Through The Storm (8 page)

“
Breakfast in ten,” he called.

“Ten what?”
came David’s sleepy voice.

Another day.
For a second or two, Ross wondered if it had been a dream, but the
aches and bruises as he moved convinced him that it had been
real.

“Why are you
limping?” Arthur asked Nick as they queued for eggs and bacon.
Arthur was also limping, but he couldn’t remember Nick hitting
anything.

“Slight
argument with a canoe in the surf yesterday”, Nick replied.
“Landing was a little hair raising. I didn’t quite judge the catch
right and the canoe won.”

Owen appeared
at his shoulder. “If you time your visit to the hospital carefully,
you should miss the press invasion.” He read Nick’s refusal in his
face, so as Nick opened his mouth to say he was fine, but before he
could say a word, Owen continued, ”and you may say you aren’t
going, but I need to know my instructors are fit to teach. It will
also save you having to answer critical questions from the press
which you may find slightly annoying. Jerry got checked yesterday
and was given the OK. We’ll get you down there as soon as we’ve
checked this lot know what they are doing today”.

There was no
arguing with Owen.

CHAPTER
10

For Ross, it
was weird, picking up the old routine, the only change being a
rescheduling of Nick’s canoeing. Horseriding instead, Owen said.
Other than that, yesterday could have been a normal day. The whole
adventure could have been a dream, well, a nightmare really, he
thought, as he was given a hand to mount his horse, a friendly
black beauty with a white blaze on his nose. Tess was giving
instructions on how to stay on and get the horse to walk. Even this
lesson seemed a bit dreamlike. Ross supposed that was because he
was still tired. It was lucky the horse seemed to know what to do.
They clip clopped along a few bridleways under bright sun, just as
it had been before the storm arrived. The countryside was beautiful
and Ross felt peaceful. That was until lunchtime, when the press
conference was held.

That was a long
way from normal. Nick had returned with his arm in a sling. “Busted
ribs, and a sprained wrist,” he explained. “The ankle’s just
strained a bit, but no canoeing this year, sorry”.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Anyone could
see Owen and Jerry were strung up when the newspapermen arrived.
Owen read out a statement from the coastguard explaining the freak
weather conditions and praised Jerry’s handling of the situation.
Looking around the room, he added, “As the children have to fit in
lunch and afternoon activities, I’d appreciate it if you could
squeeze your questions into around five minutes”, he sat back and
waited.

Only one man
seemed to be looking to place blame. He was over ridden by the hero
hunters.

“Which boy
sailed to the rescue?” Jack turned fiery red, making it obvious.
“How did you feel? What did you think when the squall struck?”

“Er. I didn’t
have time to think. I was just doing what Jerry had said, to try to
stop capsizing, and then the beach came up and I couldn’t see the
others so I went for help”.

“How far did
you run?”

Jack looked to
Owen, “It was further than I expected, but I don’t really
know”.

“We’ve worked
it out as nearly 2 kilometres. 1.2 miles to be exact”, Owen
added.

Then it was
Arthur’s turn. “I knew Dean couldn’t swim as fast as the boat was
moving, so I thought maybe I could paddle him back to it in the
canoe, but as I reached him all the rain came down, and I couldn’t
see it anymore, so I had to just try to keep him afloat and close
to me. I did think of the island because it was hard to paddle with
Dean hanging on, but I couldn’t see it in the rain, and then it
found us and Dean got banged on the rocks a bit before I managed to
float us in and get out of the canoe to help him”.

“And were you
scared?”

Arthur
hesitated, and then shook his head. “I was only scared afterwards.
At the time, I was worried about Dean and there was too much to
think about to be scared. I knew the instructors would come to help
as soon as it was safe for them, and then Ross and Susan came out
of nowhere and made a tent and so we only had the tide to deal
with, and then Nick came and I didn’t know about his broken ribs
and stuff so I was sure we were OK”.

They turned to
Nick. The blame man asked a question about safety standards and
Nick sounded more grown up than ever to Ross, explaining about
safety procedures, talking about risk assessments, and finishing,
“even walking along a pavement has potential for disaster – uneven
slabs, drunken drivers, falling roof tiles or scaffolding. We were
unlucky, but Jerry acted exactly as he should have done, and we
were all working to the guidelines set out by the people in the
business, like the RNLI and the Royal Yachting Association. Having
said that, we will be looking at all the lessons we’ve learned so
that even this cannot happen in the future.”

Owen was
looking pointedly at the clock.

“Can we have
some photographs?” someone called. With another clock ward glance,
Owen agreed, and they trooped outside to oblige.

“Now the
parents will find out”, Nick sighed.

“Oh golly”,
Ross said, trying to hide behind Arthur who ducked unhelpfully.

The rest of the
holiday passed almost uneventfully. The bruises healed, and Dean
was allowed to visit on his way home, all covered in bandages and
trying not to bounce because it hurt, but promised a full recovery
he was eagerly telling everyone he would be back next year, at
which news, Owen gave a mock groan and rolled his eyes. By the end
of the week, the bruises had faded and only Nick showed signs of
wear and tear when they arrived home.

“Good time,
dear?” Ross’s mum asked, trying to give him a kiss. Ross evaded
it.

“It was great,”
he said and waited for the outburst about dangerous places. There
wasn’t one. Well. If they weren’t going to mention it, nor was he.
Of course, being in Paris, they’d missed the newspapers.

“What did you
do?” his Dad prompted him.

“Oh. Skiing,
sailing, go karting, hill walking and er horse riding”.

“Horse riding?”
his Dad asked

Ross grinned.
“The sailing was the best”.

It was six
months later, the truth leaked out, or rather came out with a
splash. Jack, Nick and Arthur were all awarded bravery medals and
of course all the local newspapers went mad on the story.

“That’s when
you were there, wasn’t it?” Ross’s Dad asked vaguely as he perused
the article.

“I didn’t know
Nick was there too,” his mum exclaimed. “If I’d known Nick was
teaching, I would have said no”.

Ross didn’t
know what to say. His eye strayed to the attached photograph and he
winced – it was the photograph of the rescuers. His mum saw what he
was looking at and focussed.

“Oh Ross,” she
said. “I knew you were too young to go”.

“But Mum…”

His Dad’s
rumble overrode him. “Oh, I don’t know. Sounds to me as if he
proved himself more than capable, and I guess Nick has done some
growing up while we weren’t looking as well”, He was reading
Arthur’s comments, and gave Ross a man to man wink, the pride
showing through.

THE HEROES