His mother checked the buttons and fastened the bowtie. She said to leave the jacket for now as it was too hot. She’d attach the lapel pin later, before we go into the Church, she said.
He wriggled away from her. He didn’t want to go to church. In fact he hated going to church and didn’t know why confremation was so special. All these relatives, most of them he hardly knew, were coming. They’d all be looking at him.
His mother looked toward the tiers where the summer bushfires were burning. Smoke drifted upwards. There’ll be a change a little later, she said. He put the pin in his trouser pocket. He went out into the garden.
He hated this place, his grandparent’s house. It was big and old with a garden like a dark and dangerous forest and lots of sheds which were bolted up so he couldn’t get in them if he’d wanted to. Not that he’d wanted to. He’d peered inside some and they were all dark and spooky inside. They smelt of rotten wood and snakes. They were overgrown with vines and trees and weird noises.
There was one he’d been into. They called it his mother’s shed - where she worked. His mother called it her laboratory. I’m a scientist. Scientists try to understand what we don’t know. He didn’t understand what she meant.
He could see his grandparents and some older cousins putting tables and chairs out on the lawn. Now and again someone glanced toward the house or the mountain behind it. It’ll clear later, he heard someone say. He listened to the big, black, birds cawing as they flew away from the mountain in the direction of the church. Cockatoos his mother said they were. He watched them for a while but they were too far away to be hit by the stone he threw.
Confremation. He didn’t know why it was so important and didn’t like all the fuss around it.
He wandered down a slope to the river. He might see some fish. He could throw stones at them. There were lots of butterflies. He’d like to try to catch them but his mother had said to be careful not to get his clothes dirty. He chased a few and then sat down on a log.
He could hear sounds of movement from around the house. People calling out to each other, cars coming down a gravel driveway and the sounds of the church bells. His grandmother called the sound, joyous. He hated them and was sick of listening to them on Monday evenings when they were practising.
He walked along the path and saw a boat moored at the water’s edge. He went over to inspect it. It was the barrel-boat. He could see the battery in the bottom of the boat. Attached to it was a long pole that dipped into the water.
He got in to take a closer look. It was a little tricky getting into the boat as it shifted with his weight. He looked at the battery with its wires going into the pole and the pole itself with the propeller attached. It was all as he had seen in his mother’s lab. He decided to sit in the boat for a while and throw stones at the fish.
He could see the clouds gathering over the mountain. He pushed the pole vigorously this way and that watching the water swirl. As he did so his movements moved the boat away from the shore. It had moved a metre or so before he noticed. When he did he thought about jumping out.
There was only a small distance between the boat and the bank. He readied himself but knew he’d not be able to jump that far without landing in water. He sat down in the middle of the boat. Maybe it would make its own way back to the shore.
He measured the distance with his eye. It was definitely getting there. He watched as it drifted toward some overhanging branches. He thought once he could reach them he would pull on them and he’d drag himself and the boat to the shore.
As the branches got closer he readied himself. He knelt a little in the boat and inched a little closer to the side.
He was about to reach out for the branch when the boat entered a small eddy. The boat dipped making him sit back. The boat drifted away from the branch. It remained about the same distance from the shore floating parallel to it. It was still too far to jump.
He remembered the red button on the end of the pole closest to him. His mother had explained that pressing it would make the propeller go around. That would make the boat move. If he pressed it the boat might move toward the shore, he thought.
He pressed it and yes, the boat moved a little. He pressed it again and this time for longer. The boat moved again. He pressed it on and off a few times enjoying the gentle change in movement as the boat started and stopped. It was fun and for a short while he forgot that he was trying to get back to shore.
When he did remember he realised that the boat had moved quite a bit but not toward the shore as he’d hoped. Faster and further in the same direction as it had been heading. Parallel to the shore but still too far out to jump.
From a distance he heard his name. He answered but nobody replied. He stood up but the movement caused the boat to dip. He sat down
As he did his thigh pushed the pole. The boat changed direction. He pressed the red button and pushed the pole. The boat moved a little quicker through the water but in the opposite direction he had wanted it to. He pushed the pole first one way and then the other. The boat, pushed by the propeller and the current, moved away from the shore.
He stood up, planning to shout. The boat wobbled in the water. He sat down. In that brief moment he’d seen the house. It was further away than he’d expected. The bank too was further away than he expected. In fact, it was a long way away and seemed to be getting smaller and much faster. He called out from his seating position in the middle of the boat but again no one answered.
He realised the water had been making a rushing sound for a while . He looked over the side. The water which had been smooth before was now like curved glass rushing past rocks. He hadn’t seen them before. He felt like he was on a roller coaster.
Downwards on the glassy surface he rushed . Again he looked out and beyond the glassy water. He could see white-topped waves. The boat was following some of them but others seemed to be coming back toward the boat. It was now bouncing and lurching vigorously up and down and swerving to the left and to the right. He felt sick as well as scared.
Without warning the movement ceased. The boat had suddenly slowed to an almost stop. It tilted a little but he was able to grasp the sides which prevented him from falling out. Water entered from the front and the left-hand side. He fell heavily down into the space behind the seat.
When he was able to raise himself he found the boat itself was now going quietly but quickly back towards the sound of rushing water.
There was another sound now. A sort of drumming sound on the water. Water whipped his body and thunder cracked in the forks of lightning. He who was already drenched was being drenched doubly but this time from above.
The bow hit the faster-moving water which yanked the boat back down the stream again. Again there were waves coming at the boat from left and right and from the front. Again the boat lurched up and down and sideways and so quickly that he had no time to scream. It again suddenly slowed down in quieter water but the thunder, lightning and vicious drops of rain continued. The boat stayed for a while in one spot but then began to head back to the rushing water again.
The pole was going back and forth and he managed to grab it. He pressed the red button again hoping that the boat might somehow move away from the rushing water. Instead the boat moved closer. This time a great chunk of water came in from the bow on the right-hand side. The force knocked him to the bottom of the boat. He raised himself with some difficulty. The boat was heading back to the faster water yet again. He tried calling again.
He pushed the pole. Nothing happened. For the third or fourth time the boat headed back to the faster water. As before when it hit the faster water it lurched downstream and as before he was tossed to both left and right and he was again too scared to make any noise himself.
The boat again suddenly stopped in quieter water but again began its return journey.
He managed to push the pole and the red button at the same time. There was no change in direction. The boat continued towards the faster water where there was something he’d not seen before. He blinked. Two huge logs in the shape of a raft were drifting toward him through the rain squall. They were gathering speed and coming straight toward him.
From his angle in the bottom of the boat they looked like a pair of huge feet on the water. The rain, like a tunic, blotted out the mountains. Everything went darker. The sky cracked and he briefly saw a halo of lightning.
As his barrel boat entered the faster current the logs struck. He screamed. His boat and the raft of logs rushed together down the fast current like ill-matched triplets. He grasped the barrel’s sides. He screamed again.
This time the boat did not continue toward the faster water. Instead the momentum deflected it and the logs. They crossed the eddy and headed toward the shore. He jumped. Not caring at all about his shoes and clothes which were not just wet but ruined.
There was lightning still cracking over near the mountain. The thunder was moving away and he heard footsteps. Running footsteps getting closer. Huge drops of rain were still falling but the sky was starting to clear. His mother emerged from among the trees. She bent to drag him further from the shore.
In the distance, where earlier he’d heard the bells and seen the big, black birds he now heard voices calling his name. Someone’s gone to tell them, she said.
She looked at the boat resting in the mud. It was too heavy for her to move even if she had wanted to. Instead she pushed at it with her foot. Should send it on it's way too, she said, but the current’s not very strong here.
His mother held him and his sodden clothes and shoes. She put her coat around him. We have to make you warm, she said. You’ll catch your death otherwise.
But I have this, he said, pulling the pin from his pocket, he saved me. His mother smiled.
Something to be said for the church after all, she said to herself. To him she said, I know.
Copyright © timespareimagine 2021