The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins (12 page)

‘
I don’t really understand what’s happening’ she said. ‘Do
you?’

The little dolphin seemed to give a slight shake of its head.
‘All I know is that I’m glad that you’re here’ he replied
simply.

‘
So am I’ smiled Lucy. Suddenly Lucy felt that the effort of it
all was too much for her, like the pressure of the water itself. It
felt as though she were being drawn away from the little dolphin,
as though her own world were pulling her back.

‘
I’ll come back to you again soon!’ she cried. Then she had
found herself in her bedroom again, drained by the effort it had
taken.

She became aware that Mrs Evans was suddenly in front of her
desk. Lucy had been lost in her reveries.

‘
Come on Lucy’ said Mrs Evans. ‘I know you can answer these
questions. Keep focused and you’ll soon finish them.’

‘
Yes Mrs Evans’ she replied obediently. It was hard to
concentrate on school work though. It would be good if she could
tell Amy or another friend, but would they believe her? They’d just
say she was dreaming. Why wouldn’t they? At least at lunchtime
she’d have swimming. She could plough up and down the pool for half
an hour and clear her head. The morning dragged on. Eventually
lunch break came and she headed off to swimming practice. Miss
Baldwin was there as usual and gave her a friendly smile. She dived
into the pool and the water closed above her head and with it the
sounds around her turned to muffled echoes. Her hands folded
through the water quickly and easily, pulling her along with
confident strokes.

Lucy turned at the pool edge and pushed back into the water
for another length. She was wearing her goggles and looked out in
front of her. Under the broken surface of the water in the distance
she could see legs kicking and hands splashing. The tiles of the
pool extended onwards. As she looked she imagined she could see a
small bottlenose dolphin swimming towards her, with a friendly look
in its face and an intelligent glint in its eye. She imagined the
dolphin stopping to face her, just close enough to touch. If only
it were true, if only she could reach out and touch her little
dolphin. She wished she could transport herself to the open seas
right now, to feel the cold salty currents upon her skin, to swim
by the dolphin’s side. The image of the dolphin slipped away though
and the sounds of the swimming pool crowded back around
her.

‘
Lucy, are you alright?’ She had stopped swimming and was half
floating in a star fish position. Someone was swimming up behind
her. She brought her head up and took in a lung full of
air.

‘
Quite alright thank you Ms Baldwin’ she said politely and swum
on to the other side. After that though her heart wasn’t quite in
it. Ms Baldwin shook her head quietly to herself. There was going
to be a swimming competition among the local schools in a few weeks
time. She hoped that Lucy would be able to make it and that she
would work hard and do herself justice. However, it was far from
certain whether she’d got permission from her father. He seemed an
odd fellow, she thought to herself.

Lucy did a few more lengths, but more slowly than usual.
Swimming hadn’t cleared her head at all. She got out a little
earlier than usual and hurried to change back into her uniform in
order have her lunch before the bell went for the afternoon lessons
to begin.

The next lesson was English with Mrs Penhaligon. The bell rang
and the children filed in. Chairs scraped as the class took their
seats. Today they were talking about legends and folk stories. Mrs
Penhaligon asked the class to tell the legends they knew about.
John Jeffries started speaking about Star Wars and Jack G spoke
about Batman. Lucy wasn’t in the mood to put her hand up and speak
in front of the whole class. She was content just to
listen.

After fifteen minutes of lesson, Mrs Penhaligon came round
handing out work sheets. The class had different legends they had
to read about and then they had to write their own, using the
themes in the example they’d been given. Mrs Penhaligon came to
Lucy’s desk.

‘
I thought perhaps you might like a folk story about the sea’
she said, almost shyly, as she handed a work sheet to her. Lucy
looked down.

The Girl and the Sea.

There was once a girl who lived on a rocky island surrounded
by the salt water of the sea. She lived with her old grandmother,
who said that her mother and father had sailed away in a boat when
she was but a baby and had never returned. They lived on seaweed,
cockles, whelks and the small fish that the girl could find. It was
a simple lonely life and they whiled away the long winter evenings
by telling each other wild and fantastical stories of dragons and
princes, as they huddled from the cold in their low cottage with
its turf roof.

Every day the girl searched the horizon for boats and although
she saw many, they never came to her island. Her grandmother grew
old and the girl became a young woman. Though she dressed in rags
and her hair was wild, the girl was beautiful.

In the summer, she would dive from the rocks and search for
fish or for the ship wrecks and lost treasure that her imagination
had conjured up. In the winter, she would wrap herself up in an old
cloak which her grandma said had been her father’s, against the
stinging wind and bitter rain.

One summer day the girl stood singing to herself on a rocky
outcrop at the edge of the sea. She was lost in her thoughts until
suddenly she heard the creak of timbers below her and, looking
down, she saw a fine fishing vessel and a young sailor staring up
at her. He came ashore and stayed with her and her grandmother in
their low cottage for two nights. Soon the girl and the sailor had
fallen in love. The young sailor asked the old lady for the girl’s
hand in marriage and she gave the couple her blessing. The girl
begged to leave straight away with the young sailor. Instead he
said that he had to visit an island two days sailing away and that
he would soon return. He urged the girl and her grandmother to pack
their things and be ready to escape the barren rock where they had
lived alone for so many years. He said that he would carry them to
the mainland where they would marry in a fine church overlooking
the sea and that she would have a garland of flowers in her hair
and a gold ring upon her finger.

He left and the girl waited. But days passed and ne’er was his
boat spied upon the horizon. The girl despaired, believing her
young sailor to be lost to the depths. Heart-broken, she swum out
into the deep waters, knowing not where and the currents carried
her out, far far from the island. Her grandmother, sensing the girl
was gone, hurried out from their low cottage to the cliff edge and
spied the girl far off in the sea. The old woman cried out but the
girl could not hear her over the cry of the seagulls and the
beating of waves against the rocks below her. As the old lady wrung
her hands and cried, she saw the dolphins come to the girl lost to
the sea and carry her away, until she could see the girl and the
dolphins no more.

The next day the young sailor returned and the girl’s
grandmother, sad and alone, told him her unhappy tale. The old lady
refused to leave the island and, wracked with guilt, the young
sailor returned to his boat and set forth to find the girl that the
dolphins had borne away.

The young sailor searched and searched for many days and
nights. Then a beautiful young dolphin came to his boat and he knew
that he had found his love. He stepped from his boat and he too was
borne away by the dolphins, leaving his boat adrift and empty. It
is said that the two young lovers still swim together as dolphins
to this very day, forever united as they had never been as human
mortals.

Lucy felt as though she had heard this story before, but she
could not think where. Then she remembered. Her mother had told
Lucy the story, sitting on the edge of her bed as Lucy snuggled
under the covers. It must have been years ago and Lucy had
forgotten the tale until now. She looked around and saw the others
in the class starting to write their own folk-lore tales. She
picked up her pen.

There was once a girl who dreamt of dolphins. She lived far
from the sea and never saw them for real. But her dreams were so
real that she knew that they must be out there. She longed for the
day that she could actually swim with dolphins and touch their warm
skin. The more she dreamt of the dolphins, the more that she knew
that she had to be with them.

One day the girl found a magic doorway that led her through to
the dolphins’ world. She loved it there and never wanted to come
back, so she didn’t. Her father searched for her for a little bit,
but then he got busy with something else and forgot. He never found
out where she had disappeared to. The End.

Lucy knew that she should write more, Mrs Penhaligon expected
at least two pages, but somehow she found it hard to put the words
down on paper. She wondered whether she could just escape to the
world beneath the waves and never come back. It would be a dream
come true if she could. Would Dad notice she wasn’t there anymore?
Would he search for her? She hoped he would, but just at that
minute, she wasn’t sure.

Mrs Penhaligon came up and looked at her work over her
shoulder.

‘
Did you like the story Lucy?’ she asked.

‘
Yes, I knew it. My mum told it to me when I was
little.’

‘
And what about your own folk-lore tale? Was it hard to think
of one?’

‘
Yes,… no’ Lucy stumbled over her words, not knowing quite what
to say. Mrs Penhaligon quickly read what Lucy had
written.

‘
A magic door to the dolphin world…how would that
work?’

‘
Well’ said Lucy, ‘it’s a matter of thinking really hard and
then relaxing and finding a gap between being awake and asleep.
It’s sort of there in the middle, but most people aren’t aware it
is there and never look for it’ Lucy said before she knew it. She
felt that maybe she had said too much and stopped. Mrs Penhaligon
pondered on her words for a moment.

‘
I think Lucy’ she said quietly ‘that not everyone has that
gift. I think it is a rare thing and should be used carefully.’ Mrs
Penhaligon looked Lucy directly in the eye.

‘
But always leave the door open to this world Lucy’ she said,
her voice serious and thoughtful, ‘never let it close, there are
too many people here who would miss you.’ She patted Lucy’s arm
gently. She straightened up and her tone changed back to normal.
‘It’s a good start you’ve made here Lucy, but you need to expand on
it a little. Try to add detail to your story. Describe the
characters. What happens after the girl goes through the magic
door?’ She smiled. ‘I hope its going to have a happy ending.’ She
passed on to speak to Amy next to her.

‘
What was all that about?’ asked Amy as they came out of the
lesson. ‘Old Mrs Penhaligon was a bit weird with you wasn’t she?
You were a bit weird as well for that matter!’

‘
I kind of have a feeling that Mrs Penhaligon was trying to
tell me something’ replied Lucy cautiously. By this time she was
dying to tell her friend everything that had been going on, but the
time never seemed right.

‘
I’m even more confused now’ said Amy. ‘You’re not allowed to
have secrets from me you know, that’s the rule.’

‘
I know, I know’ said Lucy. They walked towards the sports hall
for P.E. ‘Listen, I’ll come round to your place on Saturday. I can
tell you stuff then.’

‘
It’s a deal’ said Amy emphatically ‘I’m really curious now’
she added, ‘I want to know everything!’

Soon, the afternoon was over and all the children piled out of
the school for the weekend. Lucy had French club and for a change
Dad was actually there to pick her up when it finished.

‘
Hey Luce’ he said as they walked to the car after he picked
her up. ‘I’ve got some pizzas from the supermarket. I thought
perhaps we could hang on the sofa and eat them while we watch a
DVD.’

‘
I suppose’ she said uncertainly. Pizza did sound good
though.

‘
How was French club?’

‘
Comme ci comme ça’ she replied. She always said that when she
didn’t want to talk. Dad sighed.

‘
Come on then, let’s get home’ he said. They climbed in the car
and set off for the short drive back to the house.

Despite herself, it was nice to hang out on the sofa and watch
a DVD. As soon as she could though, she made her excuses and got
ready for bed. Dad was surprised. Normally Lucy liked to stay up
late on a Friday night. Of course she could not tell him, but Lucy
wanted to try and reach out to the little dolphin again. She still
felt as though it was just all in her imagination. She needed to be
sure.

As before, Lucy sat on the rug in her bedroom, looking into
the distance, trying to see beyond the confines of the four walls
of her room. She concentrated hard and then let go, relying on some
deeper force to guide her through that door, towards the dolphin
world. It wasn’t easy and she was on the verge of giving up. Then
suddenly before she knew it, Lucy had passed through and felt
herself engulfed in the water. But it was dark, inky dark. ‘Of
course!’ It was night for her little dolphin as it was for
her.