Lifeboat! (16 page)

Now, here in the North Sea with the ship rolling and lurching beneath his
feet, the pain in his inside stabbing incessantly and with the forecast of
rough seas before he could make port, Captain Karl Schlick cursed himself
heartily for his own stubbornness.

Julie awoke with a start and sat up. Something had
disturbed her, but she was not sure what. She shivered and glanced at the
sky. The sun had disappeared behind scudding black clouds and the breeze
had strengthened to a north-westerly wind, cool and blustery.

She shook Howard. ‘Howard—the weather’s getting worse. We must get back.’

Howard sat up, yawned and stretched. Then he reached out for her and
pulled her down on to the sand again. ‘Now what’s all the hurry?’

‘Howard …’

His mouth silenced her, but a moment later he drew back from her, his
eyes suddenly glinting with anger. ‘You’re a darned sight colder than your
precious weather!’

He got up and began to gather their picnic things
together. Julie sat up again. ‘I’m sorry, Howard. It’s not that. But can’t
you see how the weather’s changed even whilst we’ve been asleep?’ Howard
gave a cursory glance towards the sky and then turned to look down on her.
‘Look, Julie, I don’t know if it’s because your father’s some kind of
safety oracle around here or what, but you seem uncommonly panicky about
the sea and the weather. Good God—it’s only water for heaven’s sake!’

Julie was scrambling to her feet, snatching up
their gear. ‘Don’t let’s waste time arguing. Will you just take my word
for it that we should get back
now?
’

He raised his hands, palms towards her. ‘Okay,
okay, we’ll go, we’ll go.’

It was then that she heard the screaming.
Julie stood very still, her swift, anxious movements suspended by the
eerie noise echoing across the marsh. ‘ What’s that?’

Howard continued to gather their things, apparently
unconcerned.

‘What?’
‘That noise. That screaming.’
Howard listened but only for a moment. ‘A seagull, I should think.’

‘That’s no bird. That’s someone—a person.’ She ran
quickly to

the top of the dune behind which they had
picnicked.
‘Oh come on, Julie. I thought you were so anxious to be off.’
‘There’s someone over there. A girl running about.’
‘Julie—it’s nothing to do with us. It’s a couple having a lark.’
But Julie would not be persuaded. ‘No, she’s in trouble, I’m sure of it.’

‘It’s none of our business. We don’t want to get
involved …’

Julie spun round. ‘ You may not want to, but I’m not going until I’ve
found out what the matter is. We don’t walk away from folks in trouble in
my
family!’
With that she flung down the napkin and cup she was holding and began to
run towards the girl, whilst Howard carried on with

the packing up of the picnic basket.
The young teenage girl, dressed in faded denims and an anorak, was running
around without sense of purpose or direction, tears coursing down her
face, her hands dragging at her long windblown hair.

Julie caught hold of her and shook her gently. ‘What is it? What’s the
matter?’

The sobs increased. ‘What
is
it?’ Julie persisted.

The girl pointed with a trembling finger towards another sand-dune.

Julie let go of her and ran towards it and climbed it. She stood in
shocked horror as she looked down at the ground beyond the sand-dune. A
boy, possibly of a similar age to the girl, though Julie could not tell
for she could not see his face, lay writhing on the ground, his hands
covering his face. He was screaming and kicking and obviously in dreadful
pain. Beside him lay the empty case of the used flare.

Fleetingly Julie thought that here must be the cause of all these hoax
calls the lifeboat had been receiving, but there was no time to go into
that now. Now the boy needed medical treatment—and fast!

Julie turned to the girl. ‘Run—run to the shop on the Nature Reserve.
Over the bridge and to the right.’

But the girl was beyond comprehension, she just ran around in circles,
crying. She did not seem to take in what was being asked of her and Julie
realised that the girl was hysterical.

Julie ran back to Howard, but he had gone from the sand-dune, the sand
cleared of everything they had brought up from the boat. She ran to the
river-bank and looked down to see Howard in the boat, calmly stowing away
the picnic basket.

‘Howard—there’s a boy badly hurt over there. I’ll run to the shop.’ She
nodded across the river to the Nature Reserve’s Visitors’ Centre which
housed the Warden’s bungalow, a shop and rooms for classes and courses. ‘
Can you go to him? See if you can do anything?’

Howard looked up. ‘ Me? I’m no Florence Nightingale. What do you think I
can do?’

For a moment Julie stood gaping at him, stunned by his callousness.
‘Howard don’t be so, so … Oh, I’m not wasting time arguing with you …’ And
she set off at top speed running up the road towards the bridge. Of course
it might have been quicker, she reflected, to have gone across the river
in the boat and up the other bank—the Centre was quite near that way. But
with Howard in such an unhelpful mood …

As she ran her mind flickered from one thing to another: the lifeboat,
the now injured boy who had most probably been the mysterious hoaxer, her
father—even Tim—all this flashed through her mind in those few breathless
moments. And Howard—gone in an instant was all the charm. What had, since
the weekend began, been merely pinpricks of irritation camouflaged by his
easy charm, had now been exposed in a moment of crisis revealing his
arrogance, his pomposity, his selfishness—none of which had been
noticeable in the very different atmosphere of University life.

His blatant refusal to help that poor boy had finally disgusted Julie.

Panting now with hard running, she crossed the bridge and ran along the
road. The Nature Reserve Centre was still two or three hundred yards away.
A car from the car park crossed the bridge behind her and slowed down
beside her.

‘Anything wrong, miss?’ the driver shouted. Beside him, his wife craned
forward, the two children stared at her from the rear window of the car.

‘Yes, oh yes. Please could you give me a lift to the Centre, over there?’
She pointed. ‘There’s been some sort of accident out there on the marsh. I
must ring for an ambulance.’

‘Oh blimey, get in quick, lass.’

The rear door of the car opened and Julie slid inside and leant back on
the seat. Two pairs of huge brown eyes regarded her solemnly as she closed
her eyes and took deep, shuddering breaths.

‘What’s happened? Someone belonging you hurt, is it?’ the man’s wife was
asking.

Julie opened her eyes. ‘ No—no. I—we were picnicking and just packing up
to go, when I heard this screaming. It looks as if a couple of
youngsters—teenagers—have been playing with flares—you know, the sort a
boat sets off if it’s in trouble. And it looks as if one’s gone off in the
boy’s face.’

The woman’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh how dreadful!’

‘Good God!’ the driver muttered and drew to a halt outside the door of
the shop. ‘We’ll wait for you, miss, whilst you ring up and then I’ll come
back with you.’

‘Oh that is good of you.’ Julie slipped from the car and dashed inside.
Not everyone, then, she thought, was so unfeeling as Howard.

‘Please,’ she gasped to the woman behind the counter in the shop selling
postcards, books, posters and souvenirs all about the natural environment
and other items connected with the world of nature. ‘Please could I phone
for an ambulance? There’s been an accident out on the marsh. A boy’s badly
hurt.’

‘Oh dear. Yes, of course. In the office, here.’ The woman opened a door
behind her and Julie scurried around the counter.

With a trembling finger, she dialled nine-nine-nine.

‘Emergency—which service?’

‘Ambulance.’

‘Connecting you. What number are you ringing from?’

Julie gave the operator the number and location. The ringing tone had
scarcely sounded before a man’s voice was answering, ‘Ambulance Service.’

‘This is Julie Macready. There has been an accident at Dolan’s Point
about two hundred yards from the bridge. A boy has been hurt in the face,
I think by a flare. There’s a girl with him. I don’t think she’s hurt,
just dreadfully shocked.’

‘Thank you, miss. Where are you phoning from?’

‘The shop at the Nature Reserve Centre.’

‘Can you wait there until the ambulance arrives, miss?’

‘Yes, I’ll go back to the bridge and wait there.’

‘Right, miss. Thank you.’

The line went dead as the man rang off to take the necessary immediate
action.

Julie breathed a sigh of relief, thanked the woman and went back outside.
The family were still waiting in the car right outside the door.

‘All right?’ the man asked.

Julie nodded. Her knees were trembling now from the reaction. ‘I’ve said
I’ll wait near the bridge until the ambulance comes.’

‘Right, hop in. I’ll drop you there and I’ll go and see if I can do
anything to help the lad. You can show me where he is. I belong to the St
John’s Ambulance Brigade at home.’

In a few minutes Julie was pointing out the figure of the girl still
running about aimlessly near the dune behind which the injured boy lay.

‘Right, you stay here, lass, and direct the ambulance when it gets here,’
the man said.

Thankfully, Julie leant against the parapet of the bridge and watched the
car swing round the sharp bend and speed back to the car park. She saw the
man jump out and run across the marsh towards the girl and the sand-dune.

Julie glanced down river to where the
Nerissa
was still. She could
see Howard sitting in the boat. He had not made any move to help in any
way.

Julie felt almost sick with disgust—at Howard and at herself for having
been so gullible as to be taken in by his smooth charm.

In only a few minutes she saw the flashing light and heard the siren of
the ambulance coming down the coast road. It slowed at the bridge and the
nearside cab-door opened and she climbed inside, squashed in beside the
driver and his mate.

‘Hello, Julie. We wondered if it was you,’ the driver said. She knew both
the ambulance men, they had often been on hand after a lifeboat rescue.

‘Where is this laddie, then?’

‘Go right to the car park, Jim. And then he’s about two hundred yards
across the marsh, behind that sand-dune over there. Look, you can see a
man standing on top of it waving. He stopped to help.’

The ambulance pulled into the car park. ‘I don’t reckon we can risk this
on the marsh, do you, Chris?’

‘No. We’ll take the stretcher from here.’

Julie jogged at their side as they hurried across the flat marsh towards
the sand-dune.

‘Thank God you’ve come,’ the car driver greeted them. ‘He’s in a hell of
a mess. The thing must have exploded in his face. There’s nothing I could
do. I’ve nothing in my car to cope with that.’

‘Best let the experts deal with it, sir,’ said one of the ambulance men,
but without rancour. Obviously the man wanted to help.

‘Oh I’ve some first-aid training but that’s beyond my scope. I know when
to let well alone. I’ve covered him up to try and keep him warm.’

‘That’s right.’ Chris nodded approval but did not pause for an instant.
The conversation was carried on all the while they were positioning the
stretcher and bending over the boy.

‘Where’s the girl gone?’ Julie asked suddenly.

‘I saw her when I first got here,’ the car driver said, ‘but …’ He
glanced around him. ‘I don’t know where she is now.’

‘Oh dear,’ Julie said worriedly. ‘She was in an awful state of shock.’

‘Was she hurt?’ said Jim as carefully they lifted the boy on to the
stretcher. His screams had subsided now into a deep-throated continuous
moan.

‘No—at least, I don’t think so. But she was hysterical with shock. We
must find her.’

‘Can you look for her, Julie, whilst we get this lad to the ambulance?’

‘Of course.’ She turned to the car driver. ‘Will you look over there,
inland? I’ll go this way towards the sea. I know this marshy area pretty
well.’

‘Right you are.’

They separated to go in search of the girl.

Julie went as far as she could until the ground became soft and boggy and
then turned towards the river and ran along the bank back towards where
the
Nerissa
was moored.

Howard was standing on the bank above the boat. ‘There you are. Are you
ready
now …
?’

‘No—the girl’s missing. Have you seen her?’

‘Girl? What girl?’

‘The one who was crying so, she was in a terrible state.’

Howard cast his eyes heavenwards in exasperation and was about to say
something when Julie heard a faint shout. It was the car driver searching
in the opposite direction.

‘Here—over here.’

She ran towards him.

‘I’ve found her. She’s here, behind this bush.’

The girl was huddled in a sorry, sobbing heap, beating the sand with her
fists and wailing.

‘Look, the ambulance has gone with the lad. They said they’d either come
back or radio for another. But I reckon it’d be quicker if I took her in
my car to the local hospital, don’t you? I know where it is.’

‘All right. I’ll phone the ambulance station and let them know what’s
happening.’

Together they helped the weeping girl, who allowed herself to be led,
unresisting, towards the car.

‘Thanks for all your help,’ Julie said to the man and his family.

‘Don’t mention it. I always say you never know when you or yours might
need a spot of help.’ He jerked his head towards his own children sitting
solemnly in the back of the car staring at the weeping girl beside them.
‘I only hope there’d be someone there to help them if they ever need it.
Cheerio, then.’