by James Erith
The children! He’d left them in the pit! He sped round to the entrance from where the peculiar sound was coming. A strange mist floated out, like a huge, billowing steam cloud. Cautiously, he peered in, his face a picture of confusion. Where was it coming from?
He entered the cave to find that it was dry inside. Water was flowing rapidly along a neat, straight channel that led, he presumed, directly into the pit. Old Man Wood’s heartbeat raced. He followed the channel on his hands and knees through the thick mist. As he crept closer the colour of the water changed from blue to pink and it was gently bubbling. He put his damaged hand in and touched it. The water tingled on his cut and sent a warm buzz through him.
He leant over the edge of the pit, his heart thumping. He couldn’t bear to think what had happened to the children. Were they still alive?
He pulled his hand out and gasped. The wound was healing in front of his very eyes.
Then he heard a voice. Or was it laughter?
‘What on earth are you doing?’ Daisy said.
Old Man Wood reeled.
Daisy giggled. ‘Hey, why don’t you get in?’
Old Man Wood felt himself choking up. ‘Goodness me. Daisy!’ he cried. ‘Is that you? Is that really you? I can’t see you.’
‘Yeah, it’s me alright. Come on in. It’s gorgeous and warm and fantastic,’ she replied. ‘And it smells delicious, like lavender and pine needles.’
‘Are you alright in there?’
‘We’re absolutely fine,’ Isabella said. ‘Come on in – see for yourself.’
Old Man Wood was confused. ‘Are ALL of you fine, I mean, well, in there? Isabella, Archie?’
Old Man Wood heard a splashing noise and Archie’s strange head popped out. ‘Yeah. You … alright?’
‘Apples alive! It IS you.’
Archie smiled. ‘Well, it’s good to see you too. How long have you been here?’
‘Your head?’
‘Yeah, I know. Something’s happened to my hair. I think it was a lightning bolt.’ And he patted his spikes before drifting back into the steam.
Old Man Wood didn’t know what to think. Perhaps he was dreaming. ‘Isabella?’
‘Uh-huh,’ she responded lazily.
Old Man Wood’s heart leapt for joy. It was impossible; a miracle. He had to see it to believe it. ‘Right then, you lot, I’m coming in.’
He could hear them laughing. ‘About time too, there’s masses of room!’ Daisy said. ‘And watch yourself as you get in or Archie will puncture you with his idiotic hairdo.’
FORTY-ONE
BAILING FOR THEIR LIVES
How many more bucket loads could she do, Sue wondered? It felt like she’d scooped out enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool three times over. Her arms ached so much she thought they might simply drop off.
Gus had started out holding onto the oars just to keep the boat steady in the water. Then, he tried to row with the flow but the current was too strong and, besides, he had no idea where he was going. When he stole a look from under the canopy, he was met by a wall of water sluicing from the sky so he pulled in the oars, inspected the canopy and drove a couple of nails into the areas where he sniffed a weakness. Then he returned to the bench and helped Sue bail water out. And, for the amount coming in, it needed both of them working flat out.
Sue couldn’t believe how vital Gus’s canopy was. If it hadn’t been there, the boat would have filled with water and plummeted to the river floor. What a stroke of luck she’d bumped into him.
As The Joan Of pitched through the waters, the storm smashed down upon their tiny vessel so hard that Sue couldn’t help thinking about Isabella, Archie and Daisy. They wouldn’t stand a chance out there in this, and every time she imagined them trying to soldier on or getting swept away in the flooding, her heart sank. She hoped like crazy that they’d managed to get home in time, but it didn’t seem possible. She bottled up her grief and concentrated on keeping herself and Gus alive.
Every so often, the boat would bash into something hard and solid, like a wall or a car, and they would be thrown forward. It was at these moments that both of them knew the strength of the boat would be tested. All it would take was a crack or a small hole and that would be the end of it. At other times, The Joan Of seemed to grind against something, or spin as it diverted off an object, the water tossing the boat one way and then the other.
Several times, Gus managed to lever the boat away with an oar, pitching it back into the swell. Gus would grab Sue and hold her, staring into her eyes reassuringly – his eyes wide but not so much in fear, she thought, but more in excitement. To her, Gus seemed to be having the time of his life. He seemed to be almost … enjoying himself. When he started singing a hearty sea shanty as he tossed the water out with his bucket, his singing got louder and louder until it was in direct competition with the rain. Sue didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, join in, or hit him. But, for a while, at least it stopped her thinking about the disaster and her friends.
After three hours, Gus pointed upwards. The rain seemed to be a little less brutal. He sidled up. ‘I think we’ve moved away from the main rain belt.’ She nodded in agreement. ‘Problem is – how far do you reckon we’ve gone?’
She shrugged. ‘No idea,’ she said. And it was impossible to tell.
Gus put his head out of the canopy and took a look around. ‘Still can’t see a thing,’ he reported back, ‘apart from muddy water. Fancy some grub?’
Sue was starving. Gus opened a tin of tuna and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and took a swig of water. When they’d finished, he had an idea.
‘Look, Sue,’ he began, ‘one of us had better have a kip – we’re going to need to sleep at some point and there’s not much room. If we do it this way, the other can keep look-out.’
Sue hadn’t thought of this. ‘Good idea, brain-box. On sailing boats, I think they do four hours on and four hours off. Want to give it a try?’
‘Sure,’ Gus said. ‘It’s five-fifty now. Have a sleep till half nine – if you can. Then I’ll look out till one and do the early morning shift at four or five. Sound OK?’
With a bit of a shuffle, Gus pulled the planks he’d stowed from the bottom of the boat and made up a bed – of sorts – where at least one of them could lie down. Gus unfolded a plastic sheet and laid it on top of the wet boards so they wouldn’t lie in the wet. Sue lay down and he spread the dust sheets over her. It wasn’t great, but it would have to do.
Sue closed her eyes. She didn’t really feel like sleeping, but having a rest now after all that bailing out was welcome. And Gus was right, one of them needed to be on look-out – especially if there was a place they could land – and it would be a disaster if they were to miss out while they slept.
GUS MOVED out to the bow of the boat and breathed a big sigh of relief. Quite amazingly, it seemed, they had got over the worst and the makeshift canopy he’d erected had saved their lives. He laughed. He’d have won the DT prize for that; just goes to show what you can do when the pressure’s on. He wondered if Sue had any idea how close it had been, and then he thought of his mum and dad. Mum would be worried sick, but his dad would be chuffed to bits with him, he reckoned. He hoped they hadn’t gone looking for him – there was nothing he could do about it if they had. Anyway, what a surprise it would be when he got home.
He caressed his temples. At least they had food and water and could keep dry. And so long as the boat held together they had every chance. Plus they made a good team. He took a deep breath as the last gasps of daylight started to eke away. Yeah, they made a very good team.
If only they had some way of telling where they were. He thought for a minute if it wouldn’t be worth dropping the oars and trying to make it to land by rowing hard to one side. Or maybe he could drop an oar at the back and use it as a rudder. But, then again, what if he didn’t have the strength to handle it and dropped the oar into the water. No, it wasn’t worth the risk. He wiped the rain, which was now bearable
for more than a minute, off his face. Best keep on and hope the boat might bank somewhere where they could make off to safety.
He ducked inside and, as Sue dozed, he slipped past her, grabbed a bucket and started the process of bailing the water out all over again. How long would the rain continue? Perhaps they were over the worst, but what if the deluge came back? He shivered. They had been lucky – astonishingly lucky, he’d never seen anything like it – but he didn’t fancy their chances if it happened again.
AT THE CHANGE-OVER, the boat continued to float freely, bumping into driftwood and other debris being washed out. Occasionally, The Joan Of spun and pitched, but not with the same force as earlier. Gus wondered what they were going to eat for supper, before resisting the temptation to devour a Mars Bar. He headed to the front of the boat where, every so often through the drizzle, he imagined he could see a spark of a light in the distance.
When Sue woke, they tucked into a cold pork pie and shared a few pieces of chocolate. Gus was very strict on the rations, stating that until they had some idea where they were, they needed to conserve every morsel. Sue complained bitterly, but Gus made it quite clear that this was non-negotiable. By the time they had given each other a few more teasers, and told each other stories about their childhoods, it was ten o’clock. Gus reluctantly lay down on the planks while Sue kept look-out.
At midnight, Sue was frozen. And she was bored of looking out onto the dark sky and being spat on by the rain while the boat bobbed along. She climbed under the canopy and shivered. A big yawn engulfed her and, instinctively, she lay down next to Gus, who was fast asleep. She nestled up to his warm body, rearranging the dust covers over herself and inhaling the boyish smell of his clothes. Before long, the gentle rocking of the boat sent her fast asleep.
THE JOAN OF rocked gently one minute and then seemed to climb up a bank and then skid down. For a minute, Gus thought he might be at a funfair. But what was that terrible screeching noise? He yawned, opened his eyes and found himself looking into Sue’s sleeping face. He smiled; what a very pleasant way to wake up. She must have got bored in the middle of the night and slipped under the dust covers. Oh well. And then he wondered what his breath must be like. Probably gross. Heck.
Trying not to disturb her, he shuffled down to the end of the boat, popped his head out, closed his eyes, stretched his arms and took a huge lungful of fresh air.
Then he opened one eye and peered about. Then the other.
His head felt dizzy. OK, so this was interesting.
He pulled himself right out of the boat, and stood on the step while leaning on the canopy. Then he whistled.
Sue was stirring inside the boat and Gus could hear her yawns.
‘Good morning, Captain Sue.’
‘Oh, morning, Gus,’ she said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. ‘Everything alright?’
He popped his head down. ‘Fine and dandy-ish.’
‘Any idea where we are yet?’
‘Ab-so-lute-ly none. Have a peek for yourself.’
Sue crept down to the other end and leant out.
‘Oh!’ she said calmly. A moment later she ducked her head inside, her eyes wide open and her face as pale as milk.
‘Oh? Is that it?’ Gus said.
‘Yes, Oh!’
‘We’re miles out to sea with no way of knowing where on earth we might be and all you can say is “Oh”.’
‘Yes, oh,’ Sue began. She took a deep breath. ‘Right, Gus. I’ve never sworn at anything or anyone before in my life – but I’ve heard my mum do it and I think this is the perfect time to finally give it a proper go.’
Gus looked a little confused. ‘Oh?’ he said.
‘You see,’ Sue continued, ‘every time she swears, it always begins with, “Oh”.’
Gus raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘Oh,’ he said again.
And with that, Sue returned out of the canopy and screamed at the very top of her voice. ‘OH $*%@!’
FORTY-TWO
THE BUBBLING POOL
Old Man Wood had the presence of mind to remove his coat, hat, socks and boots before he dipped his foot in the water. It was beautifully hot and felt silky and sparkly at the same time, like a winning combination of champagne and cream. Ever so slowly, he lowered his body into the pool and the water bubbled up around him. He closed his eyes and let himself drift under. Almost immediately, he felt the bubbles caress his aches and pains, as though targeting each one individually. When he resurfaced and opened his eyes, the children were beaming at him.
Old Man Wood laughed out loud. ‘You did it, you survived! And how? HOW in apples’ name … how? And are you better – Daisy, Archie – truly?’
The children floated over and hugged him.
Old Man Wood inspected Archie, looking for the cuts and bruises on his head and on his hands and body. He did the same with Daisy, but their skin was clear and smooth. It was as if the battle through the storm had never happened.
‘I can’t believe it. I simply can’t believe it,’ he repeated. ‘In all the world I thought you were as good as dead, you twins. Battered to bits you were and now look at you. It’s a miracle.’
The children looked at each other blankly. It was indeed strange that their cuts and bruises had all but gone, but maybe they hadn’t been hurt that badly. Anyway, wasn’t that what thermal springs did, heal? This one, they decided, must be a pretty good one.
Isabella asked. ‘So how did you find us?’
Old Man Wood hesitated as he tried to work out how much he should tell them. ‘I was up at the cottage watching the storm blasting out of the sky and thinking to myself that if you were trying to get home you’d be in a spot of trouble. There wasn’t a word from the school so I thought I’d better try and, er, find you. It took a while, mind, slipping and sliding. By the looks of you lot when I found you – you know exactly what I mean.’
‘It’s odd, but I can’t remember much,’ Daisy said, playing with her hair, ‘apart from being very cold and very tired. That’s it really. Oh and holding on to a branch for dear life and some big, nasty flashes.’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘Did we win the football?’
Isabella laughed. ‘Really, Daisy, of all the questions. You don’t remember?’
Daisy shook her head.
‘Well, I’ll tell you. With the last kick of the game, you hit possibly the worst free kick the world has ever known,’ she raised her eyebrows. ‘Still not ringing any bells? Fortunately for you, the ball was deflected by a thunderbolt into the goal and, in the process, fractionally away from Archie’s brain, short-circuiting his hair.’
The four of them roared with laughter, while Archie tried to bend his strange mace-like hair.
Archie piped up. ‘Where did you go, sis?’ he asked Isabella. ‘One minute you were there and the next you’d vanished.’
‘I was swept downstream,’ she replied. ‘When I landed, I struggled up towards this ledge, although at that time I had no idea it was here. I had to crawl uphill as fast as I could just to keep pace with the rising water. Next thing I knew, there was a landslide and I thought I’d had it, but I’d crawled just far enough towards the cliff face and it passed over me. For a while I had no way of knowing where I was, but I managed to climb up onto the ledge,’ she pointed to the entrance, ‘when two huge thunderbolts crashed out of the sky nearby. I reckoned they were directed at you, like the others had been, so I thought one might be coming after me. So I threw myself off the ledge. When I pulled myself out, the boulder I’d been leaning on was broken and I found Daisy looking pretty much dead on the ledge.’
The mention of the thunderbolts coming after them and Daisy lying dead had made them silent again.
‘Daisy,’ Archie said, a tone of uneasiness in his voice, ‘could you actually hear the thunderbolts coming? I mean you kept looking up and screaming INCOMING and then diving out of the way. And the bolt would hit the position where we were.’
‘Yeah,’ Daisy said. ‘Couldn’t you?’
The others
shook their heads.
‘Oh.’ She seemed genuinely surprised. ‘It was a funny crackling noise miles up in the sky, the sort of noise you get when you put wet leaves on a roaring bonfire. It was quite easy to recognise after a while. Are you sure you couldn’t hear it?’
There was an awkward silence.
‘Anyway,’ Isabella continued, trying to sound a little more cheerful. ‘The next thing I can remember is seeing Old Man Wood. After that I must have fallen asleep. And when I woke up I was sitting in a wonderful thermal bath with you guys. I thought we were, you know, in Heaven.’ The children laughed. ‘And all my aches and cuts and bruises had vanished.’ She opened the palms of her hands, ‘Apart from these.’ She showed them her hands.
The black burn marks had gone, but the indents were still there with the hole through the middle.
‘Ow!’ Daisy said. ‘How did you get that?’
Isabella winced. ‘I think I managed to deflect a lightning bolt.’
‘You did what? But that would have killed you.’
‘I know, I put my hands up to protect me and …’ Isabella was confused. It didn’t make sense to her, and furthermore, she didn’t want to elaborate. ‘Anyway, we haven’t heard from you, Archie, what happened to you?’
‘I honestly don’t remember a great deal,’ he said as a cheeky smile grew on his face. ‘Did I really punch one of the Chitbury players?’
‘Punch?’ Daisy said her eyes wide, ‘yeah, big time, you went bonkers, like you were possessed.’
‘Blimey.’ He fell quiet. ‘I’ve never hit anyone before.’
As he tried to recall the moment, the image of Kemp and Cain came flashing back and a dark scowl crept over his face. ‘Can’t remember much more – apart from pulling that massive branch off the lane and getting tangled up in the rope, and then I think I got whacked in the head.’ He inspected his head. ‘Feels fine now.’
