The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
****
“I’m just going upstairs to check on the boys,” Rowena said when the movie cut to a set of commercials.
“I’ll make coffee while you do.” Gail said.
Rowena made her way out of the lounge room and trudged up the stairs towards Justin’s room. No matter what she thought of Gail and Tim when at times they unknowingly made her feel uncomfortable as she walked down the lonely road to single parenthood, it was comforting staying at her sister’s house.
She passed through the darkness at the top of the stairs and poked her head around the doorway of the bedroom where the boys lay sleeping. The room was bathed in moonlight that poured in through the window on the side of the house. In the moonlight she could see Justin sleeping peacefully in his bed, his little head snuggled deep into his pillow, body curled up under a light cotton blanket. She turned her attention to the folding bed opposite Justin’s bed expecting also to see her own son sleeping peacefully. It was empty!
Rowena spun around in the doorway, frantic now. ‘Where could Simon be?’ She thought. Her eyes quickly scanned the upstairs hallway. She could see the open door of the bathroom at the far end and mindful not to wake the other children she quietly hurried down the hallway until she reached the doorway.
“Simon are you in here?” She whispered as she threw the light switch on revealing only an empty bathroom. Her mind whirled as a thousand thoughts filled her head. “Simon,” she whispered aloud again. “Where are you, this is not funny!”
The entire second floor of the house was dead quiet. The only sound apart from the distant noise of the television downstairs was the wild beating of her heart that now filled her ears. ‘Lynette’s room, he has to be in Lynette’s room,’ she thought as she turned away from the bathroom doorway and began to make her way back down the hallway.
As she passed the opened door to her sister’s bedroom, something caught her eye and she stopped dead in her tracks. Through the two gigantic glass sliding doors that opened up onto the balcony she could see the moonlight dancing across the water below. She saw the thousands of lights that skirted the edge of the harbour, shining like lights on a Christmas tree. Directly below, she saw the solitary light hanging from a crooked pole above the steps that led to the little wharf at the bottom of the garden.
In horror she stepped inside the room, walking nearer to the glass doors to get a better look at what had caught her attention. There below at the end of the wharf stood a little boy dressed in his pyjamas. Eyes fixated, she watched seemingly in slow motion as he attempted to climb over the edge of the wharf into the small boat that was tied up there. Then helpless to stop what was unfolding before her eyes, saw him slip and fall backwards, disappearing between the boat and the wharf into the water below.
“Simon!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “Nooooo!”
Legs pumping as hard as they could she turned and raced from the room, out into the hallway. Everything seemed an obstacle in her way as fear gripped her body. She bounced off the hallway wall, knocked her hip into the stairway hand rail and clumsily stumbled her way down the stairs.
“Gail,” she called out frantically to her sister. “Gail, quick.”
Tim met her at the bottom of the stairs, his face alarmed as his sister-in-law tripped on the last few steps and fell forward into his arms. Gail appeared behind him having raced from the kitchen at the other end of the house when she first heard her sister call out.
“What is it?” Tim asked Rowena.
“It’s Simon,” she yelled at him as she pushed his arms out of her way. “He’s outside on the wharf, and I saw him fall in the water.”
“Oh no!” Gail cried. “Quick Tim you go with Rowena, I’ll get a torch.”
Rowena had already brushed past the both of them and was racing through the house toward the back door with Tim close on her heels. Reaching it she wildly brushed the curtains out of her way and flung the sliding door wide open.
“Simon!” She screamed again as she ran outside across the back lawn.
“Quick, the garden gate.” Tim shouted in support as he ran past her and swung it open.
Rowena flung herself down the narrow concrete steps four at a time, wondering how on earth her feet were managing to keep up with her head which was already racing ahead of her fearing the worst if she didn’t get to Simon soon.
Gail had run though the kitchen and grabbed the small flashlight she kept on top of the fridge. She stepped outside just as her sister brushed past Tim and hurried through the gate at the far end of the garden. Tim was wildly motioning for her to hurry as she ran across the lawn trying to catch up.
As she reached the garden gate, Gail stopped and looked down at the scene below. Rowena had just reached the bottom of the steps where the old lamp post stood like a crooked walking stick and was turning to run out onto the little wharf with Tim close behind her. The wharf itself stood quiet in the cool summer’s evening, Tim’s old wooden boat bobbed up and down, still tied up where it always was at the end of the wharf. There was no sign that anyone had been here, and then Gail saw the little white row boat suddenly appear alongside Tim’s worn and battered excuse for a boat. There was only one man in the small boat and he quickly dropped himself over the side and into the water, disappearing for a second or two between the wharf and Tim’s boat. When he appeared again, it was at the rear of Tim’s boat, clutching a little boy still in his pyjamas. He dragged himself and the little boy up out of the water and into the boat. Then lifting the boy up in front of him with his two arms, he climbed out of the boat, up onto the wharf and gently laid the little boy’s limp body down on the knotted timber decking.
“Simon!” Rowena screamed from below, her feet stomping heavily on the timber planks as she ran out onto the wharf followed closely by Tim.
“Oh Dear God!” Gail sighed heavily as she recognised the pyjamas and began descending the stairs three at a time. “Please God no!”
Gail reached the bottom of the stairs at the same time as Rowena and Tim reached the man at the end of the wharf. Running hard out onto the wharf she could see the man was bent down over Simon with his back to Rowena and Tim. ‘Please God no,’ she repeated over and over again in her head as she ran toward her nephew, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. Her feet fell heavily as the timber planks rattled in the still of the evening. Finally she caught up to the others just as Simon sputtered a mouthful of water over the wharf and sat up.
“Mum,” he sobbed as his rescuer moved to the side and immediately Rowena moved in and threw her arms around her son.
“Oh baby, mummy was so worried.” Rowena cried as she clutched him tightly and rocked him back and forth. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again do you hear?” As she began to sob uncontrollably, Tim crouched down and put an arm around her in a show of support.
“Thank you God.” Gail said as she threw her head back and looked at the night sky above. “Thank you so much!”
She looked back down at her sister still clutching Simon and was momentarily drawn to look sideways at her nephew’s rescuer. The man had short black hair and thick, heavy eyebrows, and eyes that sparkled a deep, ocean green. His face was unshaven yet radiant in the afterglow of his heroic rescue. He wore a thin cotton, white button front shirt that highlighted a thick chest of hair for someone with such a fair complexion.
He smiled at her, and gesturing with his hand for her to move in closer stepped back allowing her to pass in front of him on the narrow jetty and be by her sisters’ side. She knelt down beside Rowena and put an arm around her while she gently stroked Simon’s hair, the two of them continued to sob quietly into each other’s shoulder.
“Thank you so much….” Gail turned around to thank the mystery rescuer but he was gone.
“Um guys,” she said this time to Tim and Rowena. “I think you want to see this.”
“See what?” Tim asked.
“Hey where did he go?” Rowena turned around still cradling Simon in her arm
“He was just here, beside me.” Gail explained. “He moved out of the way so I could get through, then I turned around and he was gone.”
“Hello,” called Tim as he got to his feet and began walking slowly along the wharf. “Are you still here? We never got to thank you.”
“He couldn’t have just vanished.” Rowena said with a puzzled tone, now wiping away at the last few remaining tears that clung to her cheek and helping Simon get to his feet.
“Can I have the torch?” Tim asked.
“Sure, here you go,” Gail handed him the small flashlight she had grabbed from the top of the fridge earlier.
“Did anyone see where he came from?” Rowena asked. “I mean we only saw him pull Simon out of the water.”
“Yeah, he was in a small white row boat.” Gail explained.
“Well he can’t have got too far in a row boat.” Tim said as he desperately shone the torch out into the darkness, scanning the water for any sign of a vessel. “I remember seeing it sitting beside mine when I was running down here. It was lucky he was passing by, he must have been out for an evening row, saw Simon fall in and reached him just in time.” The torch light shone only about 10 metres into the night, however the full moon illuminated most of the harbour. If he was in a boat, Tim would have been able to see a silhouette of the man even if he was 100 metres away. Instead, he couldn’t see a single vessel apart from the Manly ferry that had tied up for the night across the harbour at the pier.
“Can you see him?” Rowena asked. “He just saved Simon’s life. By the time I got here he’d already resuscitated him. I want to at least thank him.”
“Mum,” a distant call rang out from far above them. It was Lynnie standing by the small gate at the top of the stairs back up at the house. Her younger brother Justin stood beside her. Both children must have been woken when Rowena first ran screaming from the house. “What happened?”
“It’s alright honey,” Gail called back. “Stay there Mummy’s coming up now.”
“Any sign of him?” Rowena asked Tim one last time.
“No, can’t see where he went. Let’s get you and Simon back up to the house and dried off.”
“You’re not going to be able to see where he went.” Gail spoke softly causing both Tim and Rowena to turn and face her.
“Why is that?” They asked as one.
“Because that wasn’t just a man who happened to be passing by that saved Simon. It was an Angel.”