The lightning struck, intensely bright,
followed in almost the same instance, by the thunderclap directly overhead so
loud that it shook the car and then the rain began and fell heavily in large
drops beating a frantic tune on the car roof.
Then almost as quickly as the dark skies
arrived they were gone and the sun was out again, although it was a few moments
before the April shower stopped completely and a rainbow appeared in the sky.
He was parked by the village green which was
patterned with strips of freshly cut grass and when he got out of the car, the
mixture of sun, rain and cut grass produced a smell that was quite
intoxicating.
He locked the car and headed down the lane
and as if the switch on a great sound system had been flicked on, the bird life
in the trees bordering the green exploded into a cacophony of sound as they
emerged from their shelters to go about their spring business.
He turned off the lane which led past the
allotments and into the woods where nature and man had both left their mark.
The areas that had once been coppiced or
pollarded now went their own way and the woods were full of life.
On the borders of the woods the old cut and
lay hedge and the ancient hedgerows along the lanes teamed with a great
abundance of life of all kinds.
He reflected soberly on the idyllic scene and
concluded that all the visible life was either predator or prey but that did
not detract from its beauty for him, in fact it enhanced it if anything.
And that morning he was acutely aware of the
cycle of life and where he was on it.
But it wasn’t thoughts of his own mortality
that brought him to Teardrop Lake on such an inclement day.
60 year old Kevin Wilks had lived in
Shallowfield all his life, the first 22 with his parents, the next 31 with his
wife Sarah and the last 7 alone but for his grief.
But over the last 12 months he had been
spending a lot of time in the company of a widow by the name of Bella Richmond
They had reached a pivotal point in their
relationship which, if he allowed things to progress, was moving from
friendship to love and that was the problem.
Not that he didn’t love her or want to love
her, he did very much, but what was holding him back were thoughts of betrayal
and feelings of guilt as a consequence.
He was not an easy man to love but Bella
certainly loved him despite his reluctance to reciprocate her feelings.
But he had to make a decision, not that she
had issued him with an ultimatum or anything like that, she was patient and
understanding because she was a widow herself, though for many more years than
he had been, and she had been through the doubts and feelings of guilt and
betrayal.
The pressure he felt was self-inflicted
because he feared if he couldn’t give her the love she so clearly deserved
someone else would.
So that was what had taken him to the
tranquility of the woods where he always did him most important thinking and it
was in those woods where he felt close to Sarah, because they were “their”
woods and her ashes were scattered on the bluebell glade.
He was about thirty minutes into his walk
when the skies darkened again and the rain started to fall once more and he
knew it was too far for him to make a dash for the car because by the time he
reached the car he would have been soaked to the skin and so he quickly
scrabbled deeper into the wood fearful he would get even wetter if indeed that
were even possible.
The heavens opened just as he reached the
relative safety of a large oak tree and for a few moments he stood watching the
rain fall like stair rods and hammering into the ground of the clearing as
thunder rumbled nearby.
The shower lasted much longer than its
predecessor and the lightning strikes got brighter and brighter and the thunder
clapped louder and louder and grew nearer and nearer until it was directly
overhead and the thunder shook the wood and the lightning strikes accompanying
it were so bright he had to cover his eyes but there was another sound that
followed, which he couldn’t place.
As he stood there sheltering from the storm
he was cursing his decision to leave home, even though it was necessary for him
to get out and clear his head, because he had an important decision to make.
The storm moved away almost as quickly as it
arrived and so he made his move to get back to his car before the next April
showers arrived, it was his intention to press on along the path which led up
to Teardrop Lake but he had a feeling the next thundery shower wouldn’t be far
away.
As he hurried on his way he thought what a
wonderful and remarkable time spring was wherever you were but in the British
Isles the unpredictability transforms, almost in a heartbeat, from tranquility
to chaos and back again, but on balance he didn’t think he would want to live anywhere
else.
As he pressed on along the path towards the
lane he realized he had not been alone in the woods during the storm when he
heard some frantic shouting.
“Help us, please help us”
He stopped in his tracks as he wasn’t sure
where it came from but the call came again a minute later and he was able to
pin point the general direction the calls came from and sprinted off in that
direction.
When he reached the source of the shouting he
found that the voices were coming from beneath the splintered branches of a
broken birch tree which he assessed had been struck by lightening.
The largest bough with its attendant branches
had trapped two girls beneath it and it was one of the girls who had been doing
all the shouting while the other one was worryingly quiet.
As he quickly assessed the situation he was
soon joined by another man, little more than a boy really.
“What happened?” he asked breathlessly
“The tree fell down” the loud girl screamed
“Lightning strike” Kevin elaborated “Come on
let’s try and get them out”
Just at the moment they began extricating the
loud girl an elderly dog walker arrived on the scene
“Oh my goodness” she said “Can I do anything
to help”
“You could call 999” he said “Fire and
ambulance”
The loud girl, who he recognized, though he
couldn’t remember her name, had bruises and abrasions but was otherwise
unscathed but she was clearly in shock.
The quiet girl however lay with eyes closed
and was pinned beneath a large limb which lay across her hips and pelvis
He and the boy tried to lift it clear but
even with their combined strength they couldn’t even move it.
“It’s no good” he said resignedly “we need
more help, you go and wait at the end of the lane and direct the Emergency
services when they turn up”
The young man nodded and turned on his heels
and ran, so he turned his attention to the trapped girl who now had her eyes
open and her face was etched with pain.
“Hey honey” he said as he knelt down beside
her among the foliage and as he looked at her closely he recognized her as a
young woman that lived in the village “its India isn’t it?”
India Redmond was one of the nicer girls in
the village, she always dressed modestly, she was polite, friendly, and a great
athlete who ever since she was little she had been raising money for some good
cause or other, running 5 and 10k’s and he felt himself wondering at the
injustice of a tree falling on a sweet young woman while a cantankerous old
curmudgeon at the other end of the scale was spared.
After all she was in the early summer of her
life, in the first flush of youthful expectation while he was approaching his
December at an alarming speed.
“Yes” she replied
“Help is on the way” he said
“I can’t move my legs”
“Are you in pain?” He asked
“A little” she admitted
“And I’m scared” she added and took his hand
“You don’t have be scared, I’m with you” he
reassured her “And I’m not going anywhere”
“I’m still scared though” she said and
gripped his hand tightly
“I know honey” he said “but help is on its
way”
“But where is it, it’s been ages” her loud
friend shouted
“Hey it’s ok” he said and gave his coat to
her because she was in shock “here wear this”
He wanted to focus all his attention on India
and not her hysterical friend but once he had the coat around her shoulders she
calmed down and started rocking.
In the act of taking his coat off, his
crucifix was exposed and it hung loosely over his collar and India stared at it
and asked
“Do you believe in God?”
“I do” he said proudly
“I’m not sure if I do” she said meekly
“God doesn’t care about that, he still
believes in you even if you’re not sure about him” He responded lightheartedly
“But I haven’t been inside a church since I
was little” she said urgently and held his hand again
“That’s ok” he said “I don’t go to the
library every week but that doesn’t mean they’ll take my library card away”
“But Church is more important” she said
anxiously
“And I’m a stranger to God”
“No you’re not” he reassured her “and besides
it will be many years before you get to stand before him”
“I think it will be sooner than that” she
said and winced “And I’m scared”
“Nothing to fear” he said “we’ll soon have
you out from under there”
“I think it’s bad” she admitted “so I need to
know”
“Hey it’s ok” he reassured her
“How will he know me?” she pleaded
“He will just have to look into your heart
and he will know you instantly” he said softy
“But what if when he looks into my heart he
doesn’t like what he finds there?” she asked urgently
“Why would he?” he said “Because when he
looks in your heart he will find it full of love”
And with those words he gently squeezed her
hand and her face relaxed into a smile, and a peaceful countenance replaced the
pain etched face, then she closed her eyes and slipped away.
And as her hand went limp in his he sat on
his haunches and sobbed.
Five minutes later the young man returned
excitedly at full pelt to herald the arrival of the cavalry but fell to his
knees on viewing the scene of the rocking girl and the old man crying as he
held a dead girls hand.
He sat in the woods as the paramedics
attended to India’s friend and the firefighters, who had arrived on scene to
rescue a stricken girl instead had to recover her body.
When he had watched her being taken away he
walked solemnly back to his car as the rain fell once more but he made no
effort to shelter or hurry.
He sat in the car and made the decision that
he needed to tell someone about what he had experienced in those woods as a
beautiful young woman’s life ebbed away and the only person that would do was
Bella because she was his future.
He pulled up outside her house and walked up
the path looking like a drowned rat, and seeing him through her kitchen window
she rushed to the door.
“What on earth have you been up to?” she
asked lightheartedly but he didn’t smile in response and tears welled up in his
eyes so she extended her arms in embrace and he wept.
The morning after India passed away Kevin and
Bella walked hand in hand to the Redman’s house and they sat in the mournful
house and he told them of her last minutes and the peaceful way she left the
world and brought them comfort in knowing she was not distressed nor frightful
and that she smiled in the moment that she slipped away.
The family were so grateful at the knowledge
that their darling daughter didn’t suffer and for his kindness to her in her
final minutes that they asked if he would give a reading at the funeral.
When the day of the funeral came it was
greeted by a glorious sunny spring day and such was India’s popularity that
everyone wanted to pay their respects, however seating in the church was quite
inadequate for the numbers wanting to attend.
So St Mary’s was packed to the gunwales and
it seemed like the whole village had turned out to say goodbye, so well loved
was she in the village as her young life had touched so many,
The village green and every available inch of
verge and lane held the throng of mourners.
The service was a very moving one and when it
came to the moment for his reading he rose from his pew where Bella had been
holding his hand and walked slowly to the lectern.
He stood and looked out at the sea of faces
watching him and he was suddenly afraid, but then he remembered the strength
and dignity of the courageous girl they were there to honour so he took the
folded paper from his pocket and began.
“I would like to read a poem to you which I
think sums up the loss of such a young and vital girl taken in the early summer
of her life,
“Ode to an athlete dying young” by
A.E.Matthews.
The time you won your
town the race,
We chaired you through the marketplace;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
As home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners
come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lass, to slip
betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night
has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell
the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its
echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that
early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
Afterwards he returned to his seat with tears
in his eyes but at the end of the service he was in no hurry to leave and he
and Bella were the last two in the Church and as they were walking slowly to
the door Kevin stopped suddenly and said
“There’s something I need to say Bella”
“That sounds ominous” she retorted
“I hope not” he said and turned to face her
“Oh?” she said “Is everything alright?”
“I know this may be a strange time to do
this” he began “but I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off, but it has to
be done”
Bella was speechless, she didn’t think it at
all appropriate to break up with her at the funeral.
“The thing is” he continued, “I want the next
time that I stand in front of the congregation in this church to be our
wedding”
“What?” she asked unsure she had heard him
correctly
“Will you marry me?” he asked
“Yes, of course I’ll marry you” she replied
and kissed him
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