Broken Promises

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“Do you want any help cleaning out her pen?” asked Antonia.

“Yes please,” said Cai. “Guess what? Aunty Claudia’s found a builder. He’s going to start work on the deepwater pool in a couple of weeks.”

“That’s fantastic,” said Antonia. A deepwater pool was just what Sea Watch needed to rehabilitate seabirds and marine animals, like Tilly.

The seal pup followed Antonia and Cai as they tidied up her pen, occasionally nudging their feet with her shiny nose. She reminded Antonia of a puppy, but she knew better than to treat her like one. It was important to handle wild animals as little as possible or they became too tame to release back into the wild. They were almost finished when a familiar sensation swept over Antonia. Spirit was about to call. She stood still, listening for his voice in her head.

Silver Dolphin, come quickly.

Spirit, I hear your call.

Antonia didn’t speak, but thought the words. Cai was only able to communicate with Spirit through his silver dolphin charm and didn’t know about her telepathy. A few seconds later, both Antonia’s dolphin necklace and the dolphin badge pinned to Cai’s T-shirt began to vibrate. Both charms thrashed wildly then they broke into a high-pitched whistle.

“Silver Dolphin, come quickly.”

“Spirit, I hear your call,” said Cai.

He sprinted out of the seal pen, pulling off his rubber gloves and quickly locking the door after Antonia followed him out.

Together they ran for the beach, vaulting the tiny gate and heading for the Sea Watch boat where they stopped to leave their shoes. Antonia touched her charm, concerned by how fast the dolphin’s tail was beating. Spirit needed them urgently. As she splashed into the sea she heard a whispering noise in her head. Puzzled, Antonia slowed, trying to work out what it was. Her silver dolphin charm beat more wildly. There was no time to solve the mystery. Ignoring the whispering noise, Antonia threw herself into the water.

The moment her legs melded together like a tail she swam. She didn’t wait for Cai, and used her powerful Silver Dolphin magic to propel her through the water, her streamlined body arching in and out of the sea like a real dolphin, only much faster. She swam almost to the headland to the west of Sandy Bay beach before she felt vibrations in the water. Hoping they were caused by Spirit, Antonia swam on. At last she saw his silvery head bobbing in the sea near the cliffs. Antonia raced over.

“Hurry, Silver Dolphin,” Spirit clicked, his eyes concerned. “A bird’s in trouble on the cliffs.”

Antonia scanned the cliffs, searching for the unfortunate bird. There it was—about two metres up, perched on a ledge, a large seagull with untidy feathers. Its head bobbed back and forth and its body heaved as if it was choking. What was that hanging from its beak? Antonia couldn’t quite make it out. She swam towards the cliff face. She’d never been rock climbing before, but luckily the cliff was craggy with plenty of hand and footholds. Antonia reached up and placed her hand on a jutting-out piece of rock. It was wet and slippery, but big enough for her to wrap both hands round it to pull herself out of the water. Her knees grazed against rock and she winced as her feet found their own footholds. She looked up, searching for the next hand hold and found one above her head and another one to the right. Reaching up, she pulled herself higher. The climb wasn’t difficult and Antonia felt safe, knowing that if she fell it was only a short drop into the sea.

The bird was making a horrible noise. Antonia climbed faster. She called out in a soothing voice as she drew nearer, but the bird was too distressed to notice. Hauling herself on to the ledge, Antonia saw it was choking on the plastic top of a yoghurt pot. Antonia shuffled her feet until she was balanced. There wasn’t much room on the ledge and she didn’t want to slip off. How best to help the bird? Tentatively she held out her hand. The bird hardly noticed as it carried on gagging. Antonia knew, from some basic first-aid training at school, that when someone was choking and couldn’t breathe you had to act fast. A slap on the back was often enough to remove the thing they were choking on, or there was a more complicated manoeuvre that involved putting your arms round them and squeezing. The gull was definitely having problems breathing. Antonia leant forward. Stroking its head with her left hand, she gently tried freeing the yoghurt pot lid from its beak with her right. The lid shifted a little, then wouldn’t move any further.

“Steady,” crooned Antonia, as the bird began to stagger forward.

She tried pulling at the plastic again, but it wouldn’t budge. The bird made a funny gurgling sound in its throat. Desperate to stop it from suffocating, Antonia gently tapped it on the back between the wings. The bird coughed, staggered forward, then fell on its side. Antonia stared at it in disbelief. It looked dead. Had she killed it?

“Please be alive.”

Carefully she lifted the gull up, as if by doing so everything would suddenly be all right. Its head flopped to one side. The yoghurt pot lid hung from its open beak. Antonia’s brain felt like rush hour. Thoughts zoomed back and forth, making her giddy. You killed it. No I didn’t. You did, it was your fault. But how? I was trying to save it.

Silver Dolphin.

Spirit’s voice broke into the chaos in her head.

It’s not your fault.

I killed it.

No. You answered the call. You did your best.

Antonia didn’t feel like she’d done her best. She laid the bird back on the ledge, stroking its head and smoothing down its feathers.

“I’m sorry.”

The bird stared back at her with lifeless eyes. Sadly, Antonia looked at the sea. Was it safe to dive from here or should she climb back down? From the water, three faces stared up at her. Antonia did a double take. There was Spirit and that was Cai, so who was treading water next to him? Antonia blinked as she stared at the pale skinny girl in the water. There was no mistaking that bright red hair. It was Hannah.

Chapter Three (#ulink_2a61254b-c8a8-5c3b-995b-64cfd07778f8)

Hannah was a Silver Dolphin! Antonia’s stomach plummeted. At once she had a sudden desire to climb up the cliff face and escape from everyone. It was bad enough failing in front of Spirit and Cai, but to do it in front of new girl Hannah was mortifying! It made Antonia’s skin prickle. But the trouble with running away was that at some point you had to come back. Taking a deep breath to give her courage, Antonia began to climb back down the cliff. When she finally splashed into the sea, Cai and Hannah swam over to meet her. They were so sympathetic it made her feel worse.

“At least you reached it in time,” said Cai, squeezing her hand. “I was miles behind. When I realised Hannah was a Silver Dolphin, I hung back to show her where to go.”

“Bad luck with the bird,” said Hannah. “A similar thing happened to me once. That was a seagull too and it almost died.”

“This isn’t your first time as a Silver Dolphin?” Antonia was surprised.

With a wide smile, Hannah pulled a necklace from under her T-shirt. A silver dolphin charm hung from it.

“I’ve been a Silver Dolphin since I was ten. I’m eleven now.”

“So…how did you know? Do you have someone like Claudia? She was a Silver Dolphin once. She gave me my dolphin necklace and Cai his badge.”

“Yes, her name’s Kathleen. She’s a friend of Mum’s. She’s marvellous with animals. She’s always got a collection of sick and injured pets and wildlife. She cares for them in her house, even though it’s only tiny.”

“Do you know Spirit?”

Hannah shook her head. “But Vision does. He’s the leader of our dolphin pod.”

“I know Vision well,” Spirit agreed. “I must remember to thank him for letting us borrow his Silver Dolphin.”

Antonia felt a sharp pang of jealousy and, even though she quickly squashed it, she couldn’t quite meet Hannah’s eye when she said, “It’s great to have you here.”

“Definitely,” clicked Cai enthusiastically. “There’s always room for another Silver Dolphin.”

Antonia could feel vibrations in the water. She turned and saw two small dolphins swimming towards them in graceful arcs.

“Bubbles and Dream,” she whispered. Was there to be no end to her shame?

“Silver Dolphin,” squeaked Bubbles, swimming straight to Antonia and greeting her with a gentle rub on the nose. His dark eyes held hers for a minute, then he rubbed her nose again before turning to Hannah and Cai.

“A new Silver Dolphin. How bubbly!”

Hannah laughed.

“Don’t get too excited,” she squeaked back. “I’m only here for a couple of weeks.”

While Bubbles greeted Hannah and Cai properly, Dream swam alongside Antonia and touched her face with a flipper.

“You did your best,” she clicked softly.

“Thanks.” Antonia was grateful for Dream’s kindness.

Bubbles was thrilled to meet a new Silver Dolphin and couldn’t keep still. “Seaweed tag,” he shouted, bobbing up and down in the water. “It’ll be even more fun now.”

Antonia wasn’t in the mood to play. She didn’t feel she deserved to have fun after the seagull had died.

“Not today,” she clicked.

Cai hesitated, then said, “Next time. We’ve got to get back now.”

Hannah nodded in agreement.

“Too bad,” clicked Bubbles, flicking the sea with his tail. His disappointment made Antonia feel worse.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Spirit’s voice broke into her thoughts. Antonia looked up. His dark eyes held hers. Sadly she shook her head. If only it was that simple!

The dolphins swam with them to Claudia’s beach before Spirit shepherded Bubbles and Dream out to sea. The Silver Dolphins watched them go. When they were tiny dots on the horizon, they swam ashore.

“Kathleen would love Sea Watch,” said Hannah suddenly. “Maybe she could set up something similar.”

“Great idea,” said Cai. “I bet Aunty Claudia would help her to get started. The more Sea Watches the better.”

“You can’t call it Sea Watch!” Antonia exclaimed. Her face reddened as Cai and Hannah stared at her. “I mean…you’d have to call it something else or people might get confused.”

“I don’t think they would,” said Cai thoughtfully. “It would be a bit like the RSPCA. They have branches all over the country.”

“I agree with Antonia,” said Hannah surprisingly. “It would be better to call it something different, like, erm…I don’t know, Beach Watch maybe.”

Antonia gave Hannah a suspicious look, unsure if she was genuinely being nice or if she was making fun of her.

“How about Seaweed Watch,” chuckled Cai, untangling a piece of seaweed from his leg as he waded towards the beach.

“Or Shell Watch,” giggled Hannah, plucking an empty mussel shell from the seabed.

Antonia followed in silence, water cascading from her clothes as she made her way up the beach. Part of her wanted to join in, saying something silly like ‘Waterfall Watch’ but her voice refused to make the words happen.

Claudia met them in the garden. Her eyes skipped over the giggling Hannah and Cai and rested on Antonia.

I failed.

Antonia thought the words before Claudia had time to ask.

It happens. Failure isn’t a crime. Not trying is and before you ask, yes, I’ve failed lots of times. On one occasion it was very bad.

Claudia’s sea-green eyes held a faraway look. Suddenly, Antonia remembered Bubbles telling her how one of their pod had got tangled in a fishing net and died because the Silver Dolphin was too far away to save her. Had that Silver Dolphin been Claudia? She reached out for Claudia’s hand and squeezed it. Claudia gave her hand a little squeeze back.

“Guess what?” said Cai, breathless with excitement.

“Antonia’s lost her shoes?” asked Claudia, a twinkle in her eye.

Antonia grinned. It was becoming a bit of a joke that she kept leaving her shoes on the beach.

“No,” said Cai. “Hannah’s a Silver Dolphin.”

“Oh, that!” said Claudia mischievously. “I had a suspicion she might be.”

“She wants to set up a Sea Watch where she lives. Will you help her?” Cai rushed on.

Claudia laughed. “Of course I will. We’ll talk about it later when I’ve got time to sit down with Hannah and discuss it properly. Right now I was hoping you three might clear out the shed for me. The builder needs to move it before he starts work on the deepwater pool.”

Claudia suggested they lay everything housed in the shed on the lawn while she cleared a temporary space for it all in her garage.

“The car can stay outside,” she said decisively.