The Invisible Boy contd

Mum looked out the kitchen window and gave me a little anxious wave. I untied Jessie from the gate and held onto her bridle just beside her cheek. She plodded along beside me. I had forgotten how slowly she walked and could not believe that I had fallen off so many times when I was younger. With a sudden fit of recklessness I decided that I would try riding her again. I pulled her away out of sight of the house and then climbed up on to her back. Abi’s riding hat was a bit big for me and the stirrups were a bit long, but I didn’t care much, at least I could just about reach them and I didn’t intend to go very far. The paddock was less than quarter of a mile away and we set off at a very slow pace. I was enjoying myself. We weren’t on a road so there wasn’t any danger of a car upsetting the pony. And now that I was ten and a bit taller and stronger than I was at five, it didn’t seem quite so scary up here.

When we got to the paddock I got off and went to lead her in through the gate. But then I decided that it was too much fun to stop. I saw the coil of rope by the shed door that Dad had used to teach me how to lasso all those years ago. I picked it up feeling slightly nostalgic for our game of cowboys and Indians. I took it over to Jessie and climbed up again, this time with the rope looped in my hand as if I were a cowboy going out to catch a steer. I looked around me, there were only sheep grazing in the fields. I laughed to myself. I wouldn’t be able to catch a sheep either, but it was fun pretending that I was someone else for once.

We set off down a well-worn sheep track over the open moorland. Jessie seemed content to plod along, stopping every so often for a nibble of grass. We had walked for nearly half a mile and I realised that I was out of sight of my house or any other houses. It felt great. The blue sea sparkled to my left and the sky was alive with birds. Jessie stopped to eat and I sat contentedly looking around watching a group of oystercatchers pecking away at the ground. The curious vibrating call of a curlew overhead caught my attention and I looked up as it swooped higher up the hilly field from me. Then I noticed something else. Halfway up the hill there was a glimpse of something bright pink bobbing up and down. I couldn’t see clearly but it was probably a child. As I strained to see more clearly I thought I heard the sound of someone screaming. It was definitely a child. Even from this distance I could hear fear more than anything else. I looked around; nobody else was in sight.

I turned Jessie around to investigate. She started up the hill towards the spot where I had seen the child, who had now disappeared from view. I studied the hill as we walked and then felt a cold sense of dread in my stomach. This was the hill that my parents and other teachers had warned us not to climb, as there was a deep patch of bog half way up. It was rumoured to have swallowed up many a poor sheep. I realised that this would be around the place where I saw the child. I kicked at Jessie to hurry her up, and clung to the saddle to stay on as she broke into a fast trot. Within a few minutes I saw the pink figure again. It was Sophie from Primary One. She was crying hysterically and calling for her mummy. I wondered what the matter was and what she was doing up here all alone, and then I saw that she wasn’t alone. Her older sister Ella was on the ground up to her armpits in the bog. She wasn’t screaming or crying, but she looked terrified. Sophie was crouched on the edge of the bog and had obviously been trying her best to pull her sister out as she was covered in the foul smelling mud.

Jessie stopped next to Sophie and I got off quickly. In my hands I still held the coil of rope. I quickly tied a loop at the end and threw it gently to Ella.

‘Put your arms through it, we’ll try and pull you out.’

She seemed to take ages to do this, which surprised me as I thought she would be in more of a hurry to get out, then I realised that she was probably too cold and tired to move quickly. When she had got her arms through the loop I pulled as hard as I could. All that happened was that the loop tightened around Ella. She didn’t move an inch. The muddy bog seemed to be sucking her down and I simply wasn’t strong enough to do this alone. I looked at Sophie who was shivering violently and sobbing. I decided that Sophie would not be very helpful, but Jessie probably would. I stepped back and reached out to Jessie and made another loop with the other end of the rope around her neck and shoulders.

‘OK, hold tight, we are going to pull you out. Whatever you do don’t let go.’ I said looking back at Ella who just nodded. ‘Come on Jess, let’s go!’ I pulled her bridle and patted her rump. She didn’t move. ‘Come on Jess, move it!’ I shouted at her and slapped really hard. This time she stepped forward until the rope tightened across her chest. She obviously wasn’t happy about this and stopped.
I looked back at Ella who hadn’t budged at all, but at least hadn’t sunk any deeper. Her skin was white and her silence frightened me more than Sophie’s constant crying.

I pulled on the rope myself and kicked with frustration at the pony. This time she launched herself forward with more force and there was a loud squelching and slurping sound behind me as Ella was pulled out of the bog that had been trying to suck her in.

When she was free she lay completely still on the firm ground, gasping for breath. She had no strength to move. I went over and pulled the rope off her. She was freezing cold and there was a ghastly blue tinge to her lips. I pulled at the cold wet stinking fleece that she wore. She had a tee shirt on under that so I pulled that off too. Sophie watched me; her eyes wide open with horror. I quickly pulled off my own jumper and jacket and put them on Ella.

All this time, my mind was racing. It would take ages to walk back to the nearest house, which was my own. The chances are we wouldn’t see anyone else to ask for help. I considered leaving them here while I ran for help but it could take a while to get anyone back up this hill, and during that time Ella would not get any warmer and there was nothing left to cover her up with. I looked at Jessie and wondered whether she could carry both girls down the hill, and then I wondered whether Ella would even have the strength to hold on. I remembered reading somewhere that Shetland ponies can easily manage to carry someone up to 13 stone. I figured that between the three of us we probably weighed only just over that. Maybe Jessie could carry us all for a short-while, downhill at least.

The saddle took up too much space on her back so I quickly undid the girth and dropped the saddle on the ground. Abi would kill me but this was an emergency.

I lifted Sophie up on Jessie’s back and told her to grab hold of handfuls of the mane. She did as she was told and I was pleased to see that she had stopped crying so much. Then I lifted Ella up and got her to sit behind Sophie and told her to wrap her arms around her sister. The two girls were only small and luckily didn’t take up much room so I climbed up on the back and caught hold of the reins with one hand and gripped tightly with my legs. Thankfully Jessie didn’t complain about the weight and started off down the hill towards home. We swayed and wobbled a bit but I concentrated on holding on to Ella, as much to warm her up as to hold her steady. Somehow we made it down the hill and then I got off and walked alongside the pony holding on to Ella so she wouldn’t fall off. It was amazing that she didn’t fall off as she was shaking so much by then. We walked back along the sheep track and got to the garden gate. I saw my Dad through the kitchen window and shouted at him for help. He looked out of the window and within seconds he was outside opening up the gate.

‘What on earth’s going on here?’ he demanded to know, as I pulled Ella off the pony.

‘Dad, quick we need to get these two warmed up. Ella fell into the bog on the hill. She is freezing. I think she might have hypothermia.

I saw Dad’s face frown as he sized up the situation. He picked Ella up and carried her indoors. I lifted Sophie off of the pony and took her hand and we followed Dad into the house. We met mum in the hall who had come to see what the commotion was. She looked horrified at the sight of three muddy smelly children in her clean house. But Dad repeated what had happened, and then added that he was going to ring their parents.

Mum took the girls into the bathroom and I heard the shower going. I realised that she was going to get them cleaned up. I went in to Abi’s room and pulled out some clean clothes for them. They were a few sizes too big but that wouldn’t matter.

I knocked on the bathroom door. ‘Mum there’s some clean clothes outside the door.’ I shouted before going off to the kitchen.

I put the kettle on and got some mugs out and the jar of instant hot chocolate. Dad walked in carrying the phone. He looked puzzled at the sight of me dripping in mud and still not wearing a shirt.

‘I read somewhere that if you have hypothermia you should have a hot drink. I don’t imagine Ella and Sophie drink tea or coffee, do you? I thought I would make them some hot chocolate.’

‘There’s nobody answering their phone at home.’ Dad said still looking slightly dazed.

‘Did you ring the doctor?’

‘No why, they weren’t hurt were they?’

‘Dad, did you not hear what I said about hypothermia? I think Ella is suffering from it. I don’t know how long she had been stuck in the bog, but she was freezing.’

‘Oh I expect your mother is getting her warmed up nicely in the shower.’

‘No Dad, she’ll just be getting clean, it will take ages to get her warmed up properly. Just make the chocolate!’ I said, crossly grabbing the phone out of his hand. I dialled the doctors’ surgery, whose number was written up on a telephone list on the fridge and asked to speak to the doctor.

The receptionist obviously realised she was speaking to a child and asked to know what it was about.

‘It’s an emergency. I just pulled a little girl out of the bog up on Brae Hill, she is about eight years old. She was up to her chest in freezing cold muddy water and I think she is suffering from hypothermia. She is unusually quiet and tired and can’t really do much for herself.’

After that the receptionist took me more seriously and took down my name and address and promised to get the doctor to me immediately. She also said she would call an ambulance.

Dad heard most of the conversation and I saw him grow pale with fear and then he rushed to the bathroom and knocked on the door.
‘Is everything OK in there? How’s Ella?’

Mum opened the bathroom door. She looked a little concerned.

‘Sophie seems fine, but Ella is still a little shaken. I am sure she will be OK when she gets home though.’

‘Ally’s called for a doctor and an ambulance. I couldn’t get hold of their parents.’

‘A doctor; is that really necessary?’

‘Well Ally certainly thinks so, and he may well be right if Ella was in cold mud for such a long time she might need some medical treatment. He’s in the kitchen making hot chocolate for them.’

Dad picked up Ella who was wrapped up in thick fluffy towels but still looking a bit pale and worn out. He put her down on the sofa in the lounge, and went back for Sophie.

I ran into my bedroom and pulled the duvet off my bed and dragged it into the lounge and wrapped it around Ella and Sophie. Mum looked like she was about to protest.

‘Mum get the hot water bottles will you please?’ I ordered as I carried over the mugs of hot chocolate. Thankfully she did just as I asked without questioning me. I think she was starting to realise just how serious the situation was.

contd/.