Dolphin Summer Read online

  “Gowanus,” I murmured thoughtfully. “What’s short for Gowanus? Gowy? Nussy? Wanny?” Suddenly an idea struck me. “No, not Wanny—Wanda!”

  I smiled, liking the name. The dolphin was watching me again.

  “What do you think?” I asked her. “Is your name Wanda?”

  She chirped and swam a little closer. That settled it! Wanda it was!

  For the next half hour, I talked to Wanda whenever she was at the surface. Eventually I noticed that she was coming closer and closer to the edge where I was sitting. Almost close enough to touch …

  I sat up and looked around. Most of the cars were at the other end of the parking lot near the store. That was way too far away for anyone to notice what I was doing, especially behind the partial shelter of the picnic tables, benches, and spindly trees dotting the grassy area.

  Still, I felt guilty and devious as I clambered awkwardly over the fence. It seemed strange to be on the other side, with nothing between me and the murky water. But I ignored that and crouched down, hanging on to the fence with one hand as I waited for Wanda to surface again.

  When she did, the dolphin seemed surprised to see me so close. At least that was what I read in her dark eyes. Still, she didn’t move, floating where she was.

  “Hey, Wanda,” I said softly. “Is it okay if I … ?”

  I stretched out my arm, reaching toward her snout. My fingers came within inches of the smooth gray skin before the dolphin dodged away, disappearing quickly underwater.

  “Too fast,” I chided myself in a whisper. “You scared her.”

  I waited for her to surface again. After a moment she did, though she was farther away this time.

  “It’s okay, Wanda,” I called in a singsong voice. “It’s just me, your friend Lily.” I gave a few whistles and chirps for good measure. “Sorry I scared you. I don’t blame you for being wary of people.” I sighed, leaning back against the fence. “Actually, I kind of feel that way myself lately. It’s like I can’t even trust the people I thought I knew best. Like I don’t quite fit in my own life anymore sometimes, or …”

  “Hey!” a voice called from somewhere behind me.

  I was so startled I almost fell into the canal. “N-Nia!” I stammered, my face instantly going red.

  Sure enough, Nia was striding toward me across the grass. I quickly climbed back over the fence, bracing myself for whatever came next.

  When Nia reached me, she was frowning. “I figured I’d find you here, sneaky girl,” she said.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, looking down at my feet, not quite ready to meet Nia’s fierce dark eyes. “I’m really sorry, seriously, Nia! I was so worried about Wanda, and I just had to come check on her again, and it’s a good thing I did, too—some little kid was about to throw his lollipop at her, and I was afraid someone else might come along and harass her, or …”

  “Chill,” Nia broke in with a little half smile. “You don’t have to explain. I get it.”

  “You do?” I gulped and shot her a sidelong glance, still not quite daring to believe I wasn’t in deep, dark trouble. “I mean, okay, but I know it was wrong and stuff. If my dad knew, he’d blow a gasket.”

  “Yeah.” She shrugged. “But he doesn’t know. And I’m not your dad, right?”

  I finally met her eyes. She didn’t look as angry as I’d expected.

  “You—you’re not mad?” I asked. “I thought you’d want to kill me.”

  “Only a little,” she said. “Actually, I’m kind of proud of you, Lilykins.”

  “Proud?” That didn’t compute at all. “Why?”

  Nia shrugged. “You rebelled against authority for something you believe in. That’s pretty cool as far as I’m concerned.” She winked. “Even if I have to play the role of authority in this scenario, which so isn’t me, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, still trying to catch up. “But if my dad finds out …”

  “He won’t. Not unless you decide to tell him.” Nia crooked her finger at me. “Now come on, let’s go back to the studio.”

  “Oh. Um, okay.” My heart sank as I imagined the whole rest of the day spent sitting on the hodgepodge sofa chafing to know what was going on with Wanda.

  But as it turned out, Nia had something different in mind. When we reached the studio she went flying around, stuffing things into her backpack—a sketchpad, a bunch of pencils, a big floppy sun hat.

  “See if those beach chairs are still in the storage loft,” she instructed me.

  A bit mystified—was she planning to incorporate the beach chairs into her next sculpture?—I obeyed, climbing up the wooden ladder built against one wall and crawling into the space over the bathroom where Nia tossed anything she wasn’t likely to need anytime soon.

  “Is this it?” I called, poking my head out along with part of a rickety folding chair.

  “There should be two. Toss them down—and the beach umbrella, too, if the moths haven’t eaten it.”

  Once again, I did as she said. When I climbed back down, she was over at the kitchenette making peanut butter sandwiches.

  “What are you doing?” I said. “It’s kind of early for lunch, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but we’ll be hungry soon enough.” She tucked the sandwiches into a plastic pouch. “Bring your books, too. If we’re going to camp out in that parking lot for the next day or two, you can at least get some of your reading done.”

  I gasped, finally catching on. “We’re going back to watch over Wanda?” I cried.

  “Wanda?”

  “That’s what I decided to call her.” I quickly explained how I’d come up with the name. “Thanks, Nia!”

  “No worries.” Nia strode back over and added the food to her backpack. “I’m not having much luck coming up with ideas today anyway. Maybe if I sketch that crazy dolphin again it’ll inspire something.”

  I couldn’t resist grabbing her in a big hug. “I mean it,” I said, my words slightly muffled by the voluminous patchwork poncho she was wearing. “Thanks, Nia. You’re the best.”

  When we arrived back at the canal, the first thing I did was check for Wanda, who surfaced almost immediately. Then Nia and I set up the beach chairs on the grass by the inlet. The umbrella turned out to be too full of holes to be any use against the sun, so Nia called one of her roommates, who turned up a short while later with a boom box and a crazy pink feathered parasol.

  “So where’s this dolphin?” The roommate’s name was Wallace, but everyone called him Inky because of the tattoos that covered nearly every inch of him. I stared at the one of a swordfish on his arm, mesmerized by the way it moved and flexed with his muscles.

  “Over there.” Nia looked up and nodded toward the inlet. She was perched on one of the beach chairs sketching away and sipping one of the sodas she’d brought.

  Inky wandered over, and a second later Wanda surfaced. “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “There really is a dolphin in there!”

  I didn’t hear whatever Nia said in response. Several people were coming toward us from the parking lot—a woman and two men, all of them appearing to be in their late twenties.

  “Hey, is this a party or what?” one of the men asked when they reached us.

  “Private party, sorry,” Nia said with her easy smile. “But here—have a cookie.”

  She offered up a box of Oreos she must have stuck in the backpack when I wasn’t looking. The men eagerly helped themselves, but their friend was peering at the canal.

  “Hey, what’s out there?” she asked. “Is that a dolphin?”

  “No way!” Soon all three of them were at the fence with Inky, who started proudly explaining about Wanda.

  I glanced at Nia, a little worried. We were supposed to be protecting the dolphin. And so far, all we seemed to be doing was drawing more attention to her.

  Nia was busy with the boom box, fiddling with the dials until she found a station she liked. “There,” she said with a smile, turning up the volume. “Now it’s a party.”

&
nbsp; The rest of the afternoon went pretty much the same way. People came over to us, drawn by the music or the sight of the pink parasol or whatever. Some of them noticed the dolphin, some didn’t. Nia had to stop one guy from trying to feed part of his doughnut to Wanda, and an old man made a few jokes about how she looked like a big seafood dinner, but most of the people were pretty nice.

  I was sitting by the fence in my beach chair, reading my book, when I heard a clang from nearby. It was Nia dragging a mangled metal car bumper toward our spot.

  “What’s that?” I set down my book and stood up to stretch my legs.

  “Isn’t it cool? I just found it in the parking lot.” She beamed down at the bumper, which she’d dropped on the grass next to a dented bleach bottle, a broken flowerpot, and an old hubcap. “I think it’s going to become my dolphin’s tail.”

  “Huh?” Then I caught on. “Wait—you decided to do a dolphin sculpture?”

  “Why not? Wanda inspired me.” Nia grinned at me, and then at Wanda. “Every time I start to sketch something else, it turns into a dolphin. I figure I’ll get started right away. There’s tons of stuff lying around here that I can use, and I can always look for more over there.” She waved a hand toward Ninth Street, where there was a big outdoor shop full of used furniture, old window frames, and all kinds of other stuff.

  “Cool,” I said, though I was distracted. I’d just spotted Dani Levitski, a girl from my class at school, coming toward us with her mother. They were both holding shopping bags from the hardware store.

  “Hey, Lily, it really is you!” Dani beamed at me and pushed her glasses up her nose. “I heard about your dolphin.”

  “You did? Where?”

  “My sister’s boyfriend was here this morning,” Dani said. “He saw the dolphin. So where is it?”

  I had no idea which of our visitors was Dani’s sister’s boyfriend, and I didn’t really care. Dani was already rushing toward the fence, and I followed.

  “Hurry up, Dani.” Her mother checked her watch. “We have more errands.”

  Dani ignored her, clinging to the fence and staring at Wanda. “It’s so cool!” she exclaimed. “A real live dolphin.”

  Her voice was kind of shrieky, and it seemed to startle Wanda. The dolphin burst into motion and dived down out of view.

  “Oh, she’s gorgeous, isn’t she?” Dani cried, not seeming to notice that she’d scared Wanda away. “How’d she end up here, anyway?”

  I forced a smile. I was getting kind of tired of explaining things to everyone who stopped by. Still, I knew it was only natural. It wasn’t every day that a dolphin showed up in Brooklyn.

  “We think she just got lost,” I said. “We’re hoping she decides to rejoin her pod soon. That’s the group of dolphins she lives with—dolphins are really social animals, and—”

  “That’s enough, Dani,” Mrs. Levitski called out, interrupting me. “We have to go.”

  “Sorry.” Dani shot me a quick smile. “Hey, are you going skating tomorrow? Olivia invited you, right? She said she did.”

  I was surprised to hear that Olivia Choi was talking about me. “Um, I’m not sure yet,” I told Dani. “It sort of depends on, you know …” I waved a hand toward the spot where Wanda had disappeared.

  “Dani!” Mrs. Levitski’s voice was sharper. “Now.”

  “Bye,” Dani said to me, and then rushed off.

  I collapsed back in my chair. Nia was fiddling with the bleach bottle and the hubcap, trying to figure out how to wedge them together. “Your friend seemed nice,” she commented absently.

  “She’s not really my friend,” I said, standing up and walking over for a better look at what Nia was doing. “Just a girl I know.”

  Nia looked up, her expression puzzled. Before she could say anything, she widened her eyes at something behind me. “Whoa,” she said. “Looks like we made the news!”

  I looked over my shoulder. A van sporting the logo of one of the local TV stations had just pulled into a parking spot nearby. Two people climbed out—a pudgy, sweaty man in a loose linen shirt and a pretty woman I recognized from the evening news. She was the one who reported on interesting local stories in Brooklyn and Queens.

  “We heard about the dolphin,” the man announced. “Can we get some footage?”

  “Sure,” Nia said. “She’s right over there. Her name’s Wanda. And this is Lily—she’s the one who found her.”

  “Really?” The reporter looked at me with interest.

  “I don’t want to be on TV,” I said, taking a quick step backward. I could only imagine what my parents would say if they turned on the TV tonight and saw me hanging out by the canal!

  The woman shrugged. “Fine. We should interview someone, though.” She glanced back toward Nia. “Want to say a few words?”

  “Sure, if you let me mention my art,” Nia said with a smile. “A girl’s gotta eat, right?”

  The man chuckled. “Whatever.” He gestured to whoever was still in the van. “Let’s set up!” he called.

  I watched from the fence as the news crew bustled around with cameras and microphones. A woman was touching up the reporter’s makeup when a shout came from the parking lot.

  “What’s going on out here?” It was a middle-aged man wearing a short-sleeved button-down shirt and a striped tie. He marched up to us, glaring around at everyone. “This is private property, you know.”

  “Uh-oh,” I murmured.

  I’d thought I was saying it to myself, but the man heard me. He frowned briefly at me, taking in the beach chairs and parasol. Then he turned toward Nia and the news crew and started blustering at them. It turned out he was the assistant manager of the hardware store.

  I stayed quiet, watching Wanda as she appeared and disappeared in the inlet. What if the assistant manager kicked us out? I wouldn’t be able to check on Wanda anymore. Maybe he wouldn’t even let the scientists come back to help her!

  But I tried not to panic. Nia was already giving the man her most charming smile, the one that almost always got us free extra scoops at the ice cream place or a bonus round at the bowling alley. And the news reporter was helping, too, telling the manager how much good publicity their story would bring to his store.

  In the end, the manager stood in the background while the woman did her report about Wanda. I stayed well out of camera range myself, holding my breath until they all went away and I could relax and watch Wanda again in peace.

  Our second day by the canal started out a little quieter. It was hot and humid, and not many people came into the parking lot. We probably only had a half dozen visitors by lunchtime, including the assistant manager, who was acting much nicer today. He even brought us cold bottles of water from the store.

  “I guess he liked the way he looked on TV,” Nia whispered with a mischievous little smile as the man hurried away.

  I stifled a laugh. I’d seen the report about Wanda on the five o’clock news, though luckily nobody else in my family had caught it. My mother had still been at work, my dad had been in the shower, and my brothers had been in the kitchen arguing about what to have for dinner. My secret was safe—at least until someone who had seen the story mentioned it to some member of my family …

  But I was trying not to worry about that. Why borrow trouble? That was what Nia always said. Maybe she was right. Worrying had never stopped bad stuff from happening before, so what was the point?

  After lunch, a few more people started showing up. Most of them mentioned seeing the story about Wanda on the news or reading about it online that morning on the TV station’s website or on social media. A few headed into the hardware store after visiting Wanda, which I guessed would make the assistant manager happy.

  Meanwhile Nia’s sculpture was starting to take shape. She’d brought an armature along from the studio that morning. That was a wire frame on a wooden base—she built most of her sculptures on a similar structure. She’d been busy bending the wire into the right shape and then attaching stuff to it all d
ay.

  “It’s looking good so far,” I commented as I watched her fiddle with it. “It’s actually starting to look like a dolphin!”

  “Don’t sound so surprised.” Nia grinned at me, then eyed the sculpture and pulled off a wad of sparkly fabric she’d just attached. “I’m liking the direction it’s going.”

  I watched for another moment or two, then wandered back to the fence to check on Wanda. The dolphin surfaced as soon as I whistled for her, and I smiled. Lately it seemed as if she was getting attuned to me. Or was that my imagination?

  “No, it’s true,” I whispered, not wanting even Nia to overhear. “We’re becoming friends, right?”

  Wanda chirped and swam a little closer. I was thinking about trying to touch her again when I heard a commotion from the parking lot.

  When I turned around, I saw more than a dozen kids my age coming toward us. In the lead was Olivia Choi. She had a pair of roller skates slung around her neck by the laces and a big smile on her face.

  “Hi, Lily!” she greeted me when she got close enough. “Dani said you’d probably be here.”

  Dani Levitski materialized out of the group. “Yeah, I told them I saw you,” she announced proudly. “And that you might be too busy to come skating.”

  “Sorry you missed it, though.” Olivia played with the loose end of her skate laces. “We had fun. Maybe you can come next time.”

  “Maybe,” I said cautiously.

  Most of the other kids were heading for the fence, jostling one another and chattering and laughing as they all looked for Wanda. But a girl named Chloe Darrow stayed behind with Olivia, Dani, and me. Chloe was the type of person who always wanted to know everything about everybody else.

  “So when do Julia and Amber come back from soccer camp?” Chloe asked me in her nasal, always slightly too loud voice. “You must really miss them, huh? You guys do, like, everything together.”

  “Um …” I wasn’t sure what to say. Olivia and Dani were watching me, waiting for my response.

  “Hey, there it is!” a girl shouted from over by the water.