Dolphin Song by Lauren St. John

Author:Lauren St. John [John, Lauren St.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780803732148
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Published: 2008-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

17

The first sign that swimming out to the wreck might not be the best idea she’d ever had came when the dolphins kept blocking her path to it. They lay on their sides and squeaked and looked impossibly cute. They turned their bellies to the late-afternoon sky and did dolphin backstrokes. They did rolls and acrobatics and half a dozen other tricks. Initially Martine interpreted it all as a game, but when the end result of everything they did was to prevent her from swimming in the direction of the reef, she became convinced the dolphins were trying to tell her that there was something dangerous there. Either that or they had become drunk on rainwater, as the Tsonga believed they sometimes did.

“What are you trying to tell me, Sun Dancer?” she asked. “What’s wrong, Patch and Honey? Is there something bad out there? Are there sharks out there?”

Before wading out to the dolphins, Martine had made a trip to the lake to fetch a couple of reeds. In times gone by, warriors and hunters had used reeds as makeshift snorkels in order to cross rivers or approach enemies or animals undetected, and she was going to attempt to do the same while searching for treasure. She’d broken the reeds into pieces of varying lengths. After a brief experiment in the shallows, she’d chosen a medium-length one. Periodically, she scanned the beach for Ben in the hope that he’d come rushing over to stop her and to tell her that what had happened the previous night was a silly misunderstanding, and that of course he’d be her friend again. But the beach stayed empty.

While she’d been at the lake, a stiff breeze had picked up and now she watched as a wave from the open sea dashed against the reef, sending an avalanche of spray across the wreck. Martine’s nerves combined unhappily with the stew of seaweed and coconut in her stomach. One false move and she’d be swept into the ocean.

She started to swim for the galleon, but again Sun Dancer blocked her way. The other dolphins crowded around her and, sad and frightened as she was, she couldn’t help smiling. They had a way of looking at her that was very wise but also very childlike and cheeky. She suddenly realized that, far from being isolated, she was surrounded by animals, and that they would always accept her the way she was. That, even if every human being she knew gave up on her, or was angry with her, she would still have her gift.

It was a heartening thought and it gave her the courage she needed to kiss Sun Dancer good-bye, push him gently but firmly aside, and swim for the reef. Nevertheless, she found it disturbing that the dolphins refused to accompany her. It was almost as if there was an invisible line in the bay that they knew not to cross. Martine crossed that imaginary place with trepidation.

The wreck was much farther than it had

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