seals #6

In the morning Billy had to shake Danny awake.
“Danny-boy, look! They’ve been ! And they’ve left us a wee present.”
Danny slowly opened his eyes.
 “It’s your favourite: cheese and onion crisps!”
Billy was fresh as beginnings and felt woken into a new world. Through the night Ellen had opened up to him, and he was only too happy to talk her through the whole thwarted history of his desire for her. It was not really that far off how he’d pictured it. Danny had slept the night away and there he was now happily sitting in Ellen’s lap munching a bag of crisps.

They ate and packed up and took their time walking back, yet there was still not a single sign of any seals. No-one seemed too bothered though, and Ellen took his hand. As they reached the headland he turned for one final hopeful glimpse: nothing, just the shoreline and the sea.
“That must be some big party they’re having!,” he said to Danny,”It must be still going on!! I think I might have heard some singing in the night!”
Nobody was really listening to him. Danny had Ellen’s other hand and was looking out at the sea, at its great reach in the world. He felt its currents in his blood: his dad was out there.
“Can we come back again?”
“De-fin-itely wee barra! And next time we’ll come when they’re no away partying!”
They stood a while longer and then Danny let go of Ellen’s hand and ran happily ahead.
Finally they climbed up from the shore and made their way across farmland towards Billy’s car. They met the farmer.
“What brings you out here then?”, he asked them.
“Ach, we spent the night in Dunster Cave hoping tae see some seals.”
“Ah, well,” said the farmer, “not any more. There’ve been no seals down there for at least a year now.”
Billy looked puzzled.
“How no?”
“That Phocine Distemper virus got the lot of them. Terrible, terrible thing to see and have to listen to. The place was packed with government people making sure they were all disposed of properly. It spreads like wildfire, apparently.”

Ellen felt Billy's hand tighten its grip on hers. She looked over towards where Danny was running and jumping free, glad this time that he was off away in his own world ahead of her. She squeezed Billy's hand back.