I hear something and it scares me witless.It’s Caroline. “Now’s your chance, Thomas! You will never get another chancelike it. Put that miserable bastard out of his misery once and for all! Pushhim, Thomas! Do it for me and do it for you, for all the hurt he has inflicted.He thought nothing of tossing me over the edge, so why should you? They willtry to talk you out of it, but don’t listen to them, Thomas, do it for us!” Iam momentarily conflicted, then come to my senses.
“No Caroline, I won’t do it!”
Bert sneers and ridicules me in responseto this. He mimics my voice, “No Caroline, I won’t do it … Hearingvoices again, are we? You are a loon just like your crazy bitch mother. You’velost your marbles too you know. Mark my words, in no time, they will cart yourass off to that care home too. How fitting – you and her side by side, twocrazies locked up together!” This time George interjects before I have a chanceto say anything.
“Enough Bert. Don’t you think you’ve doneenough damage? Let’s draw a line in the sand. It ends here today. You go yourway, and we go ours. Forget about the offer of a lift home, just let it go, nomore, Bert.”
“Aah, it finally speaks, the wife-stealerand adulterer. Oh, and now, the prodigal father so I am led to believe! Do notfor one minute lay all the blame at my door. You have more than played yourpart in all of this! Interfering and sticking your nose in where it wasn’twanted. After all, we wouldn’t be stood here today if it wasn’t for you asThomas wouldn’t exist now, would he? And the world as we know it would be allthe better for it.”
“Now look here, Bert, you’ve oversteppedthe mark one too many times!” I watch on in disbelief as everything whichhappens next unfolds. George takes a step towards Bert. He doesn’t lash out athim. However, Bert instinctively takes a step backwards, feeling threatened bythe advancing George.
There was nothing obvious jutting out ofthe earth, but Bert had stumbled on what we later discovered was uneven, roughground. His balance was completely off kilter. His arms were flailing, and youcould see terror in his face. He was desperate to regain control over his motorfunction, to stabilise himself, but it was impossible. The chain of events wasset in motion and the initial stumble sent him reeling backwards.
I reached forwards;arms outstretched. He made a vain attempt to reach for my arms, but it washopeless, and he knew it. We all watched in astonishment and horror as BertTaylor drew his last breath. He careered over the cliff edge, his body consumedby the furious waves below and his screams were sucked in by the prevailingwinds.
We all dropped to our knees and peeredover the edge. There was no sign of him, as though he had never existed in the firstplace. The watery depths had claimed him, and he would not be released fromtheir grasp.
Wesit like that, peering over the edge, for an indeterminable period of time,fully expecting to see his face appear at any moment. It didn’t seem possiblethat such a formidable life-force such as Bert could be snuffed out in aninstant like that. Eventually, with no sign of him re-appearing, we retreat andsit some distance away from the edge. We have no words so sit there in a mutualshocked silence. The only sounds to be heard are the perpetual gusting winds,crashing waves, and Caroline’s summing up of the situation – “Good riddance tobad rubbish.”
CHAPTER 31
Six months after Bert’s passing
L
ife has a strange way of just easing back into a natural rhythm.No matter what trauma you endure, life simply ploughs on regardless. Days turninto weeks and weeks into months. You just get sucked along with it.
Leaving Skye was bittersweet. It felt asthough a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was coming to termswith my reality and my mental state. I had faced the demons from my past headon and they hadn’t destroyed me. I was no longer haunted by old ghosts.
However, leaving meant leaving George andleaving mother. I had only just discovered my new father then had to bid himfarewell. But there was no way I could leave my financial advisory practice aminute longer – clients were starting to become impatient in my absence. Therewas also Michael. I yearned to be back home, to spend time with him.
When the time was right, Janey and I sathim down and explained that there was someone he needed to meet – his newgrandfather. George had been patient with us and fully understood that wewanted to take things at a slow pace to begin with. This was not the case withMichael. As soon as he knew about George, he just had to meet him. So,arrangements were made, and he came to stay with us for a couple of weeks.
From the minute hearrived (a couple of days ago), there was an obvious bond between the two ofthem. George marvelled in the new experience of having a grandchild and Michaelwas only too happy to lap up all the attention. It was a joy to behold and,honestly, I could feel the start of a relationship forming between myself andGeorge.
When I look back over the years, evenalthough neither of us knew we were so intimately connected, he had looked outfor me and shown genuine concern. It meant a lot. Wherever this was going, itfelt as though our relationship was blossoming. There was even a connection betweenGeorge and Janey. It was light-hearted. They shared a similar sense of humourand, it appeared, a deep affection for one another.
I had taken some much-needed time off workwhilst he was here and set about planning what we would do with our time together.We were only a couple of days in when he asked if it would be possible to havea private chat. I could tell from his demeanour this was to be a seriousdiscussion.
“Sorry son,” (he had just taken to callingme son) “I need to speak to you about
