Having rounded the headland into the bay once more they were a few yards from the boat when they both stopped swimming. Something had caught their eye and they now trod water as slowly as they could so as not to disturb what they saw. The Andreas Two was sitting calmly on the transparent water, the seabed showing through yellow beneath her. She was side on to them and her hull flickered with silver slithers of reflected light as small waves stroked the sleek, white paintwork. The bowsprit pointed accusingly towards the cliffs. They could hear a wire tap against her main mast in a high breeze like a telegraph sending out Morse code. At the prow, beneath the net and with its nose out of the water, was a dolphin. It was looking up at the boat and turning its head to one side as if trying to catch a quietly spoken word. It tilted its self in the other direction and the Andreas Two dipped by the head as if nodding a reply.
The two boys allowed themselves to drift close together, both aware that some secret and magical moment was taking place before them. Without thinking Luke slipped his arm around the other lad and whispered close.
‘What are they saying?’
The dolphin backed off slightly as if shocked and then nodded its head quickly before diving under the water.
‘I don’t know,’ said Mick, sure that they had interrupted a conversation.
They looked about them for the dolphin but could not see it. Mick dived under but to no avail. He resurfaced and pulled up his mask.
‘Where did it go?’ he started to say, brimming over with excitement, but Luke silenced him and pointed to the boat.
The Andreas two had shifted in the water and came to rest with her bow pointing directly at them. It felt to Mick as if he was being watched again, this time by the boat itself and somehow it seemed that she was disapproving. It drifted towards them of its own accord until it loomed overhead. Beneath it in its shadow they felt small and humble.
A sudden burst of spray and the sting of hard water on their faces broke their thoughts. The dolphin dived up through the surface to their right. It splashed down beside them forcing them to swim away as if warning them away from the boat. Once they had regained their breath it appeared again some ten feet away and watched them calmly, smiling at them and chattering. It stole a last glance up at the boat before it sank silently beneath the surface and vanished.
The two boys suddenly let out an exclamation of joy and youthful excitement, slapping their hands together in triumph.
‘Did you see that!’ Luke shouted, splashing around in the water to try and see the mammal again.
‘It was so close,’ Mick cried back, ‘did you touch it? I think it touched me.’
‘Where is it?’
They both dived but there was no sign of the dolphin, only the sharp keel of the boat sparkling beneath the waves as the sunlight penetrated the secret depths below. Keeping Luke’s chain firmly in his grasp Mick lead them back to the stern where they rested against the ladder.
‘What a day,’ said Luke and, still euphoric, threw his arms around his mate.
‘Things just keep getting better,’ Mick said and started to climb.
His progress was halted at the top by a foot that suddenly crushed his fingers against the last rung. It pressed his palm painfully into the gold wheel he was holding.
‘Get a move on,’ Luke laughed as he clambered over Mick to reach the top.
He too stopped, with one arm around Mick, when he saw who was above them. Jake stood there staring down, his face fixed with anger. The man’s expression chilled the boys and all sense of joy vanished leaving only coldness and fear. Jake remained static for a moment, staring at them. He said nothing, shook his head and, turning his back on them, walked silently away. |
