Sinking
Tracy Seeger
Duncan stood in the middle of the dingy store shed. A severed length of hose was in one hand, a knife in the other. The one, tiny window was covered in dirt and let hardly any light in. The single, naked bulb hanging from the ceiling did not help much either. The lighting reflected Duncan's mood. He knew he did not have much time to waste if he was going to save Michelle's life. He dropped the knife on the floor where he stood, and raced out of the shed.
It was only a short distance back to the bog at the bottom of the farm, and Duncan covered it in record time, quicker than it had taken him on the way to the shed. But to Duncan it seemed to take forever. He just could not get his legs to move fast enough. On arrival at the bog he expected to see Michelle already out of sight, but her head and forearms were still poking above the sloppy mud. For a 5-year-old she was being extremely brave. She was no longer crying, absolutely confident that her Daddy would get her out. It almost broke Duncan's heart that she was too far in for him to simply pull her out. He knew he was going to need help, and help was not close by.
Duncan spoke slowly and carefully to Michelle, "Michelle, Daddy is going to throw this hosepipe to you now. You need to pick it up straight away, before it sinks, okay?"
"Yes Daddy," replied Michelle, earnestly, "I understand."
"Good girl," said Duncan, smiling. Then, very gently, he threw the length of hose to his daughter. He had not really expected her to, but she caught it first time.
"Well done!" exclaimed Duncan, and Michelle actually smiled.
"Now," said Duncan, "I'm going to have to go and get some help to get you out. If your head goes under the mud before I get back, you can use the hose to breathe through. Do you understand?"
"Yes Daddy, " replied Michelle, not sounding so confident now. Duncan put on his most soothing voice, "Why don't you try it now, just to get used to it?"
"Okay," said Michelle, still not sounding very sure. But she put one end of the hose in her mouth and starting breathing through it.
"That's right," said Duncan. "How does it feel?"
Michelle spoke with the hose still in her mouth. "The air tastes funny."
Duncan smiled. "That's okay," he said, "it won't hurt you. Now, I'm going to go back to the house and get some help. Will you be okay?"
"Yes Daddy," said Michelle, the hose still in her mouth.
"Good girl," said Duncan. "Now, you keep that hose in your mouth all the time. If your head does go under the mud, pinch your nose with your other hand, and don't panic. And remember, you MUSTN'T struggle. I'll be right back, and we'll get you out."
"Okay Daddy," said Michelle, now sounding very small and vulnerable. Duncan's heart ached again, but he knew he had to leave her to get help. He blew her a kiss, and raced off back to the house.
He almost knocked the back door off its hinges as he flew into the house, but he did not even notice. He was going too fast to stop, and thudded into the kitchen wall beside the phone, knocking it off the wall as he hit.
"Shit!" he exclaimed, praying he had not damaged it. He grabbed the receiver, and was intensely relieved to hear the dialling tone. He punched in '999' as fast as he could, and waited impatiently for the reply.
"Emergency operator. Which service do you require?"
Suddenly Duncan's mind went blank. "Um, I don't know," he said. "Fire brigade I guess. My little girl has fallen in a bog and she's sinking and I can't get her out and...", "Please hold sir." interrupted the operator.
Duncan waited, rubbing his shoulder where he had hit the wall, barely aware of the pain. After what seemed like an hour he was through to the Fire Brigade operator.
"Please state your location and the nature of the emergency," the official voice asked. Duncan explained what had happened again, and gave his address. "Don't panic sir, the emergency services are on their way. How far has she sunk in sir?" asked the operator.
"When I left her about 5 minutes ago her head and shoulders were just above the mud, but she's sinking fast. I've thrown her a piece of hosepipe to breath through in case she goes under, but she's only 5 years old!"
Duncan was beginning to panic again, and the operator could tell. "Okay sir. If you can give me your name please, then you can go back to her."
"Duncan Gerda."
"Okay Mr Gerda. The emergency services should be with you in approximately 10 minutes. Do not try and get to your daughter until they arrive, as you may make the situation worse. Please wait by the entrance to your house to attract their attention as soon as they arrive."
"Yes. Okay. Thanks," said Duncan, and dropped the phone as he raced back outside. He went immediately to the gate and looked down the road, but of course there was no sign of them yet. He turned and raced back up the field to Michelle.
As he had dreaded, her head had now sunk below the surface of the mud. He could just make out the gold of her hair on the top of her head. He could also see that one end of the hosepipe was beneath the mud, about where Michelle's mouth should be. He was very relieved. However, the other end of the pipe was laying on the surface, and looked in danger of slipping down too. Duncan shouted as loud as he could.
"Michelle, sweetheart, if you can hear me I need you to do something for me. Whichever hand is NOT holding your nose, you need to push up as hard as you can and stick it in the air. Can you do that? Michelle?"
After a few seconds, Duncan could see the mud start to ripple to the right of Michelle's head. Then tiny fingers wiggled and poked through, followed by her hand and a small portion of her arm.
"That's great darling," Duncan shouted. "Now, Michelle, you need to move your arm forward a little bit, and feel around for the other end of the hosepipe. It's not far."
Michelle's hand immediately dropped to the surface of the mud and started patting and feeling for the pipe. It seemed to take ages to Duncan, and when she did finally find it, she patted it beneath the surface of the mud, as Duncan had feared. But she managed to pick it up and get it free at last.
"That's it!" shouted Duncan. "Now, keep hold of it just like that. The firemen will be here in a few seconds and we'll get you out. Now don't panic, and don't struggle. Michelle, can you wave your finger at me if you can hear me?"
Duncan's heart leaped as Michelle's forefinger wiggled at him from the middle of the muddy hole. Then he heard the first faint wails of the sirens in the distance, and he raced back down to the gate, and into the road. It still seemed ages before he could see the bright red fire engine approaching, but when he did he thought he had never seen a lovelier sight. Duncan waved them in through the gate, then ran to the driver and shouted, "you can drive straight down to the field."
"Okay sir, " replied the driver. "Jump in the other side and you can direct us."
So Duncan ran round to the other side of the vehicle, and heaved himself into the passenger side. "Past these barns, then straight down the hill towards that small group of old trees you can just see."
"Got it," said the driver, and accelerated carefully towards where Duncan was pointing. It took no time at all to get there, and Duncan was the first one out. The driver took one quick look, and knew exactly what they needed to do.
"Sid!" he shouted, "get the small ladder. Ed, Ollie, Keith, help Sid extend the ladder right across this mud. Get as close to the girl as you can."
It only took seconds for the trained, efficient men to get the ladder off the fire engine and extend it across the bog, right next to Michelle's hand poking out of the mud.
"Right. Ollie." said the Driver, indicating the ladder to the fireman. Ollie knew exactly what that meant, and dropped to the ground and began crawling along the ladder towards Michelle. It didn't take long to get to her, and the first thing he did was gently put his hand over hers. Then he shouted, "Michelle, my name's Ollie. I'm a fireman and I'm going to get you out of here. I need you to keep hold of that pipe until you're out."
Then he slowly began sliding his hand down her arm. When he got past her elbow he took a good grip. Then he plunged his other hand into the mud on her other side. It took a while to find her other arm, but eventually he did. He shouted again, "Okay Michelle, here we go."
He began pulling, gently at first, then as hard as he could. At first Michelle didn't move, then Ollie felt her begin to rise. "She's coming!" he shouted. It didn't take long before Michelle's head finally began to surface, and at last her head was free. She had her eyes squeezed shut, and was pinching her nose as hard as she could. Her face was covered with mud.
"Michelle," said Ollie gently, "you're head is out. You can open your eyes and drop the hose now."
Michelle slowly blinked her eyes open, and once she was convinced she was safe, she dropped the hose. Then she began to cry. "It's okay sweetie," said Ollie," you're nearly free now. Look, there's your Daddy waiting to give you a big hug. Now, put your arms around my neck and hold on as tight as you can."
Michelle flung her hands around Ollie's neck as instructed and held on for dear life. Ollie had a much better grip on her now, and it didn't take long to pull her out completely. He sat himself up and pulled Michelle on to the ladder in front of him. Then he turned round so that he was facing the other way. "Climb on my back honey," he said. Michelle did as she was told, and Ollie began to make his way carefully back to the ground.
As soon as they reached solid earth Duncan grabbed Michelle off of Ollie's back and hugged her hard. Michelle was crying a lot now. She had obviously been scared to death. Duncan tried to soothe her, and as he did, an ambulance arrived. The paramedics suggested Michelle should be taken to hospital for a check up, just in case. Michelle said she would like a ride in an ambulance, so Duncan agreed to take her.
She checked out fine. The doctor suggested she be kept warm and indoors until the next day, but otherwise she was allowed to go home.
* * *
The next day, Duncan filled in the bog with several tonnes of mud and stones.
Copyright © 2009 Tracy Seeger. All rights reserved.