The fire-truck arrived, lights and sirens blaring and flashing.
“I have to go. I’m sorry for the loss of your friends.”
***
“Let’s go help.” Shane was already stripping off his jacket as he made the suggestion.
Following his lead, they shook off excess clothing and joined the bucket line. The firemen got to work on the hottest part of the blaze. The bucket line continued putting out the smaller peripheral fires that could spread the blaze to the rest of the forest. It felt better to be doing something; none of them were ready to face reality
Thoughts crashed through Jason’s head. How could this be the end? He’d been through so much. The unfairness of it all ripped through his soul. Was it a curse that he carried that claimed all those who mattered to him?
All the old feelings that had driven him from God when Nicole died came bubbling up – threatening to overwhelm him. His insides were in complete turmoil. Pulling himself out the chain, he said to Tim, “I’ll be back now.”
Heading away from the gutted cabin, his feet found a path heading upwards and he followed it. Soon he saw a moonlit clearing off to the left. Taking out his cell phone, he made his way through the trees to the clearing and sat on the dew-dampened grass. He really needed to phone Mom, but it was three in the morning. Anger swung the debate.
You know what God, if You’re not going to speak to me, Mom will. He dialled her number. It rang and rang. He was just about to end the call, when her sleep-fuzzed voice answered, “Jason? Are you okay?”
“Hi Mom, yes and no.” The words spewed out of him like champagne from a shaken bottle. “You remember that girl I spoke to you about? Well, we’re up in Hogsback and it looks like she—” he swallowed hard, “—got trapped in a burning cabin. Mom, I don’t know if she’s even alive. How can this all have been for nothing? The worst part is God’s not speaking to me. I don’t know if He’s fed up with me, or what. I’ve given my life to Him, Mom, what more does He want? Why is He ignoring me now when I need Him most?” A gut-wrenching sob tore loose from his throat. Born of frustration and fear, hope and disappointment – exhaustion. It all came flooding out as he doubled over, sobbing.
“Jay, listen to me. God speaks to us in many different ways. The audible way He’s been speaking to you, is extremely unusual, very rare—” The line crackled, and his Mom’s voice faded in and out. “—ost of us have never had the privilege of hearing His voice like that. He knew how to get your attention, and He did!”
“Yes, and look where it’s got me. In the middle of nowhere, dying inside.”
“Shhh! Listen. I have a couple who’ve just started Ballroom dancing, Frank and Amy.”
“Mom, please—” The weeping had stopped, but Jason was in no mood for stories.
“Jason, keep quiet and listen. They hold far away from each other, bodies not touching at all. They often start moving at different times, and they step on each other’s toes a lot. To keep in time, Frank counts out aloud. They’re managing to move around the floor, but it’s messy. Now think of Clay and Shelley. They’ve been dancing together for four years. They dance so closely together that they move as one. In fact Shelley was telling me, that the mere tensing of Clay’s muscles tells her when to move and which direction to go. What I’m saying is this: the closer you get to God, the more in tune with His Holy Spirit you will be. He won’t need to speak to you so often, because you’ll be used to moving to the leading of His Spirit. Yes?”
“Okay. But Mom – if He could take Nic’s from us, what’s to stop Him taking Rebecca? What do I do now? There is no evidence that they survived. Nothing.”
The line crackled again, “—does your heart say?”
It took a long time for Jason to answer, “I don’t believe she’s dead. But then I’m probably just in denial.”
“No buts. You don’t believe she’s dead – then act like it. Ask God to show you and don’t rest until you find her, or He tells you otherwise. I’ll be praying for you.”
“I know. Thanks Mom.”
He was about to hang up when Faye spoke again, “Remember that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him—” Silence. His phone had lost the signal.
“No, no, NO!” He thumped the ground in frustration.
“Jason!” Shane and Tim appeared through the trees, breathing fast. Kenneth arrived moments later, panting and pale. “They’ve managed to put out most of the fire inside the cabin. The guys from the Forestry department have had a look inside, and so far they haven’t found evidence of people inside. They seem to think that it was empty when the place went up.”
Jason’s heart leapt.
Tim shook his head, “There’s more. Above the bed, there’s a huge hole ripped in the roof. Weirdest thing they’ve ever seen.”
Jason’s stomach heaved. God, please help. You’re our only hope. “Let’s get back to Stanton and Lisa. We’re going to need strong flashlights to check the ground for evidence of their escape. Tim, now’s a good time for you to start praying!”
Chapter 30 - Freedom
It was the cold that woke Rebecca. Dappled sunlight filtered through the trees, pale and wintry. She lay there for a moment thinking that she would give anything to wake up in the same place for more than a night at a time. Slowly conscious thought surfaced, and with it memories that froze her insides. The fire! Her skin tingled at the memory of the hungry flames. In that moment she’d known she was going to die.
The chasm between certain death and waking on the frozen forest floor was a jumble of contradictory images that stung at her mind like angry wasps. Fiery snakes and flying. None of it made any sense.
Lying there she wept, not having the energy to move. The cut on her forehead ached, angry and swollen with infection. A sweat broke out on her forehead, evidence that the Paracetamol was wearing off. Soon she would be wracked with fever chills. “Oh Lord. What now?”
With startling intensity, the words from Isaiah blazed through her mind, “When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
She looked at her unmarred hands in wonder. “You really meant what you said! Every word You speak is true. I know now that nothing is beyond Your reach. I don’t understand why You love me so completely, but Thank You Lord!”
Feeling a small surge of energy, Rebecca rolled onto her side and bumped into a body. It was Claude. The wound that had knocked him out had bled freely down the side of face and into his hair. His face was a mess of blood, but there didn’t seem to be any fresh wetness. Whether he was unconscious or dead Rebecca couldn’t guess and didn’t care to find out. Forcing her cold-stiffened body upright, Rebecca stood to her feet and started to creep away. It didn’t matter where, as long as it was away from him.
She’d hardly moved ten steps when her insides forced a halt. Against every ounce of good sense, she turned to look back. Claude hadn’t budged. He lay still on the frozen ground, frail and pathetic. An unwanted action man, prey to a boy’s fickle loyalties.
And then she saw something that made her heart break.
A small boy crouched close to the ground next to Claude, with tears streaming down his face. In his eyes she saw a depth of despair that caught her heart. She rubbed her eyes furiously and blinked hard. The boy was still there, but hazy and indistinct, fading even as she stared. Recognition dawned for Rebecca as she remembered seeing pictures of Kenneth and Claude as boys, mounted with pride above the fireplace in the lounge back at the Rochester’s farm. She had glimpsed the boy that had been Claude. Fearful, lonely… misunderstood. It all made perfect sense.
The scared, misunderstood little boy had grown up to be a broken man.
With the sudden dawn of understanding, the fear inside Rebecca dissipated like morning mist in the face of the sun. In its place an overwhelming sense of compassion surged through her. What do I do now? I can’t l
eave him lying here defenceless.
“Father, I’m going to stay right here until you show me what I should do.”
Against all logical sense, she made her way back to Claude. With the image of the heartbroken little boy burning in her mind, she sat down close to him, and gently pulled his head onto her lap. Her body was burning up, and then suddenly freezing. Leaning back onto a rough tree trunk for support, she helplessly gave in to the tremors that shook through her frame.
***
Tim and Jason followed the path straight up from the fire-ravaged cabin, Shane and Kenneth took the area to the right of the path. Stanton and Lisa set off to the left.
They’d begun their search in darkness, with only a few hours to go till daylight. Bone weary, Lisa tripped over a tree root and would’ve landed face-first in a cowpat but for Stanton’s quick reflexes. He grabbed her hand just in time.
Forcibly ignoring the fatigue that threatened to overcome them, they zigzagged methodically through their section of the forest, desperately hoping not to miss any signs of Rebecca and Claude’s passing.
When the sun peeped over the horizon, they were still walking hand-in-hand, consoling themselves with the fact that Claude and Rebecca couldn’t have gone too far on foot. They simply kept walking and hoping.
Stanton squeezed Lisa’s hand and their eyes met in a smile. “You doing okay?”
“You’re an amazing man, Stanton Trent. It’s your first time out since forever, under the most horrendous circumstances and you’re asking if I’m okay? How are you holding up?”
“Denial. I’m choosing not to think about it. I suppose it helps having someone else to worry about. It’s not about me anymore.” He was silent for a moment. “I couldn’t have faced all this without you. You know that, don’t you?”
Suddenly conscious of her hand in his, Lisa brushed it off lightly, “Sure you could’ve. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
“Lisa, if anything happens to her, I just don’t know—“
“Don’t go there. Let’s just keep looking.”
The trees were thinning and it seemed they were on the verge of a clearing. Peering through the leaves, Lisa gasped, “I see legs, Stanton. I’m sure it’s them!”
***
Rebecca was fiercely thrown between spells of extreme heat, then excruciating cold. Fading in and out of consciousness, the line between reality and fretful dreams became an indistinct mush. Claude’s head was heavy in her lap. The bark from the tree dug into her back like knives and thirst pricked hot needles into her parched tongue.
At some point Claude woke and looked up at her cross-eyed, “What the hell…?”
Whether she answered him, or the thought just bounced around her brain, she wasn’t entirely sure, “Its okay. I’ll keep you safe.”
`“But you’re my prisoner.”
“No.” Every word took effort, “I chose to come back.”
Claude hung onto consciousness by a thread, brow furrowed in smoky confusion, “Okay...”
And with that they both gave in to the blackness that swept over them.
***
Stanton broke through the trees and ran to Rebecca’s side. Placing a hand on her forehead, his heart caught at the sight of the horribly swollen, infected wound. Perspiration matted her raven hair, causing it to form damp ringlets that framed her face.
“She’s burning up. We’ve got to get her out of here. This must be Claude. Help me get her out from under him.”
Rebecca opened her eyes, bright with fever, yet surprisingly lucid, “Its okay. I’m helping him.”
Ignoring her comment, Lisa and Stanton shifted Claude to one side.
Looking at her face, Stanton was shaken to the core of his being, “Splitting image of her Mother… but with my eyes...”
Passing a shaking hand over his face, he forced himself back to the present, “Lisa, go call the boys. We need to get them both to a hospital right away.”
Lisa took off as fast as the trees would allow, bellowing as she ran.
Sitting next to Rebecca, Stanton shifted her weight so that she rested in his arms. His little girl! After all those years that had been stolen from them, to finally hold her felt like a dream. His heart was overwhelmed, thick with emotion.
“Who are you?” Wet with perspiration, Rebecca was peeping at him through her lashes, frowning in puzzlement.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Let’s just say I’m a Good Samaritan, here to help you.”
A fuzzy smile tugged at Rebecca’s mouth and pulled at Stanton’s heartstrings.
“That’s nice… So thirsty.”
The cut on her forehead was weeping sticky yellow pus and made his heart ache. To Stanton, that cut screamed judgment at him of his inability to protect his own flesh and blood. His failure as a father.
Pushing the thought aside, he pulled his water bottle from the pouch hanging off his belt and carefully allowed a few drops to pass her cracked lips.
“Hang in there my girl. Don’t give up. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making this mess right.”
Chapter 31 – Fathers
Waiting for the others felt like two lifetimes and the drive back to East London seemed an eternity. It was well past lunchtime by the time Rebecca and Claude had been admitted and seen to. Lisa brought Jason a cup of coffee in his self-appointed role as sentinel outside Rebecca’s room.
“How is she?”
Jason took the coffee gratefully. “Her condition has stabilized. The doctor said she’s severely dehydrated and the infection from her cut is running rampant through her body. He’s got her on an antibiotic drip. Kenneth spent a few minutes with her earlier and Stanton is with her now.”
“Jason, I don’t know how to thank you for all that you’ve done. The difference in Stanton is unbelievable.”
“I’m the first to admit that my motives were entirely selfish. This blue eyed girl had me intrigued from day one.”
“And now that you’ve found her?”
Jason squirmed and was saved from having to answer by Stanton’s appearance.
“She’s asking for you.” He smiled at Jason before grabbing Lisa and enveloping her in a bear hug. “Let’s go get some of that coffee.”
Jason watched them wander off hand-in-hand, before heading in to see Rebecca. There was the familiar heart-stopping moment, quick rush of blood and then she was there, looking fragile.
The flood of emotion nearly had him undone. Thank You God for preserving her life, for not taking her from me!
“You need to stop running away from me, Rebecca. It’s bad for your health.”
Rewarded with a dimpled smile, he pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards, leaning on the backrest.
She reached out and patted his cheek with a cool hand. He breathed in her scent, and closed his eyes to shut out the sight of the thick shackles that still surrounded her wrists. The smell of her instantly took him back to the lingering feminine trace that had been in his bedroom.
“I’ll certainly make every effort, Jason. I’m getting a little sick of being in this hospital. Soon they will have to give me shares in the place.”
Jason laughed, “Either that, or they’ll have shares in you!”
Rebecca groaned. “I think they do already!”
“I don’t suppose there’ll ever be a good time to ask this – what happened at the cabin? How did you get out?” He studied her physical response to his question carefully, trying to gauge whether she was ready to talk about all this. There were so many questions.
“It all seems a little odd.” She squirmed. “In fact, very odd.”
A wry grin tugged at the corners of Jason’s mouth, “Odd works for me. Spill it.”
“Getting loose, for one thing. I was trussed like a chicken for roasting, there was no way I was going to get loose. None. The fire was raging toward me when suddenly a thread of flame,” eyes widened at the memory and she swallowed hard, “broke loose from the blaze.
A thin snake of flame. It sped lightning-fast along the headboard – towards my hands. I was so scared. It never touched me though, just burned all along the ropes around my wrist. As the rope fell away, the flames disappeared.” She waved a hand, “It was probably all a smoke-induced dream.”
“Maybe not – you’re still alive.”
She smiled, “True.”
Jason wasn’t satisfied, “But that doesn’t explain how you got out. The doors and windows were all locked from the inside. And what about the hole in the roof?”
Shock danced across her face. “There’s a hole in the roof?”
“U-huh. A giant whopping hole, just above the bed.”
“I thought I’d dreamt that part.”
“Dreamt what? C’mon Rebecca, just tell me!”
She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at him, “A huge guy came and picked me up. He held me so tightly to his chest I nearly couldn’t breathe. Then he…” her face contorted in an effort to find the words, “…he shot straight up, his back shattered the roof. We flew out of the cabin, through the trees and then I must have passed out. But it was all a dream, I’m sure.”
“But you’re still alive. And there’s the hole…”
She peeped at him through one eye. “Am I going nuts?”
“Don’t worry, after all the strangeness I’ve seen the last few days – they’ll probably lock us up together.”
Rebecca forced a laugh, then grew quiet. “The weird thing is that God promised me that I would pass through rivers and they would not overflow me. You were there to see the end of that one.” She smiled at Jason and continued, “He also said that I would walk through the fire and not be burned. I don’t know how, but He made good on His promises.”
“Things like that happened in the Bible all the time. God seems to specialize in fire protection. I think it was with Daniel’s friends who got themselves thrown into a furnace. I don’t remember their names other than in Sunday school we learnt Shake-the-bed, Make-the-bed and Off-to-bed-you-go.” He shrugged ruefully and Rebecca looked doubtful. “Anyway, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a walking miracle.”
Rebecca faltered. “I don’t feel like a miracle. I’m no better off than I was before. I’ve got nowhere to go. I don’t belong anywhere.” She tried to smile, but tears threatened and she failed dismally. “To be completely honest with you, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I don’t understand why God doesn’t just let me die and get it over with. I’ve caused nothing but trouble and heartache. What is the point?”