Authors: D C Grant
Josh looked around but the other surfers hadn’t seen what had happened. He was the only one close enough to see the wave break over Bevan, and the only one close enough to do anything. He raised his arm towards the shore in the internationally recognised gesture of distress and hoped that Chris had seen it. He didn’t wait to see if anyone reacted.
Bevan’s surfboard was a short distance away, rising and falling on the waves. Josh paddled over to it and grabbed at the leash. It was light in his hand and when he pulled it the end came up, snapped close to where it met the ankle strap. Bevan had become separated from it and had to be in the hole somewhere, trapped by the water that had pushed him down.
On the shore the lifeguards were launching the inflatable, but it would take them a few minutes to get out to where Josh was and Bevan had been under for a long time already. Josh made an instant decision. He dived down into the sea, even though he was close to the hole and in danger of being pulled into it. He hoped that his board, floating on the surface, would help him get back up if he got pulled in. That was if his leash didn’t snap, as Bevan’s had.
He held his breath for as long as he could, searching, unable to see anything but the murky water and the bubbles swirling around. He surfaced, taking in great mouthfuls of air, hoping that Bevan had surfaced, but there was no sign of him. Anxiously, he looked towards the shore. The inflatable was having difficulty getting out. The waves were throwing it up and back towards the shore. He could hear the sound of the outboard engine revving as it was catapulted clear out of the water before slamming back down again.
Every second counted. Josh dived down again. The currents pitched him around until he didn’t know which way was up. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to be dragged under, board and all. He clawed at the water and found himself back on the surface where he took a deep breath. The inflatable was making progress at last, but it would still be a while before it reached him. A few seconds that Bevan didn’t have.
Suddenly Bevan surfaced over to Josh’s right. His eyes were open wide in terror and his mouth gaped open as he gulped in air. He looked directly at Josh, his face pleading as he clawed at the water in a movement Josh knew the life guards called ‘climbing the ladder’ - the action of desperate people in a drowning situation.
Josh made his way over to him, fighting against the water that pushed him away. A wave was building up, he could feel it behind him and he knew he had to reach Bevan before it closed over both of them or Bevan would be lost.
Seeing Josh coming towards him, Bevan struck out, but made little progress. He kept his eyes on Josh’s face, his fear plainly visible in the wide, terror-stricken eyes. The wave was close now, but Bevan was still too far away. Josh stretched out his hand towards Bevan, desperate to grab him before the wave descended on them, but aware also that they could both be dragged down.
The wave crashed over them as Josh grabbed Bevan’s wrist and then he was dragged under and pulled along towards Bevan. Josh clasped Bevan’s wrist firmly as they were tossed around. The water pushed them down together. As the wave passed over them Josh kicked frantically, struggling to get to the surface, with Bevan’s weight pulling him down. If he didn’t reach the surface soon he would have to let go of Bevan’s hand and leave him to the sea or he would drown too.
Memories of his nightmare came to him and he could feel his panic rising. He struck out and surfaced at last. He tilted his head back to clear his nose and mouth of water while he took in mouthfuls of air. He couldn’t raise himself up as Bevan’s weight held him down like an anchor. He wondered why Bevan wasn’t surfacing beside him and he tugged at his arm, but Bevan remained under the water.
The inflatable shot out in front of him with Brendan at the front. “Arms up, arms up!” he shouted as he leant over the bow of the boat.
“Not me,” Josh called back. “Bevan … he won’t come up.”
Brendan briefly glanced across to the incoming waves, grabbed the buoyancy tube and dropped into the water beside Josh.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“I’ve got him. He’s under water,” Josh said in desperation, looking beyond the inflatable to the oncoming waves. “Hurry, I can’t hold him much longer.”
Brendan dived under the water and felt his way down Josh’s arm until he reached Bevan. There were a few tugs on Josh’s arm before the weight of Bevan’s body was released and he was able to let go of his wrist. Josh pulled his surfboard towards him and climbed onto it as Bevan surfaced with the buoyancy tube now around his chest. His eyes were closed, his lips were a shade of blue and he was clearly unconsciousness. His body was limp and Josh was sure that he wasn’t breathing.
Brendan pushed Bevan towards the inflatable while still keeping a hand on the buoyancy belt. The driver reached down and held Bevan against the inflatable while Brendan pulled himself up and into the boat. With one eye on the advancing waves, he tugged at the belt under Bevan’s armpits while the driver reached for his legs to pull him up and over the pontoons. It happened so fast that Josh had no time to even offer help.
“What about you?” Brendan called to Josh once they had Bevan in the boat.
“I’m fine. Get going.”
Without another word the lifeguards turned the inflatable towards the shore and raced away from him. As they moved, Brendan leaned over the body in the bottom of the boat and Josh knew that he had started rescue breathing. Full CPR couldn’t begin until they got Bevan onto the shore.
As Josh watched them approach the shore break, Brendan gave the ‘assistance required’ signal and Josh knew that it was serious. He paddled forward and caught the next wave in.
By the time he reached the beach, Bevan had been taken out of the inflatable and placed on the sand. A crowd gathered to watch as the lifeguards began CPR.
Josh carried his board out of the shallows and approached the crowd. He could see Brendan applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while another lifeguard pressed down rhythmically on Bevan’s breastbone. Lifeguards were running down onto the sand with the equipment required for resuscitation. It looked hopeless. Josh turned away and sat down on the sand.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Great job you did out there, mate,” Chris said, standing over him.
“But he’s been down too long,” Josh said in despair.
“Don’t give up yet,” Chris said.
The radio crackled and Chris answered it. To Josh’s ears the words sounded scratchy and distorted but Chris seemed to understand.
“Yeah, unconscious, non-breathing,” Chris said into the radio, then looked down at Josh and moved away. “Yes, requesting immediate evacuation,” he added.
Josh didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. He was trembling. He felt sick. He remembered the feeling of being under water and of not being able to breathe. The memories of his recurring nightmare came back to him and he shuddered.
A ripple of talk went through the crowd and Josh glanced over. Between people’s legs he could see that Bevan had been turned onto his side and when they rolled him back he was coughing. He couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem possible that Bevan could be breathing again after so long. Chris was again talking into the radio as he walked back towards Josh.
“What’s the ETA on the chopper?” he said into the radio.
The radio crackled an answer. Chris confirmed it and then squatted down beside Josh. “See, I told you,” he said.
“Is he going to be okay?” Josh asked.
“The helicopter will pick him up and take him to hospital. In the meantime, I’ve got First Response and an ambulance on its way. Near-drownings can stop breathing after being resuscitated so we’ll have to keep an eye on him.” Chris looked over to where Bevan lay, now covered with a thermal blanket, before he continued. “This is the second serious incident in two days that you’ve been involved in, Josh. If it happens again, I’ll have to wrap ‘danger’ tape around you and ban you from the beach.”
“If you’re trying to cheer me up, you’re not succeeding,” Josh said.
“Then I’ll give you something to do. Come on, help me clear the beach so that the helicopter can land.”
After the helicopter had left, Josh let Chris lead him to the surf club. Chris gave him a coke and made him sit down. Mitch and Scott had been sent back to the bach to tell Bevan’s parents what had happened and where he was being taken. They said they would stop off at Josh’s house to tell his father to come collect him.
As Josh sipped his coke, Brendan and the driver of the inflatable came to join them. “Good work,” Brendan said, slapping him on the back.
“I don’t know if I did much good,” Josh said.
“Are you kidding?” Brendan said. “That guy would be dead if it wasn’t for you. The delays in getting out there in that surf, then searching for him … man, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“But he died out there, didn’t he?” Josh asked Brendan. “He’d stopped breathing. I know that.”
“Yes, but his heart was still going. But another few seconds and that would have stopped too. Once that happens, we’ve no hope of getting him back. The extra time you gave us saved his life.”
“I suppose this is where you say, this is what lifesaving is all about?” Josh said to Chris.
“It’s not always like this. It’s more like watching and waiting for something bad to happen and then hoping that it doesn’t.”
“But it does.”
“Yes, it does and that’s when it feels like you’re doing something worthwhile. You should try it one day.”
“Perhaps I will.” Josh looked up as a familiar figure came into the clubhouse.
“Josh!” It was his father. He rushed up to Josh and put his hands on his shoulders. “They said you’d almost drowned.”
“Drowned? No, not me. Bevan.”
“Bevan? Who’s Bevan?”
“He’s the guy … the guy that beat me up.” Josh thought it was about time he let his father know.
“He’s here?”
“Not any more. The chopper took him to hospital.”
“I don’t understand. What was he doing here and why didn’t you tell me?”
“Do you think I was going to tell you that? We haven’t been getting on too well lately, have we? Come on, let’s go home. I’ll tell you on the way. Cheers, Chris.”
They left the clubhouse and Josh told his father about Bevan and the beating and the past few days at Piha. When he’d finished he felt better. He was grateful that his father passed no comment, but instead listened almost silently, only interrupting when he wanted to clarify a point.
“And you saved him,” he said when Josh had finished.
‘I couldn’t let him drown,”
“No, I guess you couldn’t. I … just …” His father hesitated.
“What, Dad?”
“You saved someone’s life today. You’re not a boy any more. You’re a young man.”
“I have to save someone’s life to grow up?”
“No, it’s me, not you,” his father said, shaking his head. “You’re growing up and I have to remind myself of that.” He placed his arms on Josh’s shoulder. “You know, it’s hard for us parents to admit our children are growing up.”
“Why?”
His father smiled and said, “Because it means we’re getting older.”
Josh laughed as they turned into the driveway. A familiar car was parked in front of the bach.
“Hey, that’s Mum’s car!”
She came out onto the deck as they approached.
“Mum!” Josh cried and put his surfboard down so that he could run to her. He threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly.
“Goodness, Josh, I can’t remember the last time you hugged me. What is it? What’s the matter?”
“It’s a long story, Mum. I’ll tell you later.” He stepped back. “I’m glad you came back.”
“I brought Penny back. She’s next door.”
“Is Hayden all right?” Josh asked, thinking it ominous that Penny was at the bach and not at the hospital.
“He’s holding his own,” his mother said with a smile. “It’s just a matter of watching and waiting. Penny thought she’d come back, pack up the house and collect the car. Once Hayden wakes up, she won’t want to leave him so this seemed to be her only opportunity.”
“What about you?” his father asked softly, coming to stand alongside Josh. “Are you going back with her?”
She turned to him.
“No, I’m not going back. When I woke up this morning I knew I needed to be back here.” She looked at Josh. “If it was you that had been injured in that accident, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself for not being here.” She held out her hand to his father. “No matter what we have to face in the future, we have to face it together.” Josh stepped back as his parents embraced.
Cyndi came out onto the deck and Josh scooped her up. She giggled and he smiled. His family was complete.
The next day his father drove them all into the city. Constable Woodward had phoned the previous day and asked that Josh come to the police station to give a full statement. When he was finished his mother insisted that he should visit Hayden. He didn’t want to go. To see Hayden and his mother would mean acknowledging the way he had treated Hayden and admitting that it hadn’t been much better than the way Bevan had treated him. He also had to deal with the guilt that it should have been him who was hit by the car and not Hayden. But he knew he would have to face up to it.
At the hospital, his mother led the way down the corridor and stopped at a door. “He’s in here,” she whispered. “I’ll check that it’s okay.”
Josh hung back with his father who was holding Cyndi’s hand. Even she was silenced by the hush in the hospital ward. Josh shivered in the cool air. There was an aura of death in the intensive care ward as if the souls of those who lay fighting for their lives were hovering in the atmosphere.
His mother came back out of the room, leaving the door open for Josh.
“Penny says it’s fine,” she said, signalling for Josh to come forward.
He hesitated, then his father gave him a little push from behind and he stumbled forward. After that, his legs carried him through the door and into the intensive care room.
The sight of Hayden on the bed pulled him up short. There were tubes all over the place and machines that beeped, bopped, squeaked and hissed. The lower half of his body was covered with a curved tent over which a blanket was draped. There was music coming from a portable CD player in the corner. The door closed behind him.
“Hello, Mrs Wade,” Josh said softly. “How is he?”
“They think he’s going to be alright. It’s just a matter of waiting for him to wake up. They say that the hearing is the first of the senses to return and I just didn’t want the first sound he heard to be all these machines, so I brought some of his music down.”
“I didn’t know he liked Coldplay,” Josh said, thinking there were probably a lot of other things he didn’t know about Hayden.
“Yes, he does. I don’t like it myself, but at this moment I don’t care. It’s just good to have him still here with me.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs Wade. It’s my fault he was hit.” He hesitated. “I’m afraid I wasn’t a good friend,” he admitted.
“He seemed to like you,” she said. “He talked about you a lot and how you were teaching him to surf.”
“But I wasn’t very nice to him,” Josh blurted out. He could feel tears stinging his eyes.
“It’s all right, Josh.” Penny said as she reached for his hand and clasped it tightly. “He was tired of everyone being nice to him because his father had died. Sometimes people don’t know how to deal with someone who’s going through grief, but Hayden said you treated him as if none of that stuff had happened. He always knew where he stood with you.”
“I guess that’s true but I hope I can make it up to him,” he said, glancing over at Hayden. He didn’t like looking at the inert body, so still in the bed apart for the rise and fall of his chest.
“I’m sure you can, but it won’t be for some time yet,” she said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but please come and visit as much as you can. When Hayden wakes up I’m sure he’d like someone other than me to talk to.”
“I’ll do that, Mrs Wade,” he said knowing he was being told of a way to make amends. “He was a good friend to me and at least I can be a friend to him.”
She nodded and he knew that he should leave. He turned to the door, leaving the small room with its disturbing noises and entering the peacefulness of the hospital corridor. His family sat on a row of plastic hospitals chairs just outside.
“The nurse said that the boy you rescued yesterday is here as well,” his mother said. “He’s asking for you.”
“I don’t want to see him,” Josh said.
“I think you should,” his mother insisted, and he found himself being led by his mother towards the stairwell. They went down two floors and ended up in an open ward. His mother spoke to the nurse at the duty desk who pointed down the row of beds.
“Thank you,” she said to the nurse and turned to Josh. “Third bed from the left. He’s only allowed one visitor at a time so we’ll meet you in the café downstairs.”
Josh nodded and his family left. He was unsure. He didn’t want to face Bevan again, he’d had quite enough of the bully in the last few days and part of him was glad that he was lying in a hospital bed.
But he knew that Bevan had almost died and that even bullies don’t deserve to drown. He forced himself to walk forward to the bed where Bevan lay, apparently asleep.
A woman, possibly Bevan’s mother, was sitting next to the bed reading a magazine and she looked up at him as he approached.
“Yes?” she asked.
“I … I’m Josh. I helped Bevan yesterday.”
Her hostile look vanished. She dropped the magazine and stood up with a smile on her face.
“Josh! I understand you pulled him out of the water. You deserve a reward. What would you like?”
“I … um … don’t need anything,” Josh said, surprised. “I’m just here to talk to Bevan.”
“Oh, yes, he’s been asking for you.” She leant over and shook Bevan’s shoulder. “Bevan, Josh is here,” she said as he opened his eyes. She smiled at Josh and said, “I’ll go and get some coffee so you two can talk,” and moved off down the row of beds.
Bevan watched her go. Josh noticed that the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale and there was still a blue tinge around his lips. A plastic tube fed oxygen into his nostrils and Josh could hear it hissing as it passed through the regulator attached to the wall at the head of the bed.
“Has she gone?” Bevan asked, looking around. His voice was raspy.
“Your mum? Yes, she’s gone.”
“Thank goodness, she’s driving me crazy. Anyone would think I died or something.”
“You did,” Josh said as he sat in the chair Bevan’s mother had vacated.
“Yes, I guess, I did,” Bevan said as he closed his eyes again. “I’m so tired” he said, his voice faint. “But I can’t sleep. I keep thinking I’m back in the sea, going under, trying to reach the top and not getting there.” He hesitated, breathing in deeply, catching his breath. “If I fall asleep, I see your face, and your hand reaches for me, but I never quite grab it. Then I wake with a jolt. It takes ages for me to realise I’m not in the water anymore.”
“You’re not in the water,” Josh said, not knowing what else to say.
“No, thanks to you, I’m not,” Bevan said, turning his head to look at Josh. “You saved my life.”
Josh shrugged. Bevan was silent and closed his eyes. Josh thought he was drifting off to sleep until Bevan asked, “Do you believe in life after death?”
“Well … er … yes … I guess so.”
“When I was on the beach,” Bevan continued, his eyes open and looking directly at Josh, “when they were doing CPR, I had that whole out-of-body experience. You know, floating above my own body, looking down on everything. I saw you sitting on the sand and I could hear Chris talking to you. There was a light and everything was so … so … peaceful. I wasn’t scared.” He stopped and coughed.
Josh leant back in the chair. This wasn’t the Bevan he knew.
“Don’t look at me like that, Josh. I haven’t gone mad,” Bevan said. “You’re the only one I’ve told this to. I died out there, I know I did.”
“But you didn’t.” Josh leaned forward. “This may sound strange, but I had dreamt about what happened to you.”
“What?”
“I kept having this dream that I was drowning. I began to think it was a premonition. Last night I realised that the dream was the same as what happened to you. It’s the strangest thing and I still don’t understand it.”
“Up there with the out-of-body experience?”
“Perhaps,” Josh said with a shrug. “I didn’t have the dream again last night. I don’t think I ever will.”
“Listen, I owe you something,” Bevan said. “I’ll leave you alone and if Gina wants to go out with you … well … I guess you could.”
“I don’t know that she does.”
“I thought you two were tight?”
“I thought so, but now I’m not so sure. It was you she wanted. She didn’t try to stop Rhys throwing me out, did she?”
“No, I guess not.”
“There’s just one thing.”
“What?”
“If she’s going to be your girlfriend, then go easy on her. She may not know what she wants, but it’s not me. I don’t know what you two were fighting about, but maybe you should forget it and start again.”
Bevan was quiet after Josh had said this and Josh thought his speech had been wasted on him. He might as well have talked to the wall. Perhaps Bevan hadn’t changed after all.
Then Bevan surprised him. “I promise to go easy on her,” Bevan said. “Thanks, man, for saving my life. I didn’t deserve it.”
“I couldn’t let you drown,” Josh said, echoing the words he’d spoken to his father.
“Oh yes you could after all I did to you.” Bevan looked towards the doorway of the ward and said, “Uh-oh, here she comes.”
Josh turned and saw Bevan’s mother coming back into the ward.
“My Mum thinks everything can be solved with the application of money,” Bevan said, his voice becoming softer. He was tiring. “I heard her when you got here. She’ll be offering you the crown jewels next. Tell her I’m asleep, will you?”
Josh got up from the chair as Bevan’s mother came closer.
“Well, did you talk?” she asked.
“Yes, but he’s gone to sleep,” Josh said, stepping away from the bed. “When is he getting out of here?”
“They’re keeping him in for another twenty-four hours, so he’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
“That’s good,” Josh said.
“Did you have a think about what you would like as a reward?” Bevan’s mother asked as Josh turned to go.
He looked at her and smiled.
“Yes,” he said. “I’d like Bevan keep his promise.”
“His promise?” she said, puzzled. “What promise?”
“He knows.”
“Is that all?” she asked.
“Yes,” Josh said looking over at the bed. Bevan, lying with his eyes closed, smiled. Josh knew that he’d heard. He backed away from the bed and walked between the aisle of beds to the lifts at the end of the ward. He found his father standing there, waiting for him.
“I thought you’d gone to the café,” Josh said.
“No, I decided to wait for you. How did that go?”
Josh shrugged. “Strange. He’s different.”
“Almost drowning can do that, I guess. I remember when you first started to learn how to surf, I’d be there on the beach every day to watch you, to make sure you didn’t get into trouble. I was frightened you’d die out there.”
“You don’t have to watch me anymore.”
The lift arrived. It was empty. They got in and his father pressed the button for the ground floor.
“I know that now, Josh.” He put his arm across Josh’s shoulders. “Suddenly you’re all grown up.”
“Not grown up enough to stop making mistakes.”
“We all make mistakes, Josh, even when we’re older. The thing is to learn from the mistakes and move on.”
“Are we moving on?”
“I think we are. We’ll make it through this, Josh.”
Josh turned to him. They were eye to eye; the same height.
“I know we will, Dad. You know I think I’ll take Chris up on his offer.”
“What offer?”
The offer to stay in the surf club in the holidays in return for lifesaving duties.”
“Trust you to find a way to stay in Piha even after the bach is sold!”
“You can’t keep me away.”
They were still laughing when they arrived at the ground floor. Smiling they made their way to the café where his mother and sister waited.
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