Maddy's Dolphin (6 page)

Maddy agreed. She also pointed out that Lunar was used to diving down very deep for her food, and that since the Gulf was really too shallow for her, she couldn't catch the type of food she normally would and probably wouldn't be able to eat well.

They all saw the problems and had worked out what had caused them, but none of them could work out what they could do to help stop the sonar.

They were driving past the ancient city of Corinth – well, the remains of it, and there really wasn't that much left. ‘A few stones,' as CJ called it.

‘But old ones,' was always Maddy's reply.

Ishbel was driving them up to the medieval castle at the top of the very high hill. They had spent a lot of great days up there in the past, having picnics and playing hide and seek among what was left of the turrets and rooms. Ishbel would pack up the food, the kids and a book and drive them up there for a day out. She hadn't been driving very long, only a couple of years. Before that, she had made Jorgos drop them off, then they had to wait for him to remember to collect them. It was much better now she was driving. Of course, Ishbel had had her British driving licence for years, but despite having passed she still couldn't drive well and had no confidence. Even now, she only ever really drove around Loutraki, never in Athens.

Lucy was with them; Maddy had asked if she could come along when Ishbel had suggested the night before that they go to the castle. Ishbel said Lucy could come, so Maddy had phoned and asked her. They had decided that James could keep an eye on her from a distance. He was following them on a motorbike at the moment. They were playing at who could catch sight of him the most times. They hadn't told Ishbel that their new friend was in fact the daughter of the President of America yet. Lucy liked it that way. She was being treated as a normal kid for a change and she liked it.

‘You must get your dad to take you around the ruins of Ancient Corinth before you go, Lucy. He can't work for the entire holiday, can he?'

‘No, he is planning to have a couple of days off at the end.'

It was another lovely hot day; the sun was out, Maddy and CJ had had a great swim with Indigo that morning and everything should have been fantastic, but Maddy couldn't help feeling worried, as if a great heavy weight were on her shoulders. She needed to come up with a plan to help the dolphins. What was the point of having the gift of speaking to dolphins if she could not help them?

They pulled up on the grassy patch just outside the gates of the castle. It was like being right at the edge of the cliff, looking straight out onto the sea. Maddy had been scared parking here in the past. She remembered the day she had been here once with her Aunt Imogen. She had only been two and it was a very windy day. She was so glad that Imogen was holding on to her tight that day.

CJ was out of the car straight away and, holding on to his football, started running up the path to the gates and through. ‘CJ, get back here. You need to help carry something.'

‘I've got the ball, Mum,' he shouted back.

So the others picked up everything else then started up the path themselves, loaded down with what looked like enough stuff for a week, rather than just a day.

After the walk up the hill to the main gates, the stone path wound up steeply to the interior gate and the ramparts. Of course, not all of it remained, and there were lots of piles of stones among the grassy areas. There were still some turrets, ramparts and towers, with room shapes that could still be used as hiding places. It was set on the hill and the views of the sea below, with Loutraki to the right, and across to the Cape Heraion, were fantastic.

Ishbel found her favourite spot and laid the blanket down. There was a rock here which looked like it was a purpose-built lounging chair. With the blanket for added cushioning, she could and would lie back and read her book in comfort for hours. CJ was already nowhere to be seen, so as soon as Maddy and Lucy laid down their loads, they ran off to find him.

They eventually found CJ, hiding. James pointed him out in the end. He had been following them and had made his way up into the castle intending to keep out their way, while keeping an eye on them. When CJ had raced past him and jumped down into a small hole, James thought the girls would take all day to find him if he didn't point them in the right direction.

Football was next on the agenda. They had great fun chasing around after the ball, tackling each other and trying to score goals. Maddy and CJ were both very good at football. They had to be, really, because their dad, Jorgos, was football mad. They had been playing since they could run, just a little after they started waterskiing.

By this time CJ was starving and they raced back to Ishbel, who broke open the picnic. They had Marmite sandwiches, ham sandwiches, crisps, cheese and cream crackers, with biscuits to finish it all off. Lucy had never tried Marmite before. CJ told her that, as a baby, his Aunt Imogen had not been able to eat solid food until they started her off on Marmite, and since then it had been a family favourite. Maddy explained that you couldn't buy it in Greece, so their nana sent it in the post from England. Lucy decided that she rather liked it too.

During the picnic, Ishbel brought up in conversation that the President was staying in the same hotel as Lucy and her dad. ‘Have you seen him? They say his daughter is here.'

‘No, I haven't seen them. There's lots of security, though.'

Then they talked about all the dolphins and the sperm whale in the Gulf and about swimming with Indigo and the sperm whale, Lunar, the day before. CJ entertained them with tales of his diving exploits and Maddy told Lucy about him wearing his swimsuit to bed so he could get up and out for his morning swim as quickly as possible. They spent most of the picnic laughing and chatting away.

They left Ishbel to finish off her book and moved off, out of earshot. Lying down in the sun, they started to discuss what they could do to help the whales and dolphins. ‘We need your dad to understand how important the whales and dolphins are.'

‘If America stopped using the sonar, would the other countries?' asked CJ.

‘Probably,' said Lucy. ‘That's how it usually works, and we use the sonar more than any other country anyway.'

They lay on their backs silently for some time, then CJ said, ‘If Indigo saved you from drowning or something then your dad would have to thank him. Then he might stop the sonar.'

They were all silent again for about thirty seconds, then both Maddy and Lucy sat up and said at the same time, ‘Yes, that's it, CJ.'

It took them a while to then thrash out the plan. The basics were that Lucy would go out on a motor boat. She would have to be with James, as he was always with her to protect her. They would stop to do some fishing from the boat and Maddy and CJ would swim up from behind and get a rope tangled in the motor. Meanwhile Lucy would accidentally lose the radio and all mobile phones over the side of the boat and Lunar would pull the boat by the rope further out to sea, then pull it over. It would look like a freak accident; both James and Lucy would be lost miles out to sea. By this time people would start getting worried.

They would have to time it to perfection, but they would then get Indigo and Lunar to rescue them and swim them both in towards the shore as the air-to-sea rescue came to get them.

They all agreed it would work, and worked through the timing and details a second time to make sure the plan was sound. They would let Indigo know that evening and see what he thought and then do it in the next couple of days. They had a plan, and they were all confident it was a good one.

Maddy walked down the nine steps to the little concrete dock where she spent most of her evenings talking to Indigo. She had left CJ playing football. It was an important game for his team tonight and both Jorgos and Ishbel were watching. CJ was very good. He was playing for the Under-13s and was a great midfield player. Jorgos was very proud of him. Maddy felt bad not staying until the end of the game, but she had seen his goal and had then run along to meet Indigo. She had an awful lot to tell him.

Indigo was waiting for her, bobbing gently in the sea near to the dock with just his head showing. The rest of his body was nearly vertically down in the sea. He was resting. On hearing Maddy's footsteps on the concrete steps, though, the left side of his brain woke and he was fully with it again.

After their greetings, they both spoke about their day. Maddy was first and she explained to him what CJ, Lucy and she had done and then filled him in on the plan they had come up with. ‘What do you think, Indigo? It should work, don't you think?'

Indigo was silent for a good couple of minutes, then he started telling her what he had done all day. He had swum out into the Gulf and come across a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Indigo is a bottlenose dolphin and they greeted him well. They had told him that they usually lived around the island of Paros, but a couple of weeks ago the noise had turned up. It was just annoying at first and only affected the youngsters, making them upset, but each day it got worse. It was a repetitive beep which continued over and over again. It started to affect the use of their sonar, which meant that they weren't so good at catching their fish. Some of the older dolphins and the youngsters kept swimming into everyone, and they had lost the odd dolphin from the pod. By the time they got into the Gulf, there were about ten dolphins missing.

The dolphins had moved away from Paros, but the noise was worse and they were all becoming very confused. The four most dominant males decided to swim for the Gulf. They had been there once before and hoped that it would be a safe haven.

Small groups of adult male dolphins can join up, making tight friendships within a pod, and so become a force to be reckoned with. Stone, Star and Riddle were such a group, so when they made the decision, the others followed. They had swum long and fast; on reaching the mouth of the Gulf, a few of the pod were ready to give up. They were so disoriented that two of them had stranded themselves. Luckily the tide was on the way in and, having led the others into the Gulf, Stone, Star and Riddle had returned and helped the young mother and her calf off the beach and safely into the Gulf. A little way into the Gulf, the noise had stopped.

They were OK, but there were lots of dolphins and whales around and there was some concern about the food lasting if they all had to stay for long. Indigo said that he had spent the day with them. His life was very solitary usually and he had very much enjoyed watching how they all interacted. Dolphins are very sociable animals and love to play and touch and be together. There were some little calves and Indigo enjoyed watching them get into trouble. He had had a lovely day with them all.

Maddy felt sorry for Indigo that he couldn't live in a pod. Indigo turned back to her and the faraway look in his warm, clever eyes vanished in an instant. ‘I am a Chosen One, Maddy, and I may be able to help many whales and dolphins. I pay a small price. I also love spending time with you and your family and friends and I wouldn't have it any other way.'

The Keeper had told Indigo that his life would be lonely and hard, but that he could help lots of whales and dolphins; he could be instrumental in bringing humans and dolphins together again to make the world a better place for everyone. Indigo had a lot of respect for the Keeper, who was a very old dolphin now. He was sixty-five years old and had seen a lot of the world, having been born a Chosen One like Indigo. The Keeper hadn't found a human who had the gift, but he had learned a lot about humans and the hazards around the seas – for humans, but mostly for whales and dolphins. When the last Keeper died, the present Keeper had been voted in by the other Chosen Ones.

His role was to advise and coordinate all the actions of the chosen dolphins, and his aim was to bring humans and dolphins to live in harmony together and to work with each other. Indigo had learned a lot from him.

After they had been silent for a few minutes again, Maddy said, ‘What about our plan, Indigo?'

Indigo had been thinking it through carefully. He did not wish to put any human or dolphin in any danger, but he realised that it would take something spectacular for this important man to change his mind and his priorities. He also knew that worry about a family member, and then relief that they were safe, could have a big effect on the way he looked at things.

‘I will have to be close by all the time, to make sure nothing goes wrong. I will not have her hurt for this.' Maddy agreed. ‘And you and CJ will have to be with your dad, on the water, skiing at the time, so that if I need you I can call and you can come quickly.' Maddy nodded her head vigorously again.

‘That's settled, then?' said Maddy.

‘Yes,' replied Indigo, nodding his head. ‘It's a very good plan. Well done.'

They heard the putt-putt of Jorgos on his little motorbike and then his voice shouting, ‘Maddy, Maddy; come on, we are going to the taverna.'

Maddy stood up and said goodbye to Indigo before she turned and ran up the stairs. Then she ran alongside her dad as they headed back towards the taverna. Jorgos was telling her that CJ's team had won and he had scored two goals. Jorgos was so proud of CJ and Maddy felt happy as well. They had a plan. They would stop the noise.

‘Ok, you ready, Lucy?' James walked into their suite of rooms. He had just finished organising the powerboat and fishing equipment and Lucy was finishing her lunch. He had been surprised at her request to go fishing that morning. It was quite unlike her, but the President had been happy for her to go so he had made the arrangements. James loved boats and being on the water, so he was looking forward to it himself.

Lucy had her swimsuit on with a T-shirt on top and she jumped onto the boat alongside the jetty, getting into the seat next to the driver's seat. James unhooked the rope and jumped in himself, hopping into his seat and easing the throttle forward slowly. Having inched his way out from the jetty, he increased the speed. They were away, with the wind in their faces as the front of the boat lifted off from the surface of the sea. The land got further and further away behind them and they headed off straight up the Gulf, towards and then beyond Cape Heraion.