Midnight Dolphin
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
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