

MIDNIGHT DOLPHIN

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By James Carmody

Originally published in ebook format in 2014.

Copyright © 2014 James Carmody

The right of James Carmody to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

Smashwords Edition

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For Jill

Chapter One:

When Megan Ames slipped quietly out of bed in the holiday cottage where her family were staying, her six year old sister Bethany silently opened her eyes to watch as her older sister pulled on her favourite flared jeans and blouse. The bed covers were pulled up to Bethany's face and she lay there as still as possible, trying not to attract any attention. Megan was twelve but seemed so much more grown up than Bethany, who was only half her age.

Megan opened the door as quietly as possible and slipped out of their bedroom. The door creaked slightly as she pushed it closed. Bethany sat up in bed now that she was alone and looked around her. The early morning light was creeping around the curtains. Nothing seemed to stir in the holiday cottage and Bethany could make out the low sonorous rumble of her dad's snoring from her parent's room next to theirs.

Bethany pulled back the sheets and ran to the window. She climbed onto a wicker chair and put her head through the curtains. The walls of the holiday cottage were old and thick and there was a wide ledge on the inside of the window. She leant across it and peered down through the small square panes of glass. She could hear the occasional call of a seagull and further away the low sound of waves washing onto the beach. The front path snaked through the tidy little garden to the front gate. Just then she heard the front door click and she saw her sister's back as she walked briskly up the path. Megan glanced around, almost as if she knew her sister was watching her, and Bethany shrank back into the folds of the curtain for fear of being caught spying.

Beyond the cottage was a place to park cars and then there were some trees. Between the trees Bethany could see the start of the board-walk which led through the sand dunes towards the wide sandy beach where she loved to play.

Bethany was wearing a light cotton nightdress and had nothing on her feet. It was summer, but the cottage had a musty old smell and the thick stone walls made it feel cool even on a summer's day. She opened the door of their bedroom and made her way down the narrow wooden stairs as quickly but as quietly as she could. She was determined to follow her older sister and find out where she disappeared to almost every morning. Every step she took seemed to make the stairs creak and she was convinced that her mother would hear her. Bethany half wished that she would and that her mum would sweep her up into her arms and take Bethany to snuggle up in bed with her, but she reached the bottom step undetected.

There were thick flagstones on the floor downstairs that felt cold under her bare feet, but at least they did not creak, and she ran across them to the front door of the cottage. She felt terribly daring when she opened it and the bright early morning light dazzled her eyes. She'd never been out of the house without her mum knowing about it before. The sense of adventure made her feel giddy with excitement.

Bethany knew which way her sister had gone and she ran up the front path of the garden and opened the front gate. There was a piece of rough ground where their car was parked and the ground was full of sharp pine needles from the trees which hurt her bare feet. Then she got to the board-walk which holiday-makers used to walk across the dunes to the beach. The worn wooden slats were easy to walk on and Bethany was glad to run up them. Sand tipped across the boards in places and felt soft between her toes.

The board-walk rose and dipped as it followed the line of the dunes. Bethany kept worrying that she would run into her sister who would angrily send her home in disgrace to their mother. Instead she couldn't see Megan at all and began to worry that she'd gone in the wrong direction. It seemed like an awfully long way from home now and Bethany began to feel a little scared.

Then finally the board walk ended in a wide expanse of yellow sand and there was the sea. The tide was in and the gently lapping waves were much closer than normal. There to the left, next to a tuft of spiky grass at the edge of the dunes, Bethany could see a small crumpled heap of clothes. They were Megan's. Bethany didn't dare risk being seen by Megan and hid behind the tuft and peered out. She shivered in the early morning breeze.

Bethany couldn't see her sister at first, but then she spotted her wading out into the waves in her swimming costume. Her legs looked pink with the cold. Then Megan was swimming out into the sea. Bethany knew that the water was shallow there and that when the tide was out the sand seemed to go on forever. She decided to scramble up the dune behind her to get a better view. At the top she laid down and scrunched up her eyes to see her sister. Megan was a strong swimmer and she was already quite a long way out. Bethany thought about telling on her to Mum and Dad. She knew that Megan shouldn't be out like this so early. Mum and Dad were always telling her to be careful and made Bethany stay in the pools of shallow water trapped in the sand when the tide went out. Bethany didn't really mind. It was warmer in those pools and she was scared of being stung by jellyfish.

Bethany lay there on the top of the dune peering out towards where Megan was swimming. She was beginning to wonder whether she should turn round and go back home when a fin appeared close to where Megan was swimming. Bethany gasped and involuntarily put her hand over her mouth in surprise. Then she saw a second fin, and then a third. At first she thought they were sharks, but Megan seemed to swim towards them not away from them, so she knew it wasn't anything dangerous.

It was hard to see what was going on over the low waves and Bethany would have stood up to take a better look if she'd dared. The fins came in close to where Megan was swimming. Megan seemed to be putting out her hand and touching the creature, whatever it was. It didn't look scary at all. Bethany squinted to see better. One of the creatures put its head up over the surface of the waves. Bethany gasped again. It was a dolphin!

Lucy Parr groaned as the alarm clock went off and she blearily knocked it with her hand, hoping to put it on snooze for another five minutes. She opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. It was Monday morning and she still hadn't quite finished her homework even though she'd started it on Friday evening. She'd have to finish it over breakfast, she thought.

Sometimes when she had just woken up, Lucy would imagine that she was back in her Aunt Bethany's studio in Cornwall. It didn't overlook the sea, but it was less than a mile from the tall cliffs that towered over the ocean. Every day down there seemed ripe with adventure and possibility. Bethany was an artist and lived in a studio she created from an old farm outhouse. Light flooded in from the south-facing windows which looked out over the fields. The studio took up most space but there was a kitchen area and up some steps was a sort of platform which was Bethany's living area and where her bed was. When Lucy stayed there she slept on a camp bed at the foot of Bethany's own. It was all quite basic but Lucy loved it and she felt happy when she stayed there. In the summer Lucy would go outside when she'd woken up and let the morning sun warm her face.

Life back home seemed full of grey inevitability in comparison. She could hear the patter of rain on her window and sighed. There was a hole in one of her school shoes and it let the water in. She'd have a cold soggy left foot by the time she got to school. She had to get Dad to buy her some new ones.

Even the prospect of Christmas in a couple of weeks didn't cheer her up. It would be just her and Dad, an over-cooked turkey and the Christmas film on TV. Nothing to look forward to then.

There was something more though that made her feel miserable and sad. For the past three days she hadn't been able to reach out and speak to her dolphin friend Spirit. Back in the spring Lucy had realised that there was something more to the dreams that she'd always had of a pod of dolphins swimming in the sea. She'd discovered that they were real and that she was able to communicate with one dolphin in particular called Spirit. It meant so much to her after she'd lost her mother. For some reason that Lucy didn't understand, her father was against her connection to the sea and to dolphins. He had been really strict, but in the summer he'd allowed her to go down and stay with Bethany. The day after Lucy had helped save Spirit's mother from her imprisonment in a lagoon, Dad had told her that she'd grow out of her gift, as though it was an illness like acne. Instead of being something bad, Lucy felt that discovering her gift with dolphins was the most beautiful and special thing that had ever happened to her. From what Dad said, losing it was something inevitable that she couldn't escape. Lucy wasn't so sure though.

Ever since then, even though Lucy had to go back home and far from the sea, she'd taken every opportunity to reach out to Spirit with her mind and spend as much time as she could with him. Lucy reckoned that the more she did so, the stronger she'd become and the better she'd be at it. It was like working out to get better at gymnastics she thought. She was determined to prove Dad wrong and keep the gift that meant so much to her. The fact that she'd not been able to communicate with Spirit for the last two days scared her though. This had never happened before. Was she losing her gift as Dad had predicted?

Lucy pulled on her school uniform, washed her face in the bathroom, and stomped downstairs.

'Looks like someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning' observed Dad wryly as he stood at the kitchen counter spooning cornflakes into his mouth. 'What's up with you then?'

Lucy wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking he was right by telling him how worried she was about not being able to reach out to Spirit.

'I've got to finish my homework' she mumbled as she poured out some cereal into a bowl and opened her maths exercise book in front of her at the kitchen table. She had just five more questions to go.

Dad was already wearing his suit. He gave the impression that he was perpetually late for some appointment or other and was keen to get out of the house, into his car and away.

'You'll be okay if I head off now won't you Luce?' he asked her as he patted his pockets absent-mindedly to check that his keys were still there. Lucy nodded without looking up from the equation she was working on. He planted a kiss on the top of Lucy's head before making for the door. Lucy could tell that he wanted to give her a hug as well but she continued to stare fixedly at the exercise she was doing and he gave up on the idea.

'Bye then!' he called, just before the door clicked shut behind him.

As soon as he'd gone, Lucy put her exercise book to one side, and started to focus in the way that she'd learned to enable her to reach out to Spirit with her mind. The trick was to focus her mind and then let it relax, so that she could find that door at the very edge of her consciousness that would enable her to tumble through into Spirit's world of water. Lucy's worries made it difficult though and after ten minutes of trying she gave up. She glanced at her watch. It was later than she'd thought and she scooped her things into her school bag and got ready to set off.

Lucy was what her Grandma called a latchkey kid now. More often than not she left an empty house to go to school and let herself back into one afterwards. At least she was old enough now that she didn't have to go into the after-school club till Dad picked her up. She had her own key and her own mobile phone and felt quite independent. She liked it that way and was glad that Dad wasn't there to ask her stupid questions about how her day had been when she got home.

Lucy banged the door shut behind her and walked briskly up the garden path. It was cold and wet and even though she was wearing a winter jacket over her school uniform, she shivered. Lucy quickly began to feel the moisture penetrate through the crack in the sole of her shoe.

When she got near her friend Amy's house Lucy sent her a text and Amy quickly emerged to walk into school with her.

'You reckon it's going to snow then?' asked Amy conversationally. 'You know, for Christmas. That's what my Mum says. She say's we're in for a cold snap.'

'Oh it never snows at Christmas, it just drizzles instead' said Lucy cynically. 'Those Christmas cards are a lie' she added.

'You're a cheery one this morning' replied Amy. What's up with you then?'

'Oh, you know' replied Lucy. Even if she hadn't felt so worried about Spirit, the idea of Christmas without Mum there just made her feel miserable.

At assembly the Head of Year talked about the Christmas Play, an adaption of Dickens' Christmas Carol and about how they all had to try and sell tickets to make it a success. Dad had already said he couldn't make it to the performance and since Lucy wasn't actually acting in it, she didn't really mind. She'd helped design the programme for the production though and was quite pleased with some of the drawings that she'd done for it. There was a sense of anticipation amongst the children in the school. Everyone liked having a couple of weeks off school for Christmas but the build up to the big day did make it feel special. Classes were being decorated and people were exchanging Christmas cards.

A couple of her luckier classmates were off on skiing trips over Christmas and others were going away to visit relatives. Lucy would have liked to go down to Cornwall to see Bethany, but she knew that wasn't an option, not after her last trip down there over the summer. It had been so blissful to stay with Bethany and to swim with Spirit. Lucy had even felt happy when Dad had come down to join them; at first at least.

It was true that Lucy and Paul had to be saved by the lifeboat. Lucy could see that Dad had every right to be upset when that happened, but neither of them had been hurt and there would never have been a problem if Paul hadn't got it into his head that he would turn into a dolphin if he swam out into the stormy sea at night time.

It was the next morning in hospital that things all took a horrible, deadening turn for the worse when Dad told her angrily that she would grow out of being a Dolphin-Child and that it was just a phase. He said it was just a matter of months and that she'd stop being able to communicate with Spirit at all, and that if she ever saw dolphins after that, it would be from the safety of a boat. Lucy couldn't bear the thought of it. She and Paul had been let out of hospital later that same morning, but the rest of the holiday had been a disaster. Lucy and Dad had a huge shouting match. She knew that he thought he was just protecting her but she didn't want it, she didn't need it. He said it was for her own good and that he loved her, but she didn't care.

Lucy looked to Bethany and Thelma, the local woman that had befriended them, for support, but they too had sadly told her that most Dolphin-Children grew out of their gift by the time they entered their teens. It was all part of growing up they said. Lucy couldn't believe it. She had thought that Bethany and Thelma were her friends, her allies. Now she wasn't so sure. Lucy had a feeling that Bethany had wanted to say something more to her, but Dad was watching her like a hawk after all the drama with Star-Gazer and if Bethany had wanted to tell her something, she certainly didn't get the chance.

He'd allowed her to swim with Spirit a couple more times but only with adult supervision, and then he'd announced that they'd have to cut short their holiday and drive home. Lucy hadn't even been able to say goodbye to Spirit properly. It was as though Dad was afraid to let her stay down there any longer. He came up with some excuse about work but Lucy didn't believe him. She was so angry with Dad that she'd practically refused to talk to him all during the long drive back home. In fact, she'd barely spoken to him more than was necessary for weeks afterwards.

The thing was that if Lucy lost Spirit as well as Mum, she didn't know how she'd be able to go on. Dad just didn't seem to care.

After assembly that morning they had French and then it was Eng Lit with Mrs Penhaligon. Her English teacher's family were from Cornwall and Lucy had been amazed to bump into her in Merwater over the summer holidays. Mrs Penhaligon knew about the local folklore and the strange link between the local people and dolphins. After she and Dad had come across her in the local minimarket, Mrs Penhaligon had told her to come and visit her in her sister's gift shop where she was helping out. Lucy hadn't been able to do so though until after she and Paul got out of hospital.

Lucy had broken down in tears when she'd told Mrs Penhaligon what Dad had said about her losing her gift. Her teacher had put a comforting arm around her while she cried, but didn't dispute what Dad had told her. It seemed as though the whole world had been in on the secret except her. Thelma, Bethany, Mrs Penhaligon and even Dad seemed to know; everyone but her.

Now that she and Mrs Penhaligon were both back at school, Lucy felt that she had to be careful about what she said to her teacher in case the other kids began to talk. She knew that Mrs Penhaligon couldn't be seen to treat Lucy like she was a favourite. Lucy felt less open than she had been when they were both in Cornwall. Even so, she would sometimes catch her teacher looking at her with a thoughtful look in her eyes.

At the end of the lesson, Lucy hung back whilst the other children left, scraping their chairs noisily on the floor as they made a dash for the exit and lunch. Lucy was so worried about not having been able to reach out to Spirit these last few days that she was desperate to talk to her teacher about it.

'Mrs Penhaligon?' she said warily, 'Can I speak to you for a moment?'

'Yes of course Lucy, what is it?' Mrs Penhaligon replied, turning her full attention towards Lucy.

'I'm sorry, but I don't know who else to speak to. It's just that, well, I've not been able to speak to Spirit for two or three days and I'm getting really worried.' Mrs Penhaligon leant against a desk and regarded Lucy sympathetically.

'And you think that you're losing your gift?' she asked with a soft voice.

'Yes, yes I am' replied Lucy. Mrs Penhaligon paused for a moment to compose her thoughts.

'You know I'd like to be able to tell you that it's not true Lucy, and that you'll regain your gift as before. But I'm not going to lie to you. It might be happening. I really don't know. I know the stories about Dolphin-Children, but I've never actually met one before. I know that most Dolphin-Children do lose their gift at about the age that you are now, but I don't believe that they all do. You've inherited your gift from your mother haven't you? What was her experience like?'

'I don't know' admitted Lucy. 'She never spoke about it before she died. I wish she had. I really do. It would make such a difference to me now. Dad just refuses to say anything.'

'What about your aunt, would she know?'

'I suppose she would' replied Lucy. 'She's never really told me either though.'

'I think you need to speak to your aunt or your father' said Mrs Penhaligon decisively. 'They've got first hand experience of how it was for your mother. I think that you need to be told as much as possible about something as significant as this.'

'I just can't talk to Dad' replied Lucy. 'I suppose I'll have to speak to Bethany then.'

'I think that's a good idea' replied Mrs Penhaligon. 'You know there may be any number of reasons why you can't communicate with your dolphin at the moment.' She could see how worried Lucy looked. 'Don't jump to conclusions. It might just be a temporary thing.'

'Thanks Mrs Penhaligon' said Lucy, trying to put on a brave smile.

'Now off you go' said her teacher, 'or you'll miss lunch.'

The afternoon passed by in a blur of maths and geography and before Lucy knew it, the bell had rung for the end of the day. She had choir practice after school which she went to with Amy. Lucy loved the feeling of unity and peace she experienced when all the thirty or so children in the school choir sung together. Amy was particularly good and often got to do solos. Lucy was just glad to stay at the back without attracting attention to herself.

Because it was winter, it was already dark by the time that choir practice finished and she and Amy walked home together, glad of each others company. When she got home Lucy let herself into the empty house and switched on the light. There was a pile of post on the mat. Normally the only post they received were bills and circulars which Dad threw in the bin straight away.

Today though there was a slim package wrapped in brown paper which had Lucy's name and address neatly written on the front. Lucy picked it up curiously. From the look and feel of it, the package contained a thin book. Lucy carefully tugged open the wrapping and pulled out the paperback inside. It was called 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' and looked really quite old as the pages had yellowed over time where they had been exposed to sunlight. Lucy knew that flora mean plant life and fauna meant animal life. She sniffed it. The book smelt dusty and Lucy was reminded of the kinds of books that her Mum used to like looking through in the second-hand bookshop down the road from them. She looked inside the front cover and could see that it was published in 1976.

Lucy wondered who the book might be from, and she checked the package carefully to see if there was a note or a letter still inside. There was nothing there though, and she didn't recognise the handwriting on the front of the package either. It was a mystery. Lucy flicked through the book and could see that there were plenty of illustrations of plants and animals within the close-typed pages. It was a lovely book and she looked forward to reading it but Lucy simply had no idea of who had sent it to her.

Inside the back cover there was a scribbled note.

'I found this brilliant book in the junk shop today all about Cornish wildlife for 15p. A few pages on dolphins, but just scientific stuff, not folklore or the link between dolphins and kids. I know what I've been told about what happens to Dolphin-Children, but I just don't believe it. There must be some way round it. I just know it.'

Lucy felt a shiver go down her spine. It felt as though message was being sent to her from the past.

Chapter Two:

Megan was talking in her sleep again. It woke Bethany and she sat up to watch. Megan was deep in her dream and Bethany thought it looked as though she was trying to swim through her sheets. Megan was muttering under breath and at first Bethany couldn't make out what her sister was saying. Then Bethany could hear more clearly.

'I don't want to lose you Jet. Don't leave me' Bethany heard her say. Megan seemed to be clutching at her pillow as though it was another person, holding it tight to her chest. Megan went quiet for a few moments but then she heard Bethany again.

'No, I'm coming too!' she called out in her sleep. Bethany slipped out of bed and padded across the room. She shook her sister by the arm.

'Wake up, wake up silly!' she whispered insistently.

'What, what is it?' Megan mumbled blearily.

'You're dreaming!' whispered Bethany. 'Very loud. You woke me up!' Megan looked around her again. She looked at her younger sisters' pale face and big eyes. There was a nightlight in the room because Bethany was still afraid of the dark so Megan was just about able to see her. Her younger sister furrowed her brow.

'Stop dreaming!' she said to Megan very seriously. Megan smiled, fully aware of where she was now.

'Sorry Bethany. I didn't mean to. It was just a silly dream but I'm out of it now. You get back into bed.' Bethany looked at the illuminated hands of her travel alarm clock that she'd been given for Christmas. It was half past three in the morning. 'Do you want me to tell you a story to help get you off to sleep?'

'Yes please Megan' Bethany replied. Megan started telling Bethany the story of Goldilocks and the three bears for the hundredth time, and was rewarded a minute or two later by the sound of rhythmic breathing. Bethany had fallen back to sleep. Megan finished the story anyway because somehow it didn't seem right to stop a story before it got to the end.

Megan was wide awake now though. She thought about going downstairs to get herself a glass of milk but lay on her back and stared at the ceiling instead. She'd been dreaming about Jet. Jet was her dolphin. She had dreamed about dolphins all her life and they'd always been beautiful and relaxing dreams in which she could drift effortlessly alongside a pod of dolphins. Then a couple of years ago she'd realised that they weren't just dreams and that she was able to communicate with them, and Jet in particular. It was utterly amazing.

Megan spent all the time she could to stretch out with her mind to communicate with dolphins. It used to be really hard to do it for more than a couple of minutes, but as she became more accustomed to it, she'd learnt how to keep it up for as much as twenty minutes or so, although she always felt exhausted afterwards.

Her grannie used to live in a small fishing village in Cornwall called Merwater and the family had often gone down to visit her when Megan was younger. Megan loved to hear Grannie's stories about fishermen and the sea. Now Grannie had passed away but the family still came down to Cornwall on their summer holidays, staying in a holiday cottage when they did. They were in one now, just a short walk from the sea across the dunes. Megan was in her element here and she would sneak off in the early morning to swim with Jet.

The trouble was that her dreams weren't as beautiful and reassuring as they used to be. She couldn't glide along next to Jet as she had before. When she dreamt about the dolphins it felt as though the water around her was getting thicker somehow and harder to swim through. All too often when she dreamed about Jet, all she could see was his tail as he swam off into the deep blue void.

When she reached out to Jet with her mind, it was getting harder and harder to do so. Megan didn't know why. She didn't really have anyone to talk to about it and she didn't think Mum and Dad would understand either.

There was a kind of invisible barrier between Megan and her parents since the previous summer when they were holidaying in Cornwall. Megan had gone out to play with the local friends that she had made as usual, away from the cottage where they were staying half a mile or so in from the sea. Megan hadn't come home though and eventually her parents had called the police who in turn had contacted the coastguard.

By ten at night, the long summer day had given way to darkness. Patrol cars were checking the local roads and there was talk of organising a search of the nearby woods and fields at first light. It was the next morning that Megan had been found alive and well.

A young policeman had been in his patrol car driving along the sea road going west out of town. He'd seen Megan just sitting there, on a rock a few metres off, staring out to sea. He called to her and clambered over the rocks to get to her, but Megan hadn't seemed to hear. When he got close he could see that she was wet through, as though she'd been in the sea, but she wasn't shivering and didn't seem cold. He said that he was cold though and he was wearing a dry uniform. He scooped her up off the rock where she was sitting and brought her home to the cottage.

Megan's parents had been both furious and desperately concerned when Megan reappeared. Try as they might though, they simply could not get Megan to tell them what had happened. The more they pressed her, the less inclined she felt to tell them anything at all. They'd watched her like a hawk for the rest of the holiday to make sure nothing else happened, yet here they were back in Cornwall barely a year later. Maybe they thought she'd grow out of it or something.

That morning was overcast and damp and the family decided to squeeze into their small car with its leaking windows and squeaky plastic seats and head into the local town to wander around and do some window-shopping. Megan looked in her purse and counted up her money. She had seventy six pence in total. It wasn't that much, but maybe enough to get something nice if she was lucky.

The local town was built around a small harbour that was packed full of fishing boats and seemed to bustle with energy and life. Crates were piled up to pack fish into and the strong fishy tang seemed to fill the air wherever you went. Vans were ready to take the fish to the nearest train station ten miles or so away and carry them off to market in London and other big cities. When they got there, her dad wanted to go into an angling shop, and her mum took Bethany to find the sweet shop. Megan was left to her own devices and wandered off up the backstreets that snaked up the hill.

Megan found herself turning into a cobbled yard off a quiet street just where the shops petered out. On the other side of the yard was a small second-hand bookshop. A cat dozed contentedly in the window and a bell clanged above the door when she pushed it open to enter. The shop was packed with tall bookcases and more books were piled on the floor where there was space. A smell of dust hung on the air and it was so cramped that she almost felt as though she would have to breath in to let anyone pass. There were a couple of other people browsing the books and she joined them. Megan was eager to find the natural history section. She was a keen ornithologist back home, but here she was fascinated by the life that could be found, in, under and on top of the sea.

There were only a few books on wildlife on a shelf that was uncomfortably close to the floor and Megan had to bend to see them, craning her neck to read the titles on the spines. Some of the books were cloth-covered hardbacks from the nineteen thirties and others were more recent editions that had fallen out of favour with their original owners. Megan leafed through several books and then one in particular caught her eye. It was called 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' and inside the front cover, written in pencil she could see that it had been put on sale at only fifteen pence. Even Megan could afford that from the change that she had saved up. She walked up to the counter by the window to pay.

Megan always expected the people that worked in libraries and bookshops to be tall, thin and grey but the young woman at the counter was petite, with jet-black hair and an infectious smile. Megan said that she wanted to pay.

'Yes, of course. Let me see' replied the girl, looking for the price. 'Ah yes, that'll be fifteen pence.' She smiled at Megan. 'Are you interested in natural history?' she asked conversationally. Megan said that she was.

'And local wildlife at that' the girl observed. 'We've got a good section on local books here actually' she continued. 'Local dialect, local cooking, local history...' She smiled at Megan again. 'I guess you're just interested in local wildlife though. I hope that it helps you with your studies.' Megan mumbled shyly that she thought it would.

'Do drop by when you can' added the girl cheerfully. 'This is my mother's shop. I'm just helping out over the summer holidays.' She leant forward conspiratorially. 'It's nice to see someone in here who's aged under fifty for a change. All I've got to talk to all day is Bilbo Baggins here!' she added, nodding in the direction of the cat still sleeping in the shop window. We call him that because of his big hairy paws.' Megan said that she would and left.

Last year when she was in Cornwall, Megan had made friends with a couple of local children, but one had moved away and the other girl seemed to be on holiday herself at the moment. If she hadn't had Jet to spend time with, she'd have felt a bit lonely. It was fun to spend time with Bethany, but her sister was almost half her age and couldn't share her own interests. The girl in the shop was years older than she was and was even studying at university thought Megan, but it would be nice to see her again. Megan walked happily back to the café up the street where they'd all agreed to meet for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Spirit fretted restlessly. He simply couldn't settle like the others and swam backwards and forwards, round and round while the rest of the pod settled down to sleep.

'What ever is the matter Spirit?' asked his mother Star-Gazer. 'Come and relax over here with the rest of us.' As ever she had her eyes above the water when ever she could, looking up at the stars. Now she was looking down at Spirit.

'It's Lucy' he replied. 'She hasn't come to me in the last three days. It feels strange.'

'Maybe she's been busy' replied Star-Gazer sympathetically.

'It's not just that' replied Spirit. 'I have this feeling inside me that things aren't right. Do you know what it could be?'

'I don't know' said Star-Gazer. 'She might be unwell, or life might be stressful for her. You've told me before that it's difficult for her to contact you if she's not calm and relaxed.

'That's true' replied Spirit, pondering a moment. 'I suppose I'll just have to wait a bit longer. Hopefully she will get through to me eventually.'

'Don't worry Spirit' said Star-Gazer, nudging Spirit's face affectionately.

Life was getting back to normal now after Star-Gazer's return to the pod a few months before. Spirit had thought that she was dead; the whole pod had. She'd disappeared twelve full moons before that and they had no idea what had happened to her. It had been Lucy who had discovered from her friend Paul that she was imprisoned in a lagoon off the narrow estuary that came in from the sea. Spirit and Dancer had swum up the estuary to try to free Star-Gazer themselves, but there had been a closed-link fence that blocked their way and try as they might they could not get through it or over it.

If it had not been for Lucy and Paul, Star-Gazer would never have escaped. She was being kept prisoner in that muddy lagoon by a woman called Mrs Penrose who believed in some strange way that keeping Star-Gazer there would help her husband get better after his stroke. Spirit remembered the night of the summer storm. Lucy and Paul cut through the wire of the fence which separated the lagoon from the rest of the estuary and Star-Gazer was able to swim to freedom. Star-Gazer was weak and unhappy from the time that she had spent there but her strength and determination had returned to her in that swim down the narrow channel full of storm water to the open sea and freedom. Lucy and Paul had climbed onto Spirit and Dancer's backs and they had all swum down together. It had been exhilarating and strange and Spirit had felt full of excitement and joy when they set Lucy and Paul down next to a building before returning to the open sea.

The whole pod had celebrated Star-Gazer's return and Chaser, Moonlight and Summer had sung them the Welcome Song that was always sung to dolphins returning from faraway places or dangerous waters. They all nuzzled Star-Gazer in greeting. News of her return soon spread to all the neighbouring pods and after that they had many visitors to greet Star-Gazer and to congratulate Spirit and Dancer.

Star-Gazer had been traumatised by her imprisonment though and for a long time afterwards she had had bad dreams and flashbacks. She felt worried about Mrs Penrose and her husband. Even though it was true they had imprisoned her, they had also saved her life.

Spirit had his own concerns in the days following Star-Gazer's rescue. Spirit and Dancer knew nothing of the peril that Paul put himself in immediately after they left him and Lucy that night. Paul had thought that if he swam out to sea, he would escape the bullying and misery that he was experiencing on land and that somehow, magically, he would become a dolphin like them. He could easily have died and if it had not been for the lifeboat that Mrs Penrose had called out, he probably would have.

What was particularly bad was that Lucy's Dad had decided that he was mad to have let her spend so much time with dolphins and quickly took her back home far away from the sea. Though he had seen her briefly a couple of times before she left, and of course she had reached out to him many times since then, he still missed her.

He'd seen Paul again though. Somehow Lucy was able to speak to Paul over long distances with something she called a telephone. He didn't really understand how it worked though and when he asked Lucy had found it difficult to explain to him. It must be some sort of magic.

The next morning great surging waves were rolling in across the expanse of ocean towards the coast. The waves became a curving wall of water and foam before crashing onto the rocks of the granite cliffs.

It was fun to ride the waves and Spirit and Dancer loved to catch the crest and be propelled along like surfers, before curling off down under the water before the wave got to close to land.

'This is incredible' shouted Dancer as they caught another wave. 'How far do you think we can go this time?'

'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.

Lucy broke down and wept hot, bitter tears. She buried her face in her pillow to stifle the noise of her crying. She didn't want Dad to hear. She didn't want him to have the satisfaction. If Bethany was there at least she would be able to bury herself in her aunt's warm embrace, but Bethany was far away and she just felt alone. As her tears finally abated, Lucy felt the book under the duvet and pulled it out again to look at. There it was, 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast', the book that Mum must have had at about the same age as she was now. If only Mum was alive and she could ask what it had been like for her.

Megan held her younger sister's hand as they walked along the tops of the cliffs. They'd all been to see one of the old tin mines that had been turned into a museum and visitors centre. Megan had looked down the central shaft. She shuddered to think of the men and even children like her who'd toiled down there years and years ago, trapped in the darkness underground. She'd been glad to get outside into the sunlight and she and Bethany had opted to explore the cliff tops whilst Mum and Dad went to the café for a cup of tea.

Bethany wanted to find daisies to make a daisy chain, but the grass along the tops of the cliffs was grazed close by sheep and rabbits and there were no daisies to be found. Besides, the summer was unusually hot and the grass had been burnt brown by the sun.

'Megan?' asked Bethany as the strolled along. 'What's it like to swim with dolphins?' The question slipped out of the six-year-old's mouth without her really thinking. Megan stopped walking and looked down into the face of her younger sister.

'I didn't know you knew about that' she replied quietly. 'I don't like to talk about it and I'd like to keep it that way.'

'I won't tell' piped Bethany excitedly. She loved secrets.

'You've got to promise not to tell Mum or Dad or anyone. Cross your heart...'

'And hope to die!' said Bethany. 'But don't Mummy and Daddy know already?'

'Well, they've got an idea I suppose after what happened last year...' answered Megan uncertainly.

'So what's it like to swim with dolphins then?' Bethany asked again insistently. Megan sighed and looked at her sister.

'Well it's kind of cool. It's hard to describe. They give off a sort of energy... Hang on, how do you know anyway?'

'I followed you yesterday morning' replied Bethany, suddenly realising she might get into trouble now. 'They looked lovely. Can I meet them?'

'No you certainly can't' answered Megan quickly. 'You're way too little and anyway you can't swim properly.'

'I can too!' answered Bethany defiantly.

'Don't be silly' replied Megan. 'You're still in armbands. Besides Mum and Dad would find out.'

'How do they come to you Megan?' asked Bethany curiously. 'Do you whistle for them like a dog.' Megan smiled.

'They're not like dogs. They're much smarter than dogs are and no I don't whistle for them. It's difficult to explain. I've got a special way of communicating with them.'

'What does communicate mean?' asked Bethany.

'It means talk. I've got a special way of talking to them.'

'You talk to them then?' asked Bethany, looking up at her sister and shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.

'Sort of, only not with words or sounds. I talk to them in another way.' Megan looked over her shoulder as though Mum and Dad might be hovering there listening to what she said. 'Come on, let's go look at the view.' There was an observation point nearby with railings and a telescope on a pole that you paid two pence to look through. 'Race you!'

They ran over to the observation point. Megan could easily outrun her sister, but she let her win anyway. She hoped that Bethany would forget all about their conversation now.

'Do you think we'll see dolphins if we look through the telescope?' Bethany asked. Megan sighed. Bethany was always full of questions.

'I shouldn't think so' Megan replied. 'It's quite rare to see them you know.' As it happened Megan had two pence in her pocket and she put the coin in the slot so that Bethany could take a look. The six-year-old was far too short to look through the eyepiece though and Megan had to lift her up so she could put her eye up to the lens.

'All I can see is blue!' exclaimed Bethany indignantly; she could hardly tell if she was looking at the sea or the sky. Megan chuckled. She preferred to scan the horizon with the naked eye. They certainly wouldn't see any dolphins that afternoon. There was a fishing boat in the middle distance though and they watched for a while as it made its slow progress across the calm sea.

Megan would enjoy telling Jet about what Bethany had said later though. Somehow she felt that she could trust her sister, even though Bethany was half her age. The sun baked down on them from above.

'We'd better get back' she said to Bethany.

Back at the holiday cottage, after dinner, the family sat outside in the garden enjoying the late afternoon sun. It didn't get dark till ten o'clock in August and although the sun was no longer warming their skin, the air was still pleasant and balmy. High up in the sky the swifts were still swooping and circling in their hunt for insects on the wing and Megan saw a bat flit by, flying from the house towards the trees. Bethany was playing in the grass, Mum was doing the crossword at the back of the newspaper and Dad was leaning back with his eyes closed.

Megan was lying on her stomach on the grass studying a column of small brown ants that emerged from a hole by the path and which marched determinedly out into the thicket of grass stems. She wondered if they'd located Bethany's secret horde of sweets.

Normally Megan would only reach out to Jet with her mind if she was entirely alone, but everyone seemed so absorbed in their own activities and there was no particular reason why they should notice if she did. At worst they would simply think that she had dropped off to sleep.

Megan started to focus her mind. She would do this by looking into the middle distance and then letting her focus dissolve. Then she would imagine water rushing into the scene and let her mind concentrate on the water and not the surroundings behind it. Then she would be there and feel the cold tang of salty water on her skin and she would be swimming along free and easily, liberated from the gravity of life on dry land.

Often Megan would see the tails of Jet's pod receding away from her and she would glide along faster to catch up with them. She could easily make out Jet because he was slightly smaller and darker than the others and she recognised the way he swam. Often Jet would know that she was approaching him and would glance back before she reached him. He would whistle a message to the others and would peel off from the others to come back and join her.

At first Megan had found it difficult to stay with Jet for more than a few minutes. Her energy would deplete too quickly and she would dissolve back into the briny currents again. As time went by though, Megan became stronger and she frequently stayed with Jet for forty five minutes or more, swimming along with him and even breaking the surface of the water to leap high into the air. At first Megan had been worried that someone would see her if she followed Jet when he took a leap and would think she was a mermaid. After a while though Megan realised that when she came to Jet like this she was not physically there.

One time they both chased along at the bow of a sailing yacht as it sliced along through gentle waves. A man and a small boy stood at the bow looking down in excited admiration at the dolphin barely two meters away from them.

'What a beautiful dolphin!' exclaimed the man admiringly. The boy looked on the other side of the bow where Megan was gliding effortlessly along through the water.

'Look Daddy!' he exclaimed. 'a mermaid!' The man looked over to where the boy was pointing.

'Don't be silly' he replied unseeingly. 'The dolphins' on this side!'

'So I'm not always completely invisible to people like this' Megan said to Jet afterwards.

'Maybe that boy's a Dolphin-Child too, but doesn't realise it yet' Jet replied as they relaxed together in the surge and swell of deep green sea.

As Megan lay in the garden watching the procession of earnest ants making their way across the grass, she looked forward to spending time with Jet, even if it might only be for a few minutes.

She started to focus her mind in the way that she had taught herself. Megan let the scene in front of her blur and imagined the sea washing in to cover it. The scene remained speckled with patches of white though and try as she might she could not make the background of dry land dissolve away as she normally did. Megan tried again. This time the sea washed around her and she felt the cold water on her skin. She could see the pod not far away lounging just under the waves, but as she started to approach them the scene dissolved before she could get anywhere near them. Megan found herself lying on the grass again, an ant running lightly over the back of her hand. She flicked it off.

Megan was disappointed that she had not been able to reach Jet, but maybe it was because her family were around her, or perhaps it was something she'd eaten. She'd try again later.

As she turned to see what imaginary world Bethany had created with her toys, she noticed that Dad had opened his eyes as he leant back in the deckchair and was watching her intently. As she looked up he closed his eyes quickly as if to pretend that he was sleeping again.

Later on, at bedtime, Megan tried again. In the bathroom, toothbrush in hand she looked through the small circular mirror on the wall as though it was a porthole in the side of a submarine and the sea lay beyond. Megan was able to conjure up the sea beyond the glass, but when she tried to let her mind dissolve and re-form in the sea beyond the glass, she was unable to do so. It was like watching a natural history programme on the television. She felt a million miles away. When Megan was younger she believed that the television was like an actual window and that if you looked at it from one corner, you would see more of the scene that would be hidden than if you looked at it head on. The vision of sea disappeared again and all she could see was her own unhappy face looking back at her. Megan decided there and then that at least she would go down to the sea at first light the next morning to swim with Jet. When she was with him in real life like that, they could not speak to each other as they did when she reached out to him with her mind. She would not be able to explain to him that it suddenly felt hard to reach him. Yet at least she would be able to look into his eyes and feel the energy that passed from him to her and back again.

The next morning Megan was awake again at first light and crept out of the room that she shared in the cottage with Bethany, this time making sure that her younger sister did not follow her. She slipped her swimsuit on quickly but did not bother putting clothes on top, so eager was she to get to the sea. She ran quickly and lightly along the board walk that rose and fell as it followed the path of the dunes to the sea. There at last she saw the sea glittering in the early morning light. Megan scanned the water for the tell-tale sign of a dorsal fin, but there was none there.

Rather than wait and watch, Megan decided to plunge into the sea and swim out from the shore into the deeper water where it would be easier for Jet to approach her. She swam with the powerful confident strokes of an accomplished swimmer, but even though she got as far out as she dared on her own, Jet did not approach her. She stopped and started to tread, looking around her anxiously for signs of the friend who did not come.
Chapter Four:

Megan came back on to the shore and stood on the sand, shivering as she scanned the horizon one last time for any sign of Jet or the other dolphins in his pod. She looked at the sun. It must have been after half past seven by now and she knew she had to get back before Bethany, Mum and Dad woke up. Her parents liked to sleep in when they were on holiday, but Bethany always had been an early riser.

Megan felt confused and more than a little scared about what was happening between her and Jet. Why couldn't she stretch out to him like she was used to doing? Megan had grown to feel in control of her life and in her connection to dolphins. She'd worked hard to develop her skill and now it seemed no more solid than the sand that she was standing on. What was happening to her? She was already beginning to feel empty and alone. If Jet and the others disappeared from her life altogether, she didn't know how she could go on.

Megan walked slowly and sadly over the dunes back to the cottage. As she got close, Megan could see the curtains of upstairs flick back into place. Bethany was evidently already up and watching out for her from their bedroom window. Megan let herself back into the cottage as quietly as she could.

Just then Mum came downstairs into the cottage kitchen.

'You alright there love?' she asked her daughter. Megan nodded and looked away. The truth was that she felt numb inside, but didn't know how to tell her mother that. 'You don't look your normal self. You're not going down with something are you?' Mum continued.

As soon as Mum was up, Bethany bounded out of the bedroom and demanded breakfast, taking up all Mum's attention again. Then Dad got up and turned on the radio for the weather forecast and the news. Amidst the noise of family life, Megan was able to sit quietly and contemplate the awful prospect of never being able to reach Jet again.

Mum and Dad started to debate how to spend the day. Bethany said that she'd like to spend the morning peering into rock pools and looking for shells for her collection. She wanted to make a collage out of them. Ordinarily Megan would have enjoyed a day rock-pooling as well, but after the loneliness of staring out at the lapping waves, Megan wanted to get away from the sea. She said that she really wanted to spend the morning looking around Merwater on her own, and to her surprise, her parents agreed.

An hour and a half later they dropped her off in town near the small harbour, and drove off, with Bethany waving a fishing net on a bamboo pole out of the car window before the car turned the corner and disappeared. Megan looked around her. It was a quiet morning, but despite the early hour there was still a bustle in the harbour where fishermen were unloading their catch. Several vans were parked at the harbour's edge to take the fish to the train station for their onward journey to Billingsgate Market in London. Seagulls loitered optimistically in the vicinity, watching out for any discarded fish or entrails that they could snatch up.

Megan turned her back on the harbour and walked past the hardware shops and agricultural suppliers, and up into the main part of the high street where the butchers shop sat next to the prim haberdashery store. She turned left, off the main street and into the maze of roads that led up the hill at the back of the town.

Before long Megan found herself, as she knew she would, back in the cobbled yard where the second-hand book shop was. On the other side of the yard was a pub called the Drunken Owl, and next to the bookshop was another shop selling brown earthenware pottery which to Megan's eye looked rather misshapen. The bookshop itself was called Owl Books. There was the cat, Bilbo Baggins, asleep in the window as he had been the previous time she'd visited. Megan glanced at her watch. It was past ten o'clock now and according to the times pinned to the inside of the shop door, it should have been open for business ten minutes ago. But the 'closed' sign was still up and Megan thought she had no option but to wait until it opened. She wasn't brave enough to hammer on the door and demand that she be allowed in.

Megan turned and began to look in the pottery shop window to pass the time. It was all rather dusty in there and she wondered how many bowls and earthenware mugs they actually managed to sell. Just then Megan heard the bell above the door of the bookshop chime.

'Out you go Mr Baggins' she heard a voice say. 'Go and get some fresh air.' Megan saw the cat run across the yard, jump onto a windowsill and disappear through an open window into the pub opposite. Not much fresh air there, Megan thought to herself. She looked back at the source of the voice.

'Were you waiting for me to open up?' asked the lady standing at the door of the bookshop. She'd just flipped the sign around from 'closed' to 'open'. 'Eager readers, that's what I like to see!'

Megan had hoped to see the girl who'd been minding the shop the last time she was there, but this must be her mother, Megan thought.

'Do come in' beckoned the lady, and Megan duly obliged and entered the shop. 'Is there anything that you were particularly looking for?' she enquired brightly. Megan suddenly felt shy and shook her head.

'I just wanted to look around' she said, and made her way up one of the narrow aisles between the high bookcases. As Megan tried to appear inconspicuous, picking out random books to look at, there was a thudding sound at the back of the shop as though someone were running downstairs and a small door opened abruptly.

'Mum! Have you seen my trainers?' It was the girl who Megan had spoken to the other day and who she wanted to speak to now. The girl's head appeared round the door. 'I can't find them anywhere.' Megan looked up happily, but still nervous. She was less sure about what she wanted to say to the girl now, especially since the girl's mother was in the shop as well.

'Oh hello, how are you?' the girl said in a friendly tone when she saw Megan.

'You two know each other?' asked her mother.

'Yes, this is my friend, err...'

'Megan' cut in Megan, finishing the girl's sentence.

'Oh why didn't you say?' called her mother. 'You go right on up with Rachel.' Megan was happy to oblige, but she felt awkward doing so. Rachel was years older than she was, and had said that she was studying at University.

The staircase at the back of the shop was very tight, uncarpeted and its wooden walls were painted a pastel blue. They opened up on the first floor into a living room, again with wooden panelled walls painted the same delicate shade of blue. Several large flowers had been painted directly onto the walls. The floor was scattered with large Moroccan-looking cushions and a hookah water pipe sat in a corner by the window.

'My Mum's still a bit of a hippy you know. Come on, take a seat and tell me all about yourself.' They sat down on the oversized cushions on the floor and made themselves comfortable. Rachel soon coaxed out of Megan the fact that she was on holiday with her Mum and Dad and sister Bethany. Rachel said that she had just finished her first year at University, but was going to switch from sociology to study biology.

'So what is it you really want to ask me about?' Rachel laughed after they had chatted inconsequentially for a while. Megan felt awkward again.

'What do you mean?' she asked.

'It's written all over your face' replied Rachel. 'And besides, people normally come to bookshops to find things out. It's not unusual.'

'Well' replied Megan nervously. 'I want to know about the dolphins and people, I mean when they have a link between them.'

'I'm not sure I follow you' replied Rachel uncertainly.

'Some people have special links with dolphins, and can use their minds to communicate with them' said Megan, trying to be clear. Rachel's face showed that she was beginning to understand what Megan was talking about, and became quiet and serious.

'How do you know all this?' Rachel asked curiously.

'It's because I, well...' stammered Megan.

'Because you are one of them?' guessed Rachel, finishing Megan's sentence for her. Megan looked down at the ground, feeling uncomfortable. Rachel nodded to herself.

'Come on, let's go take a look at the books downstairs' she said. I know exactly where to start.'

There were a few people browsing the shelves in the shop when they went back downstairs again and they squeezed their way through to the till where Rachel's mother was absent-mindedly reading a book.

'Mum, we need the key to the glass cabinet' Rachel announced. Her mother looked up.

'Whatever for?' she asked.

'Megan here's asked a very interesting question, and we need to do a bit of research. You don't mind do you?'

Rachel's mother gave her daughter a questioning look, but handed over the key. Just next to the counter was a glass-fronted cabinet where the oldest and most expensive books were kept. Rachel turned the key to open the case with an assured hand and pulled out a slim, leather bound volume from one corner. She quickly relocked the cabinet, and gave the key back to her mother.

'This is what we want!' she told Megan. 'Let's go back upstairs and take a look.' Megan followed her back up the creaking stairs.

'Everyone round here knows the story of Susan Penhaligon, and how she led a group of children out into the stormy sea believing that they'd all turn into dolphins.' Megan nodded, pretending to have heard about the story too. 'But this journal that my Mum bought a couple of years ago in a house clearance sale tells us a bit more about these Dolphin Children' continued Rachel.

She opened up the journal. Megan craned over to take a look. It was closely written by someone in copperplate handwriting, that was as beautiful to look at as it was hard to read.

'It's the journal of a clergyman called Jeremiah Smith which he kept in the eighteen fifties I think.' Megan watched as Rachel squinted at the handwriting and stroked her chin, as if to help herself concentrate.

'Old Jeremiah Smith went round speaking to the country people and fisher-folk and writing down their stories' she went on. 'He was quite the social historian of his day. I've had a good look at this already and I wanted to take it with me to University but Mum says it's far too valuable and that she wants to sell it for at least fifty pounds.'

'Is there anything about dolphins in it?' asked Megan hesitantly. She was acutely aware that Rachel was years older than her and talk of life at University sounded incredibly glamorous and grown up in comparison to her life at secondary school.

'That's the thing, yes there is' replied Rachel thoughtfully. 'Let's see if we can find it.' Rachel started turning the pages carefully, looking for the right passage.

'Yes, here it is, look.' Rachel showed her the page towards the end of the journal but Megan had trouble reading the copperplate handwriting so Rachel read it out loud for her.

'Word has come to me of a young woman of the parish who is still a Dolphin-Child despite having attained the age of fifteen years. It is common in the district for a girl or boy to have what the locals call "the gift", but I have never heard tell before of a Dolphin-Child that retained the peculiar ability to communicate with dolphins beyond the age of twelve or thirteen. I interviewed this young woman but was quite unable to extract from her how it was that she had managed to retain the gift. She was quite evasive in her answers and evidently did not wish to divulge these matters to me. I sought to coax the answers from her with kind words and then bold entreaties, but to no avail. She asked to be excused and near fled down the street away from me. I was mightily intrigued by this encounter and was determined to learn more from one source or another if I could.'

'Does he say any more then?' asked Megan expectantly when Rachel paused and looked up.

'No, no he doesn't' Megan replied. 'I've read the remainder of the journal but it ends a month or two later without any further reference to Dolphin-Children. But it's clear he kept a journal over several years and he must have continued his records of local life in another volume. I've told Mum to keep her eyes peeled for any more of the journals of Jeremiah Smith but they haven't turned up yet.' Rachel could see that Megan looked crestfallen.

'You're twelve, going on thirteen aren't you Megan' Rachel asked, regarding her with a look of realisation in her eyes. 'I've an idea that this is not just of academic interest to you.'

Megan quietly shook her head. She felt so disappointed. She thought that the answer would be written there in the journal in black and white, but it only tantalised her and didn't answer anything. She looked up and glanced at the clock on the wall.

'I'd better get going' she said. 'My Mum and Dad will be picking me up in the car from the harbour in about twenty minutes.' Rachel looked concerned. Megan seemed so young and forlorn and she desperately wanted to learn more about Megan's gift and to do something to help.

'Look, let me go and do a bit of research. I'll speak to my mother. She knows all the people who collect antiquarian books in the neighbourhood and she might know someone who can help. Who knows what we can turn up with a bit of sleuthing?' Megan gave a small, sad smile.

'I'd like that. I'll see if I can get my parents to let me come back tomorrow or the day after.' Megan said her goodbyes to the older girl, and then hurried back through the town to the harbour.
Chapter Five:

The following evening Lucy sat cross-legged on her bed. She was trying to focus and relax. She'd borrowed a book from the school library about meditation and thought that it might help her reach out to Spirit again.

'What's that you're reading?' Dad asked at dinner time. 'You're not going to turn into a Buddhist are you, and go round in an orange sheet with a shaved head?' Lucy gave a guarded smile.

'Oh no, I just thought it would be, you know, interesting' she answered noncommittally, turning over the page as she spooned a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.

'You be careful' warned Dad, 'you're going to get tomato sauce all over that book if you don't watch out.' Lucy put her fork down; she didn't feel hungry anyway.

Up in her bedroom Lucy was desperate for the meditation methods in the book to work but the more she tried, the more difficult it seemed to get. Every time she tried to clear her head and relax, a whole slew of thoughts seemed to flood into her mind and distract her.

The book she had borrowed described a simple counting method for relaxing by counting down from nine to zero, then from eight to zero, and so on. The idea was that if you focused on the counting, you didn't let any other thoughts into your head. It simply didn't work for Lucy though. She just felt tense and nervous in the pit of her stomach.

Their form teacher Mr Baines had once asked the class what the first thing they thought of was if he said 'Don't think of an elephant.' Of course everyone had immediately thought of an elephant, even though he'd just told them not to. The more Lucy thought about not getting tense or worried, the more her thoughts crowded into her mind and the harder it got to stretch out to Spirit at all.

The worst thing though, was thinking that it wasn't just nerves preventing her from stretching out to Spirit, but something far worse than that. What if she really was just growing out of her gift as everyone seemed to think she was? She was determined to prove them wrong, but she simply didn't know how to start. If it really was happening, it would be as if half of her had died, she thought sadly.

'You look as if you've got the world on your shoulders' Mr Baines told her as they left his religious education class earlier that day. 'Whatever is the matter?' Lucy looked up.

'Oh nothing' was all she was able to say in a dull lifeless voice.

'Chin up!' he replied. 'No need to be so glum. No one's died have they?' Lucy shook her head slowly as she left the room, but it felt as if someone had.

At lunch time Lucy simply hadn't felt able to spend time with Amy, even though they were normally inseparable. It felt like nothing could shift her dark mood. Lucy realised that the change in her made Amy feel uncomfortable and that her friend didn't really understand what was going on in her head. It just seemed as though she simply couldn't bring herself to make the effort to be more positive.

Sitting there cross-legged on the bed trying to meditate, a mood of quiet desperation settled over her. Try as she might, she still could not find the portal between her conscious mind and the world of water. It used to feel so natural, so easy. Now it seemed impossible. What was the point of anything if she couldn't reach out to Spirit? Was this really what Dad wanted for her; a grey, empty, pointless life?

It had been difficult enough for her when Mum had died, but at least everyone knew what had happened and tried to be sympathetic. This time Lucy felt entirely alone and the sense of loss felt just as real.

Eventually Lucy gave up trying to focus her mind, and flung the meditation book onto the floor. She picked up her book 'The Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' that had mysteriously come through the post the other day. She flicked through it idly. Someone had sent it to her as a clue, but Lucy had no idea how to decipher it. Lucy looked at some of the notes that Mum had made when she was still a young girl, about the same age as Lucy was now.

'Jeremiah Smith' Mum had written in the margins at one point in the book, 'journal volume' it went on. Whatever did it mean? Lucy was too tired to think about it now.

She leant over to switch of her bedside lamp and turned on her side to sleep. Maybe she'd dream of Spirit once she dozed off. Her brain was wide awake though and she found herself staring up at the dark ceiling of her bedroom. She tried to imagine Spirit floating there in front of her. Then she attempted to bring Mum's face to mind. It worried Lucy that it was becoming harder and harder to remember Mum's face and voice. If it hadn't been for the video film and holiday photos that Dad had taken before Mum had died, perhaps she'd have forgotten entirely by now.

'Maybe everything fades into nothing in the end' Lucy thought despondently. Finally, Lucy's eyes fluttered closed, and she fell asleep.

Lucy's troubled mind seemed to wander from dream to restless dream. She dreamt of dolphins, but it wasn't the happy dream that she normally had of swimming with the pod, so vivid, it was as though she were really there. This was a grey dream of fleeting silhouettes that disappeared into nothingness. She dreamt of a girl with her face obscured by a bonnet looking at her. She felt as though the girl was concerned about her, though she couldn't say exactly why..

Her restless mind started dreaming about school, then the echoing swimming pool where she normally did her swimming practice. She dreamt that Ms Baldwin their sports teacher was shouting at her and that she was sinking through the pool as though it had no bottom and it just went down forever. It was like a big weight had been tied to her feet and was pulling her down into an endless chasm. In her dream she looked up through the water and saw faces peering down at her until she got so deep that they disappeared.

It was about three o'clock in the morning that she suddenly sat bolt-upright in bed, her heart racing. Her bed clothes were caught up in a tangle around her, damp with perspiration. Lucy looked around her in the dark, confused and disorientated, barely knowing where she was.

'Whatever is the matter?' cried Dad, bursting into her room in his pyjamas. 'You cried out so loudly I thought you were being kidnapped!' He switched on the light and came to the edge of her bed, anxiously looking into her face. Lucy crumpled into Dad's arms and started weeping in deep heavy sobs.

'Oh Dad, it was so horrible. I was dreaming about Mum. I...'

'There there' said Dad hugging her. 'It's all okay. You're awake now. Everything's alright.' Lucy clung to him for comfort as he perched on the edge of her bed, still crying into his arms.

'Come on' Dad said eventually. 'Let's go downstairs and get a mug of cocoa. Then you can tell me all about it.' He took Lucy's hand as she climbed out of bed.

'Here's your dressing gown. We don't want you to get cold now do we?' Downstairs Lucy sat on the sofa in the darkened living room, wiping away her tears with a piece of kitchen roll while Dad made cocoa in the kitchen. A couple of minutes later he brought through two steaming mugs and handed one to Lucy. She cupped it in her hands and then took a sip of the hot milky drink.

'What was this dream of yours all about then huh?' Dad asked.

'It was about Mum' Lucy replied, sniffing. 'First of all I was swimming with her in the sea on holiday, laughing and playing. Then she was all alone in a car. It was dark and cold and it was raining.' Dad gave Lucy's shoulders a squeeze with his arm.

'I think I know where this is going' he said quietly.

'It rained so hard I couldn't see her anymore. I was scared and I tried to grab her, even though I wasn't there in my dream but looking in from the outside.' Lucy blew her nose again.

'Then the dream got darker and suddenly there was a huge bang' she continued.

'That must have been when you shouted out in your sleep' commented Dad.

'What did I say Dad?' asked Lucy.

'Oh you just shouted 'No!' really loudly. Then you shouted 'Come back!' Lucy nodded, though she couldn't remember what she'd said.

'After that everything went pitch black, and I felt like I was buried alive in a coffin. Then you came into the room and I realised I was awake.'

'Oh Lucy' Dad exclaimed sadly, giving her shoulders another squeeze. 'That sounds like a terrible dream. I'm so sorry.'

'Tell me again how Mum died' asked Lucy. Dad glanced looked down at his mug for a long moment, before looking back at her again.'

'You know the story Luce' he said quietly. 'You don't need me to tell it to you again do you?'

'Yes' she said simply. Dad looked up at the ceiling, as if he were afraid to catch her eye.

'Like I told you' Dad replied. 'Mum was away on business, miles from here, driving home in a hire car. Visibility was bad and the car on the other side swayed across and clipped Mum's car. She crashed into a wall and was killed instantly.' Dad's arm around her shoulders went limp. Lucy had heard the story before and knew exactly what Dad was going to say, but somehow she wanted to hear him say it again.

'What was she away for?' Lucy asked. Dad continued to stare up at the ceiling. Lucy looked up at his face, but he would not return her gaze.

'Oh you know, work stuff' he replied awkwardly as if he wanted to change the subject. 'I don't know.' He looked down rapidly at his mug again and then took another swig of cocoa. He put the mug down on the floor next to Lucy's feet and gave her shoulders another squeeze, still avoiding eye contact with her.

'I know it's terrible' he said. 'There's not a day that passes when I don't think about Mum. I miss her so terribly, just like you do. I wish that she hadn't been stolen away from us like she was. She was only thirty six you know. She was so young really.' Dad stroked Lucy's hair thoughtfully.

'You know you remind me so much of Mum' he continued. 'You look so much like her and you've both got the same independent spirit. You're all I've got now Luce. That's why I want to look after you.'

Lucy nestled into Dad's arm, but there was something about what he said, or the way that he said it, that did not feel right. She just couldn't say what made her think that though.

'Why were there so few people at the funeral?' Lucy asked. 'Mum knew lots of people.'

'Oh I know Luce, Mum was very well-liked, but I just wanted to keep it an intimate affair, just family you see?' Lucy nodded.

'Do they report car crashes on the news?' she asked.

'Oh sometimes they do, but there are so many car accidents that mostly they don't bother. It might have been on the local news I suppose, but like I said, it was miles away where the accident happened.

They continued to sip their cocoa quietly in the dark for a few minutes, until Lucy's mug was empty.

'Come on then' said Dad eventually. 'Let's get you back to bed.' They went upstairs and Dad straightened out her duvet and sheets for her before Lucy got back into bed. Dad bent over to give her a soft kiss on the forehead.

'Sleep tight then Lucy' he said softly. He plugged in the night light that Lucy used to have on when she was younger and pulled the door quietly closed behind him.

Lucy stared up at the ceiling, an uneasy feeling nagging at her mind. Then she realised. Just now Dad had said that Mum had been driving home from a business trip. Last time he'd told her that Mum had been going to a business meeting.

Lucy felt tired the next morning after her broken nights' sleep. Her nightmare about Mum had disturbed her and she felt almost guilty that she harboured doubts about what Dad had told her about how Mum had died. Why would he lie to her about something so important? No, she must be mistaken, she thought. Yet despite that, something still didn't feel right. At some point in the night she dreamt about a girl in a bonnet and old fashioned dress whose face was just out of view. Try as she might she could not seem to see her properly.

'Are you feeling better this morning Lucy?' Dad asked sympathetically over a hurried bowl of cereals. He shot her a shy, almost vulnerable smile. She'd have liked to tell him that everything felt fine now, but in fact she felt desolate and empty inside. Lucy just nodded and glanced back down at her cornflakes.

'You'll be alright Luce' said Dad, patting her arm companionably, 'you'll see. Mum would be proud of you if she could see you now.'

Did Dad know that she hadn't been able to stretch out to Spirit for over a week now? Lucy certainly hadn't told him but maybe he'd guessed. Maybe Thelma had told him that this was the age at which the gift left Dolphin-Children. Maybe he knew that her life was just about to change for the worse. Maybe...maybe. Lucy frowned to herself as she walked up the road to school.

'What's up Lucy?' asked Amy, appearing by her side.

'Oh hi Amy' she replied, 'I didn't see you there'.

'My dad would say you were in a world of your own' Amy replied. 'You seem so sad. I wish there was something I could do to help.' Lucy tried to smile.

'I think I've lost Spirit' replied Lucy simply. 'And the others.'

'Oh no that's terrible' replied Amy, sounding shocked.

'So what are you going to do then?' Amy asked her. Lucy shrugged.

'I don't know. I don't know what I can do' Lucy replied. 'The only thing is..., well you know that book, the 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' that someone sent me in the post. I just can't help thinking that it's a clue somehow, and if only I could figure it out, it'd help me with Spirit.'

'Well you've got to tell Mrs Penhaligon' said Amy firmly. 'She's from Cornwall, and she knows that you're a Dolphin-Child doesn't she?' Lucy nodded. 'If anyone can help you figure out the clues, she can.'

'I've got the book in my bag' said Lucy. 'I'll try and speak to her after English at the first break.'

When Lucy and Amy had both started Secondary School, it had seemed so massive and unwelcoming with hordes of children streaming about in all directions. Now that Lucy knew where everything was and who all the teachers were, it didn't seem so bad. In September she'd had to help the new kids wandering around who looked so lost. It was funny to think that she'd been just like that the year before. Now the school looked much smaller. Lucy thought about what Spirit had said recently. Lucy had been able to project into his mind what school looked like. He had been horrified by the smallness of it all.

'There's barely enough space to turn!' he exclaimed. 'One flick of my tail flukes and I'd hit my beak on the wall' he continued. 'I don't know how humans manage to live in such miniscule boxes. I'd go mad if I was stuck in such a tiny space.' Lucy thought about Star-Gazer being trapped in the muddy lagoon by Mr and Mrs Penrose. They thought that they were protecting her while she was getting better. Instead Star-Gazer had become desperately lonely and unwell. Lucy liked to view her life as a school girl through the eyes of a dolphin and imagine her classroom filling up with sea water and a dolphin swimming in through the window.

'But you have no freedom at all' Spirit said to her another time when they were discussing her life at school.

'We go to school to learn the things that we need to know so that we can be free when we grow up' she'd tried to explain.

'Then you have to get one of those job things you told me about and you told me that in a job you have to work eight hours a day doing what someone else tells you. You have to pay to live in one of those tiny boxes. It seems to me that you're not free at all' Spirit went on, shaking his head in wonder.

It was very hard for Lucy to explain how human society worked. Despite what Spirit said though, she didn't like to think about the alternative. She couldn't sleep in a field in the way that Spirit could float on the surface of the wide open sea at night. He might call houses 'tiny boxes', but they were warm, safe and dry and she found them comforting.

'You humans are all so frail!' Spirit had exclaimed another time. 'It's amazing that any of you survive at all'.

Lucy didn't have Eng Lit at all that day and had no reason to go and speak to Mrs Penhaligon. She felt awkward as she sidled round the door of the classroom as the remains of Mrs Penhaligon's class streamed out at first break. Mrs Penhaligon was stacking books when she glanced round and saw Lucy standing there.

'Ah Lucy. How are you today?' Lucy tried to put on a brave face.

'Alright I suppose' Lucy replied.

'In other words not really' Mrs Penhaligon observed. 'Have you been able to talk to your aunt or your dad yet?' Lucy shook her head.

'No, no I haven't' she replied, 'but this came in the post.' Lucy held out the copy of the 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast.'

'Whatever is this?' asked Mrs Penhaligon, taking it from her hand curiously and examining the cover.

'Like I said, it came in the post but I've no idea who sent it. It used to belong to my Mum though. Her handwriting is all over the margins where she's made notes. There's, there's something I want to ask you. I don't know what the notes mean. Do you for example know who Jeremiah Smith is? Look it says 'Jeremiah Smith'. 'Third journal.' What do you think that might mean?'

'Well as it happens' replied Mrs Penhaligon, 'you're in luck. I do know who the Reverend Jeremiah Smith was.'

'You do, who was he?'

'He was the rector of the church at the end of Bussey Lane. You know where that is don't you? Just on the edge of Merwater. He was quite a well known man in the area in the Eighteen Fifties. He recorded the folk tales and stories from all over Cornwall. He published several accounts of the folklore he came across. He was also a keen naturalist and corresponded with such luminaries as Charles Darwin. They talked about turning the rectory where he lived into a folk museum a few years ago. I think they tried to raise the money but it didn't quite happen.'

'Did he write about dolphins?' Lucy asked enthusiastically.

'Now that I don't know' replied Mrs Penhaligon

'Do you have his book then? Is it in the school library?' Mrs Penhaligon laughed.

'No it's not the kind of thing you'd find in our school library. Maybe in the local history section in the Merwater or Truro library or a university perhaps.

'So I couldn't order it online?' Mrs Penhaligon chuckled again.

'It's not that kind of a book. It will have been out of print for decades and if you did find a copy, it would cost hundreds of pounds. Besides, your Mum is writing about his journal, not his published works.

'What would his journal be then?' Lucy asked.

'Well I suppose it's what he wrote his notes in as he went round the countryside. That seems to be what your Mum was on about. There must be something particularly significant in his third journal.' Mrs Penhaligon glanced up at the clock. She handed back the book. Break will be finished soon. I'd better get ready for my next lesson.' She looked back at Lucy. 'Come back though and we'll see what we can find out. I like a challenge.'

At lunch time Lucy had swimming practice. The public swimming pool was right next door to the school. Lucy's sports teacher Miss Baldwin was committed to build up the swimming squad and thought that Lucy could win medals for the school if she put in the training. Lucy was a keen swimmer and loved ploughing up and down the pool whenever she could, working on her stroke. Dad had been set against her doing swimming practice last year, but since September he didn't seem concerned about it all. If anything, he encouraged it now. 'It's because now he thinks I'll lose my gift anyway, it doesn't matter if I'm good at swimming' she thought grimly as she walked over to the pool.

The swimming pool was a bit run down. The walls of the changing room were tiled but several had fallen off and the paint of the steel window frames was peeling. The occasional ant wandered along the grouting between the tiles in search of discarded sweets. Still, Lucy felt at home here. For her, it was a refuge from the worries of the day.

Just before the school had use of the pool at twelve thirty, there was a session for the over sixty-fives. It made Lucy smile to see the elderly ladies moving slowly and sedately through the water. The school children were so raucous and energetic in comparison. The elderly ladies reminded Lucy of the manatees, or sea cows she had seen in a programme about the wildlife of Florida on the TV. She was so lithe and supple in the water in comparison; well a little like a dolphin she supposed.

'Good to see you Lucy' Miss Baldwin said briskly. 'Get changed quickly, we're going to be working on diving today.' Lucy was soon in her swimsuit and swimming cap and at the deep end of the pool. A group of younger kids were doing widths under the supervision of a couple of sixth formers at the other end of the pool. At the deep end though there were only five of the more advanced swimmers under Miss Baldwin's tutelage. The pool echoed with the noise of the boisterous children at the other end.

Lucy was used to diving in to the pool to start swimming a length and felt that she was able to slice into the pool quite cleanly when she dived. That wasn't what Ms Baldwin wanted to teach them today though.

'Okay team' said Miss Baldwin, clapping her hands to get their attention. She was wearing shorts and a polo shirt and she had a look in her eye that suggested that she was going to work them hard this lunchtime. 'There are basically four positions in diving. There's straight, which is when you keep your body in a fluid line. There's pike, what's that Mark?' she asked, looking at the boy next to Lucy.

'That's when you bend your body at the hips Miss' he replied.

'Good. Yes, you bend at the hips but not at the knees. Then there's tuck which is when you bunch your body up tightly with your hands on your lower legs and there's free diving. Give me an example of free diving Lucy.'

'That's for twisting dives and combinations of positions Miss Baldwin' replied Lucy promptly.

'But we're going to be practicing the backwards dive today. You stand at the edge looking away from the pool like so' Miss Baldwin continued, demonstrating to the five children. 'Keep your arms tight at your side while you bend your knees. Then you spring up and push off, so that when you strike the water you're looking into the middle of the pool with your arms stretched in front of your head. Mark, I know you're familiar with this already. Would you like to give us a demonstration?'

Mark was pleased to oblige and performed an elegant back-flip, slicing into the water before swimming to the edge again and pulling himself out.

'Good Mark' Miss Baldwin went on. 'Of course you've got to be absolutely certain that there's no one in your path and that you push yourself away from the edge of the pool. Right, lets all have a go shall we?'

The five children all took it in turns to flip backwards with varying degrees of success. When it was Lucy's turn she was aware that she did not strike the pool very cleanly and that she twisted a little when she came down. As she plunged in backwards and the water boiled up into her eyes and face, she half expected Spirit to swim up to her, and instinctively looked around to see where he was. Instead all she could see was the light playing on the surface and all she could hear were the muffled yells of the children above. She swam over to the edge. Swimming practice just reminded her of Spirit and the thought that she might not see him again overwhelmed her.

'That was a bit of a messy dive Lucy' remarked Miss Baldwin as Lucy pulled herself out. 'Let's have another go shall we? Remember, you need to spring up and arc over without twisting. Lets have another look at Mark.' Lucy was stronger than Mark on the front-crawl but he was an undeniably better diver than she was. Ordinarily Lucy would have watched with interest but today she just couldn't seem to focus on what he was doing.

'Right, your turn' continued Miss Baldwin. 'Off you go.'

Lucy took her position at the edge of the pool, looking back at the wall. With her arms straight at her side she bent at the knees ready to spring up and back. 'Just spring up and get it over and done with' she thought to herself. 'The lesson will be over soon.' Lucy sprang up but even as she did so, she imagined Spirit and Dancer and the perfect leaps they took from the water and wondered whether she would ever see them again.

Lucy leapt up but not back away from the edge and somehow forgot to put her arms up straight over her head. She turned in the air and crashed back down on the ledge just under the water-line. There was a sickening crack as her head struck the tiles and her world turned black as she crumpled into the water.

Chapter Six:

The sunshine crept round the curtains of the bedroom where Bethany and Megan lay sleeping. The light seemed particularly bright and Bethany tried to bury her face in her pillow. The light penetrated pinkly through her closed eyelids. She opened one eye briefly to the light before closing it again. Then she squinted with the other eye. It looked as though Megan was already awake. Her older sister was sitting cross-legged on her bed writing something in a book with a pencil. Then Bethany pulled the sheet over her head in the hope that that it would block out the rays of sunshine penetrating the room. Instead the thin cotton sheet seemed to make no difference.

'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!'

Minutes crept by before the ambulance crew reached them and swimming was abandoned as the cloud of watery blood spread out from the edge of the pool. Other members of the pool staff appeared with bandages to quench the flow and towels to keep Lucy warm. The children were ushered away. Lucy lay inertly at the edge of the pool, looking very still and very small.

Eventually Miss Baldwin heard the siren of the ambulance as it drew up outside. The crew came in and Miss Baldwin was relieved to be able to step back and let the professionals take over. The ambulance crew put a temporary dressing on the wound and soon transferred Lucy onto a stretcher.

At the entrance of the pool a small crowd of children had gathered.

'Is she alright?' called out Amy as she strained to peer over the heads in front of her. 'She's my friend. Can I come with her in the ambulance?' The still-dripping Miss Baldwin walked next to Lucy's stretcher.

'No Amy' she replied. 'Mr Baines is going to go with Lucy to the hospital.' Amy glanced round. There was Mr Baines wheezing his way through the throng. 'I'm going to the school office to get her dad on the phone and tell him what's happened' Ms Baldwin added.

A few moments later the doors of the ambulance clunked shut and it moved off slowly through the car park to the road, its lights still flashing. The small crowd of children dispersed as they realised that the lunch break had finished ten minutes ago and that they were late for their lessons. Amy was left there standing alone. 'Please make her be alright' she muttered to herself.

It took Dad over an hour to drive to the hospital. Miss Baldwin had gone straight to the school office where the contact details of parents were kept. She'd dripped her way along the corridors past surprised pupils and teachers. She'd been shocked by what had happened to Lucy. It was her responsibility to keep the children at the swimming pool safe and she felt as though she'd let Lucy down somehow. The truth was though that it was one of those freak accidents that could have happened to anyone.

'Hello, Mr Parr?' she'd said hesitantly when Dad had answered his mobile phone. She was just relieved that it hadn't gone straight through to voicemail.

'This is Miss Baldwin. There's been an accident at school I'm afraid. Lucy had a nasty knock to her head at the swimming pool and has been taken to hospital.'

'Oh no!' exclaimed Dad. She could hear the shock in his voice. 'Is she alright?'

'Well she lost consciousness. I don't know how she is now. Mr Baines went with her to the hospital in the ambulance about five minutes ago. I came straight to the office to call you.'

'Of course' replied Dad. Miss Baines knew that he wasn't keen on Lucy swimming and wondered if he would get angry with her. Instead, all he said was that he'd come straight away. They rang off, and as she did so she felt her legs go weak and wobbly. She sat down heavily and wetly on one of the office chairs.

'Are you okay?' asked one of the administrators in a concerned tone. 'You look as white as a sheet.'

Dad's heart was still pounding uncomfortably as he drove into the hospital car park. The traffic had been bad and it had taken him longer than he thought to get there. He'd longed to put his foot down and speed along the motorway but the cars had been bumper to bumper. Miss Baldwin hadn't called again and he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. One minute he imagined that Lucy would be sitting up in bed smiling with a bandage round her head. The next minute he imagined finding her as a pale lifeless form on a mortuary slab. Even finding a parking spot proved difficult but eventually he was able to squeeze into a tight space and clambered out of the car.

Dad ran across the car park and up the ramp to the entrance of Accident and Emergency. Precious minutes were wasted as he spoke to the administrators to find out exactly where Lucy was. Eventually a nurse ushered Dad through to a room of four beds where Lucy was curtained off from the rest by the window.

Mr Baines was sitting next to Lucy holding her hand while a nurse was checking the monitors.

'Mr Parr, thank goodness you're here!' exclaimed Mr Baines as Dad came through the curtain. Lucy looked rather small in the big hospital bed. They'd cut away her swimsuit and put her in a hospital gown. She had various sensors fitted to her body and the monitor beeped regularly as it charted her pulse, blood pressure and other indicators that Dad didn't understand. Her face was deathly white but it looked as though she was merely asleep.

'She's still unconscious' said the nurse anticipating Dad's question.

'But will she be okay?' Dad asked anxiously.

'Mr Parr, she's had a very nasty knock to the head but as far as we can tell her condition's quite stable. There's no immediate risk of her deteriorating. We need to do some more tests though. I'll get the doctor to come and speak to you.' The nurse bustled away.

'You sit down here next to Lucy' said Mr Baines getting up. Dad gratefully sat down and took Lucy's hand.

'Come on Lucy' Dad murmured squeezing her hand. 'Just wake up and give me a smile!' He turned to Mr Baines. 'How did it happen?' Mr Baines knew barely any more than Dad did, but he said what he could. The doctor appeared around the curtain. She seemed incredibly young to Dad.

'How's she doing doctor?' he asked. The doctor took her time to look at Lucy's chart. She felt Lucy's pulse, even though her heart rate was on the monitor. The doctor took a small pen-torch out of the pocket of her white coat and gently pulled up one of Lucy's eyelids and shone the torch into her eye briefly, before letting it close again. The doctor turned to look at Dad.

'Well it's a serious case of concussion' replied the doctor eventually. 'In the majority of cases we'd have expected the patient to have regained consciousness by now. Sometimes these things happen quickly, but occasionally it takes hours before the patient comes round. We've got to check for potential problems like swelling to the brain or internal bleeding and so we're going to take her for a scan in a few minutes when a machine becomes available. Hopefully nothing will show up, but you never know.'

'Can I come too when she goes for the scan?' asked Dad. Now that he was here he didn't want to lose sight of Lucy. The doctor smiled understandingly.

'Of course you can Mr Parr. Try not to worry, we're doing everything we can and she's in the right place' she said reassuringly. She glanced at her watch. 'I'll be back in a few minutes.' She disappeared behind the curtain again. Dad cupped Lucy's small hand in his and looked into her pale face anxiously.

'Maybe I should leave you now' said Mr Baines quietly. 'May I phone you on your mobile to find out how she is?' Dad nodded.

A few minutes after Mr Baines had gone, the nurse came with the porter.

'Alright, let's get this young lady down to the scanner room.' The nurse removed the sensors from Lucy's skin.

'Is it safe to take those off?' asked Dad hesitantly.

'Well they can't very well go in the scanner with her can they?' replied the nurse. 'We'll soon have her back on the ward.' They wheeled Lucy's bed down the long featureless corridor. At the end was a set of swing doors that led through to the scanning suite. There was the massive white tube-like machine that Dad recognised from medical dramas and documentaries. A couple of nurses carefully moved Lucy from the bed onto the scanner bed, which Dad knew would slide into the machine, engulfing Lucy in its magnetic coils. 'MRI' thought Dad, 'magnetic resonance machine. That's what they're called.'

'I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the room Mr Parr' said the nurse in a formal tone. 'Unauthorised personnel are not permitted to remain in the area while the MRI is functioning' she went on. 'It isn't safe. Please, come this way.'

Dad allowed himself to be led out of the room. He glanced back at Lucy lying so still in the mouth of the great white machine. They'd only been at home having breakfast that morning, barely six hours ago. Now here she was unconscious in a hospital examination room. It didn't seem real. The door closed behind him.

Fifteen minutes later the door swung open again as the porter and the nurse wheeled Lucy out on her bed back in the direction of Accident & Emergency.

'Well, what's the verdict?' asked Dad anxiously. The nurse's face revealed nothing.

'The doctor will get the results through on the computer in about half an hour's time' she replied. 'We'll get your daughter back to the ward and you can speak to the doctor there okay?' Dad had no choice but to comply. Minutes crept by as Dad waited for the doctor to reappear. Dad sat there by the bed holding Lucy's hand, wishing he knew what was going on.

Eventually the young doctor came through the curtain. She looked tired.

'I'm pleased to tell you Mr Parr that there's no sign of any significant swelling on the brain or bleeding. The MRI scan showed no sign of brain damage either.' Dad let out a sigh of relief.

'I can't tell you how good it is to hear that' he replied, smiling. The doctor paused a moment before continuing.

'In fact electrical activity on the brain was high; more consistent with consciousness than the patterns you might expect if your daughter were, say, merely dreaming in her sleep. I have to say it's unusual...'

'But it's good news isn't it?' asked Dad. The doctor paused a moment longer and then smiled.

'It should be' she replied. 'It should be. It seems that Lucy's free from any immediate risk. We'll admit her to the general ward and keep a close eye on her. Now it's just a matter of waiting for your daughter to come round. Let's hope it's soon, huh?' The young doctor flashed Dad another smile and then disappeared round the curtain again.

Chapter Seven:

Megan ran back to the holiday cottage, desperate not to let other holiday-makers see her tear-stained face. She turned over the stone by the back door and picked up the spare key to the cottage where Mum had hidden it. She let herself in and went up to the girl's bedroom. Megan changed quickly into her flared jeans and a tee shirt. She threw her purse into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. A few minutes later she was walking up the lane to the main road and the bus stop. She didn't care what Mum and Dad said. She was going in to Merwater on her own and they weren't going to stop her. Just for once the Green-Line bus came more quickly than she expected and soon she was sitting at the back with the another passenger looking over the hedges at the fields beyond.

Megan wondered what she would do when the bus pulled into Merwater. She wanted to go straight over to Rachel's. On the other hand she'd like to show the older girl that she'd found out something for herself. Megan decided to go to the town library first. There was bound to be something in the local history section about Jeremiah Smith or about dolphin children. The trouble was she wasn't even exactly sure where the library was. She'd have to ask when she got off the bus.

The bus wound its way along the country lanes. Megan felt rebellious at going off on her own without Mum and Dad's permission, but she had left a note saying where she was going and she was used to taking the bus to and from school on her own when they were back home.

Half an hour later Megan found herself standing outside the town library. The Victorian building had a dilapidated air about it. The roof was stained with bird droppings, the gutters sagged and a seagull stood on a ledge above the entrance sign looking down at her with a disapproving eye. She was slightly afraid it would swoop down on her, but the bird left her alone. Walking inside, she noticed a dry, slightly musty smell. It was almost like the nineteen seventies hadn't arrived there at all.

Megan went up to dark wooden card index cabinet with its rows of small neat drawers containing endless index cards cataloguing the contents of the library. She didn't understand the Dewey Decimal system though and soon despaired of finding the right book at all. She felt shy about asking the librarian for help and opted to wander up and down the bookshelves in the hope of chancing upon the right section. Her footsteps seemed particularly loud as she walked up and down. The only other people there seemed almost as dry and musty as the library itself.

Eventually Megan found the local history section and stooped to scan the shelves. She'd half imagined finding a neat row of all Jeremiah Smith's other journals, but of course there was nothing of the kind. There didn't even seem to be anything about him at all. There was certainly nothing about dolphin-children. After half an hour of peering at book spines and leafing through indexes, Megan gave up. She looked up and wondered about asking a librarian. Perhaps they had a special section under lock and key like they did at the bookshop.

Megan approached the counter by the entrance. Just as she got close Megan noticed a trolley piled up with old and tattered books. It had a sign on top written in biro which said 'Old stock for sale. Tuppence each.' The librarian was busy talking to someone and while she waited Megan, glanced idly at the pile of books. They were obviously throwing out the old and worn out books that no one wanted to read anymore. There, amongst books with split spines and torn pages she found a dust cover that had become detached from the actual book on which was written 'A description of the Lives of the Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall' by Jeremiah Smith. Megan desperately hunted for the book that corresponded to the dust jacket she had just found. All she could find was half the book. The last hundred pages or so and index seemed nowhere to be found.

Megan felt a knot of excitement in the pit of her stomach. She took the dust cover and the remaining half of the book up to the counter and offered the librarian two pence in payment.

'You don't want to waste your money on that' said the middle-aged lady sympathetically. 'That should have been thrown out with the rubbish.'

'No really I do' replied Megan, worried suddenly that the librarian would not allow her to buy it.

'Well you can just have that one if you really want it' the librarian went on. 'It's certainly not worth tuppence.'

Delighted, Megan took her prize outside into the sunshine. There was a bench just across the road and Megan sat down to read. The Reverend Jeremiah Smith had written his book sometime in the mid-nineteenth century but Megan seemed to have a reprint from the early nineteen fifties. The words were crowded close together on the pages which were yellowed and dusty. There was no index to consult because that was in the missing part of the book and the chapter titles gave little clue as to where she could find out about dolphin-children because they simply referred to different towns or villages in the county. All Megan could do was to leaf through the book and hope that she would spot something interesting. She found the style of writing old fashioned and stuffy.

Flicking through, Megan came across the chapter concerning Merwater towards the back.

'I will now record the accounts of dolphins and their strange connection with the inhabitants of Merwater. Though having the appearance of fish, dolphins are mammals and must breathe air if they are to survive. They may remain submersed in the sea for several minutes, however observations suggest that they must resurface again to take in air through their blow hole.

Several fishermen of the parish claim that in the time of their great-grandfathers, dolphin and fishermen alike cooperated together. It is said that the fishermen would arrange their nets in the shallow waters of a cove named Coxcomb Reach at low tide. I interrogated a retired mariner by the name of Tobias Griffin, a grizzled fellow with neither teeth nor hair. He claimed quite resolutely that the dolphins would drive shoals of herring from the high sea into Coxcomb Reach, whereupon the people from the cottages along the Reach would lift up their nets and trap the herring in the shallow waters, from which point they could easily be gathered in. He claimed that the fisher-folk would return a fifth of the catch to the waiting dolphins and that by this method both parties gained mutual benefit from this unusual practice.

I challenged Mariner Griffin's account, asking how these sea creatures and man could possibly reach such an accord. He said that he did not know but that this had occurred for several generations until the land behind Coxcomb Reach was enclosed and the cottages cleared to make way for farming. He claimed that this ancient knowledge was lost when the cottage folk were dispersed.

I considered it to be clearly fanciful to suggest that one of God's creatures from the sea could communicate with humans in this manner. However this is not the only account of cooperation between man and this beast of the waves.There are many rhymes handed down from parent to child within the parish that attest to such a link. One such rhyme, the origin of which appears lost, is told as follows:

The dolphin shall come from May to September

Then you my sweetheart will be all I remember;

Come away back from your home on the waves

And stand by my side as I weep at your grave

There are several accounts of children falling under the thrall of dolphins. A boy named Arthur Trescothick is said to have swum with dolphins regularly until his twelfth year. According to accounts a girl by the name of Mary Glendow and three dolphins saved eight men from rocks of Widows Point when their vessel foundered and sank in a storm in the year eighteen nineteen. She continued to swim with dolphins until her thirteenth year when the muse left her. A Gideon Belcher was last sighted aged ten on the back of a dolphin and never returned to his family. He is said to have disappeared two years before my arrival in this parish in eighteen forty five. In the celebrated story of Susan Penhaligon, which I shall return to in the next chapter, this young girl led a group of her equally juvenile but deluded followers to a watery grave.

The common factor in such accounts is that when the association with dolphins did not lose the child its life, dolphins ceased to have any hold over children by their twelfth or thirteenth year.

The clergy of the local parishes preach against such unnatural infatuations from their pulpits and strive to stamp out these last vestiges of superstition and ungodly ways. However it is said that in every generation of children from Merwater there will be at least two so-called 'Children of the Mer', or 'Dolphin-Children' and the stories still persist to the present day.'

Megan looked up from the yellowed page. 'That's what I am' she thought to herself. She returned to the book.

'I have determined to trace and interview a dolphin-child myself however whether by dint of my calling or because of a natural reticence of the parishioners, my quest has so far proved unsuccessful....'

Megan turned over the page to read on, but found to her dismay that several pages had fallen out and the next page that she came to was a description of local folk songs. She continued to flick back and forth through the book but Megan could find no other references to dolphins. Even as she did so more pages came loose from the spine and she had to bend down to pick up a couple that had fluttered down to the ground beneath her. The remnants of the book were literally falling apart in her hands as she looked at it.

It was tantalising to sit there holding the Reverend Jeremiah Smith's book, yet Megan felt that its discovery was of very little help to her. This book was evidently written and published before the Reverend had found out anything about the girl who retained her gift as a dolphin-child into her fifteenth year, as he had mentioned in his journal. If he found out anything more it was certainly not recorded here. Megan passed half an hour making notes in her diary until, glancing up she realised that the bench she was sitting on would soon slip into shadow.

There was one respect in which reading the Reverend Smith's book really struck her though; she was not alone. There had clearly been many Dolphin-Children over the years and he had written that one or two were born in each generation. To know that other children had experienced the same joy as her comforted Megan; yet knowing that they all lost their gift did not. She needed to find out what was the secret of that fifteen year old girl all those decades ago. Megan sat there, staring at the open page of her book as if by doing so she would suddenly receive inspiration.

'Oh hi there Megan' came a voice above her head. Megan looked up from the page she had been looking at. Looking down at her was the friendly smiling face of Rachel, the girl from Owl Books. 'What are you up to then?' she asked.

It was a green windswept sea that the pod swam in that morning. Spray was blown up from the restless waves which ran with foamed tips towards the distant shore.

'Strange weather' observed Storm as they swam along. 'I sense that something is going to happen, but I simply cannot say what it might be.'

Everyone in the pod felt unsettled and there was a sense of disquiet within the small group. They lapsed into silence. Only Summer sang comforting words to her calf No-Name, who though bigger, was still an infant at his mothers' side. Eventually the winds calmed, and the pod rested awhile.

'Do you ever wonder what it's like to be on land?' Dancer asked Spirit thoughtfully. Spirit was only half surprised by the question.

'You're thinking about Lucy again aren't you?' he replied. Dancer nodded. 'Yes I often try to imagine what living on the land must be like' Spirit continued, 'you know when you swim over a shallow sea bed near the shore, and you see a crab scuttling along the sand from one rock to the next? Well I imagine that humans scuttle over land in the same way that crabs scuttle over the sand.'

'It would be funny if humans walked along sideways like crabs do' laughed Dancer.

'Once I had a dream that I was floating in the air above the land and looking down on the greenness below over the, you know, trees and things. I saw the long black paths that humans like to follow and those metal things that they like to travel in. It felt so strange, I was glad when I woke up again.'

'What are you two up to?' asked Star-Gazer swimming up to them. Spirit turned to face her.

'Oh just talking about dreams and things' Spirit replied. Spirit had a strange feeling that ever since his mother had returned to them, she had been both happy and sad at the same time. It wasn't the same as before she had been taken away from them. He could not turn back time though. 'What do you dream about?' he asked her.

'You know me' she replied. 'I dream about swimming between the stars and chasing meteors back to the earth. I dream about you when you were just a newly born calf. I look at Summer and No-Name and all those memories come flooding back to me.'

They talked for a while longer and then Star-Gazer swam back over to Summer to chat to her.

It was then that Spirit felt a strange sensation run through his body. Dancer felt it too. It was a feeling that he thought he was beginning to forget. As they both watched, the swirls and eddies of the current seemed to coalesce into a human form, then before they knew it, there was Lucy floating in the water in front of them.

'Lucy!' called Spirit happily. 'It's so good to see you.' Lucy turned her head slowly to look at them both.

'Hello Spirit, hello Dancer' she smiled. Spirit looked at Lucy. She had come to them as an apparition, but her body was encased in a dark blue swim suit but her arms and legs were pink and bare. Her loose hair floated around her in a cloud.

'How are you Lucy?' asked Spirit. 'I've missed you.' Lucy looked around her with a distracted air.

'I don't really know how I am' she replied absently. 'I was in the swimming pool .... Then I was here...' Lucy trailed off. Spirit didn't understand.

'What do you mean Lucy? What brought you here this time? It's been so long.' Spirit knew that when she came to him normally, Lucy glided along in a very purposeful way. This time Lucy was just hanging there in the water and she hardly seemed to know what she was doing with her arms and legs.

'Spirit' whispered Dancer. 'She's sinking.' Dancer was right. As they watched, Spirit could see that Lucy was starting to float downwards. Lucy seemed quite unaware of what was happening to her.

'Hey, come back up to us' said Spirit, half joking but half worried.

'What?' asked Lucy. She seemed barely aware that she was actually there in front of them. She made no attempt to glide back up to them as she normally would and instead sank further down in the water.'

'There's something wrong!' whispered Dancer to Spirit under her breath.

'Lucy, are you alright?' asked Spirit, starting to get worried.

'Oh I don't know, I just feel sleepy' she replied drowsily. 'I'd like to close my eyes now.'

'No don't!' Spirit replied quickly. He didn't know why exactly, but he had a strong feeling that it would be dangerous if she did. Lucy continued to drift downwards.

'What can we do?' he asked Dancer with a growing sense of desperation.

'You stay there' she replied decisively, I'll be back in a moment with Storm and Star-Gazer. They'll know what to do.' So far only Spirit, Dancer and Star-Gazer had been able to speak to Lucy with their minds when she came to them as a vision. Storm could see her but could not pass his thoughts to the girl and needed Spirit or Dancer as an intermediary to translate what he said.

Dancer quickly came back with Star-Gazer. Storm and the rest of the pod were not far behind.

'You were right to be concerned' said Star-Gazer, 'there's something seriously wrong with her. Do you know if she's been injured at all?' Spirit shook his head.

'Lucy, Lucy! Pay attention. Has anything happened to you dear? Have you been hurt?' Star-Gazer asked urgently.

'Well,...I,...I'm not sure' Lucy replied eventually, gazing around her as though she wasn't aware the dolphins were there at all.

'What's she saying?' asked Storm, unable to comprehend her answer.

'Nothing really' said Dancer. 'She seems dazed and confused. It's a bit like that time that Summer got hit by that plank of wood in the storm.

'That's right' said Summer. 'If you hadn't held me upright in the water, I'd have drowned.'

'Do you think that's what's happened?' asked Spirit anxiously as Lucy continued to drift down slowly through the water.

'Let's pick her up and take her to the surface then' said Chaser, moving towards Lucy.

'That's just the thing' said Spirit. 'She's not physically here. We cannot touch her or move her.'

'I feel so peaceful' murmured Lucy to no-one in particular. Chaser swam up to her and tried to nudge her with his beak. He seemed to pass right through her.

'Lucy, swim to us. Come back to us!' urged Dancer. She didn't respond.

'I don't believe she can hear you now Dancer' said Star-Gazer quietly as Lucy's eyes quietly closed.

'It's as though the life is ebbing away from her' observed Storm. Spirit turned to him in desperation.

'How can you just float there and say that? There must be something we can do. We can't just let it happen.'

'Storm's right though' said Star-Gazer sadly. 'I can feel the energy flowing away from her. I can almost see it.' Spirit looked at Lucy again. He realised that what Star-Gazer said made sense. He could feel it too. He didn't know what to say.

'Hang on' said Dancer after a moment. 'Energy passes from her to us, from us to her. Why can't we give her energy back.'

'That's right' said Spirit, seizing upon the idea. 'If we all focus....'

'But I don't have that connection with her that you do' replied Chaser. 'Neither does Summer or the rest of us.'

'Well Dancer, Star-Gazer and I do' replied Spirit. 'We've got to make it work.'

He started to focus and could see that Dancer and Star-Gazer were doing the same. Lucy seemed oblivious, but her slow descent steadied and then stopped. Spirit could almost see the energy flowing from him and the others back into Lucy, but he was unable to tell whether his mind was simply playing tricks on him. The rest of the pod fell silent as they watched.

'Is she getting better?' asked Moonlight.

'I'm not sure' answered Storm. 'The question is; how much energy does she need?' Spirit was unable to pay any attention to what the others were saying. All he could focus on was Lucy. Then with a jolt he realised that she was slipping down again.

'Try harder!' he implored the other two.

'I'm tired' replied Dancer. 'I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.' Lucy's hair was floating up around her face as she sank downwards again. She looked beautiful, thought Spirit, but the idea that this might be the last time he saw her was almost too much to bear.

'Listen' said Storm. 'I think that you need to reach into her mind Spirit. You're the only one that can do that.' Spirit broke his gaze away from Lucy and looked at Storm.

'But she needs our energy' he replied.

'Lucy needs you more' Storm went on. 'The rest of us here can focus our thoughts to support Lucy. Spirit, you have a more special task, a more special destiny. I think you always have had.'

'But I don't know how' said Spirit plaintively. The thought that he could do more to help Lucy excited him, but the idea that he might fail filled him with fear.

'Trust in yourself young Spirit' said Storm. 'Believe in yourself.'

'That's right' said Star-Gazer. 'Let your mind flow through the water to her.' During the summer Spirit had become aware that if he needed Lucy urgently enough, she would realise and would come to him. He'd never actually reached into her mind though. There was nothing for it but to try.

The rest of the pod fell silent again as they focused all their energy upon her. Lucy stopped sinking and gradually began to float upwards again. Spirit did not know where to begin but then, without consciously trying, it felt as though there was no distance between him and Lucy at all. Everything else he could see around him swam out of focus. Spirit started to look more deeply than he had ever looked before.

It was a shock to Spirit to find himself floating in the air in one of those tiny white rooms that humans liked to inhabit. There was Lucy below him, lying with her eyes closed on a flat thing. Filaments, like strands of fine seaweed, connected her to a mechanical thing that beeped. Looking down he could see a man holding Lucy's hand and a figure in white. 'Lucy' he murmured.

Then everything was dark around Spirit and he didn't know where he was.

'Lucy' he whispered again, more loudly this time. There was silence for moment.

'Where are we Spirit?' a voice replied.

'We're inside your mind' he replied gently. 'Something's happened to you. I don't know what but you're hurt. You're fading. In our world you're floating downwards, and if you don't fight back, I'm afraid that.... Well, I'm afraid for the worst. Can you fight it Lucy? Can you do it for me?'

'I don't know Spirit. It's hard.' Lucy's voice seemed to be nowhere and everywhere around him at the same time.

'When we first spoke together Lucy, you told me that your name meant light. I need you to live up to your name now for me Lucy.

'I'll try Spirit. I'll try' echoed Lucy's voice through the dark void.

'You can do it Lucy' he urged her. 'Come back to me now.' Suddenly there was a change in the atmosphere around him. Energy seemed to pulse across the black void and tiny lights began to appear all around him, flickering at first and then in stronger waves.

Suddenly Spirit was back with the others all gathered in a circle focusing their attention on Lucy in the water. She looked up and glanced round at all of them.

'It's okay' she said. 'I'm feeling better now I think' she added, struggling slowly back up to them all.

Chapter Eight

Dad walked down the corridor from the vending machine, a polystyrene cup of coffee in his hand. 'Why is it that these places always sell such bad coffee?' he asked himself as he walked back towards Lucy's bed. It was the middle of the night, yet the neon strip lights in the corridor were as bright as day. A nurse bustled along with a clipboard in her arms. His eyes felt tired but mostly he felt emotionally exhausted. He'd been sitting by Lucy's bed for hours now but no one quite seemed to know what was the matter with her.

The doctors said that Lucy was badly concussed but that she'd probably wake up soon enough. There was a risk of swelling to the brain or other complications but it was too early to say, they told him. It was a matter of waiting and watching, the doctors had said earlier in the evening. Her form teacher Mr Baines had left hours before and he'd been on his own by Lucy's bed side for some time now. The junior doctor on duty seemed as tired as he felt but was constantly on the move, making her way from one bed to another. Dad didn't like to disturb her as she did her rounds and when she did come up to Lucy's bed she just checked her blood pressure and pulse briefly and then moved on again.

There'd been a period earlier on in the day when Lucy's heart-beat had dropped to a dangerously low level and the doctors had started to get worried. Then after a while, for no obvious reason, her vital signs had stabilised again and the doctors had shrugged their shoulders and moved on to the next patient.

It was the not knowing that really got to Dad. If he knew that Lucy would regain consciousness at ten am the next morning, it would be easy for him. If he knew that she was brain damaged, at least he'd know what to feel. Yet he felt caught in a kind of emotional limbo and didn't really know how to react at all. On the one hand he wanted to be upbeat and positive. On the other hand, he wondered whether he should ready himself for more bad news if Lucy didn't recover consciousness quickly.

Dad glanced out of the window. The street lights glowed dimly and he watched a night bus rumble slowly along the street. He returned to Lucy's bed. If it weren't for the wires linked up to the monitors, he'd think she was just asleep. Even the bandage over the gash to her head didn't spoil the effect. They'd had to stitch it up but fortunately the wound was in her hair line so even if it did scar, Lucy's hair would cover it up.

Dad glanced at the monitor to the side of Lucy's bed. He'd be worried if any of the lines went flat, but apart from that they didn't mean much to him. As it was, he was reassured by the regular beep that it emitted.

It was when Dad's eyes were starting to droop that Bethany appeared at his side. He jumped up with a start.

'Bethany!' he exclaimed in surprise, 'it's four in the morning.'

'I didn't get your message until quite late' she explained. 'I just felt I had to drive up straight away.'

'You must be exhausted' Dad replied. He didn't always see eye to eye with Bethany, but her commitment to Lucy was unwavering. Bethany's eyes looked red and tired from the driving and her mass of unruly blond hair was even more unkempt than usual. She wore a shapeless pullover over her jeans.

'You look pretty tired yourself John' she replied eyeing him in the same way that he had just regarded her. She stood and looked for a long calm moment at Lucy lying there unconscious in the hospital bed.

'How's the patient?' she asked. Dad filled her in as best he could. Bethany went to the side of the bed and took Lucy's hand in hers. 'You can do it Lucy' she said quietly, willing her niece to regain consciousness.

They sat and talked quietly for a while before both Dad and Bethany dozed off in the chairs they were sitting in next to Lucy's bed. By seven o'clock the ward was beginning to get busy again and they both woke up stiff-necked as a trolley rattled by in the corridor. A fresh-faced young nurse who had evidently just started her shift came up and checked Lucy's monitors.

'No sign of movement?' she asked Dad. He replied that he hadn't seen any. In fact, he reflected that Lucy was unnaturally still. Someone who's merely asleep tends to shift around all the time. Lucy on the other hand hadn't moved a muscle.

Bethany yawned and stretched lazily.

'Well I still feel wiped-out, but maybe not quite as knackered as I felt three hours ago' she said. She went down the corridor to get coffees from the vending machine and Dad went to the bathroom to freshen up. When he got back, another doctor was examining Lucy, shining a pen-light into her eyes as the other doctor had done before.

'What do you think doctor?' he asked nervously.

'Well she's still out cold isn't she' the doctor replied, looking at the notes in his hand. 'How long has it been now?' Dad told him that it was about eighteen hours since the accident had happened.

'Is it unusual to be so long?' he asked.

'I should emphasise that I'm not a neurologist' the doctor replied. 'We'll have to get the consultant in for a proper opinion. But yes, it is unusual for it to take so long for a patient to regain consciousness. The failure to come round suggests a more deep-rooted problem. The MRI scan didn't reveal any significant abnormalities, so we'll have to look at some other options.'

'Is she in a coma?' Dad asked. The doctor gave him a sympathetic smile in reply.

'Let's not jump to conclusions now' he replied, trying to reassure Dad. 'The consultant neurologist will be around to examine your daughter later. She's highly respected in her field. She'll get to the bottom of this if anyone can.'

Just after the doctor left, Bethany came back with the coffees.

'I had to go downstairs to the cafeteria in the end. That machine down the corridor's out of order now. I got a couple of croissants for us while I was at it. I reckon we both need a bit of sustenance to keep us going.' Neither of them were hungry though and in any case Dad wasn't listening to her. He was becoming more worried about Lucy with every hour that passed.

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their tepid coffee.

'You know' said Dad, 'when Lucy was a baby Megan and I would sometimes lay her down on our bed for a nap in the afternoon. It was a double-bed of course, and so she was a long way from the edge. One afternoon when Lucy was sleeping there in the middle of the duvet, her arms splayed out, I had to go and answer the phone downstairs.' Dad paused and stroked his stubbly chin. 'I was barely gone a minute when I heard a thump and Lucy started crying her head off. I rushed upstairs and of course she'd fallen off the bed flat on her face. She was such a wee small thing I was convinced she'd been terribly injured. She just wouldn't stop crying so in the end I bundled her into the car and drove like a madman to Accident & Emergency at our local hospital.'

'What did the doctors say?' asked Bethany curiously.

'Oh, the doctors looked her over and gave her a clean bill of health. She had a bruise on her forehead but they didn't seem worried about that.' Dad paused. 'But I felt terribly guilty afterwards' he said. 'I thought I'd almost killed my baby daughter by carelessness. I just looked away for a moment and....'

'But it's not like that now John' said Bethany quietly. 'You can't keep your eye on her all the time. She's growing up you know. She's finding her own way in the world.' Dad turned his head to look out of the window as though he were trying to hide his emotions.

'Oh I know' he said eventually. 'I'm just being stupid. Sitting here brings the memories back to me you know. It's the same hospital. Lucy was seen just down the corridor last time.' Bethany smiled and clutched her knees. She looked at Lucy lying peacefully next to her. She wanted to tell Dad that Lucy would be fine, but she simply didn't know.

Just then a slim woman with grey hair in her fifties and wearing a white coat appeared at the bedside.

'Mr and Mrs Parr, I'm Natalie Goodman, a consultant neurologist at the hospital. I've come to examine Lucy.' Bethany suppressed a look of embarrassment.

'It's good to see you Dr Goodman' replied Dad, 'but this is not my wife. This is Lucy's aunt Bethany. Her mother passed away just over a year ago.'

'I'm sorry to hear that' said Dr Goodman sympathetically. She consulted Lucy's chart and monitor and then pulled the curtains round so that they were in privacy.

'I'm just going to do a few tests' said Dr Goodman thoughtfully as she glanced at Lucy's scan results. They won't take long. You're quite welcome to stay.

'It's okay' replied Dad. 'I'll just step outside. I'll only get in the way otherwise.' Bethany followed him outside the curtain round Lucy's bed.

'Truth is I feel nervous' confessed Dad. 'I'll be happier if she just tells us what's wrong with Lucy after the examination.' Bethany glanced round the curtain. Dr Goodman was gently pressing the tip of her pen into Lucy's palm to see if there was any reaction. She nodded to Dad.

'Probably for the best' she said. Presently Dr Goodman put her head round the curtain.

'All done' she said, drawing the curtain back round. Dad and Bethany sat down. 'Well I'm pleased to confirm the opinion of my colleagues that there doesn't appear to be anything that suggests abnormalities or damage to the brain. I just carried out a few basic tests but the real diagnostic tool is the scan that Lucy had last night. The results are right here' she said, holding up the print-out briefly.

'The main problems we commonly see in injuries of this type are swelling to the brain or internal bleeding. Neither of those conditions are revealed by Lucy's scan. Nor is there any apparent damage to the spinal column or brain stem which might suggest a condition such as cerebromedullospinal disconnection, or locked in syndrome. Brain activity is consistent with someone who is conscious, but none of the attendant symptoms are present.' Both Dad and Bethany visibly brightened when they heard the doctor's prognosis.

'That's the good news' the doctor continued. 'The not-so-good news is that I can offer no good reason as to why Lucy has not yet emerged from her unconscious state. In layman's terms, if she's merely deeply asleep and I give her a good old fashioned prod, I'd expect to see a physical reaction to the stimulus. Lucy does not respond in that manner. Concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury as we call it nowadays, should not result in loss of consciousness for this length of time. Furthermore the brain activity we've picked up is not consistent with MTBI.'

'So what's your best guess?' asked Bethany.

'If anything since we've excluded locked-in syndrome, the electrical activity in the brain is most comparable to REM sleep. However as I said, Lucy's reactions are not consistent with a sleeping state.' She paused. 'It's almost as if...it's almost as if Lucy's brain is taking a short holiday somewhere else.' Dr Goodman smiled.

'At this stage I can only suggest that we keep Lucy under close observation for a few more hours. Unless she regains consciousness again by five pm we'll get her back for another scan to see if anything's changed.' She paused again. 'Hang on in there you two. You both look like you should go home and get a few hours sleep.'

'I think I'll just stick around here if that's alright with you doctor' said Dad.

'Me too' added Bethany.

'Well that's not a problem for the time being' replied Dr Goodman, but if we transfer Lucy onto the general ward the nurses will evict you until visiting time.' She smiled just before walking off. 'I'll be back in the afternoon.'

'But I don't want to go back' said Lucy defiantly to Spirit. 'I want to stay here with you.' Spirit glanced at his mother.

'Listen Lucy' said Star-Gazer. 'You know it's wonderful to have you here, it's just that we're worried about you. You need to go back.'

'You can't make me!' exclaimed Lucy, gliding off away from them. Spirit swam after her, but Star-Gazer stayed where she was. She knew that she'd better ease off for a little and let Lucy and Spirit have their time together. She'd speak to the young girl again later. Lucy had helped save Star-Gazer's life and she wanted to make sure this slight human child didn't do anything that might risk her own.

Lucy skimmed the waves alongside Spirit. Light played on the surface of the water as they sped along.

'I can't believe they want me to go back' she said. 'I've barely got here. I've never been able to remain here with you for so long, and before my accident I thought I'd never see you again. Maybe it's a good thing I got knocked out like that. Maybe I'm meant to be here with you.'

'You know Star-Gazer just wants to make sure you're okay' replied Spirit. 'But it is good to have you here next to me. I feel complete somehow.'

'Then you think I should stay too?' asked Lucy eagerly.

'I'd like you to stay' replied Spirit, 'but if your body's sick, that's not good is it? Like I told you, I was able to use my mind to stretch out to you in the same way that you reach out to me. You were in a big white square place with other humans and stuff around you. I think one of them was your father. You were lying on a flat thing and there were different coloured lines connected to your body. There was a beeping noise and you looked like you were asleep.'

'From what you said Spirit, it sounds like my body's in hospital. They'll take good care of me there. I'll be alright. Let's swim.'

It felt so good to be gliding free in the ocean with Spirit. It was so effortless and natural. Lucy felt the sharp coldness of the salt water against her face and skin but it just made her feel more fresh and alive. All the worries of life in the human world seemed to have dropped away from her. It was exhilarating to speed along the tips of the waves together.

Later, as dusk spread across the sea the dolphins settled down to rest. Only Spirit, Dancer and Star-Gazer were able to speak to Lucy while Storm and the rest of the pod could merely observe from a distance. The sea was calm that night and the dolphins swam in slow lazy circles as they talked amongst each other and told stories to entertain themselves.

'Lucy, what do humans say about the sun and stars?' asked Star-Gazer, staring up at the star-laden night sky. 'Breeze over there thinks that stars are just pricks of light that penetrate through a huge clam shell. But I think they must be suns like ours, just a long way away.'

'That's what scientists think' replied Lucy in agreement. 'There are millions of stars out there, each of them like our sun, but far away. 'They say that there are planets circling those stars, and some people think that they have life on them just like our world.' Star-Gazer nodded.

'And do humans agree that the Moon goes around our planet?' she asked.

'Yes that's right' agreed Lucy. 'Humans have been to the moon and put a flag there.'

'But how is that possible?' asked Dancer incredulously.

'In spaceships that go thousands of miles through space to get to their destination' replied Lucy. She only half-understood how it was possible herself.

'Are those the metal birds that we often see flying over the ocean?' asked Spirit.

'No those are just aeroplanes. They just fly round the world. They don't go off into space. Only a few people have been to the moon.'

'Do you think that dolphins could go to the moon?' joked Dancer.

'Well in a way you'd do better up there than we humans would' laughed Lucy. 'There's no gravity up there, so everything floats around.'

'What do you mean by gravity?' asked Star-Gazer seriously. She was far too interested in the subject to joke about it.

'Well you know for example the Moon exerts gravity on the Earth' said Lucy, thinking hard how to explain a concept like gravity that she so took for granted. 'It's the moon that pulls the oceans and gives us tides. If there was no Moon there would be no tides' she went on.

'But how can the Moon pull the tides?' asked Dancer still laughing. 'They're not attached to each other.'

'Not in any way that we can see perhaps' broke in Star-Gazer, 'but haven't you noticed how the tides are strongest when the Moon is full in the sky. The Moon traces an arc in the heavens and the tides follow the same pattern. That shows that perhaps the Moon and the tides are linked somehow as Lucy says. I had noticed that the tides and the Moon were connected, but I could never understand why. Humans have figured out some things then' she went on.

'Well you know what Storm says' said Dancer. 'He thinks that humans are clever but dangerous. He thinks we should stay away from all humans.'

'Even me?' asked Lucy, glancing warily around in the direction where Storm was resting peacefully.

They continued to talk idly as the night settled like a blanket over the sleepy waters of the ocean. Sometimes dolphins hunt at night when their echo-location allows them to see where their eyes cannot. Not tonight though. The pod settled down to rest and one by one slipped into their waking sleep. Lucy became more agitated and nervous though as the others dozed off.

'What's the matter Lucy' asked Spirit stifling a yawn. 'You really ought to rest you know.' Lucy looked at him anxiously.

'I'm afraid Spirit' she replied. 'I'm afraid that if I close my eyes, I'll fade away and that my mind will drift back into my body in that hospital bed. I'm not ready to go Spirit. I'm just not ready. I want to stay with you.' Spirit nodded.

'I'll watch over you he said. I'll keep you safe. If you start to fade again or sink down in the water, I'll wake you up straight away.'

'I wish I could hug you Spirit' she said, 'or sleep on your back. I'd feel safer if I could.'

'I wish you could too' Spirit replied. Gradually, Lucy's eyelids fluttered closed as sleep enveloped her. As her brain became clouded by sleep, she was vaguely aware of a girl in a bonnet who seemed to be looking at her with friendly concern. Try as she might though, Lucy couldn't quite make out the girl's face.

Dad looked at his watch. It was late afternoon. Lucy still hadn't woken and lay there as serenely as ever. As good as her word, Dr Goodman arranged for Lucy to be taken down for a second scan. When the porter arrived and the nurse began to disconnect Lucy's cables, Dad turned to speak to Bethany.

'You look beat' he said. 'Here, take my keys. Go back to the house and have a rest.'

'What about you?' asked Bethany dubiously. 'You're not exactly looking bright eyed and bushy tailed yourself.'

'I'll be alright' he smiled. 'Go on. I'll give you a call later.' Reluctantly Bethany agreed and went off, leaving Dad alone. When Lucy was wheeled back up and her bed set in place again Dad sat holding her hand.

'This isn't exactly what I had in mind for you Lucy' he said to his unconscious daughter. 'So much has happened that I wish hadn't. I've tried to protect you from harm, but here you are lying in a hospital ward with wires all over you. When I see you like this you remind me so much of your mother. You're such a chip of the old block. Strong-willed, headstrong, determined, but faithful and true. You're all of that and more.' Dad sniffed.

'You know they made me redundant yesterday' he continued, changing the subject. 'That's right, I lost my job; just afterwards I got the call from your school. I was glad to get away from there really, though I was worried sick about you. To tell the truth I'm glad they gave me the boot. It's about time I moved on from there anyway. This way I can spend a bit more time with you once you're out of hospital. We'll have a better Christmas than the last one.' Dad smiled. 'What do you say Luce?'

Lucy just lay there as still as ever.

'I'm sorry I lied to you Lucy, about the car crash I mean.' He paused. 'Actually I pretty much lied to everyone. I haven't even told Bethany how Mum really died. You and I were alone in the house when the policeman turned up at the door. You were upstairs listening to music in your room. The policeman looked so sorry for me he could barely get the words out. It was then I decided that I had to protect you from the same fate as your mother. I had to stop history from repeating itself. That's why I didn't tell you Luce. I thought at first everything was going to be okay. Now dolphins are your life and I think that maybe I should have told you what happened to Mum in the first place. I should have trusted you more Luce, I really should.' Dad sighed. 'I think I'll just go and freshen up a bit.'

Dad went to the bathroom to splash water on his face and try to make himself feel a bit more human. It was his second night in the hospital. Maybe, he thought, he should go home and snatch a few hours' sleep too. He couldn't survive like this forever.

Just as he got back onto the ward he saw a middle aged, professional looking woman standing at the foot of Lucy's bed studying her quietly. The woman had a note book and jotted something down as she stood there. For some reason he couldn't put his finger on, Dad stopped and observed the woman. As if sensing that she was being watched, the woman slipped her notebook into her pocket and set off briskly towards the swing doors in the opposite direction.

Dad walked up to Lucy's bed.

'Are you alright there Mr Parr?' called one of the friendly nurses. Dad nodded.

'Nurse, could I ask you a question? Who was that doctor that was here just now?'

'That lady? Oh, she's not staff. I thought she was with you' said the nurse as she walked back to the nursing station.

Chapter Nine

'Oh hi there Megan. What are you up to then?' asked Rachel curiously 'You look lost in your own world sitting there on that bench.' Megan was half dazzled by the sun as she looked up at the older girl standing there in front of her.

'I've been in the library trying to find out more about Jeremiah Smith' Megan replied, pleased to be able to show a student like Rachel that she knew how to research things too.

'Oh I see. Sounds impressive' Rachel replied encouragingly. 'Come on, let me buy you a cup of tea or something. I've been checking out a few things myself. Let's sit down over a cuppa and compare notes.'

Five minutes later, they were both sitting at a table in the Clotted Cream Tea Rooms just a short distance down the street. It was quite an old fashioned establishment and Rachel grinned at Megan conspiratorially when an elderly waitress tottered over with a menu. The rest of the clientele were similarly grey-haired. Megan rested her arms on the formica-topped table and felt it wobble uncertainly on its uneven legs.

'What do you fancy having?' asked Rachel. 'I like a good cup of coffee myself, but a decent bean is in short supply round here. Maybe I'll just have a lemonade. How about you?' Megan said that she'd like a lemonade too and Rachel asked for two cherry cupcakes as well.

'So, tell me what you've found out' said Rachel.

'Well' said Megan, 'I couldn't find anything in the local history section, but then I found this tray of old books they're selling off for a few pennies. One of them was 'A description of the Lives of the Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall' by Jeremiah Smith although half of it was missing and the rest of it was falling apart.'

'Does he say anything more about dolphin-children then?' asked Rachel.

'Yes and no' replied Megan. 'He goes on about this place called Coxcomb Reach where the locals used to cooperate with dolphins to catch fish.'

'Oh yes, I know where that is' said Rachel brightly.

'He talks about several dolphin-children. One of them was called Arthur Trescothick and another one was called Gideon Belcher. It's funny but I never imagined that boys could be dolphin-children too. He talks about this girl called Susan Penhaligon who led a group of kids out to their deaths in the sea.

'Yes I've heard of her' said Rachel. The local historical society wants to do something on her if they get enough money to open a local museum.'

'He says that dolphin-children lose their gift by the age of twelve or thirteen or so. Then he said that he wanted to trace a dolphin-child himself but had not yet been successful.'

'So obviously the book was written before his journal that we read in the bookshop' concluded Rachel.

'That's right' replied Megan. 'Not much wiser at all really' she added despondently.

'Well not entirely' said Rachel, a smile playing round the corners of her mouth. 'It just so happens that I've found out something quite interesting from Mum. She tells me that the Reverend Jeremiah Smith's great-grandson is alive and living right here in Merwater. There's a good chance that he's even got the next journal that we want to find. In fact Mum was thinking of trying to sell him the journal that I showed you in the shop.' Megan sat up.

'That sounds good' she exclaimed. 'Where does he live?'

'Oh he lives in one of the big houses at the top of Queen Street' replied Rachel, as though Megan should know exactly where that was.

'And you think we can just go and see him?' asked Megan optimistically.

'Well we can certainly stroll up there and take a look at his house' said Rachel. 'Apparently he's a bit reclusive, but there's no harm in trying.'

Rachel picked out the change from her purse to pay the elderly waitress and having downed her glass, stood up.

'Let's go then!' she said. Megan still felt self-conscious about being in the company of Rachel. She was years older than her and already at University. Megan worried that she would say something stupid and show herself up. Instead Rachel seemed positive and friendly, and not at all put out by the fact that Megan was so much younger than her. She seemed genuinely interested in Megan and her situation and didn't seem to question the fact that Megan was a dolphin-child at all. Megan wondered why, but wasn't ready to ask.

Queen Street was a broad, elegant road that turned off the High Street and which ran up towards the crest of the hill. The closely-packed dwellings at the bottom of the hill gave way to the broader merchants' houses at the top. The pavements were more generous here and Megan could imagine sombre men in dark suits and top hats slowly parading along arm in arm with women in elegant hats and long dresses.

'This was where the rich people used to live' said Rachel, 'far above the stink and bustle of the town below them. Still do for that matter' she joked. Black iron railings separated the mellow red bricks of the Georgian houses from the street.

'Which one are we looking for?' asked Megan.

'It's this one' said Rachel, pointing towards a double-fronted house with a wisteria trailing luxuriantly up the wall, its green tendrils waving gently in the breeze.

'The Old Vicarage'. Megan read the sign on the front. She looked up at the windows. She imagined it to be dark and forbidding inside, but instead from what she could see it looked quite light and airy. 'What's his name?'

'Apparently he's called Toby Smith' replied Rachel. He wrote a best-seller called 'The Room with No Windows' a few years ago and has been living off the royalties ever since. Some sort of a thriller apparently. They made a film of it with Michael Caine. He keeps a low profile round here. I'd never even heard of him until after your visit to the shop the other day.'

'Is he old?' Megan wondered out loud.

'Not as old as you might think. He's probably about fifty I should imagine.' They stood uncertainly on the pavement outside. For all her bright talk, Rachel suddenly seemed a little nervous about ringing the doorbell. There was nothing for it.

'Well I'm going to knock on the door then' announced Megan. She took a deep breath. She walked up the three heavy stone steps that led up to the front door and struck the knocker firmly against the door. Megan could hear the sound of jazz coming from somewhere inside the house, but it was turned down just after she knocked on the door. There was a long silence and then Megan heard footsteps approaching. She imagined that the door would be opened by a wizened old housekeeper, but instead a comfortably built middle-aged man opened it. Despite his advancing years he had a full head of brown hair and smiling eyes. He wore a crimson velvet jacket and brown suede shoes and was still half humming to himself as he looked down and saw Megan.

'Oh I thought you were the postman' he said. 'I'm expecting a delivery of a Charlie Parker LP.' He paused to examine Megan more closely 'What can I do for you?'

'Toby Smith?' asked Megan nervously.

'Yes? Oh, you must be a fan! Do you want me to autograph your copy of my book or something?' he asked benignly. 'I must say fans seem to be getting younger nowadays. They're mostly thirty-something men you know.' Megan was so non-plussed by this that she didn't know what to say. Rachel stepped up behind her.

'Mr Smith, we're doing some research and we wondered if we might ask you some questions?'

'You're not writing for your college rag are you?' he replied. 'I don't give interviews you know. It adds to the mystique and all that. Never talk about the book to the press. It's a policy of mine.'

'No, no' replied Megan and Rachel at the same time. 'It's about your ancestor, the Reverend Jeremiah Smith.'

'What, that old stuff-shirt?' retorted Toby Smith with a chuckle of surprise. 'Whatever do you want to know about him for? Well I suppose you'd better come in.'

He led them both in to a spacious sitting room at the back of the house, where big windows opened out on to a large walled garden. There was a grand piano on one side of the room and a record player on the other side, surrounded by stacks of jazz records. A cigar smoked in the ashtray where he'd left it to come and open the door. A glass of claret sat next to that.

'I'd offer you both a glass of the red stuff' he said, waving them in the direction of a couple of easy chairs, 'but one of you at least seems a tad too young to imbibe. Pity though. Excellent vintage it is.' They sat down. 'Anyway what can I tell you about the Rev? Long gone he is. Died before I was born.'

'Actually' said Rachel. 'We were wondering if you had any of his journals?'

'Funny you should ask that' replied Toby Smith. 'I had someone round from the local history society just the other month trying to cadge a look at them. Said that they were an important historical source, or some such nonsense. Didn't like the look of the woman so I sent her packing.' He leant over, picked up his cigar, and took a puff before exhaling luxuriantly. 'Why are you interested in the Rev then?'

'It's about dolphins' replied Megan. 'He wrote about the folklore of dolphins and the people in the area. It's, well,...important for me to find out what he wrote.'

'Well of course the Rev did go round persecuting his parishioners, squeezing them for nuggets of folklore and whatnot. I always reckoned they just made stuff up to keep the old codger happy.' Rachel and Lucy smiled. 'So this is research is it? Spill the beans then.' Megan suddenly felt awkward and shy. She didn't want to start telling him about her own connection with dolphins.

'You know that there are local stories about one or two dolphin-children being born every generation?' Megan asked.

'Yes I seem to remember something about that' replied Toby Smith, taking a swig of claret from his glass. 'The Rev writes something about that in his book doesn't he? Forced to read it, I was, as a child. Deathly boring stuff most of it.'

'Well the thing is' Rachel went on, 'dolphin-children are supposed to lose their gift by about the age of twelve or thirteen or so. In his book, Jeremiah Smith says he wants to track down a real dolphin-child. In my mother's bookshop, she has one of his actual journals. It must be written after he published his book. In it he says that he found a young woman who had not lost the gift when she turned thirteen. He says that she wouldn't tell him anything and then the journal just ends.'

'So you reckon the Rev's next journal might continue the story?'

'Exactly' replied Megan and Rachel at the same time. Toby Smith turned his gaze from Rachel to Megan.

'And you...?' he asked, leaving his question unfinished. Megan nodded shyly. 'Oh I see!' he exclaimed. He stood up and strolled to the open window, trailing a plume of cigar smoke as he went.

'So your mother has one of the Rev's journals does she? Owl Books would that be? I wonder how she came across that?'

'I think it was in a job lot of second hand books that she bought from someone who died about a year ago.' Rachel replied.

'Maybe my Aunt Dorothea' he speculated. She popped her clogs about a year ago.' He sucked in another mouthful of smoke before exhaling slowly. 'Well I've got a heap of the Rev's things in a chest in the loft' he said. 'Ghastly old reprobate. Never could stand that stuff myself. Been there for years it has. I've been meaning to rummage through it all but never got round to it.'

'That would be fantastic' exclaimed Megan, her eyes glinting with excitement. Toby Smith regarded her with quiet amusement.

'I don't give access to this stuff to just anyone you know. Like that local history woman I slung out. She's not been the first one to come knocking on my door asking about the Rev. I'd give you two the cold shoulder as well if you didn't intrigue me so much.' He glanced at Megan again.

'We're very grateful' said Rachel.

'But you'll have to come back' he continued. 'Can't be showing two young girls round the house without a chaperone. Would your mother bring you both back for a cup of coffee tomorrow?' he asked. 'I roast the beans myself you know. She can bring that journal of hers and maybe we can haggle over a price. I suppose I should try and keep the old devil's journals together if I can. You two can rummage in the loft while I speak to your mother. How about that?'

'It's a deal' replied Rachel with a big smile. Before long they were back outside the house. They stood on the wide pavement and from inside the house they could hear jazz being turned up loud on the record player again.

'Well that's a turn up for the books' exclaimed Rachel, smiling at Megan with satisfaction.

As the woman walked briskly back down the corridor from Lucy's hospital bed she wondered how she could lie there so perfectly still. It was more like looking at a photograph than a sleeping girl. She could barely make out the gentle rising and falling of Lucy's chest as she breathed. It made her think of Sleeping Beauty, but Lucy was too young to have a handsome prince to kiss her and wake her up.

The woman had felt awkward about coming to the hospital that evening, yet she'd followed Lucy's life from a distance ever since she'd been born. She felt as though she knew the girl well, though they'd never actually met. The woman wasn't keen on bumping into Lucy's father though, and knew that if she did he'd have too many difficult questions for her to answer. It was better all round if she could slip in and out unnoticed. She'd had a feeling that he might be near just before she slipped out again. Standing now in the chilly dark hospital car park, the woman glanced up at the second floor window where Lucy's ward was. Her breathe condensed in a cloud in the cold night air. She worried for the girl, she really did. Maybe she shouldn't have come to the hospital at all; it was a long drive, but this unfinished business really troubled her.

'Mum, I need to borrow the car to drive Megan home' Rachel announced as they walked into the shop. 'And I've got some exciting news too. We're all going round to Toby Smith's house tomorrow afternoon and he may want to buy the Reverend Jeremiah Smith's journal from you.'

'Well you two have worked fast' exclaimed her mother. 'I only told you about Toby Smith this morning! It's a good thing its half day closing tomorrow so I can come along with you both. Will your parents be okay with that Megan?' she asked, turning to look at the younger girl standing a little shyly by the book-shop door. Megan nodded. Rachel seized the car keys from her mother's outstretched hand.

'See you later then!' Rachel and Megan went back outside, the door bell clanging noisily behind them. Parked at the curb a few yards away was a red Citroen Deux Cheveaux. 'It's not much to look at' said Rachel, 'but it does get you around.' They climbed in and sat down on the hard seats. Rachel pulled out the choke and turned the key in the ignition several times before the car eventually spluttered into life. They jerked forward a few inches and then the engine cut out again. 'Let's have another go' said Rachel patiently.

This time the car was more responsive and they moved out into the busy streets of the town, which was flooded with late afternoon sunshine. Just as they did so a bundle of fur landed in Megan's lap and she half jumped out of her seat in surprise.

'Bilbo Baggins! What are you doing here?' laughed Rachel. She glanced at Megan's surprised face. 'Oh this cat of ours is a real tear-away. He loves going on car journeys. He even hitched a ride on the local bus once. He must have slipped out of the shop behind us when he saw me take the car keys.' The cat looked out of the window from his vantage point of Lucy's lap with a look of haughty indifference.

The car strained its way up the hill out of Merwater and before long they were driving through country lanes back to the holiday cottage.

Mum, Dad and Bethany were all sitting in the garden when the red Citroen pulled up outside the cottage. Bethany ran up to the gate with unrestrained curiosity as Megan and Rachel climbed out of the car. For Megan it seemed like an eternity since Megan had swum out from the beach towards the dolphin and then ran off in tears. So much seemed to have happened since then. Bethany had been fretting unhappily about it all afternoon though. Mum and Dad hadn't seemed at all their normal selves either.

Bilbo Baggins wound himself around Rachel's feet as they walked up the garden path.

'Hello, I'm Rachel' she said, shaking Mum and Dad's hand formally. They exchanged greetings. 'Megan came into my mother's bookshop in Merwater the other day and we got chatting. I bumped into her again today and ended up giving her a lift home.'

'Mum?' said Megan. 'Can I hang out with Rachel tomorrow?' Mum and Dad exchanged a quick glance. It seemed too good to be true that Megan had got over her upset of that morning and had found herself a new, older and more responsible friend to take her mind of all this dolphin business.

'Well only if you're sure' replied Dad cautiously. He wondered why Rachel would be happy to spend time with a girl like Megan who was so much younger than herself. They chatted for a short while before Rachel and Bilbo Baggins made their way home in the red Citroen.

Megan experienced a strange mix of feelings as Rachel drove away. She felt proud that she'd made friends with a student like Rachel, who seemed so much more grown up than she felt. She was delighted to have made so much progress in her research about the Reverend Jeremiah Smith and his own enquiries into nineteenth century dolphin-children. Yet despite all of that she still felt this powerful and gnawing sense that she had lost her connection with Jet and the other dolphins in the pod. Whatever they might find out when they visited Toby Smith the next day, perhaps it was already too late for her. Maybe they wouldn't find out anything useful at all. She glanced at her younger sister who was running excitedly around the garden pretending to be an aeroplane.

It was Dad's turn to cook, which normally meant fish-fingers, peas and mashed potato and he disappeared into the kitchen to clatter around noisily with aluminium pots. He switched on a transistor radio and the sound of crackly chatter wafted out of the window into the late afternoon air.

'Darling, you are feeling alright are you?' Mum asked Megan with a concerned expression on her face. 'We got a bit worried about you earlier' she went on. Megan didn't know what to say. She felt so locked up in her own private worries and concerns that she hardly knew where to start.

'I suppose' she replied noncommittally.

'You will tell me anything that worries you?' her mother continued. Megan nodded, though she knew that she wouldn't. 'Rachel seems very nice.' Megan smiled and nodded. 'I'm glad that you've made a friend, even if she is so much older than you.'

After dinner Megan helped wash up and then wandered outside again.

'I think I'll go for a stroll' she said to Mum absently.

'Can I come too?' pleaded Bethany. Megan smiled.

'Why not?' she answered. They walked out onto the dunes together, kicking at the sand and looking out for interesting bits of driftwood. Bethany said she was looking for hidden treasure and Megan joined in with the make-believe to keep her young sister entertained.

'If I was a pirate I'd hide my treasure under that bush there' she joked, pointing at a scrubby plant a short distance away. Bethany went over and started peering under it enthusiastically. 'Well maybe not that bush, but one like it.'

There was a smell of wood smoke in the air and when they came over the top of a dune they could see that a mother, father and two kids had lit a fire and were cooking sausages on sticks over the flames which crackled from the fat dripping down from the meat. It would have made Megan feel hungry if she hadn't just eaten. She eyed the family enviously. They seemed so happy and carefree. Even though she was on holiday too, it didn't feel like it. Every time she started to enjoy herself, she remembered the anxiety gnawing away at her inside.

Megan looked out to sea. She couldn't help but scan the waves for any tell-tale signs of a dolphin swimming in the water, but of course there were none. She wondered where Jet was now, and whether she would ever be able to speak to him again.

'Are you looking for the dolphins?' asked Bethany brightly. Feeling suddenly sad, Megan turned and strode away from her sister without answering. Bethany ran to keep up with her. 'It'll be okay' Bethany said. 'You'll see.' Megan turned to smile at her, but her heart felt heavy and she wasn't so sure.

Then Megan thought about Rachel, Toby Smith, and the journals of the Reverend Jeremiah Smith. She still had the battered edition of the Reverend's book in her pocket. Despite her despondency, she felt that she had made progress. Something had to help her to get back to Jet, it just had to. Looking back towards the sea, she could see that the rosy-coloured sun was flecking the waves with red. It was a beautiful view and despite everything, she was glad to be there. Bethany came up next to her and together they looked at the sunset.

'Come on' said Megan after a while, 'we'd better head back' she added, draping an arm companionably across Bethany's shoulders to walk back together across the dunes as the sun sank below the horizon and tipped the world into darkness.

Chapter Ten:

It was the familiar chugging noise that stirred Lucy into consciousness the next morning. She'd been worried about slipping away from Spirit and the pod if she fell asleep, but she'd been able to doze comfortably next to Spirit, lulled to sleep by the waves. She caught glimpses as she slept of a Victorian girl in a bonnet again in her restless dreams, but why, she had no idea. Lucy was still with them all the next morning. The sound that she heard on waking was of an engine. Its low rhythmic vibrations reverberated a long way through the green water of the sea around her. The engine spluttered occasionally but kept puttering on.

'I recognise that engine noise' said Lucy quietly. She couldn't quite place it though.

'Yes, it's the engine of the boat that brought the man who helped cut me free of the steel rope' answered Spirit. He knew all the sounds of the ocean and the noise of an engine, once heard, was immediately ingrained in his memory.

'You mean it's Nate's boat, the Lady Thelma?' Lucy asked. She rose towards the surface of the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Lady Thelma's homely hull.

'The boat's about two miles from here' replied Spirit.

'But it sounds so close' said Lucy. 'Can we go and see it, please?' Spirit suppressed a chuckle.

'Of course' he replied. 'Why not?' He glanced at Dancer who'd just swum over. 'Are you coming too?' he asked.

'What are you waiting for?' she replied. 'I bet I get there before you two sleepy heads!' With that, Dancer was off. Spirit sped off in pursuit leaving Lucy to catch up. She glided through the water effortlessly, but it was still hard for her to go as fast as the two dolphins. Spirit hung back a little till she reached him. Dancer was far ahead now and he had no chance of catching up with her.

Before long they swam up to the Lady Thelma. Lucy and the dolphins broke the surface of the water and she saw the familiar shape of the small fishing vessel. The Lady Thelma still needed a lick of paint and had seen better days, but Lucy had a lot of affection for the old tub, as Nate called it. There was the small wheel-house on top. They approached from the front of the boat. Spirit and Lucy caught up with Dancer and the three of them swam along abreast of each other. Lucy could see that Nate was standing at the prow, leaning with his face on his hands staring absently out to sea. Bob must be in the wheel-house, Lucy thought.

The two dolphins broke the surface of the water in shallow leap, and so did Lucy. She wondered if Nate could see her too. She knew that ordinary people would not be able to do so, but perhaps Nate was more attuned to the mysteries of the deep. He was a fisherman from Merwater after all. Maybe he would see her with Spirit and Dancer and think that she was a mermaid.

She could see that the two dolphins had certainly drawn his attention, but she could not tell if he saw her too. It was strange to be so close in this altered state to someone she knew so well. What would he think if he knew? He looked sad though. Normally Nate's ruddy middle-aged face was set in an expression of warmth and cheerfulness. This time she could see that he looked morose and unhappy. She wondered why. She certainly couldn't ask him, even though now they were barely three metres away from him. Spirit, Dancer and Lucy turned and swam alongside the vessel, even if it was much slower than they were.

'Can we leap high enough for me to see Nate's face better?' asked Lucy. Spirit inclined his head in agreement and a moment later all three of them were in mid-air, as high as the wheel-house of the boat. Nate turned to see the spectacle and Bob was calling something from inside, but Lucy could see that his baggy eyes were red and his face looked drawn. The three of them sliced back cleanly into the water. After a while they left to return to the pod. Lucy felt worried for Nate and for Thelma too. What could cause a tough resilient fisherman like Nate to look so miserable?

The clear morning light was shining through the windows of the hospital. Curtains had been drawn back and nurses bustled in and out of the ward as the building stirred into life and its staff went about their everyday routines. Lucy lay there, as perfectly still as she had been the day before. Not a muscle in her face or body had moved. Dad sat there in the day chair next to her, his arms folded and his eyes closed, his head lolling to one side uncomfortably as he slept. The rays of the sun stirred Dad from his slumbers and he blinked slowly as he regained consciousness. His neck felt stiff and uncomfortable and he massaged it with his hand. A nurse came up to check on Lucy's heart-rate and blood-pressure monitors. Everything was as it had been when the last nurse had checked in the middle of the night. The nurse's shifts changed at six thirty and now the nurse was an efficient-looking Afro-Caribbean lady with a warm accent.

'No change to Sleeping-Beauty?' asked the nurse with a sympathetic smile. Dad shook his head.

'Well maybe her prince will come today.' Dad still felt exhausted and hardly had the energy to reply. 'But you looked very tired Mr Parr. If Lucy's not come round by tonight it would be good for you if you sleep in your own bed getting some proper rest.'

'We'll see' he replied. He knew he wouldn't leave Lucy's side till she was on the mend but he wasn't going to tell her that. The nurse went on to another patient. 'Sleeping Beauty' Dad thought to himself. If only it was as easy as a kiss. He leant over and pressed his lips gently to Lucy's forehead. She didn't move. 'Well I suppose a father's kiss doesn't count anyway.'

'I think that Lucy should pay a visit to Sunlight' announced Storm when the three of them returned to the rest of the pod. 'She knows more than most of us about the relationship between dolphins and humans.' Lucy had found out in the Merwater museum about the story of Susan Penhaligon and how more than two hundred years ago she had led a group of children into the sea where they believed they would turn into dolphins. Sunlight was from a strange pod of dolphins who believed themselves to be descended from those children. She had escaped that pod for another to lead a life free from that sad legacy and had taken the name Sunlight to renounce her past.

Half an hour later Lucy felt optimistic as she, Spirit and Dancer sped along, breaking the tips of the low waves as they journeyed towards the part of the ocean where they knew that Sunlight's pod tended to stay. Spirit and Dancer were hungry and they broke their journey to hunt a shoal of sprat that they came across by chance. Lucy didn't feel any hunger at all and she hung in the water, watching with amusement as the two dolphins turned lithely, hunting the flashes of silver-backed fish in the water. After the two dolphins had had enough to eat they continued on their way.

Dancer called ahead, her whistles echoing far across the ocean to announce their imminent arrival, and presently they heard the reply of the other pod, not so very far away. Sunlight and the other dolphins of her pod were resting in the midst of a kelp forest that rose up from a few meters below them. The green tendrils of kelp swayed languorously in the water. They had fed well that morning and were content to rest, play and talk.

They were immensely curious as Dancer and Spirit arrived, accompanied by Lucy. They crowded around, looking at the human girl with keen interest, emitting echo-location clicks to study her, but were surprised when no echoes bounced back from where Lucy was in the water.

A young calf swam up to touch Lucy, but instead the calf simply glidinged through where it appeared that Lucy was floating.

'It's as though she's a ghost' exclaimed one of the pod.

'This is Lucy' explained Spirit. 'You all know that I am a Child-Seer and that Lucy is a Dolphin-Child. Normally she only comes to me for short visits, but this time her real self has been hurt in an accident and somehow she is able to stay with me much longer. We wanted to speak to you Sunlight' he continued, turning to look at the older dolphin.

Dancer and Spirit spoke politely to the elders of the pod for a short while, exchanging the traditional greetings and news. Eventually Spirit caught Sunlight's eye again.

'Come, swim with me' she said to Spirit and Lucy. Dancer sensed it was better for her to stay and to continue to talk to the pod elders. Spirit and Lucy followed Sunlight as they worked their way through the kelp forest.

Presently Sunlight turned and they paused in an open patch of water just near the kelp.

'Can I talk to you Lucy?' asked Sunlight, almost shyly. All Lucy could hear though were whistles. She was able to speak to Spirit with her mind, without the use of either human words or dolphin whistles. She could speak to Dancer in the same way, but she had never been able to do so with Storm or the other dolphins in the pod. She'd thought that since Sunlight was born of a pod that carried human names, they might also be able to communicate telepathically. She was disappointed that they could not.

'I can translate' said Spirit to Sunlight. He explained in more detail how Lucy had come to them. Sunlight looked at Lucy with troubled, searching eyes.

'The name handed down to me through the generations is a human one; Susan Penhaligon. My pod believed that by some magic they were descended from humans that gave up arms and legs for fins and tails and became dolphins in the sea. I could not share that belief and fled them to find a life elsewhere.'

Spirit translated. Lucy was anxious to find out something, anything that might help her in her plight.

'Tell her that before I had my injury I was worried about losing my gift; that I thought I'd never be able to see or speak to you again.' Spirit turned to Sunlight and recounted what Lucy had said. 'Tell her I'm worried that if I return to my physical body, I will never see Spirit or the rest of you all again.' Lucy's eyes flicked between the two dolphins in front of her. 'And I so desperately want to stay here with you. More than anything!'

'Dear Lucy' replied Sunlight, looking at the slight human girl floating in front of her in the water. 'I have no answers and know no truths. The story of the pod I was born into is a sad one. If humans turned into dolphins, why do some say that human bodies were washed up on the shore all those years ago?' She shook her head. 'Were those children transformed into dolphins, or did my ancestors take human names because of their guilt and remorse? I wish I knew.'

'Sunlight' said Spirit. 'Please tell us anything you can that might be able to help us. We don't know who else to turn to for guidance. If there is anything that you can remember from your time as a calf, anything at all, please tell us.'

Sunlight looked off into the distance, as if she was looking back in time. It felt to Lucy that they waited a long time before the older dolphin replied.

'Spirit. Have you ever heard of the Three Green Caves?' said Sunlight eventually. Spirit shook his head. 'I thought perhaps Storm or one of the others in your pod might have told you the story. There was once an old dolphin in this part of the ocean. Shimmer was her name.'

'Yes I have met Shimmer' replied Spirit. 'But she is no longer with us.'

'That is right' Sunlight went on. She paused while Spirit translated for Lucy. 'When I was young my mother told us the story of the Three Green Caves. I thought it was just a story from my pod. The thing is when I met Shimmer years later, she told me that she had heard the same story as well.'

'And what is that story' asked Spirit curiously. Sunlight paused.

'It is said that if dolphin and child meet at the green caves when the full moon is highest in the sky, that their union will last for all their lives.'

'But where are these caves?' asked Lucy excitedly through Spirit. Sunlight looked sadly at Spirit and Lucy.

'I wish I knew' she replied.

'They must be somewhere along the coast round here' said Lucy, fired with enthusiasm. 'It's just a matter of looking isn't it?' Sunlight sighed and regarded Lucy with compassionate eyes.

'But Shimmer's own sister was a Child-Seer' exclaimed Spirit. 'She told me that her sister became weak because she spent so much time with a human child and neglected her pod. She told me that her sister spent long periods of time away from her own pod, and then disappeared. She said that she thought that her sister was weakened and then killed by orcas. She warned me against doing the same thing.'

'Did Shimmer know where the Three Green Caves were?' asked Lucy insistently.

'She did not' replied Sunlight quietly. 'Shimmer told me that she believed that it was because her sister had been looking for those caves so hard that that is how she came to be killed.'

The three of them swum slowly back across the sea to join the rest of their own pod. It was Star-Gazer that noticed first.

'Lucy, you're looking paler' she exclaimed when the three of them reached the others. Spirit looked at Lucy, but couldn't see any difference.

'Yes, she's definitely looking less clear. You can almost see right through her' agreed Chaser.

'She's fading' said Summer. Now that Spirit looked again, he could see that Lucy was becoming more indistinct than she had been the day before, or even that morning.

'No, it can't be' said Lucy in alarm when Dancer explained what everyone was saying. 'I've only just got here. I want to stay with you and look for the Three Green Caves.'

'But your real self, your physical self is sick. The energy it takes for you to project yourself here with your mind must be enormous. You've never sustained it for so long before. Maybe your body just can't manage it any more' speculated Star-Gazer, full of worry.

'If that was happening, then normally I'd just run out of energy and I'd fade into the water and return to my body on dry land' said Lucy.

'That's true' said Dancer, 'but if your body's hurt, maybe it doesn't work like that.'

'I just can't worry about that now' said Lucy insistently. 'What about the caves? Ask the others if they know about the Three Green Caves.

Spirit asked Storm and the others, but no one seemed to know about them.

'Between us we know this coastline pretty well' said Storm. 'There are caves of course. Some are exposed when the tide is low and some are hidden entirely beneath the water. But I can't think of any of the sort that you describe.'

'Well you must take me there' replied Lucy when Spirit explained what Storm had said. 'There's not a moment to lose.'

'Lucy, I desperately want to find out how we can keep this thing going' Spirit said. 'But it's dangerous for you. You could die.' Lucy looked at Spirit with determination in her eyes.

'It's a risk I'm just going to have to take' she replied emphatically. The pod spoke more amongst themselves and Storm reluctantly agreed to take them to see the caves he knew along the coast. The pod moved off, all in one group.

'What's the matter doctor?' asked Dad. Doctor Goodman was standing by Lucy's bed with a couple of junior doctors next to her. She was puzzled by Lucy's monitors. Brain activity was as active as ever, but her heart rate and blood pressure were dropping rapidly. Doctor Goodman had been discussing what the problem might be. She turned to Dad.

'I really don't know Mr Parr' she replied. 'I can't explain it. So far all we've done is keep Lucy stable and give her body a chance to recover at its own pace. Yet her physical condition appears to be deteriorating. It doesn't fit in to our normal understanding of the symptoms for MTBI, or concussion, at all. We'll be applying some medication to help restore her heart beat and then we'll review the situation again later on this afternoon.'

Doctor Goodman turned back to her colleagues to continue their discussion. Bethany had just returned to the ward with yet another styrofoam cup of coffee and was looking at them all with a look of incomprehension and worry on her face. Dad felt the same way.

As they all approached the grey granite cliffs, Spirit glanced back at Lucy. Ordinarily she glided effortless along in the water next to him, but now she seemed to be straining to keep up. Her face looked pale and drawn. If they hadn't been traveling more slowly due to Summer's calf No-Name, she wouldn't have managed it at all. It was clear that Lucy was getting much weaker now. Spirit didn't know how much longer she could keep going. They paused under the grey wall of cliff.

'Here's the biggest cave that I know about' said Chaser, who had been leading the pod for the last ten minutes or so. 'The only entrance to it is from under the water. Spirit, you come with me, it isn't safe for all of us to go.'

'Hang on, I'm coming too' said Lucy defiantly. Chaser, Spirit and Lucy swam down past the great tumbled boulders at the foot of the cliff. The light grew fainter the further down they went, and Lucy could see something like an eel slither along from the shadows down into a crevice out of the way of the approaching dolphins.

'Are you sure you're okay down here?' Spirit whispered to Lucy. She nodded. He knew that was how she'd respond, though she clearly wasn't alright at all.

'The mouth of the cave is just below us' said Chaser, nodding towards a black jagged hole in the rock. 'Be careful, it's very dark.' Because of their ability to detect things around them with their clicking echo-location, Chaser and Spirit weren't impeded by the lack of light. For Lucy though, it was pitch black inside the cave and she couldn't see a thing.

'Stay close to my side' whispered Spirit. He moved slowly in the darkness. Now they were in the cave it seemed to rise up and Lucy could hear the two dolphin's rapid clicking as they made their way along. It felt claustrophobic to be enclosed by the dark rock after the freedom of the wide ocean and Lucy didn't like the feeling it gave her at all. The chamber seemed to widen out before tapering away to a crack. It was entirely full of water and there seemed to be no living thing in there.

'It can't be this cave' whispered Spirit anxiously to Lucy. There's no way a human could get in here unaided and it certainly isn't linked to any other caves. It's not green either.'

'Let's get out of here' said Chaser. 'I've never been all the way into here before, but I don't think it's this one.'

It was a relief to return to the light outside the cave and to re-join the others. Lucy had to pause and rest for a few moments. She could feel Star-Gazer's worried eyes fixed upon her. Star-Gazer reminded her of the way her own mother used to look at Lucy when she was still alive. It was nice to be mothered sometimes she thought, but this wasn't one of those times.

'That can't be it' said Lucy to Spirit and Dancer. 'There must be other caves that we can visit.'

'Storm says that there's another cave just a ten minute swim from here' said Dancer. 'We're going there next.' Spirit wished that he could give Lucy a lift with his dorsal fin like he could when she was physically there. Now though she was just a fading apparition in the water and there was nothing he could do to help her as they all swam along.

Eventually they came to the cave that Storm had been referring to. Lucy glimpsed at it over the surface of the water. It was much more how she would imagine a sea cave. It looked as though the cliff had a gash in the side that opened up a hole of about ten meters at water level. The sun was playing on the water and compared to the other cave, this one looked inviting.

'What are we waiting for?' asked Lucy, keen to get on. Just then though they heard an engine, and an open boat with an out-board motor came into view. There was a group of ten or so people in the boat and they seemed to be heading towards the entrance of the cave. The dolphins were not keen to be seen and dipped below the surface of the sea.

'Storm says that boats often come here from the town' whispered Dancer. 'Humans like looking in the cave apparently.' Lucy felt her optimism rise. Perhaps this could be the one.

It felt like a really long time before the boat with the humans inside eventually left again and they were free to enter. This time the entire pod swam into the cave to look around. It was maybe five meters from the surface of the water to the rocky bottom, but the thing that impressed Lucy was how high the cave went. It felt like the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral. She thought she could make out bats roosting high above them, but she couldn't be sure.

They were moving slowly now, but even Lucy could feel her energy ebbing away. She knew she didn't have long. What if Star-Gazer was right? What if she wouldn't be able to return to her body in the hospital bed so far away. What if she'd just die? Lucy started looking around the cave with renewed urgency. It was no good though. It wasn't green and it wasn't linked to any other caves. It wasn't the right one.

'Come on, let's get out of here' said Spirit eventually. They swam outside again.

'Lucy, you look really unwell now. This can't go on' said Star-Gazer, full of motherly concern.

'But what about the next cave? We've got to go to the next cave' protested Lucy weakly.

'Summer says she knows one but its more than an hour's swim from here' said Dancer.

'We could go on looking all week and never find the cave that Sunlight told us about' said Star-Gazer.

'Look' whispered Dancer to Spirit. 'She's sinking again. She's sinking downwards.'

'Listen to me Lucy' said Spirit urgently. 'I don't think you're going to last much longer. You've got to return to your own body in the hospital. You've got to do it now. If you don't I'm afraid that you'll...that you'll die.'

'She's so faint she's hardly here' said Summer, full of concern.

'But I don't want to lose you' said Lucy, her voice small and unhappy.

'I don't want to lose you either' said Spirit. 'But we have a clue now. Dancer and I can keep on looking for the three green caves at this end. You can continue looking at your end, in the world above the water.' Spirit looked imploringly at her. He knew that Lucy was stubborn and headstrong. Would she listen to him?

'Okay, I'll try to return to my body now' said Lucy at last. 'I don't want to though. I want to remain here with you all for ever.'

'We will see each other again' said Spirit. 'We will!' With one last look deep into Spirit's eyes, Lucy dissolved into a swirl of atoms. Then she was gone.

'Alright, let's give her a hundred milligrams of adrenalin' said Doctor Goodman, 'And if that doesn't work we'd better get the resuscitation team on standby. At this rate her heart's going to stop beating in less than a minute.' There was a small crowd of doctors and nurses surrounding Lucy's bed now as her condition quickly deteriorated. A junior doctor got ready to administer the injection. Dad grasped Lucy's hand, desperate for something, anything to bring his daughter back to him.

Before anything further could be done though, the heart-rate monitor suddenly started beeping more rapidly and firmly again. Dad felt a movement in Lucy's hand and glanced towards her face. Her eyes fluttered and then opened.

'Lucy, have you come back to us?' whispered Dad, barely able to believe what he was seeing. She turned to look at him.

'Hello Dad', she said.

Chapter Eleven:

Young Bethany felt envious and disappointed when Rachel beeped her car horn outside the cottage gate. Megan dashed to collect her things and run out to join her. Bethany was being left behind yet again with Mum and Dad. The day suddenly seemed greyer and flatter than it had done half an hour before.

'Don't worry love' said Mum as they heard Rachel's Citroen drive away, 'we'll think of something fun to do today.' Bethany stared glumly into her cornflakes, pushing them around with her spoon.

'So do you think we'll find out something useful?' Megan asked Rachel eagerly as they bumped up the track that led to the main road. The older girl was wearing a light cotton dress and cowboy boots and had a scarf in her hair. Megan's Dad would have said she looked like a hippy, but Megan thought that Rachel was cool. Megan herself was dressed in her habitual shorts and T-shirt and felt very young in comparison. Rachel shot her a winning smile.

'Well we'll soon find out won't we? Don't build your hopes up too much though Megan' she went on. 'Maybe the mice have eaten through the Rev's papers already.'

They chatted about this and that as Rachel drove down the quiet hedge-lined lanes towards Merwater. Despite being glad to have Rachel as a friend, Megan still couldn't help but wonder why she was being so nice and helpful. Surely there must be other things she'd rather being doing, other people she'd rather be seeing. Megan would have liked to have asked, but didn't know how to. The best friend she'd ever had was Jet, and they had understood each other in a way that transcended words. Now that she was cut off from him Megan needed all the friends she could get. She daren't risk losing Rachel by asking too many questions.

Soon they pulled up outside Owl Books. It was half-day closing and all shops would be shutting up at lunchtime. Megan would help Rachel and her Mum in the bookshop till one pm and then they'd all drive up to Toby Smith's house. First Rachel and Megan spent an hour or so unpacking a consignment of second-hand books that had come in. They were all dusty and a couple of them had mould growing on the pages. Rachel priced them up with an experienced eye and organised them into subjects. Then Megan helped Rachel put them on the shelves in the bookshop. There was a special ladder to get to the higher shelves and Megan enjoyed going up it to get a good look down on everybody from above. As she did so she spied one of the customers browsing the shelves, surreptitiously slip a book into his jacket.

Megan felt her heart beat faster in indignation. No one was going to steal a book from her friend's mum's shop

'Rachel!' she whispered fiercely. Her friend turned and looked up. Megan gestured wildly and Rachel nodded back in silent understanding. She went up to the cash register and murmured something into her mother's ear. A faint smile passed across both their faces.

The man with the book hidden in his jacket made his way towards the door.

'Oh Mr Edwards!' called Rachel's mum with friendly familiarity. He turned guiltily towards her. 'Two pounds please.' The man frowned.

'I....' began the man hesitantly.

'I think you'll find that the book you picked up is marked two pounds.' Rachel's mother smiled in a brisk manner and tapped impatiently on the counter with her pencil. She nodded in the direction of the man's jacket where the bulge of the book was now distinctly visible.

With great reluctance the man eventually opened up his wallet and extracted two one pound notes.

'See you soon Mr Edwards!' called Rachel's mum brightly as the shop door-bell clanged shut behind him.

'Mum that book would have only been marked at seventy five pence' admonished Rachel with a smile. Her mother grinned.

'Serves him right for trying it on with us.' She looked up at Megan who was still on the ladder. 'Well done you!'

Once Rachel's mother locked the shop door and turned the sign to 'closed', they went upstairs. Bilbo Baggins got up languidly from his sun-spot in the window, stretched and then followed them up the narrow stairs in the hope of getting fed titbits.

Rachel's Mum made cheese sandwiches from crusty, home-made bread which she proudly announced she'd made that morning. Megan, who preferred ready-sliced white bread found them almost indigestible but bit through the rock-hard crusts, too polite to say what she really thought of them.

'Right' said Rachel's mum eventually. 'Rachel you go and get the Reverend Smith's journal out of the locked case and we can all go off to see Toby Smith.

'I must say I'm quite intrigued to see his house' she went on. 'Of course he comes in to the shop occasionally and we do chat sometimes. He's got quite a reputation and it'll be good to get a better look at him in his own habitat, so to speak. I'd been biding my time before approaching him about the journal, but this is as good a time as any' she went on, almost thinking out loud. So if he wants to buy the Reverend Smith's journal back, then so much the better!' she added brightly.

The three of them clambered back into the old Citroen. Megan wondered if Bilbo Baggins might join them, but he strolled on over to the Owl Pub instead.

'He's quite partial to the occasional pork scratching' said Rachel as they saw him go. 'There's always some afternoon drinker or other willing to indulge him.' Megan felt a mixture of anticipation and nerves as they drove the short distance up the hill to Toby Smith's house. What would they find there in his loft?

'My dear Mrs Greenwood' exclaimed Toby Smith as he opened the door. 'How lovely to welcome you into my home! Do come in, do come in all of you.' He gestured to usher them into the hall. He and Rachel's Mum immediately started chatting. Before long the two adults were on first name terms and Rachel and Megan felt almost forgotten. They all went through to the large sitting room with its grand piano, stereo and piles of jazz records.

'What a beautiful room Toby' exclaimed Rachel's Mum, looking through the expanse of window into the walled garden beyond.

'Why thank you Sophie', Toby Smith beamed in reply. 'The house has been in the family for at least three generations, but I've tried to give the old place a lighter and more airy feel since I inherited it. Of course I live most of the year in London but I normally spend a few months down here, especially over the summer.' Rachel's Mum laughed in appreciation.

To Megan, perched on a small formal-looking sofa next to Rachel, Toby Smith seemed to inhabit a completely different world of comfort and leisure. It was difficult enough for her parents to scrape enough money together to rent a cottage for a fortnight and to own not one but two homes would be impossible for them.

Megan felt rather gauche and ill at ease sitting there on the sofa, watching the adults talk. Fortunately she wasn't required to say very much at all. It seemed as though Toby Smith and Rachel's mum were very keen to laugh at whatever the other said, and she couldn't help noticing that Rachel's Mum was wearing more make-up than she'd seen her wear before.

'Why don't you two keep chatting over tea whilst Megan and I go and take a look in the loft?' Rachel broke in on the adult's cosy tete-a-tete.

'Excellent idea' replied Toby Smith, who seemed only too pleased to have Rachel's mum's undivided attention. 'Once you've finished you can come back down and join us for tea' he went on. He stood up and Megan noticed that he appeared to be holding in his rather ample stomach. 'Let me show you two up.'

He led them out of the sitting room back into the hall where the wide, elegant staircase swept upwards. Megan could see from the wood that it must be as old as the house, and it creaked slightly as they proceeded upwards.

'I haven't really had a good look around the loft for years' he said as they walked upstairs. I occasionally push the odd cardboard box in there but really it could do with a proper sort-through. There must be a hundred years of junk stuffed up there.'

At home her parents loft was accessible only through a small hatch in the ceiling at the top of the stairs which her dad used a ladder to reach. She liked to go up there with him when she could, but there were no floor-boards and she had to be careful to step from joist to joist, otherwise she might put a foot through the plaster ceiling into the room below. Toby Smith's loft, she was certain, would be a rather grander affair.

At the top of the stairs there was a big picture window looking down on the walled-garden below. The walls were wood-panelled up here and Megan half expected to see a suit of armour standing to attention in the corner. An old and worn carpet ran up the passage leading from the stairs and Megan thought that Toby Smith's redecoration had not reached this far. He led them down the passage, talking loudly as they went.

'The servants would have lived up here once upon a time' he said, smiling back at them, 'but of course I don't have servants now. Just a lady with a vacuum cleaner who comes in once a week to do battle with the dust.'

At the end of the corridor there was another window, and then a small, cramped door to the left. Toby Smith produced a big old key from his pocket and opened the door. It creaked eerily as he pushed it open.

'Well it's all yours you two' he said, flicking on an ancient looking electric switch. Behind the door Megan could see a tight little staircase that twisted round up out of sight. 'Last time I looked there were some chests where you might find the Rev's journals, but to be honest I can't exactly say where they are. You'll just have to rummage around and see what you come up with. Mind your heads now!'

Rachel went first and Megan followed, feeling a surge of excitement as they did so. They could hear Toby Smith padding back down the corridor in his suede shoes.

At the top of the stairs, they found themselves in a cavernous room under the eaves of the roof that seemed to extend all the way across the house. There was one bare light bulb but fortunately there were two small windows set into the roof which let the afternoon sun stream in. Megan could see motes of dust floating in the air and promptly sneezed.

'Wow, what a lot of stuff!' exclaimed Rachel as they both looked around. They were practically cut off by a wall of tea-chests stacked three-high in front of them. To their right there was an old television and a record player a bit like the one that Megan's parents had at home. A pile of magazines were propped up untidily to their left, in imminent danger of sliding over on top of them.

'This stuff doesn't seem so old' said Megan, looking around her.

'My guess is that the further we go that way' Rachel said pointing in towards the depths of the loft, 'the further back in time we go.'

'We could be up here for ages' whispered Megan. Rachel giggled.

'I don't think that old Toby is going to mind. He's taken a bit of a shine to my Mum.' Megan was appalled. She didn't think grown-ups that age should get up to that kind of thing.

'But he's so old!' she exclaimed, aghast.

'Oh he's only about fifty' Rachel replied, and my mum's forty-five, so they're not so badly suited age-wise.' Rachel smirked again. 'You know what, I think Mum quite likes him too. She and Dad divorced about three years ago and it would be good for her if she met someone nice.' Megan pulled a face and gave a convulsive shiver, as though she were shaking off a particularly off-putting thought.

'I know, I know' replied Rachel, 'Best not to think about it. Now, let's see if we can find the Reverend Jeremiah Smith's journals.'

To make up for being left alone, Mum and Dad promised to take Bethany rock-pooling. She loved to peer into the limpid clear pools left by the receding tide and search for any stray fish or crabs that might be caught there. Because their cottage was next to a wide sandy beach, there hadn't been much opportunity to look at rock pools so far. Dad grumbled a bit but Mum was keen to go to a cove that she'd read about in her guide book. Armed with her wire-hooped net on a bamboo pole and a sandcastle bucket to keep anything Bethany caught, they set off.

Mum had some difficulty finding the public footpath that led to the cliff edge, but eventually she spotted the right one. Dad parked the car off the road by the stile next to the field gate and they started out on foot. They'd made a picnic and although Bethany wasn't very keen on egg and cress sandwiches, she was looking forward to the cheese and onion crisps and little cocktail sausages skewered together with pineapple on little toothpicks that Mum thought would be a nice idea.

The path cut across a small field occupied by a few scattered sheep that eyed the three of them indignantly. Bethany ran on ahead. There it was; Old Man's Cove, with a small crescent of pebbly beach with rocks and pools exposed on each side with the low tide. It looked an awfully long way down the steep path and they gingerly picked their way down it, clinging on to clumps of grass occasionally for fear of sliding down. Eventually they got to the bottom. Dad wasn't very keen on sunbathing on a pebble beach and sat on a boulder in his shorts and check-shirt under a panama hat, reading a paperback. Mum pottered around with Bethany for a while, peering into rock-pools, before she too retreated up the beach to flop down on one of the large towels she'd spread out over the pebbles. Presently Mum called to Bethany to come and share the picnic with them. Bethany tried to eat as few egg and watercress sandwiches as she could, whilst stuffing herself with as many crisps and cocktail sausages as she could get away with. She drank orange squash from a bottle whilst Mum and Dad drank coffee from the plastic, screw-on cups that came with their large tartan-checked thermos flask. Dad said the coffee always tasted strange from the thermos, but he drank it anyway.

After the picnic Bethany was keen to get back to her rock-pooling, whilst Dad said that he and Mum were going to lie down and have a snooze. He made Bethany promise not to get too close to the water's edge, but then left her to her own devices. Soon she could hear Dad's light sonorous snore above the gentle waves breaking on the rocks.

Bethany crouched down and stared intently into the clear waters of the rock pool. There were a few strands of seaweed, and in amongst them she occasionally glimpsed a handful of tiny fish that darted this way and that when her shadow fell across them. She'd managed to catch one fish with her net, which now hung gloomily in her plastic bucket full of sea water, but she wanted to snare a second one to keep it company. Every time she swished her net through the water though, the fish darted away to the safety of the little crevices that pitted the rock pool and all Bethany seemed to catch was sand. She'd had more luck with the tiny hermit crabs that inhabited discarded winkle shells and which lumbered laboriously around with their house on their backs. She'd caught two of those but decided to release them back into the rock pool to continue their journey. They'd hide, rock-still in their adopted homes for a minute or two before tentatively putting out their legs and continuing their slow journey.

Bethany had hoped to find a seahorse, but Dad said he didn't think you could find them on the Cornish coastline. She'd bought a dried-out seahorse with her pocket money from a souvenir shop by the harbour in Merwater, but Dad said they were probably imported from abroad. There were plenty of limpets stuck to the rocks there, although they weren't very exciting to look at, and she'd spotted spiny sea urchin which she knew would be painful if she stood on it.

Bethany was so absorbed in the perfect miniature world of the rock pool at her feet that at first she didn't notice the movement in the sea a few meters away from her. Suddenly though she heard a clicking noise and glanced up. There in front of her, a short distance from the rocky outcrop where she was sitting, was a smiling dolphin, regarding her with friendly eyes.

Bethany felt a tight knot of joy at the sight of such a wonderful animal. It must be Megan's dolphin Jet! She glanced around at where Mum and Dad were lying. They were both dozing and were quite oblivious to the wonderful creature that had suddenly appeared in front of her. Bethany went right up to the edge of the rocks.

'Hello dolphin' she whispered excitedly. 'You're beautiful!' she exclaimed as she admired the sleek dolphin's head and dorsal fin protruding above the surface of the sea.

'Are you Megan's friend, then?' she asked. The dolphin clicked in reply. On television on Saturdays there was a drama about a dolphin that lived off the coast of California. The dolphin was friends with a boy whose dad was a coastguard and invariably saved people from drowning in each episode. Dad said that it was like a sort of aquatic Lassie. This dolphin seemed completely different though. Bethany had never been so close to a real live dolphin before and she wished she could jump into the water and swim with it, but she didn't dare to.

The dolphin put its head on one side and clicked at her some more. Somehow, Bethany decided that the dolphin looked sad.

'Did you want to see Megan?' she asked sympathetically. She couldn't help but be struck by the intelligence in the dolphins eyes. He seemed to be looking intently at her. 'I wish that Megan was here too' she went on, 'but she's gone off for the day.' Bethany knew that the dolphin couldn't understand what she was saying, any more than she could understand its clicks, but it helped her to speak to it.

'I wish I could help you Mister Dolphin' she said. Bethany stretched out her hand as far as she dared, just on the surface of the water. The dolphin touched her hand briefly with its beak. Then, with one last sad look at her, the dolphin turned and disappeared again under the gentle lapping waves. It was gone.

'Goodbye Mister Dolphin' she whispered.

After forty minutes or so of searching, Megan and Rachel were both exhausted. Dust seemed to have boiled up into clouds every time they moved something and now there was a fine grey coating all over their hair, hands, face and clothes. They looked like a pair of ashen-faced ghosts. They sat down wearily on an upturned tea chest and gulped greedily from a bottle of water that Rachel had in her bag.

So far they hadn't made much progress. The loft was so full of boxes and discarded junk that it was difficult to move through it at all. They had to shift boxes just to get to something that looked interesting. It was back-breaking work. There were any number of cardboard boxes full of papers, but most of them seemed to be accounts, old letters and manuscripts from the nineteen fifties and sixties. Megan had imagined that they would find the odd rocking horse, stuffed lions head or the occasional wooden chest, but it wasn't like that at all. It was more like someone's office had been boxed up and deposited up there.

'Look over there' said Rachel peering into one corner where the roof sloped down to the wooden floorboards. Megan looked over keenly, but was immediately disappointed. 'You see there's a bird's nest in that corner. It must be a great place to bring up chicks' Rachel laughed.

They got up and started looking again.

'Let's look over there' said Megan, pointing towards a corner furthest from the door they had come up. 'If you're right, the further from the door you go the older the stuff will be.'

'It's going to be impossible shifting all of those boxes to get over there though' observed Rachel.

'Well, why don't we just climb over the top of them then?' asked Megan with a mischievous smile. 'No one will ever know.'

'That's brilliant Megan' said Rachel with a laugh. 'Up you go then! Lead the way. I'll be right behind you.' Megan climbed up and started picking her way cautiously over the tops of the boxes. Some of them were completely full with papers and were fairly safe to stand on. Others were only half full or had strangely shaped objects inside, and there was a risk of the top collapsing under her weight. She soon learned to distinguish which boxes were okay to stand on though as they made their way towards the shadows of the furthest corner.

'Look!' Megan exclaimed, pointing. There was a space at the back which they hadn't been able to see before as it was hidden behind a wall of packing cases. In the gloom they could make out an ancient gramophone player with a an enormous brass horn to magnify the sound that came from the heavy needle. Next to it was a glass dome under which Megan could just make out stuffed humming birds that had been arranged on a branch. Next to that there was an enormous travelling trunk with brass fittings.

'That must weigh a tonne' murmured Rachel as the finally stood next to it. 'Let's look inside.'

Fortunately the trunk was not locked and after some prising, the lid lifted up and Rachel swung it back on its hinges. The trunk was packed to the brim with hand-written letters tied up with ribbons, books and 'journals!' exclaimed Megan excitedly. She pulled out a volume. It looked exactly like the one journal of the Reverend Smith's that Rachel's mum had in the bookshop. In the dim light it was really quite hard to make out the copperplate handwriting. Even the date on the inside front cover was hard to decipher.

'Tell you what' said Rachel. 'Let's fish out all of the volumes of the Reverend's journal that we can find, clamber back over the boxes and sit down somewhere with some decent light to read them.' Megan nodded in agreement. They found a total of eleven journals which Rachel held in a great pile under her chin while they precariously picked their way back over the mounds of cardboard boxes.

'I don't like it up here' said Megan, as they reached the top of the tight stairs that led up to the loft. 'Let's go back down.' They descended the creaking stairs with their precious load and padded back along the servants passage to the top of the main staircase. It was flooded with afternoon light from the big picture window which overlooked the garden. Below them Megan could see Rachel's Mum and Toby Smith wandering around the walled-garden, inspecting the flowerbeds and laughing.

'They're just like a pair of giddy teenagers' observed Rachel with a smile. 'Let's not disturb them. Why don't we sit down here at the top of the stairs and start browsing.'

Megan felt a mixture of excitement and fear now that she had the Reverend's journals in her hands. Excitement, because what the Reverend had discovered could bring her back to Jet again. Fear, because she knew she might learn nothing useful at all.

Rachel and Megan organised the journals in chronological order. There was only one missing 'which must be the one that Mum's got' observed Rachel. There were another four journals that followed the one they'd read from in Owl Books. Megan took the next volume after the one in the book shop, and Rachel took the one that followed that.

They sat there, engrossed. First of all Megan read each entry with close attention, struggling occasionally to make out the words written in the Reverends elegant hand. After a while though she resorted to skimming the pages, looking for any reference to dolphins whatsoever. There were long passages on folk songs in the area which were of no interest to Megan at all.

Megan lost track of how long they sat there studying their respective volumes, but eventually they heard the tread of feet on the stairs and then the faces of Toby Smith and Rachel's mum appeared round the corner.

'Oh there you are!' exclaimed Rachel's mum. 'We'd begun to think you'd got locked in up there'. The two of them looked up from their respective journals. Megan could see that shadows were lengthening in the garden and the sun was getting low in the sky. Neither Rachel nor Megan had exchanged more than a few words since they started reading but Megan knew that Rachel hadn't been able to find anything interesting either. Then just when she was beginning to despair Rachel made a little gasp and Megan had glanced over curiously. Just then the two adults appeared.

'Mum, Toby?' Rachel asked with a note of excitement in her voice. 'Have you ever heard of somewhere called the Trinity Caves?'

Chapter Twelve:

Lucy drifted in and out of sleep after she returned to her physical self. Her body and mind were exhausted. Doctors and nurses seemed to swirl about her in the moments that she was conscious but she could barely keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time. Her eyelids felt so heavy that she could hardly lift them at all.

'Don't worry Lucy' Dad whispered when she stirred and opened her eyes drowsily to look at him, 'it's just the meds.' He gave her hand a squeeze. 'You'll be right as rain before you know it.' She smiled weakly at him briefly before her eyes fluttered and closed again.

Dolphins inhabited her restless dreams. Elusively, she would glimpse them for a moment or two in the distance before they got lost again in the swirls and eddies of her sleep. Other times she would half glimpse the Victorian girl in a bonnet again, who she felt meant her well, but whose features she could never quite see properly.

Later on Lucy forced her eyes open to see Bethany standing at the foot of the hospital bed, a styrofoam cup in her hands, her hair an untidy mess of blond curls about her face.

'Hey Kiddo.' Bethany smiled lovingly at her. Lucy was so drowsy that for a moment she thought it was Mum looking back at her.

'You look...' Lucy began to say, but was unable to complete her sentence. She drifted back to sleep again.

Every time her mind crawled towards consciousness she felt Dad's hand, cupping hers in his. When she moved a little in her sleep, he would give her hand a squeeze, as if to remind her that she must not slip away from them again. She welcomed sleep though. Whether it was the exertion of her mind while she was with Spirit, or the medication that the doctors had given her, she needed sleep now more than anything.

Lucy had no perception of time passing, but when she finally came to, the early morning sunlight was filtering through the windows of the ward. She looked around her. Dad was asleep in the chair next to the bed. He had two days stubble on his chin and his skin looked grey. He suddenly looked much older than before. The lines of his face seemed deeper and she wondered when she had last really looked at him.

Now it felt as though she was seeing the whole world with fresh eyes. The hospital ward and everything around her seemed bright and new. Her body was replenished and her mind was alert. She felt like jumping out of bed and going outside. Dad's head lolled back in his sleep and he started to make a low noise from the back of his throat.

'Dad, Dad. You're snoring' she whispered to him. He opened his eyes and smiled, stretching himself as he did so.

'You look bright eyed and bushy tailed' he said, smiling.

'How long have I been asleep?' Lucy asked.

'Well' he replied slowly, 'let me see. Yes it's been two full days since you came back to us. You've had a lot of catching up to do I think. The doctors said that even though you were unconscious before that, your brain was very active. They couldn't really explain that to me either.' Lucy smiled. She knew very well why. 'But do you remember what happened to you?' he asked.

'I, I know that we were doing diving practice at the pool' she replied. 'I cracked my head and then, then I opened my eyes and I was surrounded by doctors.' She thought it was better not to go into any more detail with him.

'We were very worried about you Luce' Dad replied. 'You were unconscious for a very long time and the doctors couldn't bring you around. Your heart rate and blood pressure suddenly became very weak and irregular and they even thought your heart might stop beating altogether' he went on. 'I'm hoping to keep you out of hospital from now on. After all it's the second time this year.' Lucy smiled again.

'Do they reckon I'll be okay now then?' she asked.

'I reckon so' he replied. 'You know what doctors are like. They'll want to prod and poke you and run all sorts of tests on you, but you don't look too bad to me.'

'Where's Bethany?' Lucy asked. 'She's been here hasn't she?'

'Oh yes' Dad replied. 'She came up as soon as she heard about your accident and she's pretty much camped at the hospital ever since. Now you're over the worst of it I sent her back to the house to get a shower and freshen up.' Just then a nurse came up to the bed.

'And how's our patient this morning' she asked brightly.

'I feel much better thank you' replied Lucy.

'You were our Sleeping Beauty' the nurse went on as she bustled round the bed. 'Luckily it didn't take a hundred years before you woke up again.' The nurse smiled again broadly. 'Looks like you're on the mend now. We'll get you off home before you know it.'

Now that she was fully awake again, it was a pleasure to lie back and watch the hospital staff get on with the business of the day. They always seemed to be doing something or another. A lady serving breakfast from a trolley came around the ward and Lucy suddenly realised that she was absolutely ravenous. Her stomach started rumbling loudly at the very thought of food. She hadn't eaten for days and now she needed to make up for lost meals. Lucy piled up her plate with buttered toast and strawberry jam, and tucked into the resulting mound with gusto. She offered Dad a slice but he refused; it was clear that she needed the food more than he did.

Lucy wondered what her class would be doing in school, but she didn't even know if it was a weekday or the weekend. Her question was answered though when later that morning Amy and her mum appeared at her bedside.

'Hey Lucy!' exclaimed Amy, depositing some cellophane-wrapped flowers on the bed to reach over and give her friend an extravagant hug. Mrs Hodges smiled broadly behind her daughter. After a few minutes of general chat, Dad and Mrs Hodges strolled up the corridor together, leaving the two girls alone to talk.

'We all thought you'd die!' said Amy. 'You've been the talk of the school for days. Do you remember what happened?' Lucy told her what she'd told Dad. 'I was worried sick' Amy went on. 'I couldn't concentrate on anything at all. We were supposed to have a French vocab test but I just couldn't revise. I ended up only getting seven out of twenty five words right.' She looked at her friend again. 'I couldn't help but think it was something to do with..., you know, something to do with you and Spirit.' Just then they both glanced up to Dad and Mrs Hodges walking back towards the bed. Lucy didn't want to say anything that Dad might overhear but gave Amy the slightest of nods. 'I knew it, I knew it!' Amy exclaimed. 'You've got to tell me all about it as soon as possible' she whispered quietly. 'It's almost the Christmas holidays' she added. 'Just a few days to go. We can spend lots of time together then.'

Lucy felt awkward with Dad and Mrs Hodges within earshot. She asked about all the lessons she'd missed and the preparations for the school play and end of term disco.

'I don't think you're going to be up for that Lucy love' said Mrs Hodges.

'That's right Luce' added Dad. 'I've already spoken to the doctors and school and it's agreed that you'll be kept off school till the start of the new school year in January. That way you'll have a proper chance to recover.'

'Aww' exclaimed Lucy. 'I'll miss out on all the fun.'

After Amy and her mum had gone, Lucy was taken down for more tests. The nurse put her in a wheelchair and took her down to a room in the basement with an enormous white tube in it, which looked like an elongated ring-donut. There was a stretcher-like board for her to lie on and the staff told her to lie perfectly still as something whirred and she was propelled inside. It made heavy metallic clunking noises from within the machine and after what seemed like an eternity, they brought her out again.

Lucy felt dizzy as the nurse carefully helped her back into the wheelchair again, but the technicians were all smiling. It looked as though whatever they'd wanted to test was fine.

'Why can't I just walk?' Lucy asked, determined to get back to normal as soon as she could.

'You will soon enough' replied the nurse reassuringly. 'But you've been flat out in bed for the last few days and it takes a while to build your strength up again. We just put you in a wheelchair to be on the safe side. Besides, I think the doctor will discharge you tomorrow morning.'

Later on Bethany spent a few hours with Lucy while Dad went home for a rest. Bethany had her sketch book with her and Lucy flicked through it idly as they sat together. There were half a dozen or so sketches of Lucy in the hospital bed with her eyes closed.

'I only started sketching you once you'd regained consciousness. It was only after you'd fallen asleep naturally that I picked up a pencil' Bethany explained. I was just too worried to even think about sketching before that.'

They sat companionably watching a film on the television that was mounted just over Lucy's bed. It was an old black and white movie about a princess on holiday in Rome who was befriended by an American who took her to see the Coliseum and the other sights on the back of his scooter. Normally Lucy wasn't keen on romantic comedies, but it was good to lie back on a heap of pillows and surrender herself to the charm of the movie.

Bethany was entranced by it. 'I haven't seen this film in years' she murmured. 'I'd forgotten how lovely it is.' Wrapped up in their comfortable cocoon of idleness, the afternoon passed. Nagging away at the back of her mind though was the thought of Spirit, Dancer and the other dolphins out there, somewhere in the ocean.

'Bethany?' she asked apropos nothing in particular. 'Have you ever heard of the Three Green Caves?'

'Three Green Caves? Err no. I can't say I have Kiddo' Bethany replied glancing around at her niece. 'Why?'

'Oh I thought you may have come across them' replied Lucy noncommittally, '... down in Merwater.'

'You'd have to ask Thelma or Nate' replied Bethany. 'I'm afraid I've never heard of them.' Lucy frowned. Ever since she'd found out that Thelma had told Dad that she would grow out of being a dolphin-child, but hadn't told Lucy, she'd felt betrayed and let down by Thelma. She didn't really want to ask Thelma anything at all. Bethany turned her full attention towards Lucy and regarded her thoughtfully.

'When you were unconscious Lucy, do you remember anything from that time? The doctors said the scans showed that your brain was very active; as though it were conscious, somewhere...' Bethany trailed off.

'I remember all of it' she replied simply, returning Bethany's gaze. She didn't want to say more at that time and was glad that her Aunt didn't press her.

'Oh I see' was all that Bethany said, but her eyes showed a level of understanding more than words could convey. Lucy looked out of the window for a minute or two into the wintery darkness of early evening.

'Bethany?' she asked once more. 'Mum never lost her gift did she?' Bethany shook her head.

'No Lucy, she didn't.'

'Why was that?'

'I only wish I knew. But I have no idea at all. I...', she hesitated. 'No it's nothing.'

Just then Dad strode up to them. He was cleanly shaved and looked as though he'd finally caught up with some sleep.

'How are you two getting on then?' he asked in a friendly tone. 'You look very thoughtful the pair of you. Been having a heart to heart have you?'

Bethany left not long afterwards, promising to come back the next morning. It was soon dinner-time on the ward and Lucy was again exceptionally hungry. She didn't normally like sausages and mashed potato, but this evening she didn't care. She devoured the whole plate followed by apple pie and ice cream and then asked Dad if he could go down to the hospital shop and get some salt and vinegar crisps because she was still feeling hungry.

'Well, it looks like you've got your appetite back' was all that he said dryly as he jangled his pocket for loose change. 'I'd be surprised if they didn't discharge you tomorrow morning' he added with a smile.

At eight thirty the nurses politely informed Dad that he had to go home for the night. When Lucy had been so ill, they'd waived the rule about visiting hours and let Dad stay. Now that she was evidently so much better, there was no reason why he shouldn't go home for the night. As they dimmed the lights in the ward to enable the patients to sleep, Lucy imagined that each hospital bed was a life boat set adrift on a windless sea. As she tried to imagine where her bed might float to, her eyelids fluttered shut and she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

By ten o'clock the next morning Lucy was fully dressed in jeans, tee-shirt and a woolly pullover that Dad thought would keep her warm but which she didn't really like very much.

'You need it' he insisted. 'It's really chilly outside'. 'There's already been snow up in Scotland and they think it's heading this way. This ward's really warm and you'll feel the difference when you leave.' He'd even brought her ski jacket from home. A junior doctor gave her one last quick check and then declared her fit to leave. Lucy said goodbye to the nurses, and then she, Dad and Bethany made their way downstairs to the exit. As soon as they got outside Lucy realised what Dad meant. There really was an Arctic chill to the air. Her mind immediately turned to Spirit and she wondered how he was coping with the cold. Would he be able to find the three green caves? If only she could reach out to him.

It felt strange leaving the hospital. Most of the time she'd been unconscious and hadn't even been aware of being there. Despite that she had a curious feeling of leaving the comfort and safety of the big building with its friendly nurses, for the cold uncertainty of the outside world. Bethany's battered old Land Rover was waiting for them in the car park. Even in the summer it was a draughty car. It would be freezing now.

'Where's your car then Dad' asked Lucy, feeling surprised. Dad was usually so proud about his car, with its heated steering wheel and plush leather seats. He said at least one good thing about his job was that they gave him a decent car.

'Oh, it's err, in for a service' he answered uncertainly. 'I'll..., I'll tell you about it later Lucy.'It was only a short drive back to their house. Lucy sat in the back and Dad sat in the passenger seat next to Bethany at the wheel. She shivered on the cold hard seats and was grateful that Bethany dug out a tartan travel rug to throw over her. Home looked exactly the same as before, but in a way she could not put her finger on, it felt somehow completely different. They shed their coats in the narrow hallway and went through to the living room to sit down.

'Who wants something to drink?' asked Dad, before making his way to the kitchen. Just then Bethany's mobile phone rang and she delved in a pocket to pull out the phone in time before it went to voicemail.

Bethany answered the phone with a cheery 'Hi there' but within a few seconds her face seemed to crumple unhappily.

'I'm so, so sorry' she was saying. 'It must have been a terrible shock.' The voice on the other end spoke for a while. 'Yes of course, of course' said Bethany. 'And if there's anything we can do...' she went on. 'Our thoughts are with you all' she said. Soon after she lowered the handset and looked up. Lucy had been listening unashamedly and Dad had come back into the living room, holding a mug in each hand. It was clear something bad had happened, but Lucy still could not guess what. It took Bethany a few moments to compose herself.

'It's Thelma' she said at last. 'She had a massive stroke and they took her to hospital in Exeter, but it was no good. She passed away.' Lucy sat down heavily on the sofa.

'How can that possibly be?' she said. 'Thelma wasn't that old.'

'I know' said Bethany, looking down at the mobile phone in her lap. 'She was only in her late fifties. Not that old at all, nowadays anyway. She may have been a bit overweight but nothing that bad.' Bethany put an arm around Lucy's shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

All three had conflicting feelings at the news. For Bethany, Thelma had been a friend who had been able to offer support to her troubled niece. For Dad, Thelma had assured him that Lucy would grow out of her gift and become a normal girl again. Lucy though had more complicated feelings. For her, Thelma had been a motherly figure who she felt that she could trust. When she found out though that Thelma had said one thing to her but another thing to Dad, she had felt completely let down and betrayed. The secret that Thelma and Dad had shared; that her special gift with dolphins would simply wear off like a henna tattoo was shocking and awful. She could hardly believe that Thelma would keep it from her as she did. She'd never had a real opportunity to tell Thelma how she'd felt. Now she never would. The thought of Thelma's death brought all the memories of Mum's death come flooding back. She didn't know how to cope with it all.

When Lucy had been with Spirit recently, they had seen Nate on the Lady Thelma looking out mournfully to sea. Now Lucy realised why he had been looking so sad.

'Well, we must go to the funeral' said Dad. 'Do you know when it is Bethany?' Lucy looked up in surprise, wiping away at her tears with the back of her hand. She never thought that Dad would suggest such a thing.

'But what about your work Dad? Are you sure you get the time off?'

'Oh yes' he smiled sadly. 'I've got all the time in the world. You see Luce, they made me redundant last week. You were still unconscious at the time. That's why I don't have the car anymore. They took it away from me. I've got a reasonable pay off and more time on my hands than I know what to do with.'

'Oh' was all Lucy could think to say. 'I'm sorry.' After Mum's death, Dad had buried himself in his work. It had been like a suit of armour for him. Now she wondered what he would do without it. It didn't explain why he was suddenly willing to return to Cornwall though. It was only a few months before that he'd dragged her away from the sea and her friends the dolphins. Maybe now that he thought she'd already lost her gift he reckoned it didn't matter. Maybe he thought that she would be paying her respects to her own past as much as Thelma's memory.

Lucy didn't care though. If she could return to Cornwall, somehow she might be able to find out more about the three green caves. She might be able to do something to determine her own destiny.

Bethany said that the funeral would be the day after tomorrow. Lucy guessed it would be at the little church at the end of Bussey Lane. Gravestones huddled around the squat, honey-coloured church, encircled in turn by a crumbling stone wall. In the summer there had been a profusion of tall grass and meadow flowers growing between the graves. She wondered what it would be like there now in the depths of the hard winter.

'I was going to go of course' said Bethany, 'but I'm sure Nate would appreciate it if you both came too. I'd like it if you did. Maybe you could stay for a few days, for Christmas even' she added, smiling.

They sat and sipped at the hot drinks that Dad had made. Bethany told them again about the time that the tyre of her Land Rover had blown out and how Nate had come to her rescue. She'd found herself sitting chatting to Thelma in their kitchen drinking tea while Nate changed the wheel for her. Lucy said how Nate would talk affectionately about Thelma and his boat the Lady Thelma and how you could never quite tell which was which. Dad talked about the extraordinary amount of cake and sandwiches that Thelma had pressed upon him when he went to visit one time. No one talked about dolphins, though they were all thinking about what Thelma had said about them.

'Well I suppose I can drive all three of us back down to Cornwall tomorrow' said Bethany. Lucy blanched at the idea of a long drive in Bethany's draughty old car, but didn't say anything. Dad announced that he'd better get some washing in the machine if they were going to set off the next day, and started to make himself busy. Bethany asked if she could check her email on the computer. Lucy drifted upstairs to her room. She looked at the drawings of dolphins, seals and sea-birds that she'd done and stuck to her wall with Blu-tack. It felt as though she'd done them a lifetime ago. Her thoughts returned to Spirit again. She yearned to be back with him. She could only hope that somehow that would happen. Dad wouldn't approve of her bringing her wet suit, but she'd sneak it into the Land Rover somehow when he wasn't looking.

Before long, the afternoon gave way to evening. The clouds had cleared and a thin disk of red sun was descending towards the horizon. 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight' she said to herself. Lucy never was quite sure what was so good about a red sky at night, not that it mattered. She got out her photos and spent an hour or so looking at old snaps of her, Mum and Dad. Sometimes she felt an aching sense of loss when she looked at old pictures of Mum. Now though she had a feeling of sweet melancholy. She felt emotionally drained after hearing about Thelma. Now she was simply glad to be peaceful. One way and another it had been an eventful few days.

The next morning Bethany insisted that they all got up early and got on the road before the start of rush-hour traffic. When Lucy opened her blinds, it had only just grown light. There was a thick frost on the ground and it looked bleak and cold outside. Bethany, who had been sleeping on the sofa bed again was already up and dressed in her jeans and misshapen and colourful old pullover. Lucy was still ravenous after her days of not eating in the hospital and forced down as much toast and cereals as she could.

When Dad opened the front door to take the hold-all containing his clothes and hers to the car, an icy wind blew into the house. Lucy was glad to huddle into her ski jacket again before going outside to climb into the chilly car. Dad closed the front door and double-locked it. They all cambered into the Land Rover and slammed the car doors shut. Bethany turned the key in the ignition and the car spluttered into life.

'Right' she said. 'Let's hit the road.'

Chapter Thirteen:

Megan slept restlessly that night. It was hot in the cottage and she insisted on opening the bedroom window, though Bethany complained that mosquitos would fly in and bite her. Megan said that the sea breeze would blow them away, but there was no wind and the air was hot and humid around them. Megan couldn't settle and turned from one side to another, trying to get comfortable. Instead her mind raced with thoughts about their visit to Toby Smith's house and what Rachel had found in the Reverend Jeremiah's journal. The more she tried to think things through as she lay there staring at the ceiling, the less sense everything seemed to make.

Eventually Megan closed her eyes and slept. Her dreams were blurry and it was hard to tell where she was. Eventually she realised that she was walking through an endless cave that seemed to stretch on in front of her for ever. The roof of the cave rose higher and higher until it merged with the night sky and she could see stars above her. Megan looked down. At her feet there was a perfectly round pool of water in the rock, illuminated by the moonlight. Megan looked in to the pool, expecting to see her own reflection in the calm surface of the water.

The girl looking back at her from underneath the surface of the pool looked similar, yet subtly different to how her reflection should have looked. Megan noticed that the girl was wearing different clothes and that the girl's hair was darker than her own. Megan brushed a strand of hair from out of her eyes, yet the girls hands remained calmly at her sides. Megan leant over the pool and peered intently into the still water. At the same time the girl bent to look more closely at her as well. Megan felt certain that she knew the girl but was equally sure that they had never met before. Instinctively she plunged her hand into the calm pool and as she did so the image of the girl was lost amidst the ripples of the disturbed surface of the dark water.

Suddenly there was a loud buzzing from above her head and she felt something uncomfortable on her neck. Then she was half awake again, swotting away a mosquito that had just settled on her skin to drink her blood. Megan turned over again in bed and pulled the sheet up so that it entirely covered her head. Those mosquitos wouldn't get another chance to bite her if she could help it. Megan hoped that her dreams would take her back to Jet and the other dolphins in his pod. Instead all she could see were tails, flitting briefly before disappearing into the inky murk of the sea at night. When Megan awoke to the morning light streaming in through the thin curtains of the cottage window, she felt as though she hadn't slept at all.

Megan sat up in bed and pulled out the slim volume that she had bought from Owl Books. It suddenly occurred to her that the Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast might have something to say about well-known caves in the area. Megan flicked through the book idly, but her thoughts returned again to the day before.

'No I've never heard of Trinity Caves' Toby Smith answered Rachel matter-of-factly. 'But I'm intrigued to know more. Come on downstairs and I'll fix you both a glass of orange and lemonade with ice. I fancy a Gin & Tonic myself. Looks like you both need a touch of light refreshment. And bring those journals with you' he added, unnecessarily.

Megan looked at Rachel curiously. What had she found? Rachel looked back at Megan with a conspiratorial smile.

'I think I've just come across some good stuff' she whispered with a wink as they followed the two adults down the stairs.

Back in the spacious living room, Megan, Rachel's Mum and Toby Smith all turned to look expectantly at Rachel who sat dustily at one edge of the sofa, drink in one hand, journal in the other.

'Well' she said, putting her drink down, you know Jeremiah Smith wrote his book, 'A description of the Lives of the Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall'? He must have based the book on what he had written in his journals. I'm guessing that this journal', she raised the slim volume in her hand, 'must have been written after his book was published.'

'So what does the good Rev say?' asked Toby Smith.

'The journal that Mum has at the shop talks about coming across a young girl of fifteen years who hadn't lost the gift of speaking to dolphins when she turned thirteen or so. He said that this girl wouldn't tell him how she had avoided losing the gift.' Rachel paused. Megan felt the eyes of Toby Smith focused on her for a moment and imagined that he must have guessed why she was interested.

'Well basically the Reverend wouldn't take no for an answer when it comes to getting to the nub of the story. He kept pestering her to spill the beans and tell him how she did it. Here, for example, look at this entry.' Rachel started reading.

'I have found out that the young woman who retained her gift as a Dolphin-Child goes by the name of Mary Pewsey.' Rachel coughed, clearing some of the dust of the attic out of her lungs.

'Having determined to winkle the secret from her, this very Sunday afternoon I visited the cottage where Miss Pewsey resides with her mother and father and sister, a short distance up the hill from the harbour. I chose Sunday to be sure that the family would be at home and so that I could speak to the young woman in the presence of her parents without any impropriety or fear of approbation.'

'I engaged the good people in polite conversation in their modest dwelling and asked if I might converse with their daughter Mary. The parents were most accommodating and brought their daughter forth for my inspection, but young Mary was taciturn and refused to engage in conversation with me, to the consternation of her parents. I enquired if she was to be wed, but her mother answered with much disapproval that her daughter has little interest in such matters. Mary Pewsey herself has a refined face and a slender figure that I would not expect of folk of such a lowly station. I left their dwelling vexed and dissatisfied with the paltry progress that I had made, but determined to engage Miss Pewsey in conversation once again when the opportunity arose.'

'So the Rev found out nothing, is that it?' asked Toby Smith, taking a sip from his glass.

'A couple of weeks later he had another bash at poor Mary Pewsey' said Rachel, glancing up from the page and smiling.

'As it is summer and the light awakens me early, I am oft to be found striding along the cliffs at dawn, before many of my parishioners have arisen. So doing I happened upon young Mary Pewsey, hastening home along the cliff path from Old Man's Cove. Miss Pewsey was most startled to see me there and I sought to reassure her that as both a pastor and a gentleman I meant her no harm. Again she refused to engage in conversation and bustled on past me as soon as she was able. Yet I was most struck by the fact that her hair had evidently recently been immersed in the briny water of the sea and it appeared as though her clothes were damp. I surmised that she must have been swimming in the sea with dolphins as she had been known to be a Dolphin-Child. I was naturally concerned that the reputation of a young Christian woman might be tainted by such activities and decided to speak to her mother alone to voice my fears.'

'What a ghastly old hypocrite' exclaimed Toby Smith disapprovingly.

'Well you know what the Victorians were like' replied Rachel's Mum.

'What happened next?' asked Megan eagerly. Rachel took another sip from her drink and flicked a few pages onwards.

'I paid a visit to the Pewsey cottage this morning and discovered some most interesting facts' Rachel read on. 'John Pewsey, a fisherman, was out on his vessel. Mary Pewsey and her sister were fortunately elsewhere. Only old mother Pewsey was at home at the cottage, scrubbing the doorstep of her cottage with a brush. She was embarrassed to be visited by a gentleman whilst engaged in such domestic chores but I put her at her ease saying that as her vicar she need feel no such concern and entreating her to put a copper on the hearth and make tea.

I informed the good woman of my encounter with her daughter on the cliff tops and of my belief that unusually she had retained her gift beyond the normal age of twelve or thirteen. Mother Pewsey confirmed that indeed it was true. To my surprise she combined the sentiments of both apprehension and pride at her daughter's achievement which naturally I considered unbecoming for a young woman of this parish. I queried how young Mary had achieved this remarkable feat. She hesitated for a moment and then told me that she believed that it was due to a visit to "them Trinity Caves". She did not know more than that. I bade Mrs Pewsey a good afternoon a short while later, determined both to visit Trinity Caves myself and to find a further opportunity to interrogate Mary Pewsey again on the subject.' Rachel paused and took a gulp from the glass next to her.

'But where are the Trinity Caves?' asked Megan eagerly, 'and what else does the Reverend say about Mary Pewsey?'

'Well I haven't got that far yet' grinned Rachel. 'But I've no idea where Trinity Caves are. None of us know I think?' said Rachel quizzically, looking up at Toby Smith and her mother. Rachel's Mum shook her head.

'Hang on!' exclaimed Megan, remembering something. 'I've got a book where the caves are mentioned. In fact I bought it in your shop.'

'Well what does it say?' asked Rachel's mum, smiling.

'Actually I can't remember' answered Megan sheepishly. 'But I've got it at the cottage. I can check it when I get back.'

It had been two days since Lucy dissolved back into the water and returned to her father in the hospital. Spirit felt bereft and alone without her, even though Dancer and the rest of the pod were there to keep him company. He and Dancer had searched and searched for the Three Green Caves, but without success.

'I'm sure we can find the caves' Spirit enthused to Dancer just after Lucy had gone. 'It's just a matter of looking.' Dancer was equally keen and the two of them had made their way along the coastline, under the shadow of the brooding cliffs.

'Do you think we'll find the entrance under water?' asked Dancer as they made their way along, using their echo location clicks to find any openings.

'Well there has to be an opening which dolphins can get in through' replied Spirit, 'so it must be under the water line, somewhere hidden' he went on, 'or we'd know about it already.'

They soon found that their task was not as easy as they imagined. There were any number of outcrops, jutting out under the waterline, that gave the impression that there was a cave underneath. Closer inspection though generally showed nothing but a wall of rock, occupied by sullen crabs. Occasionally they would come across a rocky fissure that gave the promise of something more. They would investigate curiously, eagerly, in the hope that it would open out into some larger space that looked like it might be a cave. Most of the time though, the fissures narrowed into nothing more than a tight crevice. Even the larger holes in the rock were too shallow to justify being called a cave at all.

The two dolphins found it to be dark and depressing work. The more they searched, the more they both craved light and the open sea. A day later they felt entirely dispirited.

'It's impossible' complained Dancer after they had investigated yet another crack in the rock. 'We could be at this for the next two moons and we still wouldn't find the Three Green Caves.' Spirit sighed. He knew that Dancer was right. If it was a well hidden entrance, they could swim right past it and still have no idea it was there. What's more it could be blocked off by a rock-fall. The odds seemed stacked against them.

'Come on' said Spirit eventually. 'Let's get back to the rest of the pod. I'm tired and hungry and I just want to rest.' Spirit felt his dream of easy success fading away. The aching sense of loss, now that Lucy had gone away again, just seemed to get greater.

The woman sat at her desk, idly re-reading her files. The lab was quiet and all her colleagues had packed up and left for the day. A research fellow called Ben was leaving and there were drinks arranged at the Jolly Wagoner pub, just up the road. She'd promised to join them all, but the woman lingered, lost in thought. Her files bulged with notes, observations and recordings. Most of all though she couldn't help but turn back to the photographs she had accumulated over the years which she had tucked under a flap at the back of one of the files. There was a picture of Megan, taken so many years ago, her freckled face tanned by the Cornish sun. There was a picture of Lucy, her daughter, taken years later, holding her mothers' hand. They looked so much alike.

Standing at the foot of the hospital bed, looking at the sleeping Lucy, the woman had so wanted to wake her up and speak to her. There was so much she had to tell Lucy. It was impossible though. Instead she had hastened away down the brightly lit corridors of the hospital, out into the cold December night. If only she could carry out research on Lucy, now that Megan was gone. Yet she knew that all too soon Lucy's gift might be lost like the blossom from a cherry tree. She wondered if the book she'd posted Lucy had reached her, and what the young girl had made of it. Scientists, she knew, should not influence their subjects in this way, but hers was more than a merely professional interest.

She sighed, and closing her file, glanced at her watch. It was ten to eight in the evening. She supposed she'd better join the others at the pub for a while at least before heading home. Just then her mobile phone rang. It was just a brief conversation, but as she slid her phone shut again, it felt as though a little part of her had crumpled inside. Someone she knew well had died. The funeral was the very next day.

'Well it may be in your book Megan, but I've still never heard of the Trinity Caves' said Rachel the next day, 'and I don't know anyone who has.' They were sitting on the stone wall outside the holiday cottage the next morning. Rachel's rusty old Citroen was parked outside. The sun was already hot and the stones felt warm underneath them.

'Look. It says here that the Trinity Caves are known for their beautiful stalactites and crystalline rock formation' Megan exclaimed excitedly.

'That's all very well' said Rachel, 'but where are they?'

'Well that bit's not so easy' admitted Megan. 'It says that the exact location of the caves has been lost. It says that even cavers haven't been able to locate where they are.'

'Did you say caver?' asked Rachel. 'That's another word for potholer. This guy Dave in my halls of residence is the president of the Uni Potholing Society' she exclaimed. 'And I happen to know that he's exploring a cave system a few miles from here. Let's go and ask him.'

Megan felt both nervous and curious as she climbed out of Rachel's old Citroen and they walked down the steep track between two fields. At the bottom, in a cleft between two hills, a slow stream trickled down into the gaping hole of a cave.

'Where is everyone?' she asked Rachel as they got closer. There were a couple of rucksacks propped up against some rocks and a coil of rope next to them, but other than that it was quiet and deserted.

'I guess they must be down in the cave system somewhere' replied Rachel nonchalantly. 'There's nothing for it but to sit and wait.' After the brightness of the day the hard mouth of the cave seemed particularly dark and uninviting. Megan imagined Dave and the other potholers somewhere below them, tripping over rocks and crawling through tight crevices in the inky darkness.

Rachel sat down against an accommodating rock, put on her sunglasses and stretched out in the sun. Megan ambled around the entrance to the cave, trying unsuccessfully to find fossils amongst the rough stones underfoot. Eventually she too sat down on a small boulder. Glancing around she realised that Rachel had been silently watching her all the while.

'So what's it like then Megan' she asked softly. Just then it seemed as though all the birds had stopped singing and there was a moment of absolute quiet. 'You know what I mean don't you?' Megan nodded. Rachel knew that she was a Dolphin-Child but had never asked a single question about it until now.

'It just feels great' Megan answered after thinking for a moment. 'It feels like belonging, like coming home. When I'm with them in the sea, I feel as though I'm both lost and found, all at the same time. The ocean is so vast. I...' she broke off. 'I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't swim with Jet and the pod anymore.' Rachel didn't reply at first and they both sat in the sunshine in quiet contemplation.

'I've never met one before you, you know' said Rachel at last. 'A Dolphin-Child I mean. Of course I've heard stories about them and there's always supposed to be one or two born in each generation in Merwater, but I thought it was just a myth, something that the fishermen used to tell each other while they were mending their nets.' Megan glanced over at Rachel.

'Why do you believe I'm one then? I might be making it all up.' Rachel smiled.

'I did wonder' she admitted. 'But if you'd been making it up you'd be talking about dolphins all the time to prove that you are one. Instead you haven't said a word. It's the quiet ones that I always keep my eye on, not the ones that like to boast.'

'Why is it that you're helping me like this?' asked Megan. She really wanted to know.

'Well at first it was just idle curiosity' Rachel admitted. 'After all, you're a living link to a mystery that goes back hundreds of years. And then I saw this far-away look in your eyes when you glimpsed the blue ocean and...' She trailed off. 'Well,' Rachel smiled, 'I just knew I had to help you.'

Just then they heard the sound of boots on rock from within the cave, and they both looked over towards the entrance. Megan stood up and peered in. She could see a flash of light approaching them. Eventually Dave and his two friends emerged. They wore helmets with lights mounted on top and each of them had a coil of rope hung over a shoulder. Their clothes were dirty and Dave's face was smeared with something like mud. Megan had imagined Dave to be a tall and hearty looking, but instead he was slight and sported a straggly beard. The cavers slung their ropes on the ground, and sat down on the rocks before taking long gulps from the water bottles they had with them.

'Hey Dave' said Rachel, almost shyly.

'Rachel! What are you doing here?' asked Dave, wiping drops of water from his beard. One of his two potholing friends went off up to their van to get something, while the other sat down on a rock and looked on with interest.

'Well as a matter of fact we've come to ask you something' Rachel replied.

'Oh? Fire away then. How can I help you?'

'Trinity Caves' said Rachel. 'Have you heard of them?'

'Of course I have' exclaimed Dave, 'Every potholer around here knows about them don't they Jane?' he said, asking his friend who Megan suddenly realised, was actually a girl. Jane nodded her agreement.

'Where are they then? asked Megan excitedly. The potholers both chuckled.

'Wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that question' laughed Dave, putting his bottle down on the ground. The Trinity Caves are a bit of a legend, a holy grail, you might say to us potholers. They're supposed to be full of stalactites and crystalline formations that give off a strange eerie glow. There's some Victorian bloke who describes them, but no one seems to know where they are now. Believe me, I've looked into it. All I know is that they're linked to the sea somehow.'

'I'd love to see the Trinity Caves, they're supposed to be magical' joined in Jane from behind them.

'But if they're so fantastic, how come no one knows where they are?' asked Rachel.

'Ah, well' exclaimed Dave. 'Didn't that Victorian chappy says that the locals blocked off the entrance for some reason or other? Can't think why.'

'This Victorian guy' asked Megan, 'Was he the Reverend Jeremiah Smith by any chance?'

'Actually no' replied Dave amiably, 'thought I've heard of him too. The bloke I'm thinking about was a geologist. Worked in the tin mines. Only potholers like us have heard about him really. Welsh bloke. What's his name again Jane?'

'Davidson' replied Jane. 'Owen Davidson. He was a geologist. I've got a copy of his article on the Trinity Caves back home' she went on. 'He says they're spectacular. I can lend it to you if you like.'

'In fact there were tin mines all round Merwater' continued Dave. 'Some of the deeper seams extend out under the sea. You can still come across the mine openings when you're walking in the countryside.'

'Oh yes that's right' added Rachel. 'In the local paper recently there was a story about a man walking his dog in the woods who fell down a disused mineshaft. They'd never have found him if it wasn't for his spaniel sitting at the top of the shaft barking away for twelve hours. His leg was fractured in three places and it took three hours to winch him out.'

'Do you think one of the tin mines links up with the Trinity Caves?' asked Megan curiously.

'Oh no, don't even think about it!' exclaimed Dave with a comic wag of his finger in Megan's direction. 'They're very dangerous. Even experienced potholers like us two would think three times before we went poking around down one of those old shafts.'

Megan said nothing in reply, but her brain was a mass of ideas. She couldn't wait to get hold of Owen Davidson's article on the Trinity Caves. She knew that somehow the caves and the old tin mines were connected. Somehow, she was determined to track them down.

Chapter Fourteen:

As the Land Rover rattled along, Lucy curled herself up on the back seat. The car was cold and draughty and she pulled a couple of coats over herself to keep warm. Dad's coat smelled of mothballs and Bethany's smelled of mints and turpentine. Eventually her eyes fluttered closed and she dozed off.

Lucy started dreaming about dolphins, but they were a long way away from her and try as she might, she could not get near them. Then the scene changed. She was walking, half bent over, down a narrow rocky tunnel. She could sense water dripping down and she could feel the drops striking the back of her neck. Somewhere in the distance Lucy could hear the low rumble of the sea. The rock beneath her feet was irregular and slippery, and Lucy had to hold onto the sides of the narrow cave to steady herself. She had a bicycle light pinned to her chest which gave her just enough light to see by, but it was barely enough to illuminate the damp rock around her.

She kept on going, but her progress was painfully slow. The tunnel turned to the right and then started to slope upwards. Then, a few metres away, she could see the mouth of the tunnel illuminated by an eerie green light. 'Almost there' she thought to herself as she struggled on. It was so tantalisingly close.

'Lucy. Do you fancy a sandwich?' asked Dad, glancing over his shoulder from the passenger seat of the Land Rover. Lucy was pulled abruptly from her dream and opened her eyes.

'No thanks Dad' she replied, sitting up and rubbing her stiff neck.

'Not so far now' called Bethany from the driver's seat, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the road in front of her. 'Can you smell the sea yet?'

Lucy smiled. When she was small, and her Mum and Dad drove down to the sea, she was always convinced that she could smell the sea and that they would be able to see the sparkling ocean over the crest of the very next hill they drove up. Mum used to say that she would do that for an hour before they got anywhere near the sea. Bethany had obviously heard the stories.

Lucy sat up and looked out of the window at the traffic rushing past on the other side of the road. It started to rain gently and Bethany turned the windscreen wipers on which swished rhythmically from side to side. Lucy glanced at Dad. He was staring out of the window on the other side. She wondered what he was thinking about. Was it the job that he hated so much but which he devoted such a lot of his time to? Was he thinking about the funeral that they were just about to go to? Lucy remembered Mum's own funeral less than two years before. Lucy cried so much in the days before the funeral, that at the ceremony itself she felt almost numb. Dad clasped her so tightly round the shoulders that it had almost hurt. It was as if by containing her, he could keep a grip on his own feelings and emotions. She'd wondered what would happen to him if he let go. She never did find out.

Eventually Bethany turned the Land Rover off the bigger highways and down the smaller country roads that led towards Merwater. Finally they rattled down the tight farm lane that led to Mary and Darren's farm where Bethany also had her studio. It was late afternoon and it had already got dark. Bethany had switched on her big head lights and apart from the road and verge ahead of them illuminated by the beams from the car, all was dark. In the town where she lived with Dad, even when darkness fell there was the ever-present glow of street lights. Out here in the countryside, it was pitch-black. They bumped over the cattle grid and into the familiar farmyard.

Mary came out of the farmhouse. She was as tall and lean as ever, but now she was wearing a wool-lined sheep-skin coat and a woolly hat. Lucy thought she looked like a cross between a cow girl and a hippy. Mary embraced Lucy warmly and beckoned them all inside.

'Come in, come in out of the cold' she urged them. 'I've got a casserole on the go and a glass of something to warm you all up. Lucy shivered. It definitely felt colder down here in Cornwall and she was glad to take Mary up on her offer. She wondered what it was like to be in Bethany's studio. With all that glass and no central heating, it must be an ice box at this time of the year. They all went in to the farm house's living room. There was a fire lit in the big hearth and Lucy was instantly drawn to the leaping flames. Darren appeared from the kitchen with glasses of mulled wine for the adults and a hot chocolate for Lucy. It felt very good to be back at the farm again.

Three hours later Lucy lay under a warm duvet cover in the same holiday cottage that she and Dad had stayed in during the summer. Bethany was sleeping in the spare bedroom in the farmhouse during the cold weather because her studio was too cold to occupy. Thelma's funeral was going to be the next morning. Lucy wasn't looking forward to it. Eventually she fell asleep.

It was still dark when Lucy awoke the next morning. She shivered under her bedclothes. The central heating in the cottage had not yet come on and Lucy could tell it had been a chilly night. Getting out of bed, she pulled the curtains and looked out of the window. For a moment she thought it had been snowing, but then she realised that there was a layer of frost across the landscape. The blue sky was clear of clouds. A pair of sheep stood in the field on the other side of the fence blowing steamy breath into the sharp morning air.

She pulled on her jeans and a sweatshirt and tumbled downstairs. Dad was already up and dressed in his suit for the funeral. He was sitting in the dining area, a mug of tea in his hand, staring fixedly out of the window onto the frosty world beyond the glass. He glanced round when Lucy came down. His eyes were red and he looked grey and drained. He sniffed and wiped his hand quickly across his face when Lucy approached.

'Hey Luce' he greeted her. 'Sorry, I was just thinking about, you know...' He trailed off.

'I know' replied Lucy quietly. She gave him a hug.

After breakfast Lucy put on her formal clothes for the funeral and she and Dad took the short walk down the lane to the farmhouse to find Bethany. Lucy was always used to seeing Bethany with her mass of unkempt, curly blond hair and the brightly-coloured, unconventional clothes that she tended to wear. Today though Bethany was transformed. She had tied back her hair neatly and was wearing a sombre grey trouser-suit.

'Right, are we ready to get going?' she asked. They climbed into the Land Rover. The metal was so cold that Lucy half expected her skin to freeze to the door handle. She huddled in her coat on the back seat while Bethany started the engine and Dad scraped away the ice from the windows. When he was done, Bethany drove cautiously up the lane.

'Do you think it will snow?' asked Lucy. She loved the snow but it never seemed to happen much back home.

'Oh I shouldn't think so Kiddo' replied Bethany. It's unusually frosty this morning, but it generally doesn't get cold enough for snow down here in Cornwall, especially near sea level. The Gulf Stream brings over warm moist air from the other side of the Atlantic and keeps the worst of the winter weather away. According to Darren it's been ten years since there was any decent snow in these parts.' Lucy felt disappointed. Christmas in the snow would have been fantastic.

Before long they pulled up outside the chapel of rest at the corner of the cemetery. Lucy had imagined that the funeral would take place somewhere more picturesque, like the old church at the end of Bussey Lane.

Instead the cemetery was at the edge of town, just off the main road, tucked away behind a DIY store. The chapel of rest looked rather bleak and modern. The cemetery itself though had a good view out towards the sea. There was already a small array of cars pulled up in the car park next to the chapel.

Inside there were a few clusters of mourners in sombre suits talking quietly in corners. Bethany went up to a group of ladies and started talking to them, leaving Lucy and Dad to stand awkwardly, surveying the scene. There was Nate looking uncomfortable in a suit. He seemed as sad as he had done when she'd been with Spirit and seen him standing on the prow of his boat the Lady Thelma. Someone was talking to him now, but he broke away and came over to them.

'Lucy love, thanks for coming' said Nate, looking solemnly into her eyes and squeezing her hand briefly.

'I'm so sorry Nate' she replied. 'I...'

'I know' he replied. When Mum had died everyone had said the same things to her so many times that they ended up being meaningless and she was sick of them. Maybe Nate was feeling the same thing.

Organ music started playing from speakers at the front of the chapel and they all started taking their seats; family at the front and friends behind. Lucy, Dad and Bethany sat in the second row from the back. Just before the service was about to start, a skinny figure slipped into the seat next to her. It was Paul.

'Hi Lucy' he whispered to her.

'Paul!' she exclaimed happily. 'I didn't know that you knew Thelma!'

'She was real nice to my Mum like, especially in the last few months, and Nate's taken me out with him on the boat quite a few times as well. That's why we're here. My Mum's over there' he went on, pointing to a pew on the right.

'It's good to see you' said Lucy as quietly as she could. 'I've got so much to talk to you about. But have you seen Spirit at all?'

'Yeah, I've seen him a few times. But I don't, you know, think I'm a Dolphin-Child anymore. Not like you.' The news reassured Lucy. Just then the service began. Lucy didn't recognise the Thelma she knew from the stilted words and solemn hymns that she heard now. Instead she thought of the jolly face she knew, and the big cakes that Thelma used to make. Nate would get thin now that Thelma was gone, she thought to herself.

Eventually the service finished. The coffin bearers shifted the ornate box to their shoulders and walked slowly outside. Nate, his children and then the rest of the mourners followed them outside into the cemetery. The frost was melting away now under the bleak wintery sunshine. The sad procession snaked its way along the paths between the grave stones. Here and there a teddy bear would be placed on a grave, or flowers wrapped in cellophane.

'Are you down here for Christmas then?' asked Paul as they walked slowly along.

'With any luck, yes' replied Lucy. 'It's only a few days away anyway. There's stuff I need to talk to you about. What are you doing tomorrow Paul?'

'Not a thing' he replied. 'School broke-up today. I've got tonnes of time now.'

'Meet you tomorrow then? At the recreation ground at midday?'

'It's a deal' Paul replied.

A tidy rectangular hole had been dug at one corner of the cemetery. A mound of earth next to it had been covered up with a tarpaulin. Lucy wondered what it must be like to dig a grave on a frosty December day, but then she saw marks of the caterpillar track of a digger in the grass. Of course, nowadays they used a mechanical excavator instead. Lucy stood towards the back of the group and couldn't see very much. The priest intoned his prayers and Lucy could see that someone had put an arm around Nate to comfort him. Then the coffin was lowered into the ground and the family took it in turns to scatter earth down on top of it. Lucy glanced at Bethany. She could tell that her aunt was quite upset. Lucy felt numb though, as though she didn't quite know what to feel anymore. After everything she had been through when Mum had died, it was hard to feel anything so acutely this time. She looked around her. 'I hope I don't have to come back to a cemetery again soon' she thought.

Nate and his family started walking back towards the cars. The rest of the group of mourners stood uncertainly, looking around them. Bethany was standing staring out towards the sea in the distance. Lucy went up to her and squeezed her hand. Bethany sniffed.

'Oh I'll be alright' she said, wiping a hand quickly across her eyes. 'Funerals always get to me you know. It's a fine view isn't it?' she added, trying to change the subject. They turned around to see the mourners drifting off along the side of the grave stones.

A smartly dressed middle-aged lady had been talking to another woman who Lucy now knew was Thelma's sister. Then she realised that Dad was staring at the woman, almost rudely. Thelma's sister and the woman walked off up the path together and Dad came over to join Lucy and Bethany.

'Do you know that woman Dad?' asked Lucy curiously.

'It's the strangest thing' replied Dad. 'That woman over there. The one walking off up the path. I've seen her before.' He stood looking at the woman's retreating back with a puzzled expression on his face.

'Are you sure?' replied Bethany. 'Can't say I recognise her personally.'

'I saw her not three nights ago at the hospital' he continued. She was standing at the foot of Lucy's bed, making notes. I thought she was a doctor or something but the nurses said they thought she was a relative. I didn't get a good look at her because she walked off up the corridor before I was able to say anything, but it's definitely her.'

'Well go and speak to her Dad' said Lucy encouragingly. He made his way off up the path towards the car park, but he was too late. The woman had already driven off.

'I lost her' exclaimed Dad when they joined him.

The next morning, Lucy persuaded Dad that she had to go into town to do some research for a school project. Mary gave her a lift into Merwater and she soon found herself sitting on a swing in the recreation grounds opposite Paul's house, waiting for him to appear. It was another cold, frosty day and she shivered inside her thick coat. For a moment she thought she could see a snow flake fluttering down, but if it was, it melted away into nothing.

'Hi Lucy' came a voice just behind her. Lucy started in surprise. Paul sat down on the swing next to her.

'Where did you appear from?'

'Oh you know, here and there' he replied noncommittally.

'How are you doing then Paul?' He smiled.

'Yeah things are like, a lot better than they used to be. Baz and Mike leave me alone and I've made some more friends at school.'

'And your mum?' Lucy asked.

'She's got this job now and she seems to be much better than she was. She smiles more and smokes less anyhow. And she's earning now so Christmas won't be so tight this year.' Paul turned to look at her directly. 'So what's up with you? Is it to do with Spirit?' Lucy nodded. She suddenly realised how vulnerable and exposed she felt.

'I'm losing it Paul. I'm losing it. My gift, my connection with Spirit I mean. I thought I'd lost it already. Then I cracked my head on the side of the swimming pool at school and got knocked out. They couldn't wake me up but really I was swimming with Spirit and Dancer and the rest of the pod.'

'Blimey!' exclaimed Paul.

'Anyway, when I was there with Spirit for those couple of days there was this dolphin called Sunlight. She said that it was told that if a dolphin and a child meet at midnight in a place that they call the Three Green Caves, then they will stay connected for the rest of their lives.'

'And you know where these caves are then do you?' asked Paul.

'No I've no idea' replied Lucy. 'I was hoping you might know.'

'Search me' said Paul, shrugging.

'But you must know something!' exclaimed Lucy. 'You're the local kid. You know this place like the back of your hand. You know all the secret walled streams through town and all the hidden corners. I bet you know more than you think.'

Paul was flattered that Lucy believed that he could help and he thought hard. If it's underground caves that you're wanting, then I'd start with the tin mines.'

'Are there any round here then?' Lucy asked.

'Oh sure' replied Paul casually. 'Come on I'll show you.'

They made their way out of the recreation ground and into the orchard which the walled stream ran through that Paul used like his own private lane. He didn't climb down into it though, and instead walked through the old orchard. There in one corner was an enormous mound of concrete.

'That's one of them' said Paul, giving it a kick with his trainer.

'What do you mean?'

'That's an old entrance to a tin mine' Paul explained. 'There must be half a dozen in Merwater alone. The town is full of them.'

'But what's it covered up with concrete for?' asked Lucy in frustration.

'Well I suppose it's to stop kids like us from going down them' replied Paul. He stopped kicking the concrete lump and sat down on it instead.

'And you think these mine workings might lead down to some caves under the cliffs?' asked Lucy, full of expectation.

'Who knows?' replied Paul. 'Wouldn't surprise me if they did.'

'But you can't get into them if they're all covered up' exclaimed Lucy.

'Well I wouldn't say that' said Paul casually. 'Not this one I mean' he added. 'There is one you can get into.'

'What's it like?' asked Lucy expectantly. Paul grinned.

'I reckon it's pretty dark' he replied. 'I've not been in there myself. It freaks me out. All I've done is look in the entrance. Besides, you're not supposed to go in, especially kids like us. It's like, really dangerous. You might never come out again if you did. There's poisonous gas, rock falls and all sorts.' Lucy looked at Paul decisively.

'Take me to see it' she commanded him.

Paul led Lucy down into the bed of the walled stream, but turned left in the opposite direction to the way she'd been before. Now it was winter there was much more water in the stream and Lucy had to be careful not to get her feet wet. The stream ran parallel to the sea line, off into a scrubby overgrown patch of land towards the edge of town that appeared to have been abandoned for years. The walls of the stream became shallower and more broken down, until in the end it was just a pile of stones that they were picking their way across. Bushes grew up on either side of them and it became harder to push their way through, but Paul kept on going and Lucy was determined not to be left behind.

Eventually it opened up into a small clearing. There were discarded beer cans and cigarette butts on the ground, and the remnants of a camp fire blackened the stones under foot.

'Here, take a look at this' said Paul, gesturing to something just at the edge of the clearing. Lucy looked more closely. There was a hole opening up into the ground, running horizontally back into the hill. It looked as if you could just walk into the hill itself, but it was covered with a heavy iron grill, which reminded Lucy of the bars on prison cells in a castle she had visited. A more modern sign was fixed to the iron grill which said 'Danger. Unstable mine workings. Keep out.'

'But it's covered with a metal grill' exclaimed Lucy. 'You can't get inside there!'

'That's what you think' replied Paul, evidently pleased with himself. 'Watch this.' He eased himself through a tight gap between the bars like a cat burglar breaking into a house. Before she knew it, Paul was on the inside of the tunnel grinning through the bars back at her.

'What's it like in there?' asked Lucy with a flutter of excitement in the pit of her stomach.

'This is as far as I go' replied Paul. 'Like I said, the dark freaks me out. I just thought I'd show you.' He lithely squeezed himself back through the bars. 'You have a go' he said when he was standing next to her again.

'But you're a lot smaller than I am' replied Lucy. 'There's no way I could get in there.'

'Go on, have a go' Paul answered. 'Bet you can.' It looked impossible to Lucy, and try as she might, she could not squeeze herself through the gap as Paul had done. She got half way in with her legs, and then she got stuck at the top of her thighs, leaving rust stains on her jeans.

'It's no good, I give up' said Lucy disappointedly. She pulled herself out. Paul smirked annoyingly back at her.

'Well if you can't get in that way, I suppose I'll just have to show you the other way.' He laughed to himself.

He ran up the heap of stones above the iron grate to where buddleia and other scrubby bushes were growing. He beckoned with his hand for Lucy to follow.

'Look' he said pointing. The roots of one of the bushes had broken through into the tunnel. The gap was just big enough for her to squeeze through.

'You want to have a go?' he asked her with a big grin on his face. She didn't know whether to laugh with him or have a go at him for making her spend the last ten minutes trying to squeeze through the gap between the bars.

'Why not?' she replied eventually. This time it was a simple matter to pull herself through the gap and into the tunnel. She stood up. There was reasonable head-room and she only had to stoop a little bit. The occasional drip splattered down from the ceiling of the tunnel onto the back of her neck. 'I'm going to have a look' she said. She took a few steps down the tunnel. It seemed to rise up a little and then began to curve down to the left. Lucy had no torch and she realised that if she went any further she'd be plunged into darkness. She felt a pang of fear clutch at her chest.

'Are you okay down there?' called Paul into the tunnel. Lucy realised that it would be foolish to continue without even a torch to light her way. Reluctantly she retraced her steps and pulled herself out of the hole in the rocks.

'Hey, it's snowing!' she exclaimed, holding out her hands and looking up at the sky. Snow-flakes were fluttering lazily down from the grey clouds above them and already the rocks were powdered with white.

'Yup, sure is' Paul grinned. 'Are you going to go down there then, exploring I mean?' Lucy thought of those warnings you see on the TV; 'Don't try this at home.' She'd have to be mad to want to explore old mine workings.

'As soon as I get myself a torch, that's exactly what I'm going to do' she replied defiantly.

Chapter Fifteen:

In the midst of Spirit's waking sleep, an eerie green light seemed to play on the surface of the water around him. The sea surged slowly up and down, but the sounds of the ocean seemed muffled and far away. Spirit began to realise that there was a wall of rock encasing him on all sides and that he was in a great cave. Above the eddies and ripples of the water, he could see the cave arch upwards. The walls of the cave were an emerald green, and they sparkled occasionally, lit by some sort of phosphorescent glow that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The cave was shaped like the back of some great whale, porpoising through the sea. The ceiling of the cave curved down towards water-level, but just where he thought it would descend into a wall of rock, there was an opening that led on to another cavern beyond the first.

In his dream, Spirit swam effortlessly into the second cave. This one was iridescent and green like the first, but there were more sparkles of light shimmering from the walls. It wasn't as big as the first cave he swam through. Looking above the surface of the water, he noticed that there was a dry platform where a human could walk if he wanted. Spirit imagined Lucy walking there, and bending down to cup his head with her hands. This second cave was smaller than the first but followed a similar shape. Under the water there were huge green crystals growing that looked like they had been there for thousands of years. Spirit had a strange sense that the caves were both entirely familiar yet completely alien to him.

Beyond the second cave there was a further opening. He approached it, and then hesitated. Somehow he knew in his dream that it wasn't the right time to swim through into the third chamber; not yet at least. He lingered a moment and then turned slowly to return the way he had come. Swimming past the great submerged green crystals, he returned to the first cave with its soaring ceiling and green phosphorescent glow. He wondered how he had ever come to be in the green caves, but his dreams had brought him there without ever realising. Despite his excitement, Spirit felt calm and focused. It felt completely natural to swim there, in a way that he did not really understand. In the largest cave there were no crystals under water, but the sides slid down and curved round beneath him as if he were in a whales' great belly. The sides of the cave were so smooth that he hardly knew where water ended and rock began. He swam slowly round the cave, wondering how to get out, before at last recognising a large hole beneath the surface of the water, set into the rock that he must have swum past several times before seeing it.

Spirit took one final glance back at the great enormity of the cave around him, before flicking his tail and propelling himself down into the pitch-black hole beneath him.

Suddenly Spirit was out in the sweet waters of the open sea again. He looked back and saw the familiar coastline rearing up behind him.

Spirit stirred out of his waking-dream and opened his eyes.

'Dancer, Dancer' he called excitedly to his friend, sleeping in the water next to him. Dancer peered at him blearily.

'What? What is it Spirit? It's the middle of the night.'

'I know where they are Dancer. I know!'

'Know what Spirit?' she asked in reply, still half asleep.

'The Three Green Caves' replied Spirit, buzzing with realisation that his dream had given him. 'I know where the caves are!'

Mary Pewsey stepped out of her parent's low cottage, up onto the rutted road. She gathered her skirts around her so that they would not trail in the mud and started walking. A pony and trap were making their way slowly down the road and Mary crossed out of its path. It was early Autumn and though there were still warm days, this early in the morning she felt a chill in the air. A light mist had rolled in from the sea and still hadn't lifted. Even the seagulls seemed subdued. Mary shivered a little despite her shawl as she made her way.

With her bonnet tight upon her head, Mary used to feel as blinkered as the ponies that pulled loads of tin ore up out of the mines. Yet she knew now that she was infinitely freer than those ponies would ever be, or indeed freer than most of the people she knew. Mary smiled quietly, hugging her secret to herself as she walked briskly into the village of Merwater.

When Mary was younger, her father had made her help mend his nets and gut the fish that he landed. It was hard work though, and left her fingers dry, cracked and bleeding. If she continued doing such rough work, her hands would be useless to create the delicate lacework that her mother had taught her and her sister. Fortunately her mother had found her a place at a merchant house on the High Street where she was indentured, spending the day making lace to sell in Exeter with five other women. Mary's hands had recovered and she was paid modestly but reliably for the lace that she produced.

The women would talk as they worked, or sing songs together to pass the time. More often than not though long stretches of time would pass in which none of them would exchange a word. It was at times like this that the tick tock of the clock in the hallway would seem particularly loud and the bustle of the street on market day was especially alluring. It was a narrow life for Mary and the other women. Yet while her fingers worked methodically and diligently, Mary's mind was able to slip away, escaping the confines of the dusty room, plunging instead into the world of water and of the dolphins that lived there.

As Mary walked along, the one person she dreaded seeing appeared from a doorway on the other side of the street.

'Mary Pewsey! Mary!' cried the portly, black-clad figure. Mary sighed and turned. The Reverend Smith approached her, stick in one hand, notebook in the other.

'Good day sir' she said courteously, but with a heavy heart. Would that man never leave her alone?

'I wonder if I might, err, if I might talk to you for a moment' he ventured.

'Sir I will lose pay if I am late at my place of work' she sighed, itching to be away from him.

'Quite, quite. Perhaps I might accompany you?' Mary turned resignedly to resume her brisk walk. He surprised her though by walking as quickly as her.

'You must bring me to these caves Mary' the Reverend demanded quite suddenly.

'What caves might they be Reverend?' replied Mary guardedly. She wondered what her mother had been telling him.

'Why the Trinity Caves of course!' Mary froze inside. She couldn't have someone like the Reverend Smith barging into the Trinity Caves. They were a special place. Not for the likes of him.

'I don't know where they might be Sir' she replied, hoping to keep as blank a face as possible.

'Come now Mary' admonished the Reverend, irritation rising in his voice. 'Your mother has told me the full extent of your interest in them.' Mary looked at her feet. She did not wish to appear disrespectful to the vicar of their parish. If she angered him she was well aware that the Reverend Smith could see to it that she lost her position with the lace makers. She didn't know what to say to him.

'I am a man of learning' he continued in a more conciliatory tone. 'I must investigate them and the significance they have to you and this region. I am writing another book Mary' he continued, wondering how to break her silence. 'If you assist me you will be furthering the cause of natural philosophy and I can mention you in those pages.'

Mary glanced up at him. Her own learning had been at best patchy and had ended abruptly when she was only ten because her father needed her to earn money for the family. Yet she had an insatiable curiosity to learn about the natural world about her and the sea in particular. She had read the Reverend's first book in its entirety, as her mother had persuaded the lady of the house where she worked as a scullery maid to lend it to her. She and the Reverend shared many interests she realised, but they would never be allies. She could not betray her dolphin Sprite.

'I must get to my lace-making Sir' she mumbled. 'If I am late the superintendent may dock half a day's pay for my impudence. Please let me go Sir' she implored him. The Reverend Smith sighed in exasperation.

'Very well, if you must' he replied irritably. 'But I must warn you, young Mary, I am very persistent!' He turned and marched off.

As Mary and the women attended to their lace-making, her mind roamed across the wide sea in the company of Sea-Sprite and the other dolphins of his pod.

'But I cannot tell him about the caves Sprite, I cannot!' she exclaimed as they curled around each other while Sprite swam and she glided. They broke the surface of the water together and Mary could feel the sharpness of the air on her wet skin.

'You are right Mary' replied Sprite as they sliced back through the waves again. 'The caves are our special place. We found them together and we cannot let others come and break the magical unity that we found there.

At the same moment, in the room that Mary was working, one of the women asked her to pass a skein of thread. One half of her mind applied herself to work and conversation with her fellow workers, whilst the other half of her mind remained free to roam the sea with Sprite. At first Mary wondered if she merely imagined that she had retained her gift in this manner, but she soon realised that she knew things about the sea that no one else did. She was able to direct father to the best shoals of fish. She knew when the Eleanor Grey had foundered on the rocks off Black Rock Point long before anyone else raised the alarm. How could she tell someone like the Reverend Smith about what had happened that night at the Trinity Caves? It was impossible.

'Don't worry Sprite' she answered resolutely, 'I will not let that man find out about our caves. I will not!'

When Megan woke up the next morning, she realised with a deadening empty feeling that in three days' time her family would be packing their belongings back into their cramped car, and setting off for the long drive back home after their holiday. Unless something happened fast, she would never regain her special bond with Jet and all the discoveries of the past few days would be meaningless. She sat up in bed. Light was streaming through the thin curtains of the cottage but Bethany was still lying peacefully, breathing rhythmically in her sleep.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Megan tried to stretch out with her mind and find Jet. But it felt as though a membrane had grown over the portal in her mind that she used to use to reach him and she could no longer find it. She felt frustrated and unhappy. She thought fretfully about that article by Owen Davidson that Dave's friend Jane had promised to bring round to Rachel. She wondered what it might say.

Megan wanted to be free again today to go into Merwater and hang out with Rachel, but Mum and Dad were insistent.

'No Megan' said her mother firmly over her cornflakes. 'This is a family holiday and poor Bethany here has been feeling lonely without you around. You're spending the day with us.'

'But Mum....!' Megan began.

'Oh please Megan' Bethany implored her. 'There's this fantastic cove that we went to. I found tonnes of beautiful shells on the beach, and I saw...' at this moment Bethany trailed off, reluctant to say exactly what she'd seen in front of Mum and Dad. 'You'll like it there, you'll see' was all she added. Megan looked to Dad for support, but she could tell that he would not be swayed. She bit disconsolately on her toast.

Megan sat unhappily reading a book while Bethany got her rock-pool net and jam-jars together and Dad made some sandwiches to take with them. She couldn't concentrate and ended up staring out of the window instead. Just then a car horn tooted outside and Megan leapt out of her chair, throwing her book down, keen to meet her friend.

'It's Rachel!' she cried enthusiastically. She ran out of the holiday cottage, flung open the garden gate and bounded over to where Rachel had parked her Citroen Deux Cheveaux.

'Are you free today?' Rachel smiled. She was wearing a floaty summer dress and looked tanned and relaxed. Megan pulled a face.

'I don't know, maybe if you could talk to Mum and Dad' she said, 'then they might let me come with you.

Just then Dad walked over wearing shorts and flip-flops to put some things in the car. Rachel got out of her Citroen to greet him.

'Hello Mr Ames' she called. Dad smiled sympathetically but firmly.

'Hello Rachel' he replied. 'I'm sorry, Megan can't spend the day with you today. You see our Bethany's been feeling a bit left out and so we're having a family day out. You understand don't you?' Rachel nodded.

'We're leaving in about fifteen minutes so you can chat till then if you like' Dad added. He stuffed a couple of beach towels into the back of the family car, and flip-flopped back to the cottage. Once he was out of earshot, Megan turned back to Rachel.

'So, did Jane lend you a copy of Owen Davidson's article then?' she asked excitedly.

'As a matter of fact she dropped off a copy first thing this morning' Rachel replied.

'Let's have a look then!' said Megan.

'I didn't bring a copy with me though' replied Rachel. 'I didn't think I'd need to. But I can tell you what it says if you like.' Megan nodded.

'Well you know that Owen Davidson was a geologist working for the tin mines?' she asked, leaning on the bonnet of the Citroen. Megan nodded. 'Well it turns out that he was working there in the Eighteen Nineties, two or three decades after the Reverend Smith was on the scene. Some of the tunnels go right out under the sea. I wouldn't fancy being down there personally. Those tunnels branch out from the main shaft and follow the seams of tin. This time though old Owen Davidson, decided to build an exploratory tunnel to follow a seam of mineral he hadn't seen there before.'

'So he dug along the seam and found the Trinity Caves did he?' asked Megan.

'Well, in a nutshell, yes. In his article there's a lot of technical stuff about the types of rock and props they use to support the tunnel and the risk of gas building up and the like.'

'So, what did he say the caves were like then?'

'Apparently he was really intrigued by this green mineral in the rock' Rachel continued. 'He took four men and had them swinging their picks in relays of two to make faster progress. When they finally broke through the wall of the cave an eerie green light enveloped them. As Owen Davidson stepped through into the cave itself, he could see that the mineral formed into crystalline structures the like of which he had never witnessed before. He took samples of the crystal for analysis by breaking a piece off with his pick. He said it was evident that the caves were linked to the sea somehow, but he was unable to determine exactly how.' Rachel paused for a moment. 'He said that the caves had an unworldly beauty the like of which he had never experienced before.'

'But if he discovered these caves, how come no one knows how to find them now?' asked Megan curiously.

'Well, that's the strange thing about the article' replied Rachel thoughtfully. 'He just says he discussed the discovery with the miners who had helped him and they all decided to seal the cave off again to protect it from the outside world. It was like they knew they'd uncovered something special and didn't want the rest of the world trampling through and spoiling it.'

'The miners who helped him were local men from Merwater, were they?' Megan asked. Rachel nodded. 'Maybe they knew the caves had a special significance locally and just decided to protect them.'

'Who knows' replied Rachel shrugging. 'Old Owen Davidson is certainly very pragmatic in his article anyway. You wonder why he wrote it at all if he wanted to keep the caves secret.'

'What about the mineral he took a sample of. Did they ever find out what it was?'

'Not really' replied Rachel. 'Owen Davidson claimed it was unknown to science. It's not in his article. Jane told me that he left for a position as mine geologist soon after in Pittsburgh, but his ship was lost at sea and with him the mineral samples that he took.' Just then Mum appeared in the cottage doorway.

'Are you ready to get going love?' she called over to Megan. 'We're heading off in five minutes.' Megan turned to Rachel.

'I'm sorry. I've got to go I guess. The thing is though, that we're no closer to finding these caves at all are we?' Rachel shook her head. Megan felt defeated. How could they discover anything worthwhile in the few days before she had to leave Cornwall and go back home. It seemed impossible.

'Don't worry, we'll think of something' Rachel replied, trying to be up-beat, but. neither she nor Megan really believed it though.

'Come on, let's get going' called Mum. Megan turned to Rachel and sighed.

'See you tomorrow, I hope' she said. Rachel got in her Citroen and Megan reluctantly climbed into the back of the family car.

'You'll really like where we're going Megan' said Bethany excitedly as she squeezed in next to her elder sister. Megan shrugged.

'No really, you will. You'll see' said Bethany thinking about what she'd seen at Old Man's Cove the last time she was there. Bethany hadn't wanted to tell her sister. She wanted it to be a surprise if the dolphin came again. Somehow, Bethany was just sure that it would.

It was only a short drive, and although the small engine of Dad's car struggled with some of the hills, they were soon there. They parked up at the side of the road next to a stile and a gate into a field. Mum and Dad pulled out a surprising amount of things from the back of the car, but Megan ran on ahead across the field.

'Come on Megan!' she called back in an excited voice. Mum and Dad lumbered behind with picnic things, towels, a net bag with balls and a beach break. 'Look!' exclaimed Bethany as Megan caught up with her. Below them, down a steep path, was a tidy little cove with a crescent of sand and then pebbles behind. The sea lapped gently on the shore and the summer sun was rising rapidly in the sky. It looked like the perfect place to spend the day thought Megan. Ordinarily she would be happy to spend the day with her younger sister, playing on the sand and looking for sea urchins in the rock pools. Instead she could not dispel the knot of anxiety she felt inside her. Despite all the progress that she had made with Rachel, they seemed no closer to finding the Trinity Caves. She had already lost her link with Jet and for every hour that past, the chances of regaining it became more slight. Very soon the family would be leaving Cornwall and taking the long depressing drive home where life would be duller, greyer and emptier. She wanted to share Bethany's enthusiasm for rock-pooling, but it felt very hard. Megan sighed inwardly as they started slipping and sliding their way down the path.

At the bottom of the cove Mum and Dad settled down on beach towels to sunbathe and read. Mum insisted on slathering sun cream on them both although Megan had already turned a nice brown colour. Dad produced a bucket and spade from a bag and she and Bethany went off to look in rock pools.

They crouched down and peered into the tiny world of perfectly clear water below them. At first neither of them could see anything underneath the fronds of green weed, but then a tiny fish darted across. Bethany swooped with her net but it came up empty.

'Is that a hermit crab?' whispered Megan. Shyly, legs emerged from an empty cockle shell and the tiny crab started its hesitant way over the rock. As they watched, their breath bated, other creatures started moving too. Bethany spotted a small star fish clinging to a rock and the limpets seemed to adjust their shells. Finally the miniscule fish of the rock pool came out again and sunned themselves in the middle.

As they crouched, Megan realised that Bethany kept glancing up to scan the sea, as though she was expecting something.

'Come on' said Megan eventually, 'let's stand up. My legs are killing me with all this crouching.' They made their way stiffly across a ledge of rock which jutted out into the sea. They sat down and dangled their legs into the gently lapping water to cool down.

'Ooh what's that?' exclaimed Bethany suddenly. They both scanned the sea again, but there was nothing there.

'I don't see anything' smiled Megan. 'What are you looking for?'

'Oh, nothing' replied Bethany unconvincingly but her eyes still looked out at the grey-green sea.

Presently, Mum called them over for their picnic lunch. The four of them drank orange squash and ate egg and watercress sandwiches, which had already turned up slightly at the edges. Sitting on the beach towels, Megan couldn't help but notice Bethany's surreptitious glances over her shoulder at the sea. What was it that Bethany was trying to spot?

After their picnic, Mum and Dad showed every sign of settling down for a snooze while Bethany and Megan decided to play with the table-tennis rackets and ping pong ball that they had brought. Despite her worries, Megan enjoyed the game, even though they spent more time trying to retrieve the ball from the pebbles than actually hit it.

After a while, Megan paused to swig some more orange squash while Bethany went to pick up the ball yet again from the shore line. Mum and Dad were both dozing peacefully. Dad had turned a lobster red colour but at least the sun had moved round now so that he was in the shade.

'Megan!' whispered Bethany loudly. 'Megan! It's your friend.' Megan turned, wondering what on earth her sister was talking about, when she saw him in the waves, just off the shelf of rock to one side of the beach.

'Jet!' she exclaimed, and ran to the water's edge. She could tell immediately from his dorsal fin who he was. She stopped and looked at Bethany for a moment, who seemed to have known all along that Jet would be coming. She glanced back at Mum and Dad again, sleeping quietly in the shade.

'Go!' whispered Bethany excitedly. 'Go!' Megan smiled in thanks, before she dived into the water and swam out to Jet.

'It's so good to see you Jet' she said, tears in her eyes as she got to him. Although they never could speak when they met like this, a look of understanding passed between them.

Megan hugged Jet briefly and before she knew it, he was pulling her out through the water while she clung on to his pectoral fin. It felt exhilarating and wonderful to be with him in the open sea like this. Jet swam out away from the coast before turning back towards the line of granite cliff in front of them.

'Tell me I haven't lost you' she whispered to Jet. Then, as he swept her along, a powerful feeling came over Megan; something that she had never felt before and which she knew she would never truly understand. She felt that she was being guided by someone or something that seemed to stretch across time itself to reach her. It seemed that Jet felt the same thing too. He turned and swam towards the edge of the cliff. Megan realised that he was going to dive, and took a lung full of air just before he did so. Sea water boiled up into her eyes and ears and then it cleared again.

There in front of them was a hole in the rock that looked as though it had been worn smooth by ten thousand years of tides. It was narrow, but seemed perfectly designed for a dolphin to pass through. Megan realised that Jet could not pass into it with her on his back, and released her grip to set him free. Jet turned to look at her for a moment, but then with a convulsive flick of his tail he disappeared into the smooth hole and out of view. Megan stayed under water for as long as she could, but after a minute or so her lungs began to hurt and she had to break the surface to breath.

Suddenly Jet was with her again and swimming around her in such an excited way that she wondered what it was that he had found. Then she realised. The caves! If Jet had found his way in, then her way in must surely be somewhere in the cliffs above her. Megan looked up. There, almost at the top of the cliff were some gorse bushes obscuring a lip of overhanging rock. Surely she must be able to find a way in somehow!

Chapter Sixteen:

Lucy shivered and pulled her coat around her as she and Paul walked back up the track from the blocked-off entrances to the tunnels. The snow was falling heavily now. Great fat flakes came fluttering down around them as they walked. The buddleia bushes were already sagging under the weight of snow and a thin layer had settled on the rough ground so that their shoes crunched as they stepped upon it.

'I love snow' exclaimed Lucy looking around her. In the space of a few minutes the whole landscape seemed to have been transformed. The world around them sounded muffled and almost silent. Snow was even settling in their hair.

Water was still running across the bed of the walled stream, but Lucy could see that ice was spreading from the edges of the stones.

'Watch out' said Paul a few steps ahead of her. 'It's like an ice rink here.' They slithered along until they came back to the old orchard where the leafless, silhouetted trees had already turned white. It seemed to Lucy for a moment as though they were the last people on earth.

'Whaoh!' exclaimed Paul in surprise. Standing at the top of the bank stood a slim, pleasant-looking woman in her late forties wearing a heavy woollen coat. She appeared to have been staring down on the town below them at the base of the hill, lost in thought.

'What is it?' asked Lucy, looking up in alarm.

The woman didn't seem at all surprised to see the two children clambering up out of the walled gulley. Instead she almost seemed to be expecting them.

'It's that lady from the funeral' said Paul.

'What are you doing there?' Lucy asked her. The woman smiled.

'Oh, I used to live here' she replied, glancing down at the town below them again. 'I don't get to come back here very often. I just thought I'd come and have a look at the old place.' Lucy frowned. 'I used to play in these gullies when I was young just like you two' the woman went on.

'My dad recognised you at the funeral yesterday' replied Lucy distrustfully. 'He said he saw you at the hospital where I was only a few days before that. What's going on?' The woman looked back and levelled her gaze at Lucy again.

'Well Lucy, it's true' she replied. 'I have been keeping my eye on you from afar. She paused and wiped a snowflake from her face. 'And I had been hoping to bump into you' she added.

'I don't understand' exclaimed Lucy, becoming increasingly agitated. 'Who are you?'

'Well you see' replied the woman, pausing a moment. 'I'm an old friend of your mother.'

'You, you what?' asked Lucy, barely knowing what to say. Paul looked at the woman, and then back at Lucy again uncertainly.

'My name's Rachel. Rachel Greenwood. I met Megan down here years ago when she was just a girl and I was barely a few years older. We have been in touch ever since till.... well, you know.' Lucy stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at the woman in front of her, waiting for her to go on. The woman glanced up at the sky. Snow was tumbling down towards them in a grey swirl.

'Look, we can't speak here. Maybe you'd like to walk into town and have a cup of tea with me' she went on. Lucy shook her head.

'I can't. Mary's picking me up in half an hour. But... I'll make it into town tomorrow' Lucy replied. 'I can say I've got some Christmas shopping or something to do.'

'Well I'll be in the Arts Café at midday' said Rachel Greenwood. 'I do hope you can join me'. She started to turn to walk back up through the orchard to the main road. 'By the way, did you get it?' she asked.

'Get what?'

'The book, the Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' Rachel Greenwood replied. 'It was Megan's, your mother's I mean. I thought you should have it back. I thought it might be useful'. Lucy nodded.

'Yes, yes I did'

'Good, I'm glad' Rachel Greenwood smiled. 'See you tomorrow I hope.'

Ten minutes later Lucy was standing in the car park behind the harbour waiting for Mary to pick her up and take her back to the farm. The cold was creeping into her bones but she looked around her in wonder as the hard lines of the buildings were softened by snow. The snow had already turned to slush beneath her feet, but the top of each car around her had a neat white blanket and the great flakes were still fluttering down unhurriedly.

Lucy felt disturbed in a way that she could not fully understand by the appearance of Rachel Greenwood up in the abandoned orchard. She was usually immediately attracted by anyone who helped her understand her mother better. But it was weird that Rachel Greenwood should turn up at the hospital, Thelma's funeral and then in the old orchard where she and Paul just happened to be. What was it that this woman wanted?

'Looks like we're in for a white Christmas!' said Mary as Lucy pulled the car door closed. 'And I need to get back to the farm and get my livestock inside. This is no weather to be stuck in a field.'

'Do you think it will settle?' asked Lucy as Mary ground through the gears on the way up the hill out of town.

'Looks like it' answered Mary. 'It doesn't normally get that cold down here, but I reckon this Christmas might be an exception. Talking of which, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? There's only two shopping days to go.'

Lucy sat up with a start. What with being in hospital and then coming down to Cornwall for Thelma's funeral she'd completely forgotten about Christmas shopping.

'I'd better do it tomorrow' she replied, thinking of her appointment with Rachel Greenwood.

'That's if we're not completely snowed in at the farm by then' joked Mary. As she drove the car slipped slightly from the icy slush under the wheels. 'And I'll need to put chains on these tyres as well while I'm at it.

They turned up onto the coast road that led towards the farm. Out here the snow was settling in the middle of the road and on the verge. Only two sets of darker tracks showed that cars were getting through and the snow still showed no sign of easing off. The fields to the left and the right of them looked crisp and white.

As they approached a dip a sleek car approached from the other direction, driving more slowly than usual as a result of adverse weather conditions. Just as they got close the other car seemed to lose control and slid slowly into the middle of the road in front of them. For a moment Lucy thought that she and Mary would crash into it but the car slid across so slowly that Mary had time to apply the brakes and come to a stop.

'You okay?' called Mary to the other driver, winding down the Land-Rover's window. The man in the car nodded and made a wave in thanks before heading off up the road again, even more cautiously than before.

Nothing really happened, but the incident drew Lucy's mind irresistibly to the thought of Mum's last journey in a car the night that she died. She wondered what Mum had been thinking in the moments before her car had veered off the road and crashed that wet and windy night less than two years ago. She hoped they were happy thoughts. Mary put the Land-Rover into gear and moved on up the road again. They didn't see any other vehicles before they turned off down the lane to the farm.

When they pulled into the farm yard they could see that Darren and Dad had been busy getting the livestock in under cover. A mass of hoof marks showed where the cows and sheep had come in through the gate and into the cowsheds and the barn. Dad was forking out fodder for the sheep. He was wearing an old -jacket of Darren's and his face was red with cold. He waved at Lucy and she could see that he looked happy.

'This is what I call winter!' he exclaimed as she climbed out of the car. 'And I'll tell you what; doing physical work like this is a darned-sight more rewarding than tapping figures into a computer.' Lucy wondered whether to tell Dad about her encounter with Rachel Greenwood, but something told her he wouldn't like to hear about it. It'd be better not to say anything for the time being. Just then Bethany came out of one of the cowsheds.

'We're all going inside for a hot toddy' she said, smiling. 'Do you want to join us?'

Later Dad and Lucy sat companionably on the sofa in the farmhouse nursing their empty mugs in their laps. Mary and Darren had gone back to look after the livestock and Bethany had popped over to the studio.

'How are you feeling now Luce, all warmed up?' asked Dad. Lucy nodded. 'It's terrible that Thelma should pass away' Dad went on, 'but I am glad to be able to come down here again. Now that I've lost my job there's nothing much to rush back for after all.' He sighed and stared down into the bottom of his empty mug.

'I used to worry about what might happen to you when we came down here' he continued. 'But I think we're over that aren't we? I think you've moved on?'

Lucy didn't say anything but turned rigid with a mixture of anger and fear. She remembered lying in the hospital bed after they'd rescued Star-Gazer and being told by Dad that her gift would just fade away. She hadn't believed him at the time but now it looked as if he and Thelma were right. If it hadn't been for her time with Spirit after she'd been knocked out at that swimming pool, perhaps Lucy would have given up hope already. Instead she was desperate to speak to Rachel Greenwood and go back to the old mine workings. Lucy got up.

'I've got to get some stuff sorted out' she replied stiffly, avoiding the questions that Dad asked her. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking that he was right. At the door she remembered the car sliding across the road that afternoon and turned back to look at Dad.

'Dad. Do you think that Mum was happy that night in the car. The night that she died I mean.' Dad didn't answer immediately and seemed to struggle with his conflicting thoughts before he answered.

'I hope so Luce' he replied hesitantly. He seemed about to say something more, but then he faltered. 'I hope so.'

Out in the farmyard, Bethany was making her way back to the farmhouse from her studio. It was too cold to live in the studio in this weather and she had retreated instead to a spare room with Mary and Darren.

'Listen Bethany, can I speak to you for a moment, in private I mean' said Lucy.

'Sure Kiddo' Bethany replied. 'Let's go and look at the sheep for a moment.' Inside the barn smelled of wet wool and the sheep stood packed in tight next to each other, bleating and baa-ing loudly.

'Before long it'll be lambing season' observed Bethany, leaning on the wooden fencing, 'and then Mary and Darren will be up all hours delivering lambs night after night.' She turned to Lucy. 'So, what's up then Kiddo?'

'Well I don't want to tell Dad' Lucy started hesitantly, 'but we met this lady today, me and Paul that is. She, well, it was her that Dad saw looking at my bed in the hospital and who was at Thelma's funeral yesterday.' Bethany looked at her niece, concern written across her face.

'Her name's Rachel, Rachel Greenwood' said Lucy, 'and she said she knew Mum.'

'Rachel!' exclaimed Bethany. 'Can it really be her? I haven't heard that name in years, let alone seen her!'

'So you know her then?' asked Lucy curiously.

'Yes, well it was when I was still young. We were down here in Cornwall one summer. Megan was about thirteen I guess, and she was befriended by Rachel. She was a few years older and must have been at university at the time. They used to go round together in a beat up old Citroen. In fact it was that summer that she..., that she seemed to be losing her gift with dolphins. Then something happened... Rachel Greenwood, what a surprise!' Bethany smiled, lost in her own thoughts for a few moments.

'Did you know that they stayed friends?'

'What? No, I had no idea.'

'And why would she have been there at the hospital watching me, then at Thelma's funeral too' asked Lucy. Bethany shook her head.

'Beats me' she said, frowning a little as she thought.

'The thing is' Lucy went on, 'that I've agreed to meet her tomorrow at a café in town. I need to ask her stuff you see. I need to find out about her and Mum.'

'Yes of course' replied Bethany. She looked out of the barn door. 'That's if we can get out at all by tomorrow. The rate this snow is falling, we're going to be completely snowed in.'

'You've got to help me' said Lucy imploringly. 'I thought maybe you could come with me.' Bethany smiled again.

'We'll see what we can do.'

Later on, when it was dark and Lucy and her Dad had gone back to the holiday cottage for the night, Bethany stood in the hallway, with the telephone receiver in her hand speaking in a low voice.

'Nate?' she said. 'I'm so sorry to trouble you at a time like this. It's just that there was someone at Thelma's funeral that I'd like to catch up with.' Nate said something and Bethany smiled.

'Rachel Greenwood...yes, yes that's right? So she's an academic at Exeter University is she? But why did she know Thelma? ... Oh, oh I see. So Thelma helped her with her research into Dolphin-Children. Thanks Nate, thanks.' They spoke for a couple more minutes before Bethany returned the phone to its cradle. Bethany stood there quietly for a while, before walking back into the farmhouse kitchen. Despite the fact that it was dark, Bethany could see that the snow lay heavily upon the ground and that it was still coming down. Quite how she would get Lucy into town the next day she wasn't sure, but she was determined that she would.

'How can you have discovered where the Three Green Caves are?' asked Dancer incredulously, hearing Spirit's excited announcement. 'We've searched all along the coast for miles and never found them. Now you wake up and say you have?'

'I can't explain it' Spirit replied. 'I had this dream. It was so vivid and wonderful. I was in the caves. There was this eerie green light and these crystal formations. Then I swam out of the cave through this narrow tunnel and I found myself in the sea again. But I recognised the place where I came out. That's how I know where the caves are!'

'But it was just a dream' replied Dancer. It probably didn't mean anything.'

'Well I've got to find out' answered Spirit. 'And the place I dreamt about is not so far from here. We can just go and take a look.' Dancer looked around her, just as Star-Gazer swam up next to them both.

'Let's all take a look' said Star-Gazer, looking at her son curiously. 'Sometimes you have to listen to where the spirit leads you. That is what we did when we named you.' Star-Gazer exchanged glances with Storm, who had just glided up to join them.

'Yes' said Storm quietly. 'You lead. We will follow you Spirit.'

The sea was choppy and grey as they swam along through the wintery, cold waters. Spirit felt proud that he was leading the pod, but was painfully aware of the dolphins following behind him. What if all he did was take them to a wall of rock?

'I think the sky might turn to snow' observed Summer.

'I hope that young Spirit knows where he's taking us' muttered Chaser.

Soon the granite cliffs loomed up in front of them. At first Spirit could not find his bearings, but then he seemed to instinctively know which way to go. Spirit paused and broke the surface of the water to look around him.

'This is it, this is the place' he said, excitement infecting his voice. There at the top of the cliff were some gorse bushes obscuring a lip of overhanging rock and seagulls wheeling in the sky. The sight seemed both new and familiar to him, almost as though he was looking at the scene through the eyes of another. 'This way!' he said, diving again beneath the surface of the sea. One by one the members of the pod dived again to follow him.

The sea under the cliff was murky with particles that floated in clouds in the turbulent water. Strands of seaweed swayed this way and that in the eddies and currents.

'So where are these caves then Spirit?' called out Chaser sceptically.

'Be patient' replied Storm. 'Let him focus.'

Spirit examined the wall of rock beneath the surface of the water carefully. It was covered in thick, impenetrable black-green bladder-weed that entirely carpeted the granite. He could see nothing that suggested the opening to a cave.

'You know', said Dancer to Star-Gazer in a concerned tone, 'that we must have passed this spot at least two or three times when we were searching for the entrance to the caves before. There can't possibly be anything here.' They all watched Spirit search the submerged cliff face, at first calmly, but then with increased agitation.

'Spirit' called Storm. 'Stop a moment. You are searching with your eyes, but I believe that you need to use all your senses.'

Spirit drew back and observed the wall in front of him. Storm was right, his eyes told him nothing. He tried to use his clicking echo-location to see through the bladder-weed to the rock behind it. There were half a dozen spots where there could be something behind the weed. Then he let his mind free itself.

Suddenly, with a great convulsion of his tail flukes, Spirit powered forward, straight at a particular patch of the cliff.

'Watch our Spirit!' called Star-Gazer in alarm. It seemed to the others that he would strike his beak and head against the wall of rock. Instead he quite simply disappeared.

'Where's he gone?' cried out Moonlight in alarm. Dancer immediately darted forward to where her friend had disappeared.

'Look!' she exclaimed. 'There's an opening.' Sure enough, behind the slimy bladder-weed there was a smooth round hole in the rock. It was worn down by the thousands of years that the sea had pounded against the hard granite. It was barely wide enough for a dolphin to pass through and was absolutely black. There was no sign of Spirit in there at all.

'I'm going after him!' Before anyone else in the pod could respond, Dancer turned and with a flick of her tail, she too disappeared into the solid wall of rock.

It was dark and tight in the tunnel and at some points there was barely enough room for Dancer to squeeze through. She became scared that she would get stuck there and continued on cautiously, with small flicks of her tail flukes to propel herself forward. Eventually the tight passage opened up into a great subterranean space.

'Spirit, Spirit!' she called.

'I'm here' he replied, and they touched fins briefly in greeting.

'This place is amazing' said Dancer, full of awe as she looked around her. The great cave was shaped like a huge whale and was filled with an eerie green phosphorescent glow that seemed to emanate from the crystalline rocks that covered the cave.

'I know, it's beautiful isn't it?' replied Spirit quietly.

'But how did you come to dream of this place?' asked Dancer, still gazing around her.

'I don't know' Spirit replied. 'I just did somehow.' They spent a few more moments looking in wonder at the ancient cave. 'Come on' said Spirit. The two young dolphins swam round the cave slowly, admiring its structure.

'What could have made this?' asked Dancer.

'Not humans, that's for sure' replied Spirit. 'This place is as old as time itself.' At the far end of the cave, there was a natural archway that led to something beyond.

'What's through there?' asked Dancer. Spirit did not need to answer, because with a flick of his tail, he had passed through the archway and then Dancer followed him. The second cave was smaller than the first, but had a similar shape and was still iridescent and green. It had more sparkles of light shimmering on the walls than the first, larger cave and Dancer could see that above the surface of the water there was a sort of platform.

There were great crystals submerged in the water, the like of which Dancer had never seen before and they navigated around them carefully. Dancer felt a sense of peace and tranquillity overwhelm her as they progressed. Her heartbeat slowed, and her movements became calmer.

'It feels... magical in here' she whispered.

'I know' replied Spirit, equally as quietly. They swum round slowly with a sense of awe at the beauty of the place. The eerie green light reflected from the ripples on the water and appeared to come from everywhere and nowhere, infusing the caves with a sense of calm.

At the very end of the second cave there was a lower and narrower opening to what seemed to be the third cave.

'What's through there then?' whispered Dancer.

I', I don't know' replied Spirit cautiously. Dancer expected Spirit to swim right through, but he hung back.

'Aren't you going to go through there then' asked Dancer, 'or would you rather I went through first?'

'I, I don't feel that I should go through there now, not without Lucy anyway' said Spirit, cautiously measuring his words. 'I just have this strong sense that it's somewhere that only Lucy and I should go when the time is right.'

'That's if she ever finds this place' murmured Dancer, more to herself than to Spirit. The two dolphins lapsed into silence as they looked at the amazing crystal formations around them.

'Why haven't the others followed us into the cave do you think?' asked Dancer eventually.'

'Well if you and I can only just squeeze through the passage from the sea, there's no way that the adults will be able to do so' replied Spirit. 'They'd get jammed in the hole.'

'I hope they haven't tried then' said Dancer, 'or we'll be stuck in this cave for ever.' They swam back into the largest cave and listened for a few moments. They could still hear the sea through the tunnel. No dolphin was blocking the passage.

'I suppose we'd better get back to the others' said Dancer reluctantly. 'I've lost track of how long we've been in here.'

First Dancer, then Spirit swam back through the dark, tight tunnel out to the sea again. 'Another few months and I'll be too big to fit through here at all' thought Dancer, brushing her flank on the rock as she swam. At least it was smooth and didn't hurt her.

The rest of the pod were lounging lazily in the sea when they emerged again.

'You took your time!' exclaimed Chaser. The rest of the pod came close, and rubbed fins in greeting.

'Well, what was it like then?' asked Star-Gazer. Between them, Spirit and Dancer explained what they had just seen.

'But what I don't understand is how Spirit could have dreamt of the cave and his entrance if he didn't know it was there already' said Summer, voicing what all of them had been thinking.

'You know that there is a greater consciousness that we are all connected to' replied Storm thoughtfully. 'It links all dolphins past, present and future into a larger whole. I think that Spirit knew of the Three Green Caves not because he had been there himself, but because generations of young dolphins had been there over the millennia. The caves were revealed to Spirit because he needed to know about them to realise his destiny.' Storm turned to Spirit and looked at him calmly. 'I have thought for many months that you have a special destiny, now I am sure of it.'

Later on, once darkness had fallen, the clouds cleared briefly and the stars were visible in the cold black sky. Spirit had been dozing lightly and seeing Star-Gazer looking upwards, he joined her.

'What is it that you're looking at?'

'Oh, I was just looking at the heavens' replied Star-Gazer dreamily. 'You see those stars over there? They're called the Three Sisters. They seem to be coming into alignment.' Spirit stared hard, but he could make out nothing unusual in the scattering of stars above him. Eventually his mind became clouded with dreams and he slipped back into his waking-sleep.

Chapter Seventeen:

Waking up the next morning, Lucy immediately jumped out of bed and pulled open the curtains to look at the white and silent world outside the cottage. Snow had evidently continued to fall during the night and all the lines of the hedges and fences had softened and all but disappeared under a great undulating layer of whiteness.

Lucy pulled on her jeans, tee-shirt and fleece and went downstairs. She thought that Dad would be in the kitchen drinking his first coffee of the day, but it looked like he was still in bed. Lucy went to the backdoor and pulled it open. A wall of cold air hit her and a small pile of snow fell across the step. It was powdery and soft. This was how Lucy had always imagined Christmas to be. She felt a clutch of excitement in her chest at the crisp beauty of it all.

There was no food in the cottage but Mary and Darren had told Dad and Lucy to come over to the farmhouse for breakfast at nine o'clock, by which time they would have already been working on the farm for two or three hours, tending to the livestock in the bitterly cold conditions.

As Dad and Lucy walked the short distance down the lane half an hour later, the snow yielded with a satisfying crunch to their advancing footsteps. In some places it went up to Lucy's knees, and where the snow had drifted it was deeper still.

'I think we're going to need skis!' joked Dad as they walked along, wrapped up in their coats and mittens. 'There's no way any cars are going to get up this lane today.' Lucy frowned to herself. She just had to get to her rendezvous with Rachel Greenwood.

The farmhouse kitchen was warm and full of the tantalising aroma of frying bacon. Darren was standing over the stove and Bethany and Mary were cupping mugs of tea in their hands to warm their fingers up.

'You've got here in the nick of time' said Darren, frying pan in hand, 'I'm just about to dish up.'

Half an hour later the conversation had moved from discussing the sheep and cows to the transport system.

'According to the radio, the local authority are getting their snow ploughs and gritting lorries round all the main roads' observed Mary.

'What about the country lanes?' asked Dad.

'Oh they won't get down lanes like these for days' replied Darren. 'They expect farmers like us to look after ourselves.'

'But I wanted to go Christmas shopping in Merwater' said Lucy forlornly. 'So did Bethany.'

'Don't you worry about that' replied Mary brightly. I'll be running the tractor up the lane after breakfast. Bethany can follow in the Land-Rover with chains on the tyres. We'll soon have the lane clear again.' Lucy marvelled gratefully at Mary's can-do attitude.

'What about you John?' asked Darren. 'Are you itching to get into town?'

'Oh I've done my Christmas shopping already' replied Dad. 'If it's okay with you I'll stay at the farm and help out like I did yesterday. After my years chained to my desk it's a pleasure to do something useful for a change.' Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been a disaster if Dad had wanted to come into town too.

Half an hour later Mary sat in the high cab of the tractor and started its engine. It chugged noisily, sending plumes of exhaust out into the cold sharp air. Bethany sat in the freezing Land Rover but Lucy opted to walk behind until they got to the top of the lane. Darren had bolted some sort of plough to the front of the tractor to shovel snow out of the way as it toiled its way up the lane. Looking around her, Lucy could see rabbit tracks, lolloping across the snow. How could they find grass to eat on a day like this?

Presently they reached the top of the lane. Mary turned the tractor to go back down the lane and Lucy got into the Land Rover next to Bethany.

'Well Kiddo' said Bethany now that they were alone, 'I think we've got a bit of a date with destiny.'

Megan slipped off Jet's back before they got back to the beach at Old Man's Cove so that Mum and Dad wouldn't realise what she'd been doing. She swam the last part of the way back to the beach. They'd woken up and were playing catch with Bethany. When Megan emerged from the water they told her off for going so far out and talked about the currents and dangerous rip tides, but in the end they let her be and she sat in the sun to warm up and think about what had just happened.

'Was it good then, the swim?' asked Bethany shyly. Megan smiled and nodded. She wouldn't complain about her kid sister ever again she thought. How had Jet known about the tunnel into the rock? Did it lead to the Trinity Caves that Owen Davidson had written about in his article all those years ago? As recently as a month ago, Megan would have been able to reach out to Jet with her mind and ask him. Now all she could do was guess. Jet definitely hadn't known before, or he'd have told her whilst he still could. If it was a tunnel leading to the Trinity Caves, he must found out about it somehow.

Perhaps thought Megan, it didn't matter. The most important thing was that now she had an idea about where the caves might be. Even the most determined potholers like Dave and Jane hadn't been able to figure that out. Megan looked up at tops of the cliffs. Somewhere up there, there had to be a way into the caves.

'Mum, Dad. I fancy going for a walk along the cliff tops for half an hour or so. You don't mind do you?' she called to her parents.

'Ooh, can I come too?' implored Bethany eagerly. Megan looked at her kid sister. She could hardly say no after the help that Bethany had just given her.

'Oh go on then' she replied.

Bethany drove very carefully down the coastal road into Merwater, but as she explained to Lucy, the gritter lorries had been out and it was relatively safe on the highway. Dirty snow was piled to each side of the road and Lucy spotted three snowmen on the outskirts of town. Somebody had even built what looked like an igloo in one of the front gardens that they passed. In Merwater itself the Christmas decorations were weighed down by real snow. Lucy half expected to see a sledge with reindeer tied up to a lamppost and Santa emerging from the local newsagent.

As they got closer, Lucy became more nervous.

'Why do you think that Rachel Greenwood is still here in town?' she asked. 'After all, Thelma's funeral was two days ago. She could easily have gone home to her family by now.'

'Well, she used to live here remember' replied Bethany. 'Maybe she was visiting friends or family. Maybe, Bethany thought to herself, she's waiting here to see you Lucy.

They parked the car and walked up to the Arts Café. To Lucy's dismay, the door was firmly locked and on it was pinned a notice 'Closed due to the weather'.

'What shall we do now?' asked Lucy disconsolately.

'There she is' replied Bethany, looking around. Rachel Greenwood stood across the road in a heavy coat with the collar up. She crossed over to greet them.

'I thought we could go to the Anchor since the Arts Café's closed' she said. She smiled at Bethany. 'I can hardly believe you were a child the last time I saw you. Come on.'

The Anchor was on the other side of the road down some steps. Bethany had to stoop to go through the low crooked doorway and Lucy entered nervously, stamping the snow off her feet and wondering whether the Landlord would tell them that children weren't allowed in pubs. Despite the flagstones on the floor, the pub was warm and a huge fire had been lit in the hearth. In the summer, the pub's low ceilings and dark oak beams felt claustrophobic. In the depths of winter it was a cosy retreat from the bitter weather outside.

Rachel Greenwood offered to buy them drinks and Bethany surprised Lucy by ordering half a pint of bitter. They sat and looked into the glow of the coals as they waited for her to return from the bar.

'This pub can't have changed much in over a hundred and forty years' said Rachel Greenwood conversationally, setting down the drinks. 'Have you heard of Mary Pewsey? I imagine her coming in here as a girl for a jug of ale to carry home to her father.'

'Mary Pewsey?' asked Lucy.

'Oh she's someone I've studied as part of my research' replied Rachel Greenwood casually. 'She became quite a well-respected figure in her lifetime. I'll tell you about her some time if you like.' Bethany brushed back a few strands of curly blond hair from her face and cleared her throat.

'Rachel. It's been a long time. But enough of these pleasantries. What is the nature of your interest in my niece?' Lucy glanced sideways at her aunt. She'd never heard Bethany speak so formally or forcefully before. 'You've been seen standing over Lucy's bed at the hospital, and then again at Thelma's funeral. And now you're inviting her to the Arts Café. Rachel, what's going on?' Rachel Greenwood looked at Bethany for a long moment with serious eyes.

'For many years Dolphin-Children such as Mary Penhaligon, Mary Pewsey, your sister Megan and now Lucy have been the subject of my research' she replied quietly. 'I am a Reader in Biology at the University, which means I lecture and I carry out research. But I have always been fascinated by local folk lore too. That is part of the reason I started studying Dolphin-Children.'

'You mean you've been studying Megan and Lucy?' asked Bethany incredulously.

'I got to know Megan as you know all those years ago when she was a girl down here on her holidays, and I was an undergraduate. Years later she agreed to help me with my studies, and we worked closely over ten, maybe twelve years.'

'But Mum never mentioned you' Lucy cut in. Rachel smiled quietly, and Lucy noticed the nest of wrinkles in the corners of her eyes.

'Yes I know. We decided to keep our researches to ourselves. Your father was not exactly ... supportive let's say. But Megan came down to Cornwall once or twice a year and was the subject of tests I carried out at the lab.'

'But tests on what?' asked Lucy, increasingly confused.

'Well, tests on Megan's ability to communicate with dolphins, telepathically you might say. Most recently we were using MRI scans to analyse the activity in her brain when she was projecting out with her mind.'

'You mean before she died?' asked Lucy, her voice trembling slightly. Rachel nodded. 'Mum never told me any of this. What was the name of her dolphin?'

'Your mother called him Jet' Rachel replied. 'She allowed me to swim with him once or twice. He was such a beautiful creature...'

'Is Jet dead now?' asked Lucy. Rachel nodded again.

'I suppose dolphins don't live as long as humans...' murmured Bethany. Rachel turned her gaze to Bethany, as though surprised that she had not grasped some important and obvious fact.

'And you're studying me now?' asked Lucy.

'Not as such' replied Rachel. 'It's true I came to see you in the hospital when you were in your coma. Megan was my good friend. I was devastated when she died. I couldn't help but come and see you when I knew you'd been hurt. Your father saw me but there was no reason why he should recognise me as we'd never actually met.'

'But how did you know?' asked Lucy.

'I also knew Thelma Merryweather. Thelma told me a good deal about local folklore, and people like her sister who also had the gift, though she grew out of it, of course. It was Thelma who told me all about your accident Lucy. She also told me about your own experiences with dolphins. And now poor Thelma is dead.'

'It was Thelma who told Dad that I'd grow out of my gift ... that I'd never see Spirit again' replied Lucy, her voice coloured with emotion. 'Is that what you think?' Rachel looked at her quietly for a long moment.

'Listen Lucy. Your mother paid a high price for her gift. Your father loves you and I believe he wants to save you from all that. He does have your best interests at heart you know. All things must pass.'

'But you posted me the book. You wanted me to find out more!'

'It's true I did' replied Rachel. 'But now I think I was wrong. I think I can guess why you were unconscious for so long at the hospital. Perhaps that last time should be your last goodbye to Spirit.'

'But how did Mum do it? How did Mum keep her gift as a grown up when Thelma says everyone else loses it?' Rachel Greenwood shook her head slowly.

'I cannot explain it with science' she replied cautiously.

'But you know?'

'I believe I have an idea' Rachel answered.

'Then tell me then!' Lucy implored her. Rachel shook her head again.

'I don't think I should' she answered quietly. 'I don't think your father would want me to. Besides, anything I can tell you will only give you half the answer.'

'Then why ask me here today?' demanded Lucy angrily.

'I...I wanted to tell you...' replied Rachel falteringly, 'that I was the last person to see Megan alive and that when I did she told me how much she loved you... I wanted to tell you that.' Lucy felt completely shocked.

'You were the last person to see Mum alive?' she asked. 'Before her car accident?'

'Car accident?' Rachel asked, evidently thrown for a moment by the comment.

'Yes the car accident that killed Megan' Bethany replied. Rachel frowned.

'Is that what...?' A look of comprehension broke across her face. 'I see. Your father told you that...' Rachel stopped. Bethany could sense immediately that something was wrong. Rachel had no idea at all about the car accident, yet she had just said that she was the last person to see Megan alive. Rachel looked at her watch uneasily.

'Look, maybe this was a mistake. I really should be going. I have to get back home to Exeter.'

'What really happened to Mum?' demanded Lucy. Her heart was racing and she felt almost dizzy with anxiety. Rachel looked down into her lap, gathering her thoughts.

'Listen Lucy. Megan, your mother died far too young. She deserved many more years of life. Your father just wants to protect you. When I sent you that book in the post ... I didn't know what I was doing. It was stupid of me. I thought I was helping you, but now I realise that I was wrong.' Rachel stood up. 'I really must be going.'

'No!' cried out Lucy, loud enough to make the few occupants of the pub look her way. 'How did Mum die?' She glanced at Bethany, but her aunt was evidently as shocked and disturbed as she was. Rachel seemed almost scared by the turn their conversation had taken.

'I, I cannot come between you and your father Lucy' she answered unhappily. 'You must speak to him.'

'You won't tell me anything at all!' cried Lucy. Her eyes stung with the pressure of a million pent up tears. She felt as though she could bear it no more. Lucy got up suddenly and with her head down, pushed her way from the table where they were sitting and ran towards the pub's low door.

'Lucy!' she heard Bethany call out behind her. Lucy ran outside into the cold. Snow-flakes were fluttering down again. Lucy ran up the street, great sobs welling up in her lungs and throat. Lucy knew she would miss Mum more at Christmas, but this felt like torture. Everything she thought she knew was wrong. She didn't even know how Mum died. Lucy ran up icy pavements with no idea of where she was headed. All she wanted was to be as far away as possible.

Finally, when Lucy came to a halt, her chest was hurting and her eyes were smarting. She was in the recreation ground near Paul's house. There he was, clad in his hat and gloves, standing with a friend next to a half-built igloo. Paul walked over to her.

'What's up Luce?' he asked. Lucy didn't know what to say. She felt as terrible now as Paul must have done earlier in the year when he was being bullied so badly by Baz and Mike. All she could do was sniff. 'Hey, I've got a torch' he said, pulling one out of his coat pocket. 'Do you want to go back to the tunnels?' Lucy nodded.

'Let's go' she said. They crunched through the pristine snow, out of the recreation ground, across the road, into the orchard and then off to the left to the blocked up entrances to the tin mines.

'You know it's supposed to be really dangerous down there' said Paul as they went along. My mum said that when she was a child some kid got stuck down there and died.'

'People are always telling me not to do things, not to ask things' replied Lucy with a steely edge to her voice, 'I just don't care anymore.' It was still, silent and cold. The buddleia bushes were bent down almost to the ground by the weight of the snow which almost entirely covered up the iron grates that covered the entrances to the tunnels. At first they couldn't find the one with the caved in side, but eventually Paul had brushed away enough snow to find the gap and they eased their way in.

Lucy switched on Paul's torch, and flashed it around the tunnel. The light wasn't bad but it still wasn't enough to clearly illuminate the way. The light seemed to throw up looming shadows that made the tunnel seem more scary than it actually was. The tunnel ceiling was low and Lucy had to bow her head to avoid the damp stone above her. Even so, wet grit soon seemed to accumulate uncomfortably in her hair and try as she might she could not brush all of it out with her hand.

Cautiously, they walked down the tunnel, flashing the torch down at their feet and then out in front of them. The tunnel descended at a gentle gradient and the ceiling even rose a few centimetres so that Lucy didn't have to duck her head anymore. The air felt warm compared with the icy chill outside and she began to walk with more confidence.

'This doesn't seem too bad' said Paul behind Lucy, echoing her own thoughts. Barely had the words left his mouth, when Lucy tripped and stumbled on a loose stone and fell heavily onto her hands and knees, grazing them painfully.

'You okay?' asked Paul.

'I think so' she replied, looking at her hands in the light of the torch.

'Do you think we should turn back?' asked Paul hesitantly.

'No' replied Lucy firmly. 'Come on.' They started walking on again, more cautiously this time. Despite her bravado, Lucy couldn't help but imagine tonnes of rock come crashing down onto their heads. They'd be crushed to death and no one would even know they were there. The tunnel got narrower again and quite abruptly as they turned a corner they realised that it was boarded up with heavy wooden sleepers.

'Blimey! We're not going to get through that' exclaimed Paul. Lucy tapped the wood to see if she could tell how thick it was. She hoped that somehow the sleepers would just turn to dust when she touched them, but instead they felt quite solid. Paul was right; there was no way they were going to get through there. Lucy flashed Paul's torch around her. She couldn't quite tell if her mind was playing tricks on her or not, but the light from the torch seemed to be getting a little dimmer. Try as they might, they could see no way through. Disappointed, they turned around.

'I supposed we'd better head back' said Lucy unhappily. Just as they began to turn, the light in Paul's torch failed completely and they were plunged into darkness. Lucy tapped the torch and flicked the on-off switch unsuccessfully.

'Work you stupid thing. Work!' she said, fear rising in her voice. It was as dark as a coffin. Lucy couldn't even see the outline of Paul standing immediately in front of her. She turned abruptly and doing so, cracked her head painfully on the low ceiling of the tunnel. Lucy stood, stunned, holding her aching skull in her hands. She let out an anguished moan. Paul grabbed her hand to make sure she had something solid to hold on to.

A daze of stars swam across her eyes. The pain was so intense that Lucy thought that she was going to pass out. She looked at where she thought Paul was, but instead of the boy, she saw a young woman standing in front of her in the deep gloom wearing a bonnet and shawl and a long crinoline dress.

'To find what you want, you must first let go' the woman's voice whispered. 'You'll know when.'

'What?' muttered Lucy in her pain. She was so stunned she didn't know what was happening. She glanced down before looking up at the woman's face again. It was gone.

'You okay there Luce?' asked Paul, 'that was a nasty crack on your bonce you gave yourself!' Lucy stood for another minute or so holding her throbbing head. At least she hadn't knocked herself out again like she had at the swimming pool.

'I'm alright, I think' she said finally, gathering her wits together. 'Don't worry' she said, peering around her, trying to reassure herself as much as Paul. 'There's only one way out. We'll just walk back up the way we came. They started stumbling along, but before she knew what she was doing, she'd bumped into the wall again and Lucy didn't have any idea which way she was facing. She felt panic rising in her chest.

'Hey stop a minute' said Paul. 'Let your eyes adjust to the darkness.' Blinking, they both looked around them. At first Lucy could make out nothing at all, but slowly she realised that the rocks seemed to be giving off some faint, barely perceptible glow. If she'd had the torch on, she wouldn't have been able to see the glow at all. Now though the rocks didn't seem so scary as they had just a couple of minutes before.

'I reckon it's that way' said Paul, pointing firmly in one direction.

'Alright then' replied Lucy, the fear subsiding again, 'let's give it a go.' They walked on along the tunnel which curved round and upwards. Lucy was convinced that just round the corner she'd see the girl in the bonnet again, beckoning them towards the Trinity caves, glittering with crystals and eerie luminescence. Lucy was disappointed though. A couple of minutes later sunlight pierced the darkness and they stumbled out into the cold snow that they had left just a short while before.

Chapter Eighteen:

'Look up above ye' Mary Pewsey's father said as her family walked back from church, nodding in the direction of the starry sky above them. 'Ye can see the Three Sisters as clear as day.' Mary looked up. It was true. The three stars were particularly bright that night, nestling in the velvet folds of darkness.

Half an hour before, midnight had struck and Christmas day had just begun. The Reverend Smith had glowered down from his pulpit at the midnight worshipers in their Sunday best. Mary felt his eyes resting on her occasionally. She never had told him the location of the Trinity Caves and she feared his resentful stare as he surveyed his congregation.

Even as she walked arm in arm with her sister in their best bonnets and shawls, part of Mary Pewsey's mind was far away, resting in the still dark waters off the coast with Sprite and the other dolphins of his pod.

Mary smiled to herself. The next year was going to be a good one, she was sure of it. She and Sprite had found a wreck of a postal ship carrying crates of silver plate that had sunk a few hundred yards off shore during the Napoleonic wars. If she told her father and he recovered the silver, they might pay off their debts to their landlord, and free themselves from the poverty that had plagued them for years. She might even be able to finish her education. The future seemed rich with possibilities.

Mary wondered what she might dream about that night. Strange dreams had been crowding her mind in recent nights. Mary and her sister hummed Christmas carols to themselves as they walked back home through the crisp cold streets of Merwater.

'What happened to you kiddo?' asked Bethany as Lucy eventually came back to where the Land Rover was parked. 'That's a nasty gash on your head!'

'Oh it's nothing' replied Lucy, defensively trying to cover up the bloody graze with her hair. She shivered as she clambered back into the chilly car.

'Has she gone then? Rachel Greenwood I mean' asked Lucy.

'I think so. She had to get back to Exeter or something.'

'I didn't like her' replied Lucy, 'first she's all friendly, and then she won't tell you anything, even though she knows it's really important. I'm not just some lab rat she can experiment on and neither was Mum.'

Bethany thought about everything that she'd talked to Rachel about after Lucy had stormed out. Rachel had wanted to chase after her and bring Lucy back. But Bethany knew Lucy well enough to realise that the best thing to do was to let Lucy cool off before talking to her. What's more, Bethany wasn't able to tell Lucy what she'd learned from Rachel. She needed to speak to John first. He had a lot of questions to answer. The fact was that she felt completely shocked at what she'd learnt and didn't know how Lucy would react when she found out.

'I think she means well kiddo, really I do' was all that Bethany could say in response.

Lucy slipped into a gift shop and hurriedly bought a few small presents while Bethany went to buy a hot Cornish pasty for each of them to eat. Lucy felt strangely disconnected from Christmas this year. Normally it was so exciting and important for her. This year it felt like an afterthought.

They drove back slowly in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Lucy looked at the piles of slush on either side of the road. The crisp, beautiful snow had so quickly been spoilt, she thought. At least the fields on either side of the road were still unsullied. They turned down the lane that led to the farm. Twice Lucy thought they were going to slide into the verge, but each time Bethany brought the car around safely.

Lucy looked across the fields. 'It's like a sea of white' she said to herself. She thought of Spirit longingly and wished she could dive into that sea and swim with him again. She was no closer to finding the Trinity Caves and she no longer had any idea how to find them.

The farmyard was quiet when they drove up. Dad must be out helping Mary and Darren on the farm, Lucy thought.

'Maybe you should get those presents wrapped kiddo whilst nobody's around' suggested Bethany, stepping out of the Land Rover into the chilly air. 'There's some things I need to get from the studio' she added. 'I'll just pop over there'. Bethany seemed distracted, but Lucy thought nothing of it. She took her bag of gifts and wrapping paper and made her way back up to the holiday cottage.

Bethany crossed the farmyard and let herself into the studio. It was quite still inside. There was no insulation to speak of, and it was far too cold to work or live there at this time of year. Bethany stood for a moment and breathed a cloud of vapour into the still air, looking around her as she did so. It felt like entering Sleeping Beauty's castle, it was so quiet. She walked up to her work table and picked up a photo that she had propped between some paintbrushes. It was the last photo of Megan that she had before she'd died. Her sister was holding a glass of wine and laughing happily. In fact the next time she'd seen Megan had been in a sealed coffin at her funeral. She never had seen the press reports of Megan's death in the car crash, but that wasn't unusual. Car accidents seldom get much coverage in the news.

Bethany studied the photograph closely, as though if she stared at it long enough, Megan might come to life and say something. Instead she stayed frozen in time.

Ever since her death, Bethany had painted pictures of her sister compulsively, as if she was searching for something in her memory that she did not quite understand. Yet she never painted Megan as an adult, rather she always painted her as a girl, of roughly the same age as Lucy was now. She only had a vague sense of why she did so.

Reluctantly Bethany replaced the photo and turned to leave the studio. Just as she closed the door, Lucy's dad appeared round the corner carrying a bucket of bran.

'John!' she exclaimed in surprise. He'd nearly walked into her. 'John' she repeated again in a broken voice.

'Whatever is the matter?' he asked, at once sensing that something was seriously wrong. 'Is it Lucy?'

'No!' replied Bethany, feeling so weak that she thought she would collapse. 'It's Megan. Megan, who didn't die in a car accident!' John stood stock still.

'Oh, I see. You know' he replied quietly.

'How could you lie to us all like that?' Bethany asked in disbelief.

'If you know, then you will know I had to lie to protect Lucy. I had to protect her till she was safe again. I couldn't let the same thing happen to my only daughter'. He let the bran bucket drop and stared imploringly into Bethany's eyes. 'I wanted to tell you Bethany, really I did. But a car accident was an easier way to explain her death. But how do you know? Does Lucy...?' Bethany shook her head.

'No. You're safe. Lucy and I met Dr Rachel Greenwood today. She was the figure you saw at Lucy's hospital bed and at Thelma's funeral. Lucy got upset and ran out. It was only then that Rachel told me how Megan had really died.'

'Oh I know Greenwood's name very well' said Dad with an angry tone to his voice. Megan often talked about her. But I never met her. I refused to allow her to come to Megan's funeral. She'd done enough damage with all her experiments. I suppose she wanted to get her claws into Lucy too. Well she's too late. Lucy's safe now.'

'I had no idea John. No idea. You should have told me. I could have done more to help protect Lucy too.' He looked down at the ground, then bent to pick up the bran bucket again.

'I really thought I could keep things under control Bethany. Really I did. But then she ran away to Cornwall to help that Spirit. Next thing she was rescuing his mother from that lagoon. You know when you're fishing, sometimes you have to give the fish more line before you reel it in. That's what I had to do with Lucy in the end. I had to give her more line. But she's safe now. She's safe from all that.

'Is she?'

'She's lost her gift now hasn't she? She can't reach out to Spirit like she used to. She's growing up to be a normal girl, just like Thelma said she would. It's all over. I've lost my wife. I'm not going to lose my daughter too.'

Just then Darren came round the corner.

'Having a bit of a chin-wag?' he asked, smiling. It's too cold for folks out here. Get yourselves inside for a warm up. Where's Lucy? Mary wondered if she wanted to help her decorate the tree.'

'Oh, I'm going to walk alone a bit' replied Bethany feeling both upset and angry. 'I need to clear my head.' John looked quite shaken up by their conversation. He took his bucket of bran and walked over towards the cow sheds.

Bethany went into the top field and made her way up the track that the cattle had beaten into the snow. She stood at the crest of the hill and looked down on the spread of countryside below her. Bethany's mind was irresistibly drawn back to that summer holiday, so many years ago, when Megan had first met Rachel Greenwood and her life had changed forever. In her memory, every summer's day as a little girl had been sunny and packed full of adventure. She'd been so excited to find Jet when Megan thought she'd lost him for ever. Bethany had felt so proud to be able to bring them back together.

Even though Bethany had been left standing at the water's edge, she felt included somehow; as if now she was in on the secret too. After Jet had swum off again. Megan let her come with her and they scrambled up the path out of the cove. Megan started desperately searching for something along the top of the cliff. It was so many years ago, but it felt like yesterday.

'Megan?' Bethany had asked. 'What are you looking for?'

'I'm looking for a hole, or a crack in the rock or something. Something that leads down to....' She broke off.

'Down to what?' asked Bethany.

'Down to a cave, I think' replied Megan, lost in thought. 'I don't know really. I just know that.... I just know I have to find it.'

'But why?' asked Bethany, full of the curiosity of the very young.

'I can't explain. I just have to' replied Megan, distractedly thrashing a bramble bush with a stick. To Bethany it felt like they spent ages searching that bit of the cliff near where a wind-swept tree clung perilously to the rock. Bethany was scared of the edge of the cliff and hung back, but Megan was fearless, clutching onto tufts of grass to peer down over the edge.

They found nothing and as the sun began its final descent down towards the horizon, they trudged back towards Old-Man's Cove. Mum and Dad were standing at the top, their beach bags in hand.

'We were wondering where you two had got to' said Mum, her arms and face glistening with sun cream. 'Come on, let's get going.'

As they drove up the dusty track back to the holiday cottage, Bethany suddenly noticed her sister's face light up. Following her gaze, Bethany saw the familiar Citroen Deux Cheveaux that Rachel drove. Pulling up, they could see Rachel leaning against the bonnet of the car, wearing jeans cut off at the knees and a shapeless baggy blouse. She had a grass stalk in her mouth and was gazing out towards the sand-dunes. She turned and waved.

As they clambered out of the car, Megan ran over to her friend, leaving Bethany to trail behind with her buckets and fishing net, feeling small and unnoticed.

'What are you doing here?' asked Megan, suddenly full of life again.

'Well my Mum cooks a mean spag bol and we wondered if you fancied coming over for a plate. You could stay over if you want to.' Megan turned to look imploringly at her parents.

'We're very complimented that you've been so friendly to our daughter Megan' cut in Dad rather stiffly, 'but you do know we're leaving tomorrow don't you?' he asked. He regarded Rachel suspiciously. It was strange that a University student should be so keen to spend time with a twelve year old.

As if guessing his thoughts, Rachel produced an envelope from her back pocket.

'Here's a note from my Mum. You can call her if you like' she added, though she knew that the cottage had no telephone. 'Truth is that Megan and me have been doing a bit of research and there's something I wanted to run past her before she left. And we like hanging out with each other don't we Megan?' Rachel added with a smile.

Bethany could see Mum and Dad exchanging a glance. 'I suppose there's no harm in it love?' Bethany's mum said to her dad.

Half an hour later, once Dad had walked up to the payphone to call Rachel's Mum, Megan sat in Rachel's Citroen with her overnight things hastily stuffed into a spare duffel bag.

Bethany watched as the car bumped along the dust track and disappeared round the corner. Left out yet again. It felt so unfair, thought Bethany as Mum ushered her into the cottage.

'Have you found the Trinity Caves then Rachel?' asked Megan, as they rattled along the road towards Merwater.

'Well, err no' replied Rachel.

'What is it then?' asked Megan.

'Do you remember that girl Mary Pewsey that the Reverend Smith wrote about?' asked Rachel.

'Yes of course.' replied Megan.

'Well it turns out she was this nineteenth century educator and reformer' Rachel went on. 'A bit of a suffragette before anyone ever thought up the term.'

'What's a suffragette?' asked Megan.

'She fought for women's rights' Rachel continued 'and wrote a pamphlet saying that women should get the vote. She was a regular scientist as well. Did a lot of work on marine biology. Died young of course, but then plenty of people did in those days. Thing is, Toby Smith's dug up something on her he thinks might be of interest to us. Hence the spag bol. He's coming round to our place this evening.' Megan couldn't help but smile.

'You reckon he likes your Mum?' she asked. She couldn't quite believe that people that old could fancy each other. Rachel laughed.

'I wouldn't be surprised' she replied. 'Anyhow, let's see what he's got for us.'

Spirit, Dancer, Star-Gazer, Storm and the other dolphins circled listlessly in the water. The short winter day had surrendered to the night and the stars were spread out above them in the sky. Spirit felt uneasy, as though he knew that something was about to happen, but he didn't know what. Earlier, great fat snow-flakes had fluttered down and melted on the surface of the sea. Playfully, Spirit and Dancer had tried to catch the flakes before they hit the water, but they had had no luck. Storm had told them that in the north the sea turned to ice in the winter, but Spirit could hardly believe it. The sea would have to be unimaginably cold to freeze over, he thought.

Their discovery of the Three Green Caves was the talk of the pod. All of the others were too big to swim through the crevice into the caves except for No-Name, who was far too young to try.

'How could Spirit have discovered those caves?' asked Chaser sceptically. 'In a dream!'

'It's Dream-Time' said Storm simply.

'What's that?' asked Dancer, her curiosity aroused as she circled restlessly in the water.

'They used to say that Dream-Time is what connects all dolphins together' Star-Gazer answered. It is said that before dolphins came into being, their souls existed first. Dream-Time is what links the ancestors with us here and now. So they are dreaming of us and we are dreaming of them. In this way all dolphins from all times exist in the same moment.'

'I don't understand' said Dancer, feeling confused.

'Maybe Storm is right' Star-Gazer cut in. 'How else could Spirit have known? There are many things in the world that we do not know the answer to.'

'There must be a reason' said Storm thoughtfully. 'Everything has its own place in nature.'

Once Lucy had wrapped her few small presents for Christmas, she sat and stared out of the cottage window at the cold white landscape outside. She shivered, even though the central heating was on. It wasn't only the temperature that made her feel cold. The idea of the long grey years ahead of her without Spirit made her feel numb and empty. First she had lost Mum. Now she had lost Spirit too. She felt broken. Despair began to curl round her thoughts like weeds.

To distract herself, Lucy picked up Mum's copy of the 'Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast' that Rachel Greenwood had sent her anonymously in the post. Mum had scribbled in the margins when she was roughly the same age as Lucy was now. Lucy had been all through the book several times, but although it mentioned the Trinity caves, it gave no indication as to where they might be.

Suddenly, something in pencil in one of the margins caught her eye. She shivered again, but this time not from cold, rather from recognition. 'To find what you want, you must first let go. You will know when.' There it was in black and white, the same words that the young woman in the bonnet in the tunnel had said to her when the light went out and she had banged her head. Lucy wondered if she'd just read it already, and only imagined the apparition in the tunnel saying those words. She was sure she hadn't read them before though.

Whatever the words meant, they gave her a small spark of hope in the darkness of her thoughts. It was a riddle and she had to have faith if she was going to solve it.

'Well you might say you peaked my curiosity' said Toby Smith expansively, as he splashed red wine generously into his own glass. They were sitting in Rachel's Mum's small living room above Owl Books, with a big bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese in front of them on the table. Toby Smith had called it a hippy habitation, and sat himself right down on a floor cushion. Megan wondered whether he'd ever be able to get up again. He didn't look very flexible in his joints.

'It was all this stuff about the Rev that got me wondering' he went on. The Rev was a dreadful old prig. I'm embarrassed to have him as a relative really' he said, 'even as a dead one' he added, glass half raised to his mouth.

'When you came round I just had this niggling feeling that there was something about him I needed to tell you, but I just couldn't remember what. Then yesterday, while I was listening to some Charlie Parker, I suddenly remembered.' Megan lowered her fork of spaghetti to listen.

'Her name was Mary Pewsey' Toby Smith concluded, smiling broadly. Mother used to tell me the story when I was a child. Rachel, her mum and Lucy all leant forward to listen.

'Mary Pewsey was this young girl from the Rev's parish. Daughter of a fisherman apparently. Then her father recovered some silver plate from an old wreck and became wealthy enough to enable Mary to finish her education. She had a keen mind and soon she was writing extensively on education, Cornish folklore and marine biology. Turns out she had an almost preternatural knowledge of the seas, currents and submerged sandbanks and rocks and whatnot. Of course the Rev absolutely hated her.'

'But why?' asked Megan.

'She took the Rev on at his own game and won. He wanted to be the authority on all things Cornish. She was just better than him. Her writing was crisper and she was more knowledgeable. The Rev used to correspond with various bigwigs at the Royal Society in London. They stopped writing to him and started writing to her instead. He started drinking too much port and neglected his parish. He got gout and stayed indoors. He wrote letters to the London journals denouncing this young up-start of a woman, but it didn't help him at all. It seemed to be all over for him.'

'And was it?' asked Rachel, her forkful of spaghetti half way to her mouth.

'Well the old fraud had one thing going for him, and that was longevity. He lived a very long time and Mary Pewsey didn't. She wasn't forty when she died. He outlived her and then he was able to re-establish his reputation by picking away at hers. Now she's forgotten and his books can still be found in libraries, even if they are out of print now.

'That's horrible!' exclaimed Megan. 'Poor Mary Pewsey.'

'That's life I'm afraid' replied Toby Smith. 'It was a tough world for women in those days. Especially women with little standing in society. She should have gone to America like many from these parts did when the tin mines closed. She could have made a real name for herself there. But she didn't want to be separated from the Cornish sea apparently.

'That's an interesting story Toby' said Rachel's mum, 'but I don't really see...'

'Aah, yes well I haven't quite got to the nub of it yet' Toby Smith continued. 'That's what my old mother used to tell me when I was younger. It was bit of family folklore, you might say. I never knew about this stuff to do with the Trinity Caves until you two came on the scene' he said, nodding towards Rachel and Megan.

'Well I thought I'd give an old pal of mine a buzz. He's always in the British Library Reading Room ferreting out some fact or other. I wondered if he might do some sleuthing for me. Turns out he dug up a couple of old Mary Pewsey's pamphlets.' He paused and downed another mouthful of red wine.

'What do they say?' asked Megan.

'Well the last one was published after Mary Pewsey died. It was all about the education of young women as it happens. The thing that caught my friend's eye was the introduction. I'd told him about the connection between dolphins and this thing about the Trinity Caves you see. The introduction was written by one of her friends, or followers you might say. He dictated the salient bits over the phone to me.' At this point Toby Smith pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. He cleared his throat.

'My dear and good friend Mary is now lost to us. She knew more about the sea than any person I know and was passionate about the education of women. It was only a short time before her death when she was already ill, that I learned quite by accident that she was a Dolphin-Child, which have been spoken of by the people of Merwater for centuries. Yet she did not lose her gift like all the others when she became a woman. I asked her why. She said that she was what she was because of the Trinity Caves and the experience she had had there. Then she said something that I did not understand. She said that she was one of three sisters, though the second and third sisters had not yet been born. She said that she dreamt of them sometimes and she believed that they also dreamt of her. She said that her revelation had come to her one night when the stars were bright. She would not tell me where the Trinity Caves were. She said instead "To find what you want, you must first let go. You will know when."'

Megan felt a shiver run through her. It was almost as though these words were written specifically for her.
Chapter Nineteen:

That evening, Spirit could not help himself. He had an irresistible urge to slip away back to the caves while Dancer and the others slept. The sea was choppy and a light wind had picked up from the west. The stars glittered brilliantly in the night sky and now that Storm and Star-Gazer had pointed them out, he could see the Three Sisters in alignment clearly above him.

As he approached the dark cliffs he could see the line of snow running along the top. The wall of rock below the waterline looked forbidding and cold. If he'd had to rely on his eyes alone, he would never be able to find the opening. Fortunately with his clicking echolocation he was able to find it easily enough and he confidently swam into the narrow channel that led to the main chamber.

Spirit was worried that he might snag his flank on a jagged rock this time, but he passed through easily and soon found himself in the expanse of the main cave once more, lit by the iridescent glow of light, shimmering from the walls. Again he had the sensation of being entirely at home there in this strange, enclosed environment, even though he had only been there once before. He could not understand the glow of light from the walls. It was beyond his comprehension. He swam slowly around the enclosed space of the main cave, careful to avoid striking the walls of stone on each side, worn smooth by the timeless tides. He knew that there were two other smaller caves, but somehow it did not feel right to go there. As he swam slowly around, entranced by the eerie light, he fell into a trance in which sleep and wakefulness merged and became one.

Megan had been intrigued to see Toby Smith and Rachel's mum together. They laughed at each other's jokes and almost seemed to lean in towards each other when they spoke. Megan imagined that her parents must have been like that once, though they'd been married for so long that perhaps they'd forgotten their early romantic days that Mum told her about sometimes when Dad was out. The atmosphere in the small flat above Owl Books was relaxing and fun. Megan was glad to leave her troubles behind for a while at least and let the conversation ebb and flow around her. Bilbo Baggins curled round her legs and she ran her fingers through his soft black fur. He leapt up into her lap and settled down to lapse luxuriantly into sleep.

'Someone seems to like you!' exclaimed Rachel, looking down at the contended cat.

Eventually, his wine drunk, Toby Smith announced that he really had to get back home. Rachel's Mum walked him downstairs and they lingered outside, laughing quietly.

'They're looking up at the stars' said Rachel, peeking down through the window at them. 'What a pair they make'.

Rachel disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back with a blanket and sheets to make up a bed for Megan on the floor cushions.

'It's not exactly the Ritz, but I think you'll be okay for one night at least' she said.

'Oh it looks great' exclaimed Megan, stretching and yawning at the same time. 'I'm dead beat' she added. Reluctantly, she tipped Bilbo Baggins down onto the floor.

'You watch out for that one' laughed Rachel. 'You'll wake up in the morning with him sleeping on your chest if you're not careful.' Later, with the light turned out and with Bilbo Baggins curled up beside her, she lay looking up at the ceiling, wondering about Mary Pewsey, dolphins and her own destiny.

Lucy's head jerked upright. She had been lolling over her book, her eyes closed. The book had slipped out of her hands and the sound of it hitting the floor had woken her up again. Lucy got up and went stiffly to the bathroom to get ready for bed. It was another cold night and ice was already extending its crystals across the window panes. She climbed under the cold duvet and shivered. Dad was reading in his room and presently she heard him switch off his light and turn on his side to sleep. Lucy did the same, but now she was wide awake and her mind stirred with a thousand restless thoughts. Through a crack in the curtains she looked up at the starry night outside and thought about Spirit, drifting silently under the dark cloak of night.

Sometimes Mary Pewsey was so aware of the other two, she could almost hear them breath. It was as though she was staring into a mirror in a steamy bathroom. There behind the condensation and vapour were two other girls looking back at her. If only she could wipe away the steam and see clearly. She would love to see what they truly looked like, but they were always just out of view. She wanted to call out to them but she was afraid they would not hear her. It felt as though they were part of her, though she knew that they existed in a different time and place. Her oil lamp threw flickering shadows up onto the wall. She blew it out and was enveloped in darkness.

It was two o'clock in the morning when Rachel awoke with a start. Something had happened but in her befuddled state she could not think what. The night air sighed through her open window and she wondered whether her dreams had got the better of her. She sat up and turned, her bare feet resting on the hessian mat of her bedroom floor. She listened to the sounds of the flat around her. She could just about make out the steady breathing of her mother in the bedroom next to hers. She strained her ears to hear the sounds of Megan sleeping, but it was strangely quiet from the direction of the living room where she'd made up a bed for Megan just a couple of hours before. Rachel sat on the edge of her bed indecisively for another minute or so before standing up. She would just peek in on Megan she thought and then get herself a glass of water from the kitchen.

The living room was illuminated by the dim glow of a street light. The window was open and a gentle breeze blew in. Rachel looked around. The room was quite empty. Megan had gone. Panicking, Rachel sped round the flat on bare feet, looking in the kitchen and the bathroom and whispering Megan's name hoarsely as she went. Finally, she went down the creaking stairs into the bookshop. The tall book cases felt like looming cliffs in the dark. There was no sign of Megan there either though. An awful feeling of dread began to spread through Rachel's body.

Just then, she heard Bilbo Baggins mewing. Rachel looked up. The cat was outside looking in through the plate glass of the shop window. But how could he have got out, unless... Rachel tried the door to the shop. It was unlocked. She opened it gently. Megan couldn't have gone far. She stepped outside into the still air of the summer night, not caring that she had no shoes on and was only wearing her pyjamas. Quickly, she ran across the courtyard outside and looked up the street. The road was empty but the corner was only twenty yards away. She thought she'd just take a look round the turning. It was as Rachel rounded the corner that she saw a familiar figure in pyjamas walking up the street.

'Megan!' cried Rachel in a mixture of relief and agitation. The figure of Megan neither turned, or changed its pace, but instead kept walking away from her in a determined fashion. There was nothing for it. Rachel started running up the street to catch up with Megan. What was she up to?

'Megan!' Rachel cried again, once she drew level with her. Megan didn't seem to notice. Rachel tried to catch her by the shoulder, but Megan just kept on walking. In desperation she pulled at Megan's sleeve and waved her hand in front of Megan's face, but it was no good. Megan continued implacably, stepping onwards into the dark.

Suddenly it dawned on Rachel that Megan wasn't awake, but in some sort of trance. She'd read somewhere that it was dangerous to wake up someone who was sleep-walking, but she didn't know if that was an old wives tale. In any case, Rachel's curiosity was getting the better of her now. Where was it that Megan was walking to? She decided to fall into step with Megan, and see where the girl led her.

Years had passed since that moonlit night with Megan as she had sleep-walked up the road out of Merwater. Rachel Greenwood felt older all these years later, and a lot colder on a night like this. Yet here she was standing next to her car in a layby on a frosty road on Christmas Eve. 'I must be mad' she thought, as she huddled inside her coat, yet something made her stay to watch and listen. The sky cleared and as there were no streetlamps, the stars could be seen quite clearly against the backdrop of darkness. Years ago Megan told her that dolphins believe that the night sky is a clam shell, pricked with holes that light shines through. She looked up. There were the three stars high above her. 'Three Sisters' she thought to herself, 'coming into perfect alignment'.

Suddenly, Rachel saw the slender figure of Lucy appear at the top of the lane, walking slowly and calmly, clad in nothing but her pyjamas and dressing gown. She seemed impervious to the cold.

'Lucy!' called Rachel. 'Can you hear me?' Lucy showed no reaction at all. 'You're in a trance' Rachel continued cautiously as she approached the sleep-walking girl. 'I know you can hear me. You need to wake up now. The place that you are being drawn to, it's ... It's not safe. It does not need to be your destiny. You can turn back now.' Even as she said it, Rachel Greenwood knew that she didn't truly believe her own words. It was Lucy's destiny to reach the Trinity Caves. She didn't want to wake Lucy up or wrench her from her walking-trance, yet she knew that she had to.

Lucy kept walking towards the gate that led to the footpath along the top of the cliffs. Rachel Greenwood took the young girl's shoulders in her hands to block her path.

'No!' said Rachel. 'I cannot, I must not let you do this.' Still locked in her trance, Lucy stood there calmly in front of her, her cheeks blushed red with the icy chill. 'You'll catch your death of cold' Rachel muttered to herself. Why hadn't she brought a blanket or something to drape around Lucy's shoulders? 'I'd better get you back home to your dad' she said with a sad heart.

Rachel Greenwood took a step back. Her foot slipped out from under her on a piece of snow that had melted then frozen into ice. In a split second Rachel had tumbled back onto a bank of snow and twisted her ankle painfully. Desperately, she looked around her. Lucy was already in the field walking up the footpath towards the edge of the cliff.

'No Lucy!' she cried desperately.

That night Mary Pewsey had stood on the edge of the cliff ready to throw herself down into the sea below. The stars glittered particularly brightly, illuminating the gently lapping sea below her. When she'd realised that she'd never be able to reach out to Sprite again, the sense of loss had been almost too much to bear. She felt certain that if she threw herself from the top of the cliff into the sea, that Sprite would come and save her. They would be together again for at least one last time. She didn't care how foolhardy it was to throw yourself from a cliff in the middle of the night into the dark surging waters below. She just knew that she had to do something to bring herself closer to Sprite.

As Mary stepped forward she tripped on some loose shale and stumbled forward. She slid painfully down some rocks until she stopped, wedged between an overhang of rock and a wind-blasted bush. Cursing her clumsiness she looked around her. There, hidden from view was a crevice in the rock and from it came an eerie green glow. Her skirts were snagged and torn. Pulling herself out of the folds of cloth she emerged like an awkward moth from a chrysalis. With only her bloomers covering her legs, she eased herself into the tight crevice. She could see that it led somewhere and for some reason she badly wanted to know where. A moment later she had disappeared into the hole, leaving only her skirts fluttering in the breeze.

Rachel became increasingly anxious as Megan walked purposefully along the tops of the cliffs. When would Megan awake from her trance? She started to think about rugby-tackling Megan, just to make sure she would not go any nearer to the edge of the cliff.

Megan stopped abruptly and turned to face out to sea. Rachel stared curiously into her young friend's face. Suddenly she was aware that Megan was conscious again.

'Don't worry' she whispered to Rachel with a smile on her lips. 'It's what I have to do.'

'What....?' began Rachel. Then, before she knew it, Megan was scrambling down some rocks towards a blasted bush that clung to the cliff-face at the top of the over-hang.

'Megan?' called Rachel fearfully, but it was too late. It was almost as though Megan had disappeared into the living rock itself.

Rachel Greenwood couldn't believe that it was happening again. Twenty five years before she'd seen Megan disappear in front of her very eyes, almost by magic. Here on this frosty Christmas Eve, she was panicking as she hobbled behind Lucy, cursing her twisted ankle.

Then she remembered, years later, how pale and tired Megan had been the last time Rachel had seen her. By then Jet was an old dolphin and Megan was grown up and with a daughter of her own.

The darkness was gathering along the horizon when Megan left Rachel's lab and drove down to the cove. The wind had completely died away and the sails of the yacht that was moored beyond the rocks hung lifelessly. The sea lapped lazily along the pebbly shoreline.

Megan sat down heavily on a rock and sighed. She felt exhausted, but she knew that in a couple of hours she'd have to get back into the car and start the six hour drive back home to John and Lucy. Rachel told her that she was too tired to drive, but Megan ignored her.

Recently she'd felt so heavy in her soul, that even her blood felt tired. She knew that Jet felt the same. Recently when she reached out to him, she'd found him just drifting in the water.

'Oh, I'm just floating' he'd replied when she asked. 'Floating in the emptiness. It just goes on forever' he said, with a far-away look in his dark eyes.

'Are you alright?' she asked. He turned to look at her.

'I'm old Megan' he said. 'One day I will swim out from the pod ... and I won't come back.'

'What do you mean, you're old?' she asked jokingly, but fear flecked her eyes. The fact was that she knew he was right. Rachel had only recently pointed out that Jet was now one of the oldest dolphins she'd studied. He couldn't go on just because she wanted him to.

Jet was in the waters just outside the bay, and Megan had to see him before she drove home. There was a small rowing boat pulled up on the edge of the curve of pebbles. She pushed the boat out onto the gently lapping surface of the sea and jumped in. Megan put the oars in the rowlocks and began to row out slowly to where the cliff curved round away from the cove. She used to find it easy to row. This time she barely had the energy to pull the boat through the water.

'Everything changes, everything moves on' Jet had told her once. She wondered about those words now. She didn't want things to change. She didn't want things to move on.

'There you are' said Megan. Jet slowly approached through the water, his dorsal fin ploughing the surface. Megan stowed the oars again. Once upon a time, she'd have just dived into the water to join him. Megan didn't feel up to that today and besides, she had to keep her clothes dry for the drive home.

She trailed her hand in the water from the edge of the boat, and then slipped the bonds of her mind and stretched out to Jet instead. As soon as she saw his eyes, she knew that he was near the end.

'Oh Jet!' she said, her voice choked with tears. 'I don't want to lose you.'

'Imagine' he said very slowly, 'that we were young dolphins again, breaking the wave and chasing the bows of yachts.' Megan smiled.

'Yes, that's a beautiful dream' she replied.

'Dream with me then' replied Jet. 'Let's dream together'. He closed his eyes, and as he did so, Megan had an irresistible urge to close hers too.

'Dream...' she murmured.

It was Rachel who found them, an hour or so later; Megan's lifeless body drifting in the rowing boat, and Jets smooth form lolling in the waves. They looked so perfect; it was as though they had fallen asleep and simply forgotten to wake up.

Lucy's trance was more powerful than anything that had ever happened to her before; even more than her link to Spirit. It was as though she was drawn in by an irresistible force. Her inability to reach out to him felt like an aching loss. Now though she felt drawn along by two other human girls. It felt as though she was very close to them, but somehow she could not make out exactly who they were. Only by following this unseen hand that guided her up the dark cold lane from the farm would she find out. At one point Rachel Greenwood appeared in front of her, but it didn't mean anything to her and her feet and legs carried her along until she was standing right at the top of the cliff. Even then she didn't feel at all afraid, but scrabbled down the icy slope that led right to the edge of the sheer granite cliff. One slip and she would tumble over. Yet she wasn't scared at all. It was only as she sat poised next to the wind-blasted bush that she became fully conscious again. There to her right was the crevice in the rock giving off an eerie green glow. This was it thought Lucy. This was the answer.

Lucy eased herself inside the tight crevice. The dull green glow from the rock was just enough to let her see by. If she had been just a year older, she would be too big to squeeze herself through the narrow gap. Normally Lucy didn't like narrow enclosed spaces but tonight she didn't care. The further down the crevice she wormed herself, the less aware she was of the biting wind outside. The rock was mostly smooth but occasionally it was jagged. At one place a very old piece of ripped cloth had been caught on a sharp point. Lucy wondered who had been here before her.

Eventually the crevice widened. She no longer had to wriggle on her belly and was able to shuffle along on her knees instead, careful not to bang her head on the rock above her like she had last time. The low tunnel bent upwards and the glow beyond it looked brighter somehow. She glanced at her watch and pressed the button that illuminated the dial. It was two minutes to midnight. Lucy pulled herself over the last shelf of rock and there she was. The roof of the cave arched up above her like the backbone of a great whale. It glittered with green crystals that encrusted the walls. There was a thin ledge that ran for about ten metres along the edge of the water.

Slowly, Lucy stood up and gazed about her in wonder. Then a shiver of recognition ran through her body. She wasn't alone. Two other girls were standing on the rock looking about them as well. They were there in front of her and yet,... they were only half there. She could only just make out the features of the two ghostly apparitions of girls that stood there. One was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and looked much like Lucy. The other wore old fashioned clothing and bloomers that she had seen pictures of in books. Somehow, they all seemed to catch each other's eye at the same time. They smiled silently at one another.

Just then then there was a splash in the water below them. Lucy gasped.

'Spirit!' Quickly Lucy ran to the edge of the water, all her attention focused on the sight of the dolphin circling quietly in front of her, his head above the surface, eyes sparkling with delight at seeing her. Lucy lost sight of the other two girls but had the sensation that they too were running to their own dolphins in their own time, whenever that might be.

Without hesitation Lucy dived into the cold water, breaking its surface with barely a ripple. Then she was swimming round and round delightedly with her friend.

'I thought I'd never see you again' she murmured into his flank. Spirit clicked and whistled, but they were unable to speak as they did when she reached out to him with her mind. Lucy looked up at the glittering roof of the cave and it felt like she was staring up at a sweep of bright stars above her.

Slowly, Spirit and Lucy drifted towards an opening in the rock. Spirit clearly knew where it led to, but Lucy had no idea. They floated through into a second cave; smaller this time but with larger and brighter crystals that to her dark-adjusted eyes seem so bright that she could hardly take them in. It felt as though all lines were blurred and that everything was in a state of flux. A strange feeling passed through Lucy's head and body, but what it was, or what it meant, Lucy could not tell. The only thing she knew was that she was happy to be there with Spirit.

Presently Lucy became aware of another opening that led to a smaller cave just beyond the second. There was barely enough room for Lucy to pass through by herself, let alone with Spirit. Lucy trod water for a few moments and looked deep into Spirit's eyes. A world of understanding passed between them without a word being said.

'Come on then' whispered Lucy eventually as she smiled into her friends eyes. Silently they moved together towards the narrow opening, and as they did so, it seemed as though they merged into one.

It was Bethany who found Lucy sitting at the top of the path to Old Man's Cove, clutching her knees to her chest, wet in the cold wintery air. It was one o'clock at night on Christmas day.

The first thing that Lucy was aware of was a flashlight playing on her from ten or so metres away.

'She's here! She's here!' yelled Bethany and then rushed up to her, flinging a blanket around her shoulders and hugging Lucy to her. Before a minute had passed Mary and Darren ran up to where they were, both with a flashlight in their hand, panting from the exertion. A few moments later Rachel Greenwood hobbled up to them, looking into Lucy's face anxiously.

Then Lucy could see a torch advancing towards them along the top of the cliff, and finally Dad appeared. He gathered her up into an embrace so tight that Lucy thought he'd squeeze all the breath out of her. She could feel his hot tears dropping onto her cheek as he held her.

Eventually he eased his embrace and pulled back to look her fully in the face for the first time, clasping her shoulders with his hands as he did so. The look of joy and loving in his face passed and was replaced by a look of fear and worry.

'You've gone and done it haven't you?' he said. 'You've found the Trinity Caves and you've found that darned dolphin there. You've linked yourself to him forever.'

Lucy nodded silently. Dad seemed completely overwhelmed and his red eyes filled with tears again.

'You silly girl!' he wept. 'Don't you see? Now that your life is forever linked to his, you will die when he dies!' It looked as though he could barely talk for the pain that he was feeling. 'Mum didn't die in a car crash Lucy' he continued, pressing her head to his chest again. 'She died when her dolphin Jet died! Mum and that Mary Pewsey woman. Neither of them were forty before they were stolen away from us. And now you've joined them!' Lucy felt his body heave with sobs as he held her close again.

A long time seemed to pass before she heard Bethany say in the background;

'Come on John. We can't stay here all night. We'd better get Lucy home.' Dad loosened his grip and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He made to turn and walk up the path, taking Lucy's hand in his own.

'Dad?' said Lucy. He stopped and turned back to face her. 'Dad I don't care. If I didn't have Spirit I'd be half-dead already. I'd rather live a short full life than a long empty one. I am happy I've done what I've done.'

Dad nodded, wiping his eyes again. He turned to the path and the small group made their way up to the road where the cars were parked in the frosty darkness of the Christmas morning. Behind her in the ocean, Lucy knew that Spirit was swimming back to Star-Gazer, Storm and the rest of the pod. She was as close to him now as she had ever been and she would be so for the rest of her days. Lucy breathed deeply and stepped forward towards the coming dawn.

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Full Circle:

In nature, there are few straight lines, but many circles. Life too, curves round on itself.

Lying on an airbed in the shallows, the girl dozed, her back warmed by the summer sun. She could hear her sister playing catch with her mum and dad nearby. She dangled her hand into the water, and wondered if anyone could paddle across the ocean on an airbed.

'Hey lazy' called her dad, 'stop lying around and come and join in with us.' The girl sighed, she didn't want to. Instead she pulled on her swimming goggles, took a deep breath and rolled off the airbed and into the water. The sea boiled up around her, but when the water cleared, she found herself looking into the deep intelligent eyes of a dolphin.

'Hello there' she thought. Then a moment later, unexpectedly, a word appeared in her mind.

'Hullo', came the reply.

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