Dolphin Island - Arthur C. Clarke [10]
"Don't be so impatient," said Nurse Tessie, "there's plenty of time." She was going through a bundle of clothing, hunting for shorts and shirt that would fit Johnny. "Here, try these for size. And take this hat, too. Keep out of the sun until you've worked up a proper tan. If you don't, you'll be back here again, and that would make me very angry."
"I'll be careful," promised Johnny. He decided that it would be an extremely bad idea to make Nurse angry.
She put two fingers in her mouth and blew a piercing whistle, whereupon a tiny girl appeared almost instantly.
"Here's your dolphin-boy, Annie," said Nurse. "Take him to the office—Doctor's waiting."
Johnny followed the child along paths of crushed coral fragments, blindingly white in the fierce sun. They wandered between large shady trees, which looked rather like oaks, except that their leaves were several sizes too big. Johnny was a little disappointed by this; he had always believed that tropical islands were covered with palms.
Presently the narrow road opened into a large clearing, and Johnny found himself looking at a group of single-storied concrete buildings, linked together with covered walks. Some had large windows behind which people could be seen at work; others had no windows at all and looked as if they contained machines, for pipes and cables led into them.
Johnny followed his little guide up the steps into the main building. As he walked past the windows, he could see the people inside staring at him curiously. That was not surprising, in view of the way he had arrived here. Sometimes he wondered if that strange ride was all imagination—it seemed too fantastic to be true. And was this place really called Dolphin Island, as Nurse Tessie had said? That would be an altogether outrageous coincidence. His guide, who had apparently been too shy or too overawed to utter a word, disappeared as soon as she had led Johnny to a door marked "Dr. Keith—
Assistant Director." He knocked, waited until a voice said "Come in," and pushed his way into a large air-conditioned office, refreshingly cool after the heat outside.
Dr. Keith was a man in his forties, and looked like a college professor. Even though he was sitting behind his desk, Johnny could see that he was unusually tall and gangling; he was also the first white person he had seen on the island.
The doctor waved Johnny to a chair, saying in a slightly nasal voice as he did so, "Sit down, sonny."
Johnny didn't like being called "sonny," nor did he like the doctor's Australian accent, which he had never before encountered at close quarters. But he said, "Thank you," very politely, sat down, and waited for the next move.
It was completely unexpected. "Perhaps you'd better begin by telling us," said Dr. Keith,
"just what happened to you—after the Santa Anna went down."
Johnny stared at him openmouthed, all his plans in ruins. They had been only half-formed plans, but he had at least hoped that he could pose for a little while as a shipwrecked sailor suffering from loss of memory. But if they knew how he had traveled, they also knew where he had come from, and he would undoubtedly be sent home at once.
He decided not to give up without a fight.
"I've never heard of the Santa—whatever her name is," he replied innocently.
"Give us credit for a little intelligence, sonny. When you came ashore in such a novel manner, we naturally radioed the coast guard to find if any ships had been lost. They told us that the crew of the hoverfreighter Santa Anna had put in at Brisbane, reporting that their ship had sunk about a hundred miles east of us. However, they also reported that everyone had been saved, even the ship's cat.
"So that seemed to rule out the Santa Anna, until we had the bright idea that you might be a stowaway. After that, it was just a matter of checking with the police along the Santa Anna's route." The doctor paused