do you think
it could be your Aunt Bethany?’ continued Amy.

‘
I wouldn’t
have thought so’ replied Lucy. ‘Why would she?’ She could easily
call me and tell me about it if she wanted to. She could have given
it to me over the summer when I was down there. She’d have known
how much it meant to me.’

‘
I see what
you mean’ said Amy thoughtfully. ‘Hang on, what about the postmark
on the wrapper?’ Lucy ran downstairs to fish the envelope it came
in out of the bin where she’d stuffed it without thinking. She
brought it upstairs again. She smoothed it out and they both looked
at it together.

‘
Exeter’ Amy
deciphered. ‘That’s in Devon isn’t it?’

‘
That’s right’
replied Lucy. ‘I know that Devon’s just next door to Cornwall, but
I don’t see why Bethany would want to drive all the way there just
to post a package.

‘
If only we
knew how to dust for fingerprints or something’ said Amy. ‘Look, it
says in the margin “
Find out more about
Jet
”. What’s Jet then?’

‘
Well, from
what it says, Jet’s obviously a dolphin don’t you think?’ asked
Lucy. ‘I know that Mum had, well, the same gift with dolphins as
me. She never spoke to me about it though when she was alive. I
suppose that Jet must have been the dolphin that she had a special
connection with.’

‘
You may well
be right’ said Amy, nodding her head thoughtfully. ‘It’s a bit
spooky getting a note like this isn’t it?’

‘
It is pretty
weird’ agreed Lucy. ‘I just don’t know what to make of it. I’m just
getting used to Mum not being around anymore, and now…
this.’

‘
Maybe
someone’s trying to tell you something’ said Amy, wondering out
loud. ‘Maybe there’s a clue in here somewhere.’

‘
But the note
says that there’s nothing in the book about dolphins or how they’re
connected with children’ replied Lucy. ‘How would there be a clue
if that were the case?’

‘
I don’t know’
responded Amy uncertainly. She thought for a moment. ‘Maybe there’s
a clue in the notes that your Mum wrote inside the
book.’

‘
That’s true’
said Lucy. ‘I’d better take another look at them.’

‘
Are you going
to tell your Dad about the book then?’ asked Amy.

‘
No I don’t
think so’ replied Lucy. ‘You know what he’s like. Ever since we got
back from Cornwall in the summer I hardly know how to talk to him.
Anyway, the book was sent to me, not to him. Maybe there’s a reason
for it.

‘
Well, be
careful’ said Amy. ‘There’re some strange people out there. That’s
what my Dad says.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I’d better be getting
back home. It’s dinner time soon.’

Just as Lucy
was letting Amy out, Dad got back in from work.

‘
Hello Amy’ he
said, as she walked down the path.

‘
Hello Mr
Parr’ said Amy as she passed him. Dad came into the house. He was
wearing his work suit under his greatcoat and was carrying two
plastic bags of shopping which he’d just picked up from the local
supermarket.

‘
Hi Luce. Brr,
it’s getting chilly out there. We’re supposed to be in for a cold
snap, or so they tell us. Good thing I got the central heating
boiler checked out recently. It’d be just our luck if that thing
packed up on us just before Christmas.’ Dad went to the kitchen and
started unpacking the groceries. ‘So what were you and Amy up to
then?’

‘
Oh you know,
homework and stuff’ Lucy replied noncommittally, peering over to
examine the things that he’d bought. If it was down to Dad, they’d
eat ready-made meals five nights out of seven and the only
vegetables they’d get would be frozen peas.

Lucy went
upstairs saying that she had to finish her homework, but in fact
she wanted to spend more time looking through the book that had
come in the post. In the comfort of her own room she slowly turned
the pages of the book, looking at where Mum as a young girl had
underlined things, or written things in the margin. It felt
comforting to know that Mum was into the same kind of things that
she was at the same age. Lucy looked carefully at all of the notes
that Mum had jotted down in the margins, looking to see if there
was some clue to why it had been sent to her as Amy had suggested.
She certainly couldn’t find anything and there was nothing in
particular about dolphins.

She was
intrigued to read about some caves along the Cornish coast. Of
course Lucy was well aware that Cornwall was famous for its
smugglers’ coves and smugglers’ caves, but in the book it said that
the Trinity Caves had a reputation for beautiful stalactites and
crystalline rock formation. The exact location of the caves had
been lost and not even the most intrepid cavers had been able to
locate the site where they were supposed to be. ‘This is it!’ Mum
had drawn something in the margin, but it didn’t mean anything to
her at all.

Lucy was
engrossed in the book when Dad called her down to dinner and Lucy
reluctantly hid it under her duvet before going
downstairs.

Sometimes Lucy
felt as though she would be betraying Spirit, Dancer and the others
by being too friendly to Dad, but other times it felt comfortable
and easy to talk to him about what had happened that
day.

‘
How was work
then?’ she asked as she munched on the ready-made salad Dad had
bought. Dad pulled a bit of a face.

‘
Actually
things are not so good at work at the moment Luce’ he replied. ‘The
company’s losing money and quite a few of us have been put at risk
of redundancy’ he continued.

‘
What does
that mean Dad?’ Lucy asked.

‘
Well it means
I might lose my job’ he replied. ‘Money’s going to be pretty tight
if I do. On the other hand if it happens I’ll be able to spend more
time with you until I find a better one.’ Dad pulled a wan smile
for Lucy’s benefit. ‘Truth be known I’m sick of that job and I
won’t be sorry to see the back of it if they do let me
go.’

‘
I’m sorry
Dad’ said Lucy sympathetically. ‘When will you know?’

‘
Oh it could
be before Christmas, or it might be in January. It’s hard to know.
Don’t worry too much Luce’ he added. ‘I was put at risk of
redundancy a couple of years ago and I’m still here aren’t
I?’

Lucy looked at
her father as he took a mouthful of rice. He might be at risk of
redundancy, but ever since she’d found out that she was supposed to
grow out of her special link with Spirit, she felt as though she’d
been under a death sentence. At school they’d been doing the French
revolution in history, and it was as though she looked up and saw
the guillotine blade descending in slow motion, getting closer and
closer to the back of her neck.

Still, she
didn’t like to tell him that and she’d be genuinely sorry if he
lost his job.

‘
So I suppose
we wont be spending much this Christmas Dad?’ she asked. ‘No
Christmas tree?’

‘
That’s right’
he agreed. ‘We’ll have to watch the pennies. No six foot Christmas
trees or big fat turkeys. We’ll have to get the plastic tree out of
the loft.’

After dinner
they cleared away the plates and washed up together, with Dad
cleaning the plates and Lucy drying them. They watched TV for half
an hour and then Lucy said she’d go up and get ready for bed. She
said she wanted to read before lights out. As she left the room she
could see Dad re-reading a letter from work with a concerned
expression on his face.

Sometimes Lucy
was almost overwhelmed with the need to stretch out to Spirit with
her mind and talk to him, telling him everything that had happened
in her day, even though she knew that he couldn’t always understand
the things that were going on in her life from a human perspective.
When she felt like that it was much easier to focus her mind and
then tumble through into the world of water.

Lucy had that
feeling tonight and felt a surge of optimism that it would be easy
to get through to Spirit again, and that everything would be okay
again. Lucy focused and relaxed her mind, and tried to feel her way
through the door between her conscious and her unconscious that
would allow her to access Spirit’s world of water. Try as she might
though, it would not work. Lucy went to the bathroom to get a glass
of water and then returned to try again. Surely this was just a
temporary glitch. This time, she thought, it would work. Lucy tried
for ten long minutes, but the longer it went on for, the more
impossible it seemed. It was as though not only could she not find
the door between her conscious and unconscious, but the door was
not there at all. Maybe her mind was growing over it, and then it
would be gone. Maybe it was already too late.