Midnight Dolphin by James Carmody Read Free Book Online

felt
confused and more than a little scared about what was happening
between her and Jet. Why couldn’t she stretch out to him like she
was used to doing? Megan had grown to feel in control of her life
and in her connection to dolphins. She’d worked hard to develop her
skill and now it seemed no more solid than the sand that she was
standing on. What was happening to her? She was already beginning
to feel empty and alone. If Jet and the others disappeared from her
life altogether, she didn’t know how she could go on.
    Megan walked
slowly and sadly over the dunes back to the cottage. As she got
close, Megan could see the curtains of upstairs flick back into
place. Bethany was evidently already up and watching out for her
from their bedroom window. Megan let herself back into the cottage
as quietly as she could.
    Just then Mum
came downstairs into the cottage kitchen.
    ‘ You alright
there love?’ she asked her daughter. Megan nodded and looked away.
The truth was that she felt numb inside, but didn’t know how to
tell her mother that. ‘You don’t look your normal self. You’re not
going down with something are you?’ Mum continued.
    As soon as Mum
was up, Bethany bounded out of the bedroom and demanded breakfast,
taking up all Mum’s attention again. Then Dad got up and turned on
the radio for the weather forecast and the news. Amidst the noise
of family life, Megan was able to sit quietly and contemplate the
awful prospect of never being able to reach Jet again.
    Mum and Dad
started to debate how to spend the day. Bethany said that she’d
like to spend the morning peering into rock pools and looking for
shells for her collection. She wanted to make a collage out of
them. Ordinarily Megan would have enjoyed a day rock-pooling as
well, but after the loneliness of staring out at the lapping waves,
Megan wanted to get away from the sea. She said that she really
wanted to spend the morning looking around Merwater on her own, and
to her surprise, her parents agreed.
    An hour and a
half later they dropped her off in town near the small harbour, and
drove off, with Bethany waving a fishing net on a bamboo pole out
of the car window before the car turned the corner and disappeared.
Megan looked around her. It was a quiet morning, but despite the
early hour there was still a bustle in the harbour where fishermen
were unloading their catch. Several vans were parked at the
harbour’s edge to take the fish to the train station for their
onward journey to Billingsgate Market in London. Seagulls loitered
optimistically in the vicinity, watching out for any discarded fish
or entrails that they could snatch up.
    Megan turned
her back on the harbour and walked past the hardware shops and
agricultural suppliers, and up into the main part of the high
street where the butchers shop sat next to the prim haberdashery
store. She turned left, off the main street and into the maze of
roads that led up the hill at the back of the town.
    Before long
Megan found herself, as she knew she would, back in the cobbled
yard where the second-hand book shop was. On the other side of the
yard was a pub called the Drunken Owl, and next to the bookshop was
another shop selling brown earthenware pottery which to Megan’s eye
looked rather misshapen. The bookshop itself was called Owl Books.
There was the cat, Bilbo Baggins, asleep in the window as he had
been the previous time she’d visited. Megan glanced at her watch.
It was past ten o’clock now and according to the times pinned to
the inside of the shop door, it should have been open for business
ten minutes ago. But the ‘closed’ sign was still up and Megan
thought she had no option but to wait until it opened. She wasn’t
brave enough to hammer on the door and demand that she be allowed
in.
    Megan turned
and began to look in the pottery shop window to pass the time. It
was all rather dusty in there and she wondered how many bowls and
earthenware mugs they actually managed to sell. Just