Conor slowed and waited for her to come alongside. ‘We’ll head over that way.’ He pointed towards the far side of the bay, marked by an archway of stone just clinging to the supporting rock. It had clearly been worn away over the years, and there didn’t look to be many more left from the appearance of the weathered pillar of darkened stones.
Conor, his eyes shielded by his hand, looked out across the bay, scanning as if he were looking for something. They paddled on and Hannah found her rhythm. She’d always loved being out on the water but this was something else, the rolling motion of the sea more hypnotic and beguiling with the ebb and flow of the waves around her. There was an immense feeling of space, unlike being enclosed by the banks of the river, but thankfully she was reassured by the fact that they were in a sheltered bay. The truth was that she preferred her adventure on the safer side.
A tiny bump, almost a nudge, startled her, making her grip her paddle tighter and pay a little more attention to the water instead of the scenery.
‘Conor,’ she called over, anxiously studying the water below the surface. ‘Are there any rocks I should be aware of?’
‘No.’ He paused and turned to call over his shoulder. ‘This is quite deep water.’
That didn’t make her feel better.
‘Right.’ Maybe she’d imagined it and it was just a crosscurrent. Being in the sea was very different from a river or a canal. Actually, being on a canal in comparison was rather dull. To her surprise she was enjoying the exhilaration of the breeze dancing across her face, the dip and pull of the water, and the slide of the kayak through the waves. Her body felt more in tune with the natural motion, riding the swell, anticipating the cyclical up and down.
A seabird dived a few feet away, emerging with an empty beak and screeching before it turned sharply and took flight. She looked down into the water, wondering what sort of fish they had here, and caught sight of a flash of grey. A seal? She sat for a moment just watching and when she looked up, she realised a distance of about two hundred metres had opened up between her and Conor. She squinted at him out of the corner of her eye, and spotted what looked like a dorsal fin, slowly gliding along parallel to her just a few metres away. As her head whipped round, the shape disappeared. She rested the paddle in front of her and clutched a hand to her rapidly rising chest. They didn’t have sharks in Ireland, did they? She must have imagined it. Just the criss-cross of the waves and the current. A bit like those old black-and-white shadowy pictures of the Loch Ness monster.
Suddenly, without warning, there was an explosion of water about twenty-five metres away as a huge grey shape arced out of the water and landed ahead of her. The wash tossed the kayak up and down, as Hannah’s heart leaped into her mouth and she gasped, sucking in so much air she almost choked, nearly dropping her paddle. What! Was! That? She gripped the paddle in both hands, terrified she might let go of it. If that happened she’d really be in trouble. Her pulse thudded as she fearfully twisted this way and that, looking all around her. Oh God, where was it? Now holding the paddle in front of her like a barrier, she frantically searched the water, her heart pounding so hard she thought her ears might explode. What was it and was it coming back?
Then she saw the unmistakable shape of a dorsal fin snaking through the water just behind Conor. A shark! It was a shark.
‘Conor!’ she managed in a hoarse scream as fear paralysed her muscles. She couldn’t even lift her arm to point as she recoiled from the sides of the kayak. Oh God, that earlier bump. It could have turned the kayak over easily. The shoreline looked terrifyingly distant. Could the two of them fight off a shark? Perhaps if they doubled up to seem bigger? She tried to remember everything she’d ever known about sharks; it wasn’t a lot. They could smell blood from miles away. They had a lot of teeth. Could you fight one off with a paddle? She gripped the handle in her gloved hands. Wasn’t there some guy that had once punched a shark on the nose? An Australian surfer?
She’d seenJaws. She could hear Roy Schneider’s Chief Brody saying, ‘We need a bigger boat.’ It didn’t get much smaller than a kayak. The fin had disappeared now. She closed her eyes. What if it were underneath them?
‘C-Conor. We need to get out of here.’
He executed an elegant turn and slid toward her, a huge smile on his face. ‘Did you see him?’
She stared at him. ‘See him?’
‘Fungie. The dolphin.’
‘Dolphin?’ she echoed stupidly. ‘I thought it was a shark.’
Conor grinned with complete unconcern. ‘Sharks don’t leap out of the water like that.’
She slumped in her kayak, relief coursing through her. A ruddy dolphin. Of course it was.
‘It’s news to me that there are dolphins,’ she snapped, irritated by his amusement. He seemed to think it was funny. As far as she was concerned while dolphins might have the reputation of being the lovable, cuddly animals of the sea, that didn’t mean she wanted to get up close and personal with one. Especially not now she’d seen how big the flipping thing was. It could easily capsize her.
‘Only one dolphin. Fungie.’ Conor peered around them and suddenly pointed. ‘There he is.’
She watched as the dolphin – yes she could see that now – jumped out of the water. Of course it was a dolphin because that was exactly what you expected to see in Ireland. Wasn’t the country renowned for its prevalence of dolphins – not!
‘Did you know it was here?’ asked Hannah, her voice shrill with the hangover of terror.
‘Yes.’ Conor flashed her one of his trademark megawatt grins, the sort that had clearly, in its TV heyday, garnered fans in their droves but at the moment was intensely irritating when her heart was still trying to beat its way out of her chest. ‘He’s famous in these parts.’
‘And you didn’t think to warn me.’ Her voice was so tight she could barely squeeze it out over her vocal cords.
‘Sorry, I wanted it to be a surprise and I wasn’t sure if we’d see him, although most of the boat tours guarantee your money back if you don’t spot him.’
Hannah stared at him. ‘You knewthatwas in the water.’ It was a surprise all right and not a good one. Why on earth had he thought it would be? If she’d known, she wouldn’t have stepped within twelve feet of a kayak, let alone immersed half of her body below the water line.
‘He’s a local celebrity. He’s been in the bay for the last twenty years. They think he got separated from his pod and ended up staying here. It’s very unusual for dolphins to be solitary but this one swam in one day and never left. Since then, he’s been very friendly; he loves interacting with humans.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ she said through pinched lips, giving him a baleful glare and looking longingly at the shore. ‘Shall we go?’
‘Trust me. If we wait a minute and we’re lucky, he might put on a show for us. He loves playing with the boats, racing them and teasing the tourists playing hide and seek. It would be a shame to miss it.’
