guttering candle, he raised his head and made a feeble gesture toward the nearby shore.
There were figures in the forest, too. He recognized his mother and father. Both of them stood in the deepest shadows of the trees, holding their hands out to him, waving him forward, urging him to join them. His mother smiled with a beatific smile.
“I’m coming,” he whispered in a raw, crackling voice that squeezed all the air out of his lungs.
When he inhaled again, the freezing dampness of the night filled his chest like a gush of cold water. Again, he coughed and sputtered, thinking it was possible he had already fallen overboard and was sinking down to the slime-covered bottom of the lake.
The lowering sky suddenly opened up, and a torrent of rain lashed against him. Each drop that hit his shoulders and back stung like a tiny bullet. Crazed with pain and fear, Jeff somehow found the strength to get up onto his hands and knees, and lurch forward. His legs slammed against the boat seat hard enough to make him cry out. His hands dragged across the wooden thwarts of the boat, leaving his palms bristling with splinters.
The boat heaved violently from side to side as he crawled to the bow. The dark slash of land in front of him was closer … so close, but Jeff couldn’t find the strength to get out of the boat and onto solid ground. His arms and legs ached and vibrated with exhaustion. He had been pushed well past his limit, and there was nothing to do now except let go.
Let go … fall asleep … drift away to where the pain and cold will be gone.
But he couldn’t let go.
He couldn’t give up.
Not after coming so far.
Even if all of his friends were dead, his efforts would be wasted if he surrendered.
He made pig-like grunting sounds as he heaved himself forward. The rocking boat made the sky and land pitch crazily around him. He’d stop every now and then, convinced he was already falling, but then—miraculously—he felt someone touch him. Strong, solid, warm hands slipped under his arms and legs and belly and lifted him.
Jeff looked left and right, unable to see what was going on, but all he saw was a dense, black smear. He could no longer distinguish land from water or earth from sky. He had no sense of direction. He was flying … falling … drifting … tumbling into darkness … He was swimming in the rain-filled sky … He was crawling through chest-deep water … He was scuttling like a crab over rain-slick rocks that scraped his hands and knees raw.
You have to make it … You have to make it, whispered a small voice in the deepest reaches of his mind.
His hands plunged into cold water, splashing his face and reviving him with a sudden shock. But he was so far gone, he had no idea if he was moving or lying still. The dark band of the shore in front of him appeared to be closer. The uncanny sensation of unseen hands lifting him and keeping his face above the water got steadily stronger.
His left hand clamped around something rough and round. It felt like a gnarly wrist, but whatever it was, it was immobile, and he held on with the last shred of strength. It must belong to whoever was carrying him toward the shore even though he couldn’t see anyone beside him.
The dark swatch of land drew steadily closer, but the world still shifted in a crazy twirl. He had the distinct impression he was motionless, and the land was sliding silently toward him. Whoever or whatever he was holding onto was cold and lifeless, as stiff as wood. It took a long time to realize that’s exactly what it was.
A gnarled piece of wood.
He was clasping a tree root that had grown out into the water.
It took more energy than he thought possible to muster, but he dragged himself forward another few feet until he was out of the water and on the beach. Clawing at the rocks and wet sand, he lurched forward, inch-by-inch. His legs were useless weights, dragging behind him, and he chuckled when a line from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol popped into his mind.
“I wear the chains I forged in life.”
Is that what my body is? he wondered. The chains I forged in life?
The gritty sand rubbed his hands raw, but he was past noticing any pain. He let out