Midnight Dolphin (9 page)

‘
Are you awake
then Bethany?’ asked Megan.

‘
It’s too
bright!’ exclaimed Bethany. Megan gave a sympathetic
chuckle.

‘
If you open
your eyes they’ll soon adjust, silly.’

‘
What does
adjust mean?’

‘
Just open
your eyes and you’ll see’ replied Megan. Bethany sat up in bed and
squinted around her. Megan was reading.

‘
Have you seen
your dolphins?’

‘
No…, no I
haven’t.’ Megan closed her book and looked despondently down into
her lap.

‘
Why don’t you
call them?’ asked Bethany.

‘
It’s not like
that’ replied Megan. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’ She sighed
deeply.

‘
You do like
them don’t you?’ Bethany asked. Megan nodded. ‘And they like you?’
Megan nodded again. ‘Then you should all just be friends
then.’

‘
I wish we
could be’ sighed Megan again, sniffing. ‘I’m going downstairs’ she
said suddenly.

‘
I’ll come
too!’ piped Bethany, not understanding that Megan wanted to be
alone. Her sister had already gone though and she heard Megan
stomping down the cottage stairs and then banging the front door
shut behind her.

‘
Are you okay
there Bethany?’ asked Mum, putting her head round the door to their
bedroom.

‘
I wanted to
go with Megan but she just ran downstairs and left me’ replied
Bethany sadly. Mum came down and sat next to her on the bed and put
her arm round the shoulders of her youngest daughter.

‘
You know
Megan’s growing up’ she said sympathetically. ‘You will need your
own space when you’re her age.’

‘
Will I be
thirteen one day too?’ asked Bethany.

‘
Yes of course
you will silly’ laughed Mum. ‘Come on. Let’s go downstairs and get
breakfast.’

Megan came in
about half an hour later just as Mum, Dad and Bethany were
finishing breakfast.

‘
And how are
you this morning Megan?’ asked Dad brightly, leaning back from his
plate of egg on toast, ignoring the fact that she’d disappeared off
alone again that morning.

‘
Alright I
suppose’ answered Megan. Dad gave her an exasperated look as if to
say ‘
Do cheer up!
’ but didn’t say anything. Megan sat down at the kitchen
table and poured herself some cornflakes into a bowl.

‘
Well, what
shall we do today?’ he asked instead.

‘
The beach,
the beach!’ exclaimed Bethany. ‘Let’s go to the beach
again!’

‘
Well why
not?’ said Dad. ‘It’s going to be a lovely sunny day. What do you
say Megan, fancy topping up your sun tan?’ Megan
frowned.

‘
I want to go
into town again Dad’ she replied in a low voice, as she stared down
into her cereals.

‘
Oh Megan you
promised to build a sandcastle with me’ said Bethany in a
disappointed voice. We’re going to build the biggest most enormous
sandcastle ever!’

‘
Go on’ said
Dad, ‘make your sister happy.’ Megan sighed. She looked into
Bethany’s eager face.

‘
Well, I
suppose we could build a small one’ she said, forcing herself to
smile.

‘
Atta girl’
said Dad, now eat up your cornflakes, and after we’ve washed up
we’ll wander down to the beach.

The truth was
that Megan was desperate to get back into Merwater and speak to
Rachel again. There must be some way to find out more about the
Reverend Jeremiah Smith and what he’d written in his third journal.
The thought of wasting another day on the beach seemed like
madness. Megan felt like she didn’t have any choice though. She
sighed.

Not long after
breakfast, the family made their way down the boardwalk that led
across the dunes to the beach. Bethany wanted to play hide and seek
with Megan and the ran off over the dunes to hide behind clumps of
spiky grass and little hillocks. Dad and Mum made their way along
the path, weighed down with a bucket, two spades, a bag stuffed
full of beach towels, a camping chair and a wind break to plant
into the sand. It was still early but it promised to be a hot day.
The sky was clear and the sun was rising steadily.

Other families
were already on the beach when they got there and Mum and Dad
staked out a spot not too far from the water, but near enough to
the dunes to have some protection from them. Dad put up the
windbreak and set up the camping chair to sit on. Mum spread out a
beach towel and sat down on the ground, her things around
her.

‘
Mum, are you
going to come swimming?’ called out Megan.

‘
Not quite yet
girls’ their mother replied, looking up from her book. Megan and
Bethany already had their swim suits on underneath and tugged off
their tee-shirts and shorts and raced down to the water’s edge.
Bethany splashed water at her older sister and Megan flicked spray
back in Bethany’s general direction.

‘
Ooh it’s
cold!’ exclaimed Bethany as she went up to her knees in the
sea.

‘
You wait till
later’ replied Megan. ‘Once the sun’s higher it’ll soon warm up.’
The two girls ran up and down and to some extent Megan’s troubles
didn’t seem quite as bad as before. Even so, when Bethany stopped
to pick up a shell, Megan found herself scanning the horizon for
anything that might be moving out there on the calm surface of the
sea.

Eventually the
two girls went back to their parents and flopped down on the beach
towels their mother had laid out. There were quite a few families
on the beach now. Megan and Bethany were lucky that they’d
inherited their mother’s olive skin and they tanned easily. Their
dad though had caught the sun badly and had great red blotches on
his skin where he’d forgotten to apply sun cream evenly.

‘
Tell us a
story Daddy!’ demanded Bethany as she wriggled about on the beach
towel, digging her toes into the sand.

‘
Well let me
see’ said Dad thoughtfully. ‘There was once a whale called Boris
and he sailed the seven seas looking for an ice cream…’

‘
That’s silly,
whales don’t eat ice creams!’ giggled Bethany.

‘
Well this one
did’ Dad went on ‘and he didn’t find one anywhere till he came here
to Black Gull Sands. Then he saw a little girl called Bethany
eating a vanilla cone with ice cream all round her mouth and be
bellowed out ‘
I want ice
cream
’’ Bethany laughed and Megan
smiled.

‘
But the
little girl said she wouldn’t and Boris the whale was so annoyed
that he blew water all over that little girl from his blow hole!’
Dad surreptitiously unscrewed the top from his bottle of water and
splashed a few drops over the unsuspecting Bethany. The little girl
jumped in surprise and they all laughed. Megan looked up at her
dad’s face. It reminded her of the happy holidays they’d had when
she had been about six or seven.

‘
What about
that sandcastle that you were going to build girls?’ asked
Mum.

‘
Ooh yes!’
replied Bethany. ‘Can we make one now Megan?’ she asked, looking at
her sister.’

‘
Okay then’
said Megan smiling. ‘Let’s start over there where the sand isn’t so
dry.’ Bethany started digging and enthusiastically filling up her
bucket with sand. The first time she planted the bucket upside down
the contents just collapsed, but with Megan’s help they were able
to make a circle of eight or nine castles on the sand.

‘
The horses
live inside’ said Bethany excitedly, placing a couple of plastic
horses in the middle. ‘I know, let’s dig a moat.’ The two of them
started scooping out sand in a big circle. Bethany ran down to the
edge of the sea to scoop up more water in a bucket and poured it
ceremoniously into the moat, but the water just drained away into
the moist sand almost as soon as she poured it in.

‘
If you dig
deep enough the hole will fill up with water’ said Megan. Between
the two of them they soon dug a hole that went up to Bethany’s
knees when she jumped into it. Water seeped up through the sand but
before they could make a really decent hole, the sides began to
collapse inwards.

Bethany
decided to decorate the sandcastles with shells and went down to
the waters’ edge to look for them. Megan went down there too to
help her. The sun warmed her back as she stooped to pick up the
shells and everything felt reassuring and safe.

‘
Shark!’
someone cried out. People’s heads turned and looked out towards
where a boy was pointing. Megan looked up too. She knew that there
were no sharks around Cornwall, except for the occasional basking
shark that were perfectly harmless. People started to wade rapidly
out of the sea.

Megan caught
sight of the fin the boy was pointing at. ‘
That’s not a shark..
’ she thought to
herself.

‘
It’s a
dolphin!’ she cried. A murmur went round the beach. Everyone loved
dolphins. ‘
Could it
be…?
’

‘
Jet
’ Megan mumbled to herself.
‘
Jet, it’s me!
’
Megan forgot about Bethany and all the people around her. All that
she could think about was the dolphin out there in the waves, just
a hundred metres from the shore. Megan ran out into the shallows.
Other people who had been wading out of the water rapidly when they
thought there was a shark in the water were turning now that they
realised it was a dolphin.

Megan tried to
race ahead of them all, splashing through the waves and then diving
into the water when it got deep enough. She was sure that Jet had
come to find her. She struck out with her arms in a desperate front
crawl, but even though she was a good swimmer she just couldn’t
swim quick enough. People were still milling around her and moving
out towards the dolphin as well. It was hard to tell as she swam
but it seemed as though the dolphin was moving away from the
beach.

Moments later
she looked up again and the fin was gone. Megan stopped and trod
water, looking around her.

‘
Oh that’s a
pity, its gone’ said someone behind her.

‘
I love
dolphins, they’re so cute’ Megan heard someone else say. ‘Did you
get a photo.’ Megan felt a sob rise in her throat. She swam further
out again, certain that the dolphin would reappear but minutes
passed and there was no sign of it. The dolphin had
disappeared.

Megan swam
back slowly to the beach. It was much worse than simply being
disappointed. It felt as though her whole world was crumbling
around her. Everything special that she had learned to love and
rely on was no longer there. Megan waded out of the water back onto
the beach feeling fifty years older than she had ten minutes
before.

‘
Was that your
friend?’ asked Bethany curiously as Megan emerged from the
sea.

‘
I, no. I
don’t know’ mumbled Megan unhappily. She looked away from Bethany,
only to see Dad walking across the beach towards them. He tried to
catch her eye but Megan didn’t want to let him. She looked at her
feet instead. Dad put his hand on her shoulder.

‘
It’s okay
Megan’ he said quietly. ‘All things must pass. It’s just that
you’re growing up, that’s all.’ Megan shook her head
violently.

‘
You’re so
wrong!’ she exclaimed, tears smarting in her eyes. Megan ran up the
beach away from him, towards the boardwalk that led across the
dunes.

‘
Daddy, let’s
follow her’ said Bethany, concerned that her sister was suddenly
upset.

‘
No, we’ll
just let her have some time on her own Chipmunk’ Dad replied.
‘She’ll be alright.’

It all took
place so quickly that the other children standing at the edge of
the pool barely realised what had happened. Suddenly Lucy was
slumped face down in the water with blood streaming from the gash
on her head, a cloud of watery redness spreading out around
her.

‘
Out of the
way!’ shouted Miss Baldwin as she strode with panicky urgency to
the edge of the pool. The children stepped back. As they did so
Lucy’s body rolled over. Her unseeing eyes seemed to look up out
water up at them as she began to sink down.

Miss Baldwin
jumped into the red water next to Lucy, not caring that she was
dressed in her shorts and polo shirt. She tugged the unconscious
form of Lucy up to the surface of the water.

‘
Help me get
her out!’ she called to the children. Three pairs of arms stretched
down and pulled Lucy out onto the hard surface at the edge of the
pool.

‘
Is she dead?’
asked a girl in a frightened voice. Miss Baldwin pulled herself
dripping out of the water onto the side of the pool.

‘
I need to get
her into the recovery position’ she said quietly but urgently. She
organised Lucy’s limbs so that she was lying on her side. Water
drained from her mouth and then Lucy coughed.

‘
At least
she’s breathing’ Miss Baldwin muttered. Blood was still streaming
from Lucy’s head though. Miss Baldwin tried to stem the flow with
her hand. She looked up. ‘Run to the entrance and get them to call
an ambulance. Now!’