At the Lake

by Jill Harris

  ‘I won’t be asleep, Mum. Please let me come home when you arrive,’ said Jem. He handed the phone back to Mrs Mason.

  ‘We won’t be going to bed ’til we’ve had news of Simon. Ring when you arrive and one of us will bring Jem round, if he isn’t already there with Barney. You need to be with each other. There’s probably another hour of light here — anything can happen in an hour.’

  22

  A roaring darkness took him over

  Simon opened his eyes. His cheek rested against damp moss and leaves. He could see twigs. The pain was so bad he closed his eyes and a roaring darkness took him over.

  The next time he woke up, he saw sunlight dappling the ground and heard water. As well as pain, he felt aching coldness in his legs. After a while he realized they were lying in water. His thoughts came from far away and very slowly. Water. Cold. Legs. Move … them. His first attempt sent him back into the blackness.

  Water. Cold. Legs. Move … them. The thoughts were still there when he regained consciousness, but his legs still wouldn’t move so he tried his arms. He vomited with the pain. His face ran with sweat, and he laid his cheek back on the moss. Where am I? What’s happened to me? He homed in on the sound of running water. Stream. Mossy bank. Bush. Cold. Pain. Must … get …warm.

  His left arm didn’t hurt as much as his right, so he stretched it out cautiously, dug his fingers into the moss and pulled. His body pressed on his right arm underneath. The darkness came towards him again like roiling storm clouds, but he pushed it back. Go away! he thought. I’ve got to do this. He kept pulling himself forward. The moss turned slippery beneath him and eased his way. He waited until the waves of pain ebbed, and tried again. Bit by bit he dragged his legs out of the water. They were almost colder out of the water than in it.

  By then he knew where the pain was coming from: his right arm, right leg, chest and head. His head was the worst. He touched it with his left hand and dragged it down in front of his eyes. His fingers were sticky with blood.

  I’ve had some kind of an accident, he thought. But where? How? Why doesn’t someone help me? I need to find help. He tried to roll onto his left side and the darkness came at him again, this time as a friend. He slipped into its softness with relief.

  When he woke again the sun had gone. He shivered with cold and couldn’t feel his legs any more. ‘Jem,’ he said, ‘could you find me a blanket?’

  His father was lying beside him on the ground. ‘This is a mad place to spend the night,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to camp here.’

  Simon floated off the ground. ‘Come up here with me then,’ he said. After a while he floated back down and hit the ground. He vomited with pain again. Jem and his father weren’t there any more, although he was sure they had been. They’ve left me here alone, he thought miserably. This is where I have to sleep. Sleep, said his chilled body. Sleep, his body insisted.

  23

  ‘We’ll be out again at first light with the dogs’

  The search party stood outside the back fence drinking coffee. One or two of the searchers were smoking. They had seen where Simon and Jem had got under the fence, but hadn’t gone into the yard.

  ‘The yard’s been thoroughly searched,’ said Sergeant Herewini. ‘It’s a crime scene now, so we stay on this side of the fence and steer clear of the gate.’

  They were all glad of the break. They had been over both the tracks twice, searching a ten-metre margin of steep terrain and thick bush on either side. There had been no sign of Simon.

  Barney stood at the back, fighting desperation. Where was Simon? Had Squint taken him in the car — maybe even to dispose of his body? But why would he kill Simon? How would that have helped him? How would Simon have got in his way? No. Far more likely Simon was lying somewhere unable to move. He hadn’t made it back to his bike, so surely he must be somewhere in this area unless Squint had forced him — or carried him — somewhere else. He was wearing his hoodie, Jem had said — not a good colour for visibility.

  ‘Right,’ the sergeant called them to attention. ‘We’ve got about an hour’s light left. We’ll have to widen the search area. Any ideas?’

  A small, fair woman put up her hand. ‘Excuse me, Sarge. When I was crossing the creek back there, I noticed a small area of snapped twigs on that branch over the creek. Is it possible Simon slipped and fell in?’

  ‘The same thought occurred to me,’ said someone else.

  ‘Well,’ said the sergeant with a touch of sarcasm, ‘thank you for sharing that with us — better late than never, I suppose. Any more ideas?’

  ‘I’d like to check along the lake edge on either side of the cove,’ volunteered someone else. ‘We might need a boat to do it thoroughly.’

  ‘Foot search tonight. We’ll bring in a boat tomorrow if necessary,’ replied the sergeant.

  Tomorrow! Barney thought in anguish. We’ll be searching for a body tomorrow! He imagined Simon lying hurt and cold through the night. He imagined— He stopped himself. It didn’t help to imagine.

  ‘Janet, you, Brent and Merv check out the creek. Stu, take Rob and do the cove. The rest of us will search up to ten metres back along the fence line or until the land starts dropping. At this hour of the day, make sure you’re always within sight of another person — you know the score. We’ll meet back at the road at quarter to ten.’ He turned to Barney. ‘Which group do you want to join, Mr Butler?’

  Barney said he would go to the creek. That sounded the most likely to him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to climb down — it was obvious that it fell away steeply into the bush — but he’d wait at the top.

  The search party dispersed. It was already shadowy in the bush. How would they see Simon? The sergeant had told Barney that tracker dogs would come from Hamilton the next day if they didn’t find Simon tonight. The team had been called there that morning to another case of a missing child.

  Barney strode along, third in line, conscious he was slowing the others down, but they wouldn’t leave him to make his own way. ‘Sorry, sir,’ said Janet, ‘just one of the rules.’

  She showed the others the snapped twigs and they agreed it looked promising. Barney crossed to the road side of the creek using the temporary bridge the search party had erected, and waited while the three police officers began the steep descent, helmet lights on in the gathering gloom. He watched the flashes of light moving further and further down, and heard the fading sound of conversation. Would he hear the sharp call ‘Over here!’? Would he see two of them climbing back up to get help while the third waited with Simon?

  Neither happened, and the bush darkened to almost nil visibility beyond a couple of metres. Barney shivered as the temperature dropped. He wondered where his daughter was on the six-hour drive to the lake. Had she made contact with Dave? Would he get a flight tonight?

  Then he saw a flash of light moving towards him along the track. He checked his watch: twenty past nine. It would be the others making their way to the rendezvous on the road. Would Simon be with them?

  ‘We found nothing further back; I’m very sorry,’ said the sergeant as he reached Barney.

  Six searchers passed Barney. The sergeant waited back. ‘They’d have been in touch with me by now if they’d found him,’ he said, nodding towards the creek. His face and voice showed concern and kindness. ‘I really am sorry, Mr Butler. But we’ll be out again at first light with the dogs.’

  Barney rubbed his face. ‘Can he survive the night in the open?’

  ‘It won’t drop below ten degrees, and there’s no wind or rain; that’s survivable. But it depends on injuries, too, and the will to survive — always the big unknown.’

  As he spoke, voices and flashes of light reached them from further down the creek. Within minutes, the three searchers dragged themselves wearily up to the track. They didn’t need to say anything: their discouraged faces said it for them.

  ‘Anything to see of note?’ asked the sergeant.

  ‘There are broken ferns in several pla
ces and some small gouges out of the moss on the bank in one area,’ said Janet. ‘We couldn’t get down to the edge of the lake: we came to a very steep bluff and the bush is almost impenetrable. And we’d lost the light by then. We may have better luck coming at it from the water tomorrow,’ she added.

  ‘Have you any idea where the stream comes out?’ asked the sergeant.

  Barney shook his head. ‘There are several streams coming out of the bush along this side of the lake,’ he said. ‘I’ve never been on this track before, and I can’t get a fix on how far along the lake edge we are.’

  They trudged back to the track entrance. Barney wanted to scream and cry — he had to keep his teeth clamped together. As though sensing his perilous self-control, nobody spoke to him as they piled into the van and took him home.

  ‘Here’s the Search and Rescue twenty-four-hour phone number,’ said Sergeant Herewini as he stood with Barney by the van. ‘If you or the other lad think of anything that might help us tomorrow, please ring — any time. We’ll be reassembling at sunrise: half past four down at the boat ramp. Join us if you want to.’ He clapped Barney on the shoulder. ‘Will you have company tonight?’

  ‘My daughter’s on her way down from Auckland, and Jem will come back to my place if he’s still awake,’ said Barney. ‘Please thank your team for me — I couldn’t quite manage it in there.’

  He turned and stumbled up the path to the kitchen door. A uniformed officer let him in.

  ‘There’s a fresh pot of tea there, sir,’ he said before he left. ‘And I’d lock the door if I were you — just a precaution. Any problems, ring this number. It’s my mobile and I’ll be staying locally overnight.’

  24

  ‘He may be lying quite close to the lake edge’

  When Barney and Jem heard the car coming up the drive around midnight they were pretty sure it was Jem’s mum, Sue. Nevertheless, Barney picked up his rifle and turned the lights out so he could see outside better.

  ‘If it’s Lewis,’ he said, ‘you may have to slip out through the sun porch door and get help from the Masons while I keep him engaged.’

  Jem peered through the curtains with him.

  ‘It’s OK — it’s Mum!’

  They turned the lights back on and went out to meet her. She held Jem close, then Barney. ‘Have they found him?’

  ‘No,’ said Barney. ‘Let’s get you inside. Jem, put on the kettle.’

  Quickly Barney briefed Sue about the police search, before heading to the kitchen to make tea for them all. Jem’s mum sat on the sofa with her arm around Jem and cried, in between asking Barney and Jem dozens of questions.

  ‘If only he could have told you what he was coping with,’ she said with anguish. ‘He must have been terribly frightened to have kept it to himself like that.’ She reached for another tissue. ‘Couldn’t the search party have kept going through the night?’

  Barney came back from the kitchen where he’d been putting together a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches for Sue while he made the tea.

  ‘I can’t eat anything,’ said Jem’s mum. ‘Where is he? He must be hurt.’

  ‘Sue,’ said Barney, ‘Jem knows where that creek comes out into the lake. I think we should go on searching ourselves from the water. If you want to join in, you must have something to eat first.’

  She stared at him with sudden hope in her eyes: ‘You mean now? Tonight?’

  ‘Yes. If he did fall over the bluff, he may be lying quite close to the lake edge. If he’s still somewhere above the bluff — and they didn’t see any sign of him there — we can’t do any more tonight.’

  Jem stoked the fire. ‘Simon’ll be cold when we get him home,’ he said.

  Barney hugged him. ‘Put on your gloves and hat,’ he told them both. He turned to Sue. ‘Your mother’s stuff is still in the spare room. There’s a Swanndri there.’

  He gathered the big emergency torches from the cupboard, and a couple of blankets. Taking a pad from his desk, he wrote down where they were heading, and the time, and left it on the table. Sue topped up the teapot and filled the thermos. In less than ten minutes they were in the boatshed and ready to go.

  Barney backed the runabout out. It took them ten minutes to reach the stream flowing into the lake. Was it only a few days since they had bounced over the waves to Glow-worm Grotto? It felt like another life, thought Jem. Tonight it was calm, the water almost oily, and dimpled with light from the cabin.

  With the engine idling, Barney eased the runabout parallel to the lake edge, looking for a place to tie up.

  ‘There,’ said Sue. ‘That rock. We can put the rope right round it.’ She checked the depth of the water with the oar, rolled up her pants and slid over the side, wading in with the rope coiled over one shoulder.

  Barney and Jem followed, and Jem checked the knots. ‘Good job, Mum,’ he said.

  Carrying a blanket and the thermos, they climbed along the narrow pumice beach that was the lake edge. Jem shivered with cold. And I’m wearing a Swannie, he thought.

  Soon they had reached the stream. ‘We stay together,’ said Barney. ‘We stick to the stream. If we can’t get through, we’ll try to find a way through the bush, but we mustn’t stray too far from the stream. And we must accept that we can’t stay out all night. Agreed?’ He searched Sue’s face in the light of his torch.

  She shielded her eyes. ‘Move that thing away,’ she grumbled. ‘Yes, I agree.’

  But they were able to stay close to the stream because the bush was thinner here than above the bluff: it had given way to mossy ground and low growth, and the gradient was gentle. Even so, it was slippery underfoot; they had to be careful and the going was slow. Barney went first with one torch, Jem was next, and Sue last, carrying the other torch. They flashed the torches from side to side and called out continuously.

  After a while, the slope became steeper. When Jem’s feet shot from beneath him and he nearly slid into the stream, they moved off the moss to where the bush provided them with hand-holds.

  Jem saw Simon first. Barney’s torch beam had swung over to the other bank and begun to swing back when Jem saw a foot.

  ‘There!’ he yelled. ‘Shine the torch back! On the other bank!’

  And there lay Simon, unmoving in the trembling beam.

  ‘Oh no!’ Sue sobbed. ‘Dear God! Simon, we’re here!’

  The problem was how to get across the stream: it was wide and fast-flowing, and the banks were slippery with moss. In the end, they were forced to return to the mouth where it was shallower and the pumice sand provided a firmer footing. They made their way up the other side again as fast as they could, pulling themselves from sapling to sapling.

  Simon lay as cold and still as death. They crouched around him, faces etched deep with anxiety. Barney felt for a pulse in his left wrist. ‘He’s alive,’ he said, and put his arm around Sue to hold her up. They doubled the blanket and tucked it around Simon. Sue took off her hat and began to lift Simon’s head to put it on him, but Jem saw the blood. ‘Stop!’ he said. ‘It’s covered with blood!’

  Suddenly Barney began to search his pockets. ‘Here it is!’ he exclaimed in relief and pulled out the phone number the sergeant had given him. ‘Your cellphone,’ he said to Sue urgently. ‘Did you bring your cellphone?’

  She had. She dialled the number.

  ‘It’s Sue Gibb here, Simon Gibb’s mother. We’ve just found Simon. He’s alive — just — but badly injured.’ She couldn’t continue; the tears welled up chokingly. She handed the phone to Barney.

  ‘Butler here.’ Barney listened briefly and replied. ‘South shore, about ten minutes east from my jetty in a runabout. You can see where the stream flows into the lake. Just west of Glow-worm Grotto, if that means anything to you. I’d say about fifty metres up the stream on the left bank. You’ll see my runabout tied up to a rock at the west end of the cove.’ He listened again. ‘Head injuries and a broken leg and arm, I’d say, but we’ve got him covered with a blanket and I don�
�t want to move him. He’s as cold as death, but there is a weak pulse. I’ll go back to the boat and turn the cabin lights on, so you can find us; take me about fifteen minutes. And for God’s sake, get here as quickly as you can.’

  He gave the cellphone back to Sue. ‘They already have a boat at the launching pad ready for the morning, and they’ve just dispatched a crew from town. It’ll take them half an hour to get there and another half to get here from the ramp. I’m going back to the boat to meet them. I’ve got time to bring back another blanket. Make sure you drink some of that tea, both of you. The main thing is to warm Simon: hypothermia’s the biggest risk.’

  Barney disappeared down the slope. Sue was already crouched against Simon’s back, trying to keep him warm. Jem scraped some vomit away with a stick and lay down on the other side, curving his back into Simon’s chest as his mother breathed out long and hard, again and again into Simon’s back, willing the warm breath to save him. Jem took his hat off and laid it over Simon’s head on top of his mother’s hat. He held Simon’s left hand between his own and tried to warm it. The right one was trapped underneath his body.

  ‘We’re here, Si darling,’ Sue murmured repeatedly. ‘Hang on. We’ll get you to safety.’

  25

  ‘Let’s get things straight’

  Waking and sleeping, Simon struggled to sort out exactly what had happened the day he fell in the creek. But however hard he tried to fix things in a straight line, from beginning to end, the story slid all over the place.

  The doctor said that it was partly the knock on his head — Simon had stitches on his shaved scalp that looked like a maxi centipede — and that things would settle down after a few days.