Manno turned to me and said, ‘My grandmother says you must take all your clothes off immediately so she can dry them, or else you will become very sick. I will help you.’

‘What?’ I spluttered.

Although I was very sure Yiayá didn’t understand English, she seemed to know exactly what Manno had said. She snatched her knobbly walking stick and started swiping at him and poking him with all the force she could muster. She yelled at him in her high squeaky voice something that sounded like, ‘Fidget! Fidget!’

Manno backed towards the door with his arms curled over his head. Yiayá gave him a hefty poke in the stomach that winded him and as he brought his arms down, she walloped him over the head. He backed out, but lost his balance and ended up on his bottom in the dirt, outside.

Still yelling at him, Yiayá closed both door partitions and bolted them. As she turned towards me, all the anger left her face. She made a firm nod: that showed him not to mess with me, then she grinned with merriment.

The dear lady gave me a nightgown and indicated I should remove my damp clothes and hang them on a clothes maiden that she zig-zagged before the wood-burner. She clucked and huffed and shook her head when she saw the purple bruise that spread across my middle. After leading me to the bed, she indicated I should lay down. The next thing I knew, dawn light filtered through the window. The old woman was snoring softly in the only armchair.

*

I dressed quickly, delved in my pillow-bag for a letter, wanting a connection with home, then I slipped outside.

The sun pierced the horizon, sending golden shafts of light across the firmament, I stood on the shore, which connected with the curve of the port, and thought about my parents. I must put my name on the list, so they learn that I survived. So much had happened, I must write to them and tell them about being saved by the dolphin. I pressed below my ribs, feeling the heavy ache of my bruised abdomen. Perhaps I had a cracked rib. The creature had hit me with such force.

My flashbacks were gaining strength. Split seconds would ticker-tape through my brain. I must have glimpsed the dolphin’s eye because later, I recalled being drawn into that mysterious sphere of innocence and extreme intelligence. An instant of understanding had flashed between us. A contact of minds chorused by rapid clicking, reminiscent of swallows on a telegraph wire in autumn. Then I noticed there were no telegraph wires in Kea.