The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins Read Online Free Page A

in the rusting hulk loomed in front of them. Dancer
and Spirit hesitated outside.
    ‘ Lets go in’ Dancer dared Spirit. They swam cautiously forward.
The dark engulfed them as they swam through the rusty, barnacle
encrusted hole. The space inside was tight. Knowing no better, they
could not make out what they were looking at and what humans did
when they were not in water. They looked at the scattered metal
tables and chairs and broken crockery with incomprehension.
Something sparkled in the murk and Spirit swam up curiously to it,
prodding it with his nose. The wine glass he had nosed rolled
slowly in a half circle. Dancer seemed fascinated by the hulk they
had swum into, but Spirit began to feel claustrophobic and longed
to be back outside in the wide unrestrained sea again. He turned
towards the entrance where they had swum in from.
    Just as he did so, a shape loomed into the gap, partly
blocking the light from the outside. Spirit let out an involuntary
gasp, and panicking, whistled to Dancer to look.
    ‘ What’s that strange thing Dancer? It’s moving in towards
us!’
    The shape had four limbs, was clad in black and had a mask
over its face. Bubbles chased up from the mask towards the surface.
Trapped and anxious, Spirit contemplated dashing for the hole, past
the figure and up to the surface for a fresh lung-full of air. The
black clad figure though did not seem aggressive.
    ‘ It’s not going to do us any harm. I think it’s a human’ Dancer
whispered.
    ‘ I thought they were mostly pink all over’ replied Spirit
anxiously.
    ‘ That’s not true, they’re not always pink. Breeze told me that
humans can change colour too or put on different
things.’
    ‘ But why would they do that?’ asked Spirit, backing away in the
confined space from the human shape in the entrance.
    ‘ Well, they’re not really supposed to be so deep down in the
water are they?’ responded Dancer. ‘Maybe they have to do that to
come down here.’
     
    The human figure, apparently realising that he was blocking
the dolphins exit, swam back a metre or two so that the hole was
clear for them to leave through. Spirit shot through in a flash,
leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake. Dancer was not far behind.
They raced to the surface and another lung full of air. After the
initial panic passed, Spirit was overcome with a sense of
curiosity.
    ‘ I’m going back’ he said. ‘I want to take a better look at that
human.’ He swam back down. The human was moving slowly, at least
slowly compared to them and seemed to being doing something with a
tool at the rusting hole they had just swum through. The human
looked up. Spirit swum forward again, this time very slowly, his
eyes alive with interest. He could just make out the humans eyes
behind the mask.
    ‘ I think the human’s friendly’ he said. Dancer, hanging back,
was not so sure.
    ‘ Come away’ she said. But Spirit did not move.
    The human turned slightly in the water and Spirit saw that he
had a sort of metal cylinder on his back, with thin black tubes
running to the mask. Bubbles continued to escape up to the surface
as the human breathed.
    ‘ So that’s how they do it!’ Spirit thought to
himself.
    He looked at the human and the human looked back at him. The
man stretched out a limb.
    ‘ That must be what they call a hand’ thought Spirit.
    Spirit sidled forward, with a mixture of tension and shy
friendliness in his thudding heart. As he approached he could see
the human’s eyes more clearly. There was something warm and
inviting about them. Something about the human made him think back
to his dreams. Yes, he had dreamt of a human before, although he’d
never seen one till today. It wasn’t the same as the human that he
had dreamed of, but now the memory of his dream made it come back
vividly into his mind’s eye. It was a younger human he’d dreamt of,
with long dark stuff (hair?) on its head and warm open
eyes.
    Spirit swam a little further forward and the