Aftermath (2 page)

Kerry awoke to find herself released from the thick layer of debris and back in the rushing current. She couldn't remember letting go of the tree but her grip must have slipped when she passed out. She knew she had to find something to hold on to; anything to stop her being pummelled by the force of the torrential water. Ahead of her, she saw another tree sticking out of the water. She willed herself to grab it but it was no use. The water swept her by the tree too quickly. Desperately, she scanned the surface for something, anything to grab.

“Keep trying!” she yelled aloud, willing herself to persevere.

The debris-chok
ed water pushed her towards
another tree and she managed to clutch onto a branch. She curled her bloodied fingers around it and held on with every bit of strength she had left. It was enough. The waters released their terrifying hold on her and rushed on. Kerry pulled herself closer to the trunk of the tree. The water was below her chest and she could feel another branch beneath her feet. She tried to stand on it, but it was to
o painful. She couldn't do it, so s
he clung to the upper branch, battling against the current and at the same time, trying different positions to relieve her agonising pain. By the intensity of the pain she knew her legs were broken. She braced herself against the tree's trunk and let her legs float out in front. This position eased her pain slightly. Ironically, the water, which had caused all her agony, was now helping her by cushioning her broken legs.

Kerry clung to the tree for what must have been hours, passing in and out of consciousness. The air was full of horrible sounds; crashing, smashing, violent sounds. She was petrified that the noises signalled the onslaught of yet another terrible wave.

“Dear God in heaven, please don't let another wave come,” she prayed over and over again. Eventually, the floodwaters were slowly starting t
o recede but as
the water level lowered her pain became more intense. She forced herself to keep moving her body in an effort t
o find the
least painful position, while at the same time trying to make sure her legs didn't get trapped by the debris. At one point, her precious tree started to crack and for a moment she thought that the weight of the rubbish surrounding her would cause the tree to collapse entirely and take her
back under the murky water
.

She glanced around, but couldn't see anything. The whole place was in chaos and a jumble of floating objects blocked her vision, but she could hear the sounds of people crying out all around her. There were two women in a tree behind her. She knew there were two because one was speaking French and the other was speaking English. They were screaming for help, but nobody heard their screams. Nobody came. It felt as if they would be stuck there alone in that
God
forsaken place forever.

Kerry heard a child crying in the distance, but after a while, maybe an hour, the crying stopped. She prayed he was alright. She prayed like she had never prayed before and focused with all her heart and soul on Saoirse and Conor getting to safety.

“Please, God, let them be okay,” she repeated her prayer. She closed her eyes and sent them all her love and energy, willing them to have survived this nightmare in which they so unexpectedly and inexplicably found themselves.

Her
mind drifted to memories of her good friend, Sophie Astaire who had first introduced her to the power of energy and positivity. Kerry had believed in the power of positive thinking ever since she'd read Deepak Chopra's book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” many years before. The book had been given to her by Sophie, a college friend of hers who had since emigrated to Australia so the two friends rarely saw each other anymore. Sophie was easy to talk to, wonderful to listen to and possessed a serene inner calm which had fascinated Kerry, until she accidentally discovered the source of her friend's serenity one afternoon when she went to meet her at her apartment. Kerry had walked into the apartment and found Sophie sitting cross-legged on the floor, her hands on her knees and her eyes closed in deep concentration. It was obvious that she was doing something special and private
. Kerry waited and after some time
her friend opened her eyes.

“What were you doing?” Kerry asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“I was meditating and working with energy,” Sophie responded with her usual ready smile.

“What is energy?” Kerry wondered.

“Every one of us is
made of energy and energy surrounds each of us.”

“So what does energy actually do?”

“It helps your mind and body to grow stronger. It can help you to become healthier and it can even help to heal others if you direct the power of your positive energy towards them.”

Kerry had been immediately enthralled by that one word “energy.” She had bombarded her friend with questions and soon Sophie was introducing her to meditation and energy work. This was her initiation into the beautiful world of spirituality, which she had been exploring ever since.

Kerry's study of energy helped her to draw strength from the connection between body, mind and spirit. It changed her entire life, making her stronger physic
ally, emotionally and mentally. Physically, she didn’t get sick for several years;
whereas before she discovered the power of focused energy she had suffered from many colds and frequent bouts of 'flu.
Emotionally, she grew more confident in herself and mentally it sharpened her senses. Now, she thought much more
clearly and was overall a calmer person; skills which she desperately needed in the
nightmare t
hat she found herself.

Chapte
r
2

Time passed. The sky was darkening; evening was falling and the sun was slowly beginning to makes its descent. Cuts and scratches covered Kerry's arms and legs. They stung but none of them were very deep. Worryingly, the water around her was quite bloody and sh
e vaguely thought that she might
have some internal bleeding, but she put
it out of her mind. She was just
grateful to be alive and she wanted to stay focused on staying alive. The water was steadily receding, which enabled her to carefully lower herself further down the tree. She tried her best to keep her legs floating on the surface of the water which provided a welcome cushion from the searing pain in her lower body. She splashed water on her face so she wouldn't faint, realising that it was imperative that she remain alert, but even so, she still couldn't help drifting off a few times. The combination of the agonising pain and the overwhelming exhaustion simply proved to be too much for her to endure.

When the water receded even further she could see that a patch of mud had formed below her and she tried to stand on it. She hung on to the tree branches for support and began lowering herself but the stabbing pain that shot through her entire body stopped her. She couldn't do it and passed out.

The chill of the evening woke her up. She was completely naked; the force of the water had ripped every shred of clothing from her poor, battered body, but nakedness
was the least of her worries. Again, s
he splashed her face with the filthy black water in an effort to wake herself up but the tiredness was all-consuming. She put her head down for a moment and drifted into blissful uncon
s
ciousness.

When she came around
the water levels had decreased even more and there was nothing to ease the stings and aches of her broken body. The night was fast approaching and soon the sun would set. The day had been filled with the sounds of people crying and begging for help. Kerry had stopped screaming hours ago. She quickly realised that calling out wouldn't help. She needed to preserve her energy but she wondered if anyone knew where she was. Even the helicopters that eventually flew overhead quickly disappeared but she knew they would return, they simply had to return. There was no way that she
was going to die out there
alone, away from her husband and daughter. She had to know they were okay so dying was not an option.

“Hello! Hello!” New voices suddenly broke through the old cries.

Kerry's heart soared. These weren't calls for help; they were calls offering
help!
The others around her began screaming. “Here! We're over here! Please help!”

“I'm here too!” Kerry
shouted for the first time in hours. Finally, she was going to escape from this
living
nightmare. She saw too Japanese men in the distance, pushing their way thro
ugh the chest-high water towards
her. “I'm here! I'm here!” she kept crying out to them. When they reached her she burst into tears of relief and happiness. “Thank you. Thank you for coming,” she stuttered through her tears.

The men bowed and smiled. They didn't speak English, but Kerry didn't care. They were the kindest faces s
he had ever seen
and they had come to save her, to help her escape her misery. One man opened a bottle of water and offered it to her. It had been hours since she'd had anything to drink so she gratefully took the bottle from him. She was lying flat out at this stage and couldn't sit up, so he hel
d her while she took a few gulps
. It was the best, most refreshing drink she'd ever had. The other man took off his shirt and tried to wrap it around her naked body. Kerry had completely forgotten her nakedness in all the mayhem.

“I can't put it on,” she tried to explain to him. “I can't move my arm or my legs.”

He still tried valiantly to cover her, but Kerry really didn't care. Nakedness was the least of her worries at that point. Eventually,
he gave up
and simply laid the shirt over h
e
r lap. “Broken, broken,” she said, pointing to her legs.

Both men nodded their heads, their kind faces full of compassion for her. Later, when she'd had a chance to digest, somewhat, the enormity of what had happened, Kerry would realise how very brave these two men were to put the safety and well-being of others above their own and to battle through the ever-threatening danger. Again, the men tried to lift her up but her piercing screams quickly stopped them.

“I can't sit up,” she moaned.

One of them motioned with his hands, suggesting that he could carry her on his back.

“No!” she cried. “It
’
s not possible. It's much too painful.”

They glanced at each other and then back at Kerry. Someth
ing silent passed between them.
Kerry understood that they could do no more. They would have to go and bring back more
help; at least, she hoped they would. She motioned to the man who had tried to cover her with his shirt and immediately he tried to help her put it on.

“No, no,” she shook her head. She didn't want to wear it, she wanted to use it. The water levels had decreased so much that she couldn't reach it with her arm anymore.
She removed the shirt from her legs, let it fall into the putrid water, and drew the soaking material up to her face. It felt so good, so refreshing, that dirty, rancid water. The men bowed and left her alone. She dropped the shirt in the water again, pulled it up, and wiped the dripping cloth over her neck, her breasts and her arms.

The emerald green stone in her gold Claddagh ring caught her eye and she remembered the day she had given her daughters a matching one each. The Claddagh signifies
eternal friendship
and
love and
she fervently hoped that Saoirse's ring was bringing her strength and courage now. She closed her eyes for a moment and focused all her energy
and love
on her beloved daughter, willing her to fight.

She lay back, put the wet, dirty shirt over her face and ches
t and closed her eyes. Years ago, she’d read
that when people are dying, their whole life flashes before them. She wasn't so sure that she was dying, but while she waited and prayed fo
r
help to return, for both herself and all the other victims of the deadly wave, she began to think about her daughters first, then Conor, her sister, her friends,
her work...Her spiritual studies had taught her
that there was a pattern to life, and lying there, cradled in the refuge of the tree, she could see how what had happened previously in her life was making it possible for her to survive now.

“Hello, hello, how are you, miss?”

Kerry pulled the damp shirt off her tired face. She had no idea how long it had been since her two rescuers had left. Her last memory was of praying for everyone to be safe.

“I must have fallen asleep,” she croaked. Her throat was sore and her mouth was parched dry. It was a huge effort to even speak those few words. She just wanted to lie down somewhere, anywhere and sleep until the nightmare was over.

The two Japanese men had returned with four helpers. One of the men wore a neon green, fluorescent vest which hurt Kerry's eyes. He had an authoritative manner about him and she vaguely wondered if he was a policeman.