تماس آخر

Chapter seven

The last call

Hiru stopped pumping the water out of the boat. There was too much water coming in. He was too tired and too cold. He had been pumping for several hours now, but every few minutes another wave broke over the boat.

He could not pump fast enough. For the last few hours, he had stopped pumping every ten minutes to make a Mayday call on the radio.

He heard the hurricane warnings, and he knew that the hurricane was only a couple of hours away. He knew the end was coming.

The Elizabeth was strong, but not strong enough to go through a hurricane. The boat would break up when the hurricane hit it.

Hiru knew this, but he did not really care. He was so tired that all he wanted to do was to lie down and sleep. He could not fight the wind and the waves anymore.

He left the pump and went to the cabin door. Slowly he went down the steps and closed the door behind him. There was a lot of water in the cabin, too, but at least the tops of the beds were out of the water.

It would be wonderful to lie down on one of the beds, pull a blanket around his cold wet body, and go to sleep. He pulled a blanket from a small cupboard and put it around him.

Before he lay down, he decided to make one last Mayday call. Shaking with the cold, sick and dead tired, he picked up the radio.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is the Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth. I am sinking. I need immediate help. Over.” He listened. Nothing. He reached over to put the radio back.

“Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, this is the Manatee, Manatee. Where are you? Where are you? Over.”

At first, Hiru could only look at the radio as if it had bitten him. Was he dreaming? Then he heard the voice again.

“Elizabeth, Manatee. Where are you? Where are you? Over!”

No, the voice was real. There was another boat out there! They would help him! Hiru took the radio and almost shouted:

“Manatee, this is Elizabeth. I am about 10 kilometers east of Key Biscayne. Over”

“Elizabeth, Manatee. We’ll be with you in about five minutes. Can you light flares to help us to see you? Over.”

‘Manatee, Elizabeth. I have flares. I will light them every three minutes, starting in three minutes. Out.”

Hiru threw off the blanket. He did not feel tired any more, or hungry, or cold. He found a box of flares in a small cupboard near the door of the cabin.

Then he climbed up the stairs two at a time, opened the cabin door, and fell out onto the deck of the boat. The water came well over his knees and the boat was sitting dangerously low in the water.

He shut the cabin door, looked at his watch, and reached for the pump. By now the pump was underwater, but it didn’t take long to find. He began to pump fast. Slowly, the water got lower.

After two minutes, he stopped pumping and picked up the box of flares. He took one out and fired it up at the dark sky. A bright white light flew up into the sky over the boat.

Suddenly, the dark sky turned bright. Hiru began to pump again, hard and fast. Another huge wave broke over the boat.

“He’s still alive! He’s still alive!” whispered Ikemi when she heard Hiru’s voice over the radio. “Hurry up, Max! Hurry up!”

Max did not say anything. It was very difficult to fly the plane so close to the water, and the wind was so strong it was hard to keep it straight.

And now that he knew that Hiru was waiting for them, he wondered just how he was going to land on those terrible, huge waves below them.

And even if they landed safely, how was he going to get close enough to the Elizabeth to get Hiru off the boat and onto the plane? And even if he did that, how was he going to take off again in the huge waves?

It had been hard enough to take off in the much calmer water near the coast - now they were out at sea and the waves were huge. Max suddenly felt very cold.

He realized that if he tried to land, the Manatee would break up. Both he and Ikemi would die, as well as Hiru. He felt sick. What could he say to Ikemi?

“Well, Ikemi, I’m terribly sorry but I can’t land here, it’s too stormy, and I can’t save your father, and I was mad to think that I could. But we can get a good look at the Elizabeth sinking from the air.”

Suddenly, through the rain, he could see a bright white light.

“Look There it is! There’s the flare! Over there! He’s over there!” shouted Ikemi.

He looked quickly at her. She was smiling and her face was alive with hope. She seemed to be quite sure he was going to save her father. Max looked back out into the rain.

How could he tell her that he had brought her here just to watch her father die?

On the Elizabeth, Hiru heard the sound of an engine. Thank God! It was the boat! Soon he would be safe! The boat was coming to save him!

He took out another flare and fired it. Great clouds of bright red smoke lit the darkness. He waved the flare. The sound of the engine got nearer. He looked for the boat but could see nothing.

Then, suddenly, out of the wind and the rain a seaplane appeared. A plane? The pilot must be mad! He couldn’t land the plane in these waves. It was impossible. Completely impossible!

What was the pilot trying to do? Kill himself? Hiru stopped waving the flare. The flare died and he threw it into the waves. His hope died, too.

This was the end. He was going to die.

As he flew the Manatee towards the Elizabeth, Max could see Hiru quite clearly in the light of the flare. He could see that the Elizabeth was lying very low in the water.

Large waves were breaking over the boat all the time and Max could see that soon the boat would sink. There was very little time. Just then, a sudden strong wind hit the plane.

Ikemi screamed. It took a few moments before Max was able to straighten the plane. By that time, they were flying over the sinking boat.

Max saw Hiru stop waving the flare and knew what that meant. Hiru had realized that the plane could not land and save him.

“Ikemi” he shouted, “listen carefully and do as I say! It’s too rough here to land the plane. We’ll have to wait until we’re inside the eye.”

“But the boat’s going to sink any minute.”

“Yes, I know. But we can drop him the life raft.

Remember? It’s just behind the seat. It’s a good one, a new one. If he gets into it and closes it, he’ll be OK. You can throw it down to him.”

“But how.”

“The life raft is on a long line. If you drop it in the right place, the wind and the waves will blow it onto the boat and your father can get it.”

Ikemi did not ask any more questions. She took off her seat belt and got up.

On the Elizabeth, Hiru watched the Manatee disappear into the storm. Then, suddenly, over the radio:

“Elizabeth, Manatee! Sir, can you hear me? Over!”

Hiru crossed the boat like a man in a dream and picked up the radio.

“Who the hell is this?”

“It’s me, it’s Max, sir. Listen, I can’t pick you up here, so I’m going to pick you up in the eye of the storm. I’m going to fly low over the boat. I’m going to drop you a life raft.

There’s a long line on the life raft. The wind will blow the line onto the boat. Tie yourself into the raft and make sure you close the raft. We’ll pick you up inside the eye.”

Hiru stood in his sinking boat like a man who’d been hit on the head. Max? Not Max, Ikemi’s loud American friend? Max who drove a motorcycle too fast, spoke too loudly, and was training to be a pilot at flying school.

Hiru felt himself go even colder. Max had said, “We’ll pick you up in the eye.” Who was “we”? Don’t let Ikemi be on that awful old plane with that crazy American boy in this terrible storm, please no.

“Max, is Ikemi with you? Listen to me! Fly back right now. Right now, do you hear me? Don’t worry about me,

I’ll be all right, just take Ikemi back right now, right now, do you hear me?”

“Sorry, sir, we didn’t come all this way for nothing. Light a flare. Get ready to catch hold of the life raft line in about two minutes. Out!”

Max looked at Ikemi. “Get the life raft now” he shouted. Ikemi got up and moved round the seats. The plane was being thrown around by the wind so much, it was difficult to stay standing up. She held onto the back of the seat.

“You’re going to have to open the door. Make sure you hold on and don’t fall out. When I shout ‘Open’ you open the door, and when I shout ‘Drop’, you drop the life raft. OK?”

“OK,” replied Ikemi. She was so afraid, her hands were shaking. She picked up the life raft and stood by the door.

“OK,” said Max, “there’s the flare! This is it! Here we go!” He turned the plane quickly, and Ikemi almost fell over.

“Open the door” he shouted.

Ikemi opened the door. The noise of the wind and the rain was terrible. A huge wind blew into the plane and almost knocked her off her feet.

The wind was so strong she was sure it would blow her out into the water below. Holding the life raft with one hand and the back of Max’s seat with the other, she looked out into the darkness.

The plane was flying so low that Ikemi could feel the sea water being thrown against her face and in her eyes.

“Get ready” shouted Max. Just ahead, between two huge waves, lay the Elizabeth. Hiru had fired another white flare and it was easy to see him.

He was standing at the side of the boat, in a good place to catch hold of the line from the life raft. The water was now almost to Hiru’s waist and the boat was sinking fast.

“Drop, Drop, Drop,” shouted Max.

Ikemi lifted the heavy life raft out of the door and dropped it. She could see it hit the water, then disappear under a wave.

“Shut the door, quickly!”

Ikemi put her body against the door and pushed hard. As soon as the door shut, it was quieter inside the plane.

“Well done” shouted Max. Ikemi did not reply. She felt sick and she was shaking so much she could hardly walk. She went back to her seat slowly, sat down, and did up her seat belt.

“Did he get the line?” she asked Max. “Did you see? Has he got it?”