Dolphin Child Read Free

along over the rocks below. She could hear
the noise of chatter and as she looked over the sea wall she saw a
group of children on the rocks below, messing around at the edge of
the sea. Lucy felt shy but she kept looking. There was a group of
about eight girls and boys. Some were her age and one or two were
much younger. Probably someone’s brother or sister she thought,
hanging around with the big kids.
    As she looked on, trying not to seem conspicuous, she realised
the atmosphere amongst the group of children was turning ugly. It
seemed that a couple of the older children were picking on a thin,
younger boy with curly hair. With a start, Lucy realised that she
recognised him. It was the boy she had seen running away from her
up the path from Old Man’s Cove earlier that morning. She thought
that he had been a tourist from one of the nearby holiday cottages.
Yet here he was in what looked like a group of local
kids.
    Lucy could hear one of the girls calling ‘Liar!’ at the boy
and then another kid threw a slimy length of seaweed at him. It
caught him with a wet slap across the face. She could see that the
boy was upset and out of his depth amongst the group of aggressive
children. His face turned red and Lucy thought he was going to
start to cry. She felt anxious. The boy with the curly hair started
moving away from the group as the children continued calling him
names. Lucy had to crane over the sea wall to see where he was
going. Another kid threw a wet length of seaweed at him and it
stuck to the back of his head. The children laughed.
    Lucy began to feel angry. She hated bullying. She had a strong
sense of justice and simply could not just stand there and watch it
happen. She called out but none of the children seemed to notice
her. It looked like they were starting to chase the boy. She had to
get down there. She glanced over the edge of the sea wall. There
was a rusty old iron ladder fixed into the stones of the wall
leading down to the stony beach below. Lucy straddled the wall and
clambered down the ladder quickly.
    Most of the children were still milling around but the boy
with curly hair and a couple of the older kids seemed to have
disappeared. Lucy suddenly felt shy again now she was near the
group but strode across towards them anyway. A couple of the kids
were shouting something and she turned to look at the direction
they were shouting towards. To her surprise there was what looked
like the opening to a tunnel in the sea wall which led back into
the town. What seemed like a stream was trickling out of it over
the rocks and into the sea. She guessed that the kids had
disappeared into the tunnel and made her way quickly to the
opening. She peered up into the tunnel’s dark mouth
nervously.
    The tunnel ran a short way under a building and then opened up
into the light again. The stream tumbled down over boulders and
stones whilst old stone walls were built up on each side. Buildings
lined the stream on each side at the top of the stone walls. Lucy
could see the kids chasing the boy up the stream, jumping from rock
to rock to avoid getting their feet wet. Lucy made her way after
them, gingerly at first, trying to catch up and curious to know
where they were going. They were still yelling insults at the boy
who was running fast up the stream. He wasn’t bothering about
trying to keep his feet dry and was just running through the water,
his trainers sodden with water. The other two kids were more
careful and so was Lucy. Up ahead the stream went under the High
Street and she could hear the rumble of traffic and see one or two
people walking past at pavement level overhead and glancing down at
them curiously.
    Lucy kept going under the road. On the other side in the
daylight again, she could see that the stream went up sharply,
following the line of the hill. Then on the right there was a
narrow channel where a smaller stream joined the main one. She
paused. The two older kids had continued up along the main