St Matthew's Passion - By Sam Archer Page 0,47

caused it to list sideways in the first place. Now it had passed its centre of gravity and, relentlessly, it was turning on its side. And Fin was directly beneath it.

Fin’s instinct was to face the towering vessel as it bore down on him. Instead, he kicked himself round to face away from it once more and began to lash the water with his legs and claw at it with his free arm. Something had seized hold of him, a force so primal and terrifying it was like possession by a demon. It was the kind of power that enabled a woman to lift the front of a car in order to free her child trapped beneath it, a property only given to human beings in time of extreme emergency and never to be summoned by force of will alone.

Dig, kick. Dig, kick. He concentrated on the alternating actions with a manic ferocity, narrowing his consciousness so that everything else was extraneous, unimportant. Through the blur of the water in his eyes he fancied he could see the bank approaching closer with every second, in a series of jerks.

We’re going to make it, he thought in triumph.

And the shadow fell across the broken surface of the water before his eyes, cast by the brilliant sun on this clear afternoon. The shadow of the great hull, lengthening as the boat rolled through its final few degrees.

At the last minute Fin twisted round and looked up, and saw the railing lining the deck of the boat hurtling towards him a second before it struck his head. It was a glancing blow, and would have missed him entirely if he’d been just a few feet ahead; but the impact was terrific, and stunned him so profoundly that when the pain came, a crushing agony like nothing he’d ever experienced before that exploded in his head and lanced down through his neck and torso, he barely registered it.

The last he was aware of was the fact that Melissa and the child were on the other side of him, and hadn’t been hit by the capsizing boat. Darkness surged over him like thunderclouds across a summer sky, and his consciousness dwindled to a pinpoint before winking out.

***

The ambulance was breaking sixty miles per hour through the crowded inner London streets.

It wasn’t nearly fast enough.

Melissa barely felt the juddering of the vehicle’s chassis. She was trembling so violently that the ambulance might as well have been standing still. Wrapped in a thick, custom-designed blanket, she still felt as cold as if she were sitting there naked.

The paramedics had pushed her gently but firmly to the bench on the other side of the ambulance, where she was now sitting. She’d tried to resist at first, insisting on examining Fin herself; but they’d been adamant.

‘You’re in no fit state to be treating anyone, doc. You’ll only make things worse.’

Melissa had to admit they were right. But as she watched the two paramedics, one woman and one man, busying themselves with Fin, she felt an almost irresistible urge to interfere again.

She remembered lapsing into a dream-like state out there in the water, pogoing in and out of its sucking depth as she focused on the only thing that mattered: keeping the child above the surface. She’d reached him after what seemed like an impossibly long time and had turned him over in the water, fearing the worst. His waxy, blue-tinged face had shown no response when she pinched him. Treading water violently, she propped the toddler across her forearm, squeezed his nose shut awkwardly with her other hand, and clamped her mouth over his, breathing out as smoothly and strongly as she could, supplying the air his own tiny body was unable to provide for him.

She’d breathed twice, three times, breaking off as her flailing legs failed to keep her above water and her head dipped under. With a concentrated effort Melissa reared up again and continued the rescue breaths.

It was no good. She was too late; the little boy had drowned. And soon she too was going to succumb. Despair tried to force her under the surface once more.

And without warning, the child had coughed violently and spewed a great gout of river water into Melissa’s face. She’d never been so delighted by something like that in her life.

He coughed a few more times, and then the yelling started, wonderful piercing screams in her ear as she hugged him close. Her delight and relief soured in seconds. She