The crackling sound of thunder could be heard for miles as a blinding flash of light illuminates the night sky. Clutching onto his little brother for dear life , Steven slowly makes his way up the razor sharp cliffs. “Hold on I see the light house! Billy did you here me?” Steven yells at his little brother, his voice shaking with panic. Billy fights to be heard, his voice is silenced by the deafening sound of the pounding rain. Oh god I am slipping Steven screams in his head, his fingers numb from the cold. He can hardly feel the rocks anymore.
Looking at his bother, seeing he is crying and frightened. “How could I let this happen?” Steven questions. It only takes a few seconds for Steven to imagine hearing his father’s scolding voice, “Steven why did you let the boat get too close to the rocks? What where you thinking?”
Images of his mother crying over his brothers body replaced his thoughts of his father . (Crack!) another flash of lightening went racing across the heavens and Billy’s scream a woke Steven from his vision .
Feeling his grip on Billy’s jacket slipping; Steven commands, “Grab my arm!”
Billy is froze like a statue, “I can’t I am too scared. ”
Desperate to save his brother, Steven lets go of the ledge above his head and slides down the sharp rocks beside his brother. Grabbing him in his arms Steven tries to comfort his seven year old brother. “ It’s going to be alright ..Billy you’ll see,” Fighting back is own tears with ever word he spoke.
(Splash!) The two brothers gasp for air; “ (cough! ) Come on ! have to get to higher ground. I’ll start and you hold onto my belt, you got it? ” Steven waits for Billy’s acknowledgement.
“ I..I.. got it Stevey,” Billy replies still shaking uncontrollably.
“O.k. here we go,” Said Steven trying to convince himself to move. In the blackness the two survivors inch their way up the cliffs again.
“Stevey I am scared!”
“Just keep moving Billy,” Steven shouts back. Blindly searching for his next grasp on the jagged rocks. “ahh!” Steven cries out in pain before he could stop himself.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Billy asks in his most urgent voice yet.
“ Nothing , I am all right keep climbing,” Steven replies .
The blood is making it harder to hold on , Steven thinks to himself with his right hand throbbing. “Billy I see a place to rest, hold on tight,” Steven announces to his younger sibling, who is growing more tired with each passing moment..
“Give me your hand Billy and I will pull you up…a little more, good, now move back under the cliff, out of the rain” .
Thinking how much better it felt to be out of the pounding of the rain. Steven moves closer to his brother and puts his arm round him. “ There is that better?”
Billy turns struggling to make out Steven’s face in the blackness whispering “Stevey we are going to …make it, right?”
Steven replies in a reassuring voice that only a twelve year old big brother could use. “ Yes of coarse silly, member the time we got stuck in that old tree house?” “ That was way worse then this”.
Billy adds, “ Yeah and dad came and put the ladder back up and saved us .You think dad will come for us this time?”
“Look don’t worry about that close your eyes and get some rest,” Steven instructs. There, the two brothers huddle together , cold , alone and frighten. the storm raging all around them . “Must stay awake.in case..,” And Steven fades to sleep with his brother resting his head on his chest.
“Steven!…Billy!,” yells a voice from below. It takes Steven a few moments to realizes he’s not dreaming. “Billy wake up there’s somebody calling for us!”
Still in the blackness of night Steven cautiously feels his way to the edge of the cliff. “Steven…Billy are you there?” The voice asked again sounding more desperate.
Steven shouts into the darkness, “Yes over here, we are over here!”
Billy now at Steven’s side, “Is it dad? Has he come for us?”
“I think it is Billy , I think it is” Steven tells Billy in a most optimistic tone. For the first time all night Steven feels real hope for their rescue.
“ Just stay there and we‘ll come to you, ”The voice instructs the boys.
Their eyes filling with the bright light of flash lights moving in all directions. After a few minutes of listening hard to the soggy sounds of rubber boots stepping on wet rocks. Making a noise like a seal clapping at something funny .And the grunts men make when working hard. Then they see a figure of a man standing in front of them.
His flash light racing back and forth between the two tired wet little faces. In one giant sweep of his arms the man hugs the two brothers tightly.
“ Oh I thought I lost you both,” the man confesses as tears start to stream down his face.
“But dad , the boat I wrecked the boat,” Steven tells his father in his best grown up voice. Expecting for his father to lecture him right there.
“I don’t care about the boat Steven …only you and your brother, that’s what matters to me,” Steven’s father says in a whisper of a voice.
Steven grabs his father around the neck and hugs him tightly .
“ I love you both so much …let’s go home,” Said Stevens father.
