Firestorm (8 page)

“I remember
getting off the big ship and onto this little dingy type thing, and
I paddled over to Don and pulled him in but I couldn’t save his
brother. The fire had taken all the oxygen from the shore and he
suffocated and drowned. And I think that’s when Don’s troubles
began.”

By the time
Grandpa finished talking, I felt like such a heel for the way I had
treated Don. No wonder he had a hard time dealing with people. He
likely had an even harder time dealing with himself and was blaming
himself for his brother’s death. Brad leaned in to Grandpa and
spoke softly.

“So, you think
he may have gone back to the water to where he thinks it’s safe? It
makes sense, you know. His mind has shifted back in time and he’s
waiting to be rescued.”

Ali looked up
and cut Brad off.

“Crap, look at
the sky. The smoke is even closer. We better think of something
quick.”

Grandpa looked
up at Ali and motioned with arm for him to leave.

“Just go find
Don. He’s probably gone back to the lake like you said. The girls
and I will head back to the bridge.”

My insides were
shaking so much that my words came out choppy.

“Grandpa, you
can’t walk. Look at you. We have to carry you.”

“I can
walk.”

Grandpa stood
up and then collapsed back down onto the rock.

“God, I’m so
dizzy. Better move your leg, Meagan. I think I’m gonna heave.”

Ali was pacing
once more and then slapped Brad on the arm.

“Okay. So,
we’ll break up and two of us will head out to look for Don. Meg,
you’re obviously staying here with your grandfather. Sarah, I don’t
know, maybe you should stay here too so that she’s not alone in
case Don comes back.”

Grandpa lifted
his head towards us but kept his eyes closed.

“Or the
wolves.”

What?

“They may have
gone but wolves are strange animals. Some run in fear and some
don’t run until danger is on them. Maybe one of you guys should
stay back just in case. I don’t want the girls to get hurt if they
come.”

I searched the
grass behind the rock with my eyes as Brad squatted and took the
rope from a pocket in his backpack. He looked up at me as he forced
a grin.

“Sarah, you up
to it?”

“Yeah, sure.
Grandpa, we’re both good runners, we’re both trained hikers so
we’ll head back down to the water and see if we can find him. Are
you guys going to be okay here?”

Ali looked
around at the sky and then at the path that we were originally
trekking on.

“Yeah, we’ll be
okay, but we may move along the path and go down there a bit to
where it’s more shaded. It depends on if we can help him walk that
far or not, otherwise we’ll be right here when you get back.”

We all agreed
that Don was likely to return to the inlet where Grandpa’s and
Don’s boat had capsized so that’s where Brad and I headed. We just
hoped that we could get to Don before he did something foolish and
what that might be, we weren’t exactly sure. We knew that it would
take us at least fifteen minutes to get there even though it had
taken us an hour and a half or more to get to this point. But that
was because we had to walk so slow with Grandpa, not to mention the
time that was wasted trying to get Don moving.

The piercing
rays of the sun stung my skin as we ran down the slopes, and it
wasn’t long before we were both covered in beads of sweat. We
realized that we could shorten the trek by cutting across some
other stony areas and down a couple of jagged slopes. We didn’t
talk much and basically the only noise I heard was the occasional
“ouch” in between our heavy puffing as we pressed through the dry
debris and rocks.

My legs were
aching from the endurance of the fast pace and I was just about to
say that we needed to rest for one minute when Brad stopped and
pointed.

“There’s the
water. Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah.”

I stood beside
him and the lake was about five minutes and one rocky slope away.
We ran down as quickly as we dared and headed towards the bank of
the water.

“Brad, do you
see him? Do you see the boat?”

“Nah. I was
kind of hoping we’d find him around their boat but I guess it sank.
So if the boat has sunk, where would that old man go?”

We called out
his name as we jotted in and out of all the surrounding areas. I
didn’t want to look up at the sky but I did anyway, and when I saw
that the smoke was even closer my insides shook so badly that I
gasped out loud. And I figured that Brad had noticed it too because
he stepped back and grabbed my arm.

“Sarah!”

I couldn’t take
my eyes off of the smoke and that’s when my dream began to filter
through my mind. I was suffocating in my dream and now I realize
that it meant I would be suffocating through this. My chest was
pounding and I just wanted to cry.

Brad looked at
the smoke and then back at the water.

“Not the
smoke.”

“What?”

“Look! Out
there!”

I turned to
where he was pointing and gasped as spikes of fear shot up and down
my spine. Don was floating face down about a hundred yards into the
middle of the inlet.

I was shocked
to see Don floating in the water, and for a few seconds all I could
do was stare because I didn’t know what else to do. My whole body
had become limp and I shook from my head to my toes. But Brad
didn’t waste a second. He pulled off his boots and socks and tossed
his shades and cap onto the ground beside them.

“I’m going
in.”

He grabbed the
coil of yellow rope that he’d flung onto the ground and poked his
arm through the middle. It wasn’t until I heard the splash of the
water that I realized he had dove into it and was heading out
towards Don. My head was fuzzy and it took me another couple of
seconds to get a grip and stop shaking enough so that I could think
straight.

“What? Oh yeah,
I’m coming, too.”

I pulled off my
own boots and socks and placed my glasses on top of my one boot.
Seeing Don floating out there really made me afraid of what we
would actually find, but I took a deep breath and dove into the
water and followed Brad. Although the water was warm because of the
intense heat from the sun, my insides were shivering as I stroked
each arm and swam towards them.

When Brad got
to him he yelled out to me as he wiped the water off of his
face.

“He’s alive!
He’s on a …”

I couldn’t hear
what Brad said after that because my ears were blasting so loud
from the fear that rang through them. The water was a lot deeper
than it appeared from the surface but I was a good swimmer and so
its depth was the least of my fears.

I pulled myself
up beside Brad who was holding Don’s head and talking to him, and
that’s when I noticed that Don really was okay. Brad turned towards
me for a second as he spoke.

“Yeah, Sarah,
he’s okay. He’s laying on this rock here. Didn’t look like a rock
from back there and I thought he was just floating in the
water.”

Don was
stretched across a large rock that protruded out of the water. His
hands were clinging to one side of the boulder that looked like a
little shelf protruding from the side. That’s when I knew that he
was really scared because all along he’d been complaining about how
much his hands hurt and now they seemed to be the least of his
concerns. He lifted his head and growled at Brad.

“Leave me
alone!”

We kept buoyant
in the water by holding onto one side of the large rock and the
whole time Brad was trying to get Don to let go of it so we could
get back to shore.

“Come on, Don.
Grab hold of me and I’ll take you back so we can get out of
here.”

“No! The rescue
team will be here any minute.”

“There’s no
rescue team coming, so come on. Let’s get back to the others and
get out of here.”

But that just
made Don scream all the more that the rescue boat was just up
ahead. Brad looked at me inquisitively and then I remembered what
Grandpa had said.

“Gees, Brad. He
thinks he’s in the war being rescued by Grandpa. What are we going
to do?”

“Not sure. Come
on, Don. We have to get out of here. Now come on, take hold of my
arm.”

“No, we have to
wait here. The rescue boat is coming soon to save all of us.”

Don had his
body wrapped around the boulder and he wasn’t going to let go of it
easily. He swatted at Brad each time we tried to get him off the
rock and I knew that if we forced him off that we might not even
get back to the shore. Just then Brad pulled the rope from his
shoulder and opened the coil.

“Okay, okay,
have it your way. Sarah, we’re the rescue team and we’re taking Don
to the boat.”

Brad was a
compassionate guy and somehow he had more patience and was able to
understand Don a lot more than me. I just wanted to pull him off
the rock and get him to shore, but Brad looked at me and shook his
head as he spoke quietly.

“We’re going to
have to go along with him if we’re going to get him back. He’s not
going to budge otherwise and we’re wasting time out here arguing
with him.”

He patted Don
on the back and asked him several times to let go of the rock so we
could get him to the boat. Don finally lifted his head up and spoke
slowly in between his gasps for air.

“Can’t do it,
son…. Gotta wait here for Luke…. Can you see him? …. Is his boat
out there, yet?”

Brad looked at
me and raised his eyebrows as he shook his head. I could see the
compassion in his eyes and yet at the same time, the frustration
that covered the rest of his face.

“Don, Luke hurt
his leg, remember? He sent me to get you.”

Don lifted his
head again as high as he could to look at Brad. His squinted at
Brad and his countenance changed from rough and scared to hopeful
and happy.

“Yeah? Well,
why didn’t you say so?”

As I floated in
the water beside Brad, my whole body shook and my teeth chattered.
Brad stopped talking to Don and turned to me.

“Are you okay,
Sarah?”

“Yeah, I’m
just, you know, shaking a bit. Thought he was dead and that kind of
got to me. Now I think I’m just scared.”

Brad reached
over and rubbed my arm as he forced a smirk.

“Well, crewman,
you’re going to have to finish being scared later because right now
I need you to help me get Don off this rock and into the boat.”

Just as Brad
said that, Don perked up again.

“Where’s the
boat?”

I knew that
this was going to be a difficult task because now we had to
convince Don that there even was a boat. And then we had to get him
to swim to the shore where we’d have to make him believe that the
boat was hiding behind some bushes or rocks.

Brad was always
one step ahead of my imagination, though.

“Don, it’s over
there. See it? Big white ship with dark blue………”

“Where’s it? I
don’t see it. Where’s the boat, Pete?”

Pete?

“Don, listen to
me. It’s over there. You have to see it. It’s there.”

Don stretched
his head to look behind him and then he looked back and stared me
in the eyes. It was a strange sensation, almost as if he was
searching my soul for something.

“Pete. I always
said you could swim if you tried. We’re gonna make it to the boat
together this time. Hang on.”

I saw the hope
in Don’s eyes and I just wanted to burst out crying. He thought
that I was his brother and that he was still alive. I watched him
squirm around on the rock and my whole body was flushed with agony
as tears began welling up in my eyes. Meagan was as close to me as
any sister can get and my heart ached just thinking that anything
bad could happen to her. How horrifying this must have been for him
to watch his brother drown like that.

“Pete, come on.
This guy’s gonna take us to Luke.”

While we were
talking, Brad had unwound the rope and was wrapping it around Don’s
chest and under his arms. He handed me the other end and began
pulled Don towards him.

“Okay, Pete.
You take this end and swim to the…to the boat over there, and when
you get on it just keep pulling us in.”

The air was
warm, the emotions were wild and the task was challenging, yet I
could see in Brad’s eyes that he was actually enjoying this little
pretence.

“The rope is
only fifty feet long and it’s about three hundred feet to that
boat, so how am I going to get to shore … or uh, to the deck and
pull you on?”

He shook his
head and smirked as he secured the knot in the rope around Don’s
chest.

“Well, just
hold onto the end and keep pulling. You’ll feel the tension of us
behind you but I need you to keep pulling us. He’s almost a dead
weight and it’s going to be hard enough for me to keep us both
afloat, so if you can help by pulling us and then reeling us in
that last fifty feet, that would be great, Pete.”

As I tied the
end into a small loop so that I could slip my wrist through it, I
noticed the amusing grin on Brad’s face.

“So, if I’m
Pete, who are you?”

But to my
surprise Don jerked forward and pointed to Brad.

“Ah Pete, I’m
sorry. This is Luke’s young helper. Forget your name, though.”

This caught me
right off guard and as tense as this rescue was, Brad didn’t miss a
cue.

“Me? I’m Bond.
James Bond.”

Brad kept a
straight face while Don’s was overwhelmed with excitement.

“Hey, I’ve
heard of you. You’re a popular fella. Hey Pete, this guy’s a hero
already and he’s gonna save us. This is our lucky day.”

I wasn’t sure
if I should laugh or cry.

“Bond? You’re
James Bond?”