Dolphin Child (11 page)

‘
It was Spirit who saw the orca coming’ Dancer said eventually,
suspicious that Moonlight’s compliment might be at Spirit’s
expense.

‘
We work better as a whole than as individuals’ intoned Storm,
his voice calm and serious. ‘It is vital that we all look to the
security and wellbeing of each other. We had better take extra care
if there are orcas in these waters at the moment.’

The dolphins swam on, scouting for shoals of fish. The sun
made its way across the sky. The pod was extra vigilant for any
signs of orcas and No-Name stayed close to his mother. Spirit,
still thinking about his conversation with Lucy that morning, swam
up and joined Storm by his side.

‘
Storm’ he said eventually, ‘have you ever heard about humans
turning into dolphins?’ Storm almost jumped in surprise.

‘
Where have you heard of such a thing?’ he asked.

‘
Lucy came to me and Dancer this morning’ Spirit replied,
nervous at Storm’s reaction. ‘She said that she thought it was
silly, but that some humans told stories of other humans turning
into dolphins. I don’t think that could happen, but humans know
about a lot of things that we don’t. Storm snorted contemptuously,
but then he stopped and turned to look Spirit in the
eye.

‘
We do not tell such stories in this pod because we do not
believe them’ he said seriously. ‘But you should know that there
are some dolphins that do believe it to be true and tell stories of
humans becoming dolphins. There are some dolphins who actually
believe that they are descended from the humans that swam out into
the sea. It’s nonsense of course and we don’t abide with such old
superstitions.’

‘
But how do you know its nonsense?’ asked Spirit. ‘After all, I
myself have connections to humans that we do not
understand.’

‘
That is true’ replied Storm. ‘Humans may be able to do many
things that we cannot, but we remain the wiser, older and more
superior creature. They cannot be capable of transforming
themselves into us.’

‘
I do not think of Lucy as any lesser an animal than I am’
replied Spirit. I think of ourselves as equal.’ Storm
smiled.

‘
Perhaps you are right Spirit. Maybe I can be too harsh about
humans. But always remember that they are dangerous, more so than
orcas, or sharks or any other predator in the sea.’

‘
Who are the dolphins that believe they are descended from
humans?’ asked Spirit.

‘
I knew that you would ask me that’ said Storm resignedly.
‘They live many days swimming from here and though I know of them,
I have never met them myself. They live too far away from us to
come together in the great dolphin council.’

‘
So there is no easy way of contacting them then?’ asked
Spirit, immediately disappointed. Storm sighed.

‘
Not quite’ he replied. ‘In fact I believe you have already met
one. It is Blue’s mother, Sunlight’. Immediately Spirit thought
back to his recent mission. Blue had run away from one pod and
joined another. He had not met Blue’s mother then, but had probably
done so at an earlier council of the dolphins.

‘
Is she one of them then?’ he asked in surprise.

‘
She believes she is’ replied Storm. ‘She came from that same
pod far away.’

‘
So she ran away from her own pod and now her son Blue has run
away from his?’

‘
I am not sure what led Sunlight to leave her own pod’ replied
Storm cautiously. ‘but she is born of those dolphins who believe
themselves descended from humans.’

‘
Can I speak to her about it?’ asked Spirit eagerly. Storm
sighed once again.

‘
I think that you must’ he said. ‘Until you do you will never
rest. Her pod is not so far away, just to the east of the islands.
A couple of hours swimming will bring you there.’

‘
Then can I go?’

‘
I’d be happier if you took Dancer with you. That orca will
still be in these waters and besides, they’re a strange
pod.’

Spirit hastened away to tell Dancer the news. Soon they were
skimming the surface of the sea together as they swam along towards
the waters to the east of the islands. Small waves picked up on the
surface of the sea. Clouds blotted out the sun and looked heavy
with rain. The weather was changing. Dolphins have a sense for the
weather. They are so in tune with the currents and the temperature
of the water, that it is almost as though they can smell it. Spirit
felt reassured. There might be rain, but there would be no
storm.

‘
So what are you going to say to Sunlight when you meet her?’
asked Dancer quizzically as they swam along.

‘
Well, I just want to ask her what her kin told her about being
descended from humans’ Spirit replied.

‘
It’s not going to be easy you know. You were sent out on a
mission to speak to her son Blue. Now you come to her and want to
talk about some far-fetched old tales. She’ll just want you to tell
her about her son.’

‘
Well that’s no problem’ Spirit replied, I can do that
too.’

‘
And do you want to find out just to answer Lucy’s question
this morning?’ she asked. Spirit thought for a moment, as they swum
on towards the islands.

‘
It’s not just that I want to answer Lucy’s question. It’s more
than that. There’s something between humans and dolphins, something
between Lucy and me that I don’t understand. I want to know the
answer to Moonlight’s question; what’s the point of my gift at
all?’ Spirit felt the unanswered questions boiling up inside him.
‘If there’s anything at all to these stories about humans turning
into dolphins, then it must help me, mustn’t it?’

At that moment the image from his dream of the night before
returned to him; the dolphin that he could just make out through
the murk of the water, but who, try as he might, he could not get
close to.

Presently they could make out the calls of dolphins echoing
outwards from the seas just east of the islands and they honed in
on their target. They found the pod at rest, after having just
eaten. The eldest and most senior dolphin in their pod of twelve or
so was called Speed, because in her day she had been the fastest
dolphin in all of the seas hereabouts. She was old now and bad
tempered. Spirit and Dancer offered the traditional greeting and
said that they wanted to speak to Sunlight.

As her name implied, Sunlight was a positive, warm and open
dolphin, but she had been hurt and upset when Blue had left them to
join another pod. She was eager for news of him and Spirit was
happy to oblige. While Dancer chatted to the other members of the
pod, Spirit filled Sunlight in on his recent visit to
Blue.

‘
Do you think he will come back to us?’ she asked
anxiously.

‘
I cannot say for certain’ said Spirit cautiously, ‘but I think
that he is less angry than he was and that must surely be a good
thing. It is my belief that before long he will visit you again.’
They talked on for a while about Blue, while Spirit wondered how he
could bring the conversation round to what he really wanted to
speak about.

Later, when Spirit felt that he had said all that he was able
to tell Sunlight about Blue, he thought that it was safe to change
the subject.

‘
Sunlight. I am trying to learn as much as I can about all of
the stories of the dolphins. I have heard that you originated from
a pod far away from here’. Immediately Sunlight’s face clouded with
worry and she glanced down.

‘
I don’t like to talk of those times’ she replied. Spirit
started to worry that he would not be able to get Sunlight to tell
him anything at all. He tried again.

‘
You see it is important for me. I am what the others call a
Child-Seer, that is I am able to communicate with a human child
that comes to me in visions. I have met her in real life too. I
have heard that in the pod of your birth, it is believed that you
were all descended from humans. Is that true?’

Sunlight looked at Spirit with anxiety in her eyes.

‘
I thought I had left all that behind me.’ She glanced away
into the depths of the ocean, memories swimming before her eyes and
then looked back at Spirit.

‘
My real name is not Sunlight’ she said in a quiet voice. ‘That
is the name I took after joining this pod. In the pod in which I
grew up, we are given names at birth. My birth name is Susan. It is
a human name for a girl and it has been passed down the
generations.’

Spirit looked at Sunlight. The name Susan meant nothing to
him. The only human name he knew was Lucy and which she had told
him meant light. Sunlight was evidently troubled by what she was
telling him, but he was intensely curious and did not want her to
stop.

‘
There were twelve dolphins in my pod and there had always been
the same number as long as any dolphin there could remember. The
eldest were Edgar, John and Mirabel. Then there were Florence,
Jethro, Jane, Agnes and Michael. The youngest were Anne, Simeon,
Arthur and myself. These are all human names you see, the same
names as the humans carried when it is said they changed from their
human form many years ago.’ Sunlight and Spirit turned and swam
along slowly just under the surface of the water.

‘
When I grew up, the older dolphins would tell us young ones
stories of what it was like to live on land, of the dark cold boxes
that humans lived in and green hills and tall things called trees
that were like rigid kelp. It was said though that our human
ancestors were not free, and had do what other humans told them and
work many hours of the day. They could not roam the land like we
roam the seas. Sometimes the males would be sent to dig in deep
dark holes in the ground, in what were called mines. Many of them
died there, or became ill and died while still young. It was a hard
desolate life, full of toil and sadness.’

This all seemed strange to Spirit. He thought that humans were
as free as dolphins. He knew that they lived in tiny boxes and that
Lucy had to go to a place called a school to learn things, but she
was mostly happy to be there he thought. He had not heard about
humans dying young as Sunlight described.

‘
Why did they leave the land?’ he asked.

‘
It is said that there was a young girl that could visit a
particular dolphin in visions and communicate with him. His name
was Midnight and he was a Child-Seer like you. The girl was
terribly unhappy. She could see the freedom and the beauty of the
seas when she visited, but hated her life on the land. She
persuaded other children that life was better out here on the seas
and that if they wanted to, they could join her out here and live
forever in freedom and happiness.’

‘
What happened then?’ Spirit asked. Sunlight sighed. ‘It is
told that a number of human children swam out from the land, but
were engulfed in a storm and that their shattered bodies scattered
back to the shore like so many broken twigs. But it is also told
that the spirits of a few of the children became dolphins and that
their descendents form the pod into which I was born.’

Spirit gasped. He was shocked at the death of the children. He
was all too aware of how frail and vulnerable any human was in the
sea. Even Lucy, who was a good swimmer, easily tired and he could
see that she was no match for the currents and tides that swelled
and surged along the coast.

‘
You keep saying it is told’, he said to Sunlight. ‘Do you
believe in the stories yourself?’ She gave a small shake of her
head and looked away again for a moment before replying.

‘
I was brought up on those stories. Something must have
happened to inspire them, I know that. Now my pod lives a long way
away from the waters around the human town of Merwater, from where
the human children are said to have swum. As a young calf growing
to maturity, I could not accept or believe that our ancestors could
be born of such a sad and terrible story. I left my pod to travel
back here to try and discover what really happened. None of the
dolphins that live in these parts now believe the story I just told
you. Neither do I anymore. I could not go back to my pod to live a
lie so I stayed here and have sought out happiness and peace where
I can.’

‘
Why do you think the stories are told then, if they did not
really happen?’ asked Spirit.

‘
I think perhaps that Midnight, the Child-Seer, was so overcome
by grief that he invented the story to comfort himself. It is the
only explanation that makes sense to me.’

‘
And the human girl, that told the others to swim out to sea.
What was her name?’ asked Spirit.

‘
It was Susan. Yes’, Sunlight smiled sadly. ‘The name I was
given by my pod at birth.’

Chapter Seven:

At first Lucy thought that she would just walk past Paul,
sitting there on the harbour wall, and pretend that she had not
seen him. It didn’t look as though he was aware of her presence and
it seemed to be a coincidence that he happened to be there as she
came off the Merry Widow after her trip with Nate and Bob and the
tourists to go seal watching. But Lucy had become used to
confronting difficult situations and knew that she could not walk
on by without saying at least something to him. She went up to
him.