Riptide

Chapter Ten: My Pod

I'm woken again by my phone ringing. It's Kris, and I answer.

'Hey, what happened to you last night?' she asks straight away.

'I'm at Ryan's. I slept in Tammy's room,' I explain quickly.

'Okay, well are they all there? Tell them to come down to the beach right now. I'm already here.'

'I'm too hungover, Kris, sorry. It's so early. I just need to go back to sleep.'

'No, Indah,' Kris snaps, and I hear a desperate urgency in her voice. 'A pod of dolphins has been beached overnight. Get down here now. Bring as many towels as you can.'

I slip out of bed and notice that Tammy is asleep in hers. I decide not to wake her, but instead rush to Ryan's room and knock on the door. He asks me to come in straight away. Ryan and Rose are both lying in bed. Rose has her camera in front of her and she's looking through photos she took.

'There's a pod of dolphins on the beach,' I say. 'We need to go now.'

Ryan and Rose both get out of bed and put on clothes. We grab towels and run out of the house, across the road and the park. Already there are a few people on the beach, and I see Kris with her blonde hair thrown up into a quick messy ponytail. There are about thirty dolphins in the shallow water and on the sand of the beach.

My head hurts with the bright light reflecting off the sand and the water, but I run towards Kris with the towels I have.

'Get them wet, now,' Kris tells me. I run into the water, soaking the towels I have, and then go back to Kris, who is sitting with the dolphin that is stranded furthest up the beach. Together we place the soaked towels over the dolphin, ensuring not to cover its blowhole.

'What do we do?' I ask her.

'We need to make sure they don't get sunburnt or too hot,' Kris says. 'I've called for an authority team to come and help, but right now we just have to make sure these guys aren't too hot.'

I look around at the dolphins. The noise they're making is incredible, each of them whistling frantically. There are a few in the shallow water, being hit by the constant waves. It seems like those dolphins could swim away, but maybe they are refusing to leave their pod behind.

One of the dolphins is lashing its tail wildly and it rolls onto its side, so Ryan, Kris and I gently push it back onto its front, avoiding its tail, and place the wet towels over its fin. Rose takes photos of the dolphins and the scenes, which annoys me. I wish she would help us.

'Are they heavy?' Ryan asks. 'I think a couple of us could drag them back out to sea.'

'You can't drag them,' Kris says. 'If you pull them you'll hurt them. And they all need to be in the ocean at the same time. We need enough people to carry each one of them out at the same time.'

Steadily more people stop and gather on the sand around the dolphins. Morning joggers, families and groups of people come to the beach. After twenty minutes, a group of six men and women come and identify themselves as people who work for Seaworld. They're trained in rescuing stranded dolphins.

'Four people per dolphin,' the oldest Seaworld worker, a woman with long grey hair, tells us. 'Lift them gently with widespread palms, and place them onto a towel. Then pick up the towel and together we'll carry all of them into the ocean.'

Ryan, Kris, Rose and I circle around a dolphin. It's flapping its tail madly, but when we pick it up it stops moving, as if it knows we're trying to help it.

'It's okay, girl,' Kris whispers to the dolphin, as we place it down onto the wet towel. The other volunteers are doing the same.

'That one there,' says the grey haired lady, pointing to the dolphin we're holding. 'It's the largest female. Probably the leader. We want to get her out in front. When we get them into the water we hold them upright for as long as possible. If we let go too soon they might get panicked. We wait until they're ready, and then we let them go all at once.'

We pick up the towel with the oldest dolphin, and Kris steadies its head so it doesn't roll. We walk into the water, drenching our clothes, and out past the breakers, as far as we can go while we're still standing. The dolphin starts flapping its tail again.

We look back to see everyone else is behind us, holding their dolphins. The few dolphins that weren't beached are now swimming laps around us, desperate to be reunited with their pod, and whistling frantically.

'Hold her steady,' Kris says. We start to lower the towel, and the dolphin flaps her tail. We hold her on the surface of the water, making sure she has steadied herself, and then let her swim off. The others do the same, and we watch as the dolphins swim away. Our dolphin, the largest female, swims out first and the others follow her. They whistle and dive through the waves, straight out to sea.

I feel relief wash over me like the tide around me, and Kris is crying. I laugh and pull her into a hug, feeling tears myself. I feel such a huge sense of pride at what everyone here on the beach has done.

Ryan and Rose are hugging too. 'I can't believe we saved them,' Rose says.

'Of course we did,' Ryan says.

We walk back onto the sand, where everyone is clapping and cheering and gathering.

'Good work, everyone,' the older woman calls out.

I'm suddenly again aware of my hangover. A wave of nausea fills my gut, and I decide that I need to get home, get food, and go back to bed.

'Hey, Kris,' Ryan says to my sister. 'You were really cool. I didn't know you were so good with dolphins.'

Kris beams. 'I've never seen them stranded before, but I've read about it a lot.'

'You were good,' I say too. 'You're going to be a good vet, you know.'

Kris grins and wraps an arm around me. 'Thank you, Indy.'

We walk back home, saying goodbye to Ryan and Rose, and I go to have a shower, washing the salt water, sand, and smell of alcohol off my body.

// Author's Note

Hii lovelies! Thanks for reading! And pleeease don't forget to vote!

If you fancy finding out a little more about the author behind this novella, you can find me around the internet! I'm at ellekirks.com or you can find my Instagram @ellekirks :)

xx