I still feel detached from the scene asthough this is my body’s coping mechanism, escaping the reality. I am watchinga movie of three characters in turmoil, the landscape raw, beautiful, anddangerous all at once. The wind comes howling along the length and breadth ofthe stage, whirling the snow around in every direction, threatening to knockany one of the characters off their feet and send them plummeting to theirdeath over the cliff edge.
His voice loaded with fury still somehowmanages to cut through the wind. “Enough! I don’t want to hear another word!” Imove to position myself in front of Caroline to protect her, but I am not quickenough. I watch in horror as he plants both hands firmly on her shoulders andproceeds to start shaking her violently.
“No; No!” I protest but there is no stoppinghim, he is blinded with rage.
“No more talking, you hear! That’s whatgot you into this mess in the first place!”
Caroline breaks down. “Father please,please stop! You are hurting me! Thomas, help me! Help me!” She is bucklingunder the strain and has already edged backwards since he is pushing her in thedirection of the cliff edge.
Her pleas gounanswered. He is undeterred but I have to help her. With all my might I givehim an almighty shove and it takes him by surprise. “My God lad, I didn’t thinkyou had it in you! Come on then, let’s see what you’ve got!” I try again but ofcourse this time I don’t have the element of surprise working in my favour andat fourteen years old I am hardly a match for a grown man. He brushes me off asif it were nothing, as if he were merely shooing a pesky fly away.
“Leave my big brother alone you brute!” NoCaroline! She is trying to get his attention to save my skin.
“What did you say?!” He is furious and hegrabs her again and I feel so helpless. There is no-one here. No-one to hear mycalls, to save us. We are at his mercy and he is only too aware of this fact.“I will teach you a lesson you won’t forget!”
It was a moment that would be etched in mymemory forever, one of those times where time stands still. You can vividly seewhat is about to happen and there is nothing you can do to stop it. He onlylands one strike but it’s fatal. With all his might, fury, and force, using hisleft hand he wields it skyward and at an unbelievable pace it comes crashingdown towards me. As it makes contact with my skull all I see is his ugly,contorted face. My body simply collapses, surrendering to earth with noresistance, all of my limbs jelly-like. My delicate skull hits a rock on impactwith the ground and I am knocked unconscious but not before I witness somethingso profoundly shocking it shatters me to my core. The strike father used toknock me out takes Caroline out too. He applied such force after sending mereeling, his fatal blow manages to knock her right off her feet, with direconsequences.
Caroline! My beautiful angel! I amhelpless, there is not a thing I can do. With my whole being I try to summonthe strength to move, to haul my battered body up but it is futile. The look onher face as he makes contact will haunt me in my dreams forevermore. She knowsthis is it. There is nowhere for her to go other than right off the edge of thecliff. Even the wind seems to be conspiring against us – his strike given extraweight with its blustery force. She was there one minute then in the nextsecond gone, her life snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Then there isnothing. She is gone and I cannot contemplate what has just happened for thereis only black, endless, impenetrable black.
Itis true there was no-one there. Outside anyway. However, a young girl witnessedthe whole scene unfold from the window of one of the lighthouse cottages. Shewatched in disbelief as the older man had delivered that fatal blow andcontinued to watch as he left the young teenager all alone in the midst of asnowstorm, fearful that he had been seriously injured. She ran to the kitchento fetch her aunt. It took quite some time for her aunt to calm her down enoughto be able to ascertain what she was saying. They notified the authoritiesimmediately.
CHAPTER 17
T
he noise of machines beeping begins to register somewherein my mind. I am being pulled in two directions. I want to remain in thecomfort and silence of the black deep depths of unconsciousness but part of meis being pulled towards consciousness, curious about the beep, beep noisepervading my slumber. Reluctantly the curious part is the victor and I feelmyself slowly, ever so slowly, come to life. Groggily I open my eyes andimmediately shut them, the light is so bright! And the pain, it is so intense!The source I realise is the left side of my head. It is a blinding, stabbingpain and instincts make me want to lift my hand up to the afflicted area tosoothe it but I can’t seem to summon the strength to move either arm let alonea hand.
Think, Thomas. Think! What is going on andwhere am I? The it hits me with unbelievable force – Caroline! I see herpetrified stricken face as she is catapulted over the cliff edge. I scream forher, “Caroline, CAROLINE!” What happened next was a blur but two ladies inwhite uniforms were at my bedside and, before I knew it, I was back swimmingagain in the black murky depths.
There was no sense of time or reality, butI experienced the same thing again. I woke to pain in my head and theearth-shattering truth that my sister was no
