Maddy's Dolphin by Imogen Tovey Read Free Book Online

she continued her journey downwards, now surrounded by water rather than air, she spotted Indigo and slowed, bringing her feet down and her head up.
    â€˜How do you always know exactly where I am going to land?’ said Maddy, as she smiled at the face of her favourite dolphin.
    â€˜CJ makes so much noise before he jumps that I think every living thing in the sea knows he is about to plunge in.’
    They surfaced and were joined by CJ, who said, ‘Hi, Indigo, did you hear me shout a warning?’
    Maddy told him that Indigo thought the whole sea had heard him and they all laughed out loud.
    From the cliff, Lucy looked on with amazement at how high up they had jumped from; even James, looking on, was quite impressed, and he used to be a Navy Seal.
    They were at Cape Heraion. Having left the jeep up on the track, they had run down the dust track, past the whitewashed chapel which was perched on the cliff, and on past the ancient ruins and up the rocks on the other side. This was a popular place for diving, and on a public holiday the place would be full of people having fun, picnics and diving from the rocks. Luckily today wasn’t a holiday and they were the only ones there.
    After a while of swimming around, diving down and racing each other, Maddy looked up to where they had left Lucy and shouted out, ‘Come on down.’ On seeing the look of horror on her face, Maddy quickly added, ‘You can walk down to the cove we passed and just paddle in; we will swim around and meet you.’
    As they swam around, Indigo took the opportunity to update Maddy with what had been going on. He explained that at high tide last night he had managed to get Lunar out of the narrow entrance from the lake and back into the sea. Lunar had eaten some fish and was feeling a lot better.
    Indigo also stated that two pods of dolphins had moved into the Gulf of Corinth over the last couple of days, having had problems with their sonar; they were feeling disorientated and generally quite ill and confused. They all stated they had heard and felt lots of noise before this had started. They had all drifted into the Gulf and when the noise had stopped they felt a lot better, but some of the young and very old in the pods were still quite unwell. All the dolphins were very anxious and didn’t know what they could do. They wondered whether it was safe to return to the open sea.
    CJ, who never liked to be quiet for long and hadn’t of course been able to hear what Indigo had been saying, interrupted. ‘How’s Lunar? Is she around here somewhere? It would be great to have a swim with her.’
    Indigo said that Lunar wasn’t far away; he had told her to stay out a bit in case there were people around, but that he would call her in now. As Maddy relayed this to CJ, Indigo emitted a loud, high-pitched call, which would travel a long way through the water.
    They turned the corner, coming into view of the cove, and saw Lucy walking into the sea. ‘This is Lucy, Indigo, the President’s daughter I told you about.’
    Indigo swam forward slowly, trying to appear as gentle and unthreatening as possible, which isn’t difficult for a dolphin. He stopped an arm’s length from Lucy, in water only about a metre deep. Indigo raised his rostrum up towards her and Lucy raised her hand to bring it towards his nose and touched her open palm to its tip. ‘Wow!’ was all she could say.
    CJ shouted out, ‘Come on, then, let’s play,’ and turned out to sea again.
    They all swam out into the sea. Lucy, who was a good swimmer, but not half as confident in the water as Maddy and CJ, swam with Indigo at her side and she stroked his side every now and again. She couldn’t believe how soft but firm his skin felt, nor how big and powerful he was this close up.
    As they swam deeper, there was a sudden surge as the water was pushed aside; Lunar surfaced in front of them, causing a great break in the