Free The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins by James Carmody

hours….’
    ‘ Hm, yes,’ Dad agreed as he moved towards the kitchen, ‘I see
what you mean.’ Lucy had the feeling it didn’t take him much
persuading. ‘I’ll just rustle up some food and we can think about
it some more.’ Lucy knew that was the sign that he would let the
subject just slip quietly away unnoticed. She was glad to stay in
and remind herself that home actually was home, not just a cold
empty house with no lights on.
    Whilst Dad clattered away in the kitchen, tidying up and
making lunch, she half closed her eyes and imagined the little
dolphin swimming through the endless waters of the salty ocean.
Sometimes the waters were a brilliant blue. More often the sea
where her dolphins swam was a soupy green colour and, when the rain
lashed down, sky and sea seemed to merge into one grey sheet of
water. She tried to will the dolphin into existence, to speak to
him, but really she knew that all she was doing was imagining him.
It wasn’t the same as it had been the morning before last. Then, it
felt more than a dream. It had been as though she were almost
there, swimming next to the dolphin as he swam away from the orcas.
She tried to stretch out with her mind and imagination, in the hope
that her own world would slip away and the watery world of the sea
would replace it.
    It wasn’t working and she couldn’t do it, but as she sat there
on the sofa, her eyes half closed, imagining, she began to slip
into a light doze. As she did so, she became aware that there was a
gap between her conscious mind and sleep that she hadn’t noticed
before. She could sense the conscious world around her and felt the
urge to sleep. But there was something else, almost like a secret
door, leading to a hidden path that she could follow if she wished.
Behind that secret door within her mind, she could feel with a
vivid rush the sea around her and she was swimming, swimming
towards the pod of dolphins that cruised slowly through the
greeny-blue of the sea, just metres in front of her.
     
    ‘ Wake up sleepy head’ said Dad, gently shaking her by the
shoulder. ‘You were dozing off. I’ve made you fried egg on toast
and here’s a glass of juice to drink with it. You really are wiped
out today aren’t you?’ Lucy felt the rush of the real world
returning as the vision of the sea and dolphins faded away around
her. It took a few seconds to adjust. She gave him a half smile and
got up stiffly. He put the plate and glass down on the table and
she sat down to eat.
    ‘ It’s a good thing I did keep you off school today’ he added.
‘You’d never have made it through the day.’ Lucy didn’t reply, but
her mind was full of thoughts. Was this the way to get back to her
little dolphin? Lucy ate slowly. She wasn’t hungry, but knew that
she should eat. Dad had pulled her out of her trance right at the
worst moment. He stood at the counter quickly munching a sandwich,
unaware of what was going on in her mind.
    ‘ I’m just off upstairs to finish an email’ he said. ‘I won’t be
long. Then maybe we can play a game or something together.’ Lucy
knew that he wouldn’t surface for the rest of the afternoon and
that when he did, all he’d want to do would be to watch
TV.
    ‘ Oh sure’ she said. Off he went again, back upstairs to his
laptop and phone. Lucy was aware that he worked in an office for a
company and that he was on the road a lot. She was never sure
exactly what he did though. The company was in difficulties and
things weren’t easy for Dad at work. He was reluctant to talk about
it, but Lucy knew his boss was putting him under a lot of pressure.
Still though, even when he was actually there with her, he wasn’t
really. He was always thinking of some report or sales statistics,
or Lucy didn’t know what. She didn’t care anyway. He hadn’t been
there for her last night. She finished her egg and took her plate
through to the kitchen. She threw the crusts of her toast out for
the pigeons in the garden. She