The Other Side of Nowhere (6 page)

‘You’re on,’ Matt said, with a weak smile.

My little brother and my favourite cousin stepped over the guardrail. They sat together on the side of the yacht like conjoined twins – their arms around the fender, their legs dangling over the edge.

I stood behind them, clinging to the guardrail and gasping for breath. I was desperately trying to hold it together, but I was freaking out. What if I never saw them again? The thought made my eyes instantly fill with tears.
Toughen up, Johnno, you’ve got to do this
, I told myself and in a second I had let go of the guardrail and grabbed the back of Matt’s and George’s life jackets. It was time. I had to give them a push into the water while secretly fighting the urge to haul them back on deck.

‘After the next wave, jump out as far as you can,’ I croaked, unable to hide the fear in my voice.

I shot a look behind us. A big roller was coming, all green and quivering.
The Dolphin
rose up as it came underneath us then slid back down as the wave passed, on its way to shore.

The water under the yacht was flat and relatively calm for a second.

‘Now! Go, go, go,’ I urged, giving George and Matt the biggest shove I could.

I watched them both drop into the water and disappear momentarily before bobbing up again about ten metres closer to shore. When the next wave broke over them, they were forced under. And when it passed, there was no sign of them.

Fighting the urge to keep looking until I saw them again, I went back to Nick. He was still at the wheel, pulling it hard in a stubborn attempt to steer
The Dolphin
to safety. But even I knew that was a lost cause. We were drifting faster now, less than a dozen boat lengths from the rocks at the far end of the beach.

‘C’mon, mate,’ I said, struggling to get the words past the basketball-size lump in my throat. ‘Our turn.’

Clutching the fender tight against my chest, I helped Nick over the rail at the stern. When the next wave passed, we slipped off the edge together.

I hit the water with a stinging smack and sank deeper than I was prepared for. Salt water shot up my nostrils and burned in my mouth. The fender I had tied to my waist pulled loose. It slipped through my grasp like a piece of soap and vanished. With the fender gone, I felt suspended in an inky darkness. There was no up or down, just a crushing force on my chest and an ache in my ears.

I didn’t even know if Nick was there until I felt him panicking right next to me. Feeling the sting of his nails down my face, I shoved him in the chest. It was pure instinct and straightaway I tried to pull him back close. But he lashed out with his foot and kicked me hard on the side of my head. In the few dizzying seconds it took to get my bearings, Nick was gone, lost in the darkness.

With bursting lungs, my only wish was for air. I pushed upwards, frantically, gasping as I broke through the surface into the air. A wave broke over me, forcing me back under. Two more waves slammed over me before I finally surfaced, sucking in lungfuls of air. A flash of lightning lit up the sea: grey-green waves all puckered by the pelting rain. For the instant the light lasted I twisted and turned, looking all around for Nick.

But there was no sign of him.

‘Nick! Nick!’ I screamed between mouthfuls of water.
He isn’t still down there, is he?
Frantic now, I tried in vain to push myself higher out of the water, my head swivelling back and forth, scanning the water for a sign of him. But there was nothing. Diving under was no good either. The water below was dark and thick with churning sand.

Back on the surface, tears welled in my eyes as I yelled his name over and over.
I let him go … God, I let him go.
My whole body ached at the realisation. I felt a different type of wave wash over me, a wave of exhaustion, of defeat. With it, my legs and arms stopped moving. The water was like acid, stinging my eyes and burning my throat. I couldn’t fight it any longer. I felt myself sinking.

Under the water I became aware of something near me, brushing past, subtle at first then harder, grabbing at me. A sharp tug on my collar jerked my head back to the surface of the water. A face appeared above me, out of focus but familiar.

‘Grab on,’ Matt shouted, passing me the fender.

I draped my arms over it, coughing to breathe through lungs half-filled with water. As my breath evened, I realised Matt was alone.

‘George?’ I asked weakly.

‘Dunno. It was too hard to hold on,’ Matt puffed, dragging me through the water. Every now and then I could feel his legs kicking against my floating ones.

‘What about Nick?’ I asked.

‘Wasn’t he with you?’

Until I let him go
, I thought. ‘Yeah, yeah, he was,’ I told Matt. ‘I don’t know what happened.’ The pain of the lie was unbearable.

Then I saw the beach up ahead. Matt pushed the fender out in front of us, and with our arms looped over it we both began to kick as hard as we could. I focused on the waves breaking onto the beach as I kicked.

And then, suddenly, there was sand beneath our feet. We were standing, wading through the water and up onto the beach. I fell to the ground and pressed my face into the sand. I could have kissed it. Solid land, at last.

Matt and I lay there, side by side on the beach, in the pouring rain. Aside from our heaving chests, we must have been indistinguishable from the rest of the waterlogged tangle of debris washed up by the storm.

‘You all right?’ said Matt, lifting himself off the sand and onto all fours.

‘Yeah, I guess.’ My whole body ached, but there was a pain inside me that was far worse than anything physical.

Rising to my feet I was surprised to find the sodden pack still on my back. I slipped it from my shoulders and dropped it onto the sand away from the water’s edge. It was almost completely dark now and near impossible to see past the shore break. Unless George or Nick bobbed up directly in front of us, there was little chance we’d be able to see them.

‘Do you think they’re already out?’ Matt asked, looking out at the waves.

‘Yeah, maybe,’ I said in a voice that should have sounded more encouraging. I looked at Matt standing beside me, his wet hair plastered across his forehead and his chest still heaving. Total pain that he was, he had just saved my life.

‘Hey, Matt … thanks.’

‘Sure, whatever,’ he shrugged, and I saw a half-smile creep onto his face in the fading light. ‘You just kept banging into me, so what else could I do?’

I managed a weak smile back. ‘Well, anyway. Thanks.’ I said, slapping him on the shoulder. ‘C’mon. Let’s go find the others.’

Heads down against the wind and rain, we started jogging up the beach. A jagged fork of lightning lit up the ocean. Monster waves were dumping ten deep across the bay. It was unbelievable that Matt and I had made it through that. But the thought that Nick, with his injuries, or even George, who was a great swimmer, could do the same just seemed impossible.

There was a churning deep in my gut that forced me to stop running. Then without any further warning a stream of spew poured from my mouth. I fell to my knees and threw up over and over again, even after there was nothing left. But inside I still ached.

Matt was up ahead, making his way down to the water’s edge. As I wiped the spew from my chin, I saw him turn and wave frantically, urging me to him. He was yelling something I couldn’t hear.

‘What is it?’ I said, joining him knee-deep in the waves.

‘Out there.’ He pointed. ‘There was something out there… someone.’ I tried to follow the line of his outstretched arm, but he was literally pointing into a dark void.

‘Where? I can’t see …’

‘There,’ Matt insisted. ‘A couple of waves back.’

I watched the ocean, my heart beating fast and wishing for Matt’s arm to magically extend and touch the very spot on the water where he had seen something. A sharp flash of lightning lit up the water. But it was too short.

Then a massive flash of lightning right overhead lit up the ocean in a vivid purple.

‘
There
,’ exclaimed Matt, pointing and crashing into me in his excitement.

This time I saw it. A body, floundering in front of a foaming wall of water. When the lightning flash extinguished, the body vanished.

‘C’mon!’ yelled Matt. ‘They’re out there.’ He was off, hurdling the shore break and diving headlong into the oncoming waves. In seconds he was ten metres away. And when he ploughed through another breaking wave he disappeared from view. I hesitated, not sure I could go back in. But then I shook myself, snapping out of it. Of course I had to. I had no choice.

The strong waves tackled me as I tried diving under, through and over them. It felt like I was getting nowhere when suddenly I saw George. She was right in front of me, collapsed in Matt’s arms. She was dragging something behind her and, as I reached out to her, I realised she was holding the collar of Nick’s life jacket.

Something inside me relaxed and I sent a silent thank you to the ocean. But my relief left as quickly as it came. I could tell Nick was in a bad way. His eyes were closed and his body was being tossed around in the waves like a dead weight. Only his life jacket was keeping him afloat.

‘I’ve got him,’ I shouted to Matt. ‘You take George.’

He nodded and, wrapping his arm around her waist, lurched towards the shore.

With my arm under Nick’s chin to keep his head out of the water, I struggled through the swirling currents and crashing waves towards the shore.

Ahead of me, Matt was on his knees gulping in air. Next to him on all fours was George, her back arching in violent spasms as she vomited.

I dragged Nick onto the beach with my last ounce of strength and lay him on his back on the sand just beyond the water line. I leant in close, my nose almost touching his. ‘Nick? Nick! C’mon, mate.’ But there was no response. I sat back on my heels, feeling helpless.

Matt knelt beside me. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’ he said in a flat voice.

‘Shut up!’ I snapped, furious at him for even thinking it. ‘He isn’t dead. He isn’t!’

I put my ear as close as I could to Nick’s mouth and nose, but couldn’t feel or hear any sign of breathing. I put my fingers against his neck, moving them around, trying to find a pulse with no real idea of what I was doing. My own pulse felt like someone was kicking the hell out of a bass drum, but I couldn’t find Nick’s at all. I kept searching aimlessly until …
Hang on, what was that?

I pressed harder where I’d felt the faintest flutter. Yes, there it was again. My mind raced.
He’s got a pulse, so he’s alive. But he’s not breathing … what does that mean?
I found myself just looking at him, paralysed with confusion and doubt.

Then out of the dark came George’s voice. ‘You need to do mouth-to-mouth,’ she said weakly. ‘Tilt his head back, hold his nose, then just blow as hard as you can into his mouth.’

With only George’s instructions as a guide, I leant forward and pinched Nick’s nose between my fingers. Then covering his mouth with mine, I blew once, then twice. On the second breath his chest rose a little then fell flat.

‘Blow harder,’ urged Matt.

I tried again and this time Nick’s chest rose a little more, but still he lay lifeless on the sand. Inhaling a huge lungful of air I blew again, and suddenly Nick arched his back. I got out of the way just in time, because with a jolting heave Nick sprayed his water-filled lungs onto the sand. His body convulsed with a few wracking coughs and then his eyes flickered and slowly opened. For a moment he just looked around, confused, before locking onto George. He gave her a weak smile.

She leant forward and brushed a thick, wet clump of hair from his eyes. ‘Welcome back,’ she said, returning his smile.

I fell back on the sand, not understanding what had just happened, but not caring either. The steady rise and fall of Nick’s chest was just about the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.