Kiss My Name by Calvin Wade Read Free Book Online Page B

dream about Linda Lusardi until I felt a gentle rocking. It was Joanne trying to wake me up.
    “When are we going, Dad? Sarah and I want to get moving.”
    “Joanne, it’s pouring down out there, love.”
    “That doesn’t m atter, Dad, Monty’s wet already. He lives in the water.”
    “I wasn’t thinking about the boat, love, I was thinking about us.”
    “Mum said she’ll get our Kagools.”
    “Did she now?”
    “Please, Dad.”
    “OK, Joanne, just give me a few more minutes and I’ll come and start him up.”
    “Thanks Dad!”
                  Joanne scuttled off excitedly to tell her big sister the news. Despite my mild protests, I was delighted that regardless of the bad weather, they were still looking forward to a day on the canal. If it had been raining in Devon, I was sure they wouldn’t have begging us to go down to the beach in the pouring rain at seven in the morning. This was further evidence that I had chosen the perfect holiday.
                  Just after the seven locks of Johnson’s Hillock, we were heading towards Chorley in a place we later discovered was called Whittle-le-Woods when it happened. I was at steering the tiller at the rear when Sarah shouted back.
    “Dad, you need to slow down, there’s someone swimming in the water.”
    “Where?”
    “Up there on the starboard side.”
                  I am not sure if there is a port and starboard side for narrow boats, there aren’t many ports on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, but it added to the sense of adventure calling the sides the port and starboard side. I looked forward and could see something, bobbing up and down in the water. I couldn’t see if it was an animal or a child, but you could tell whatever it was, was too small to be an adult. It was ten o’clock in the morning in the pouring rain, why would anyone be swimming in a canal in this weather? I pulled on the engine leaver so we could slow down and shifted the tiller to the right so we could veer left of whatever it was.
    Deidre was with the girls trying to communicate with whatever it was, trying to tell it to get out the way. All of a sudden, there was real panic in her voice.
    “Geoff! Geoff! I think it’s a child, Geoff! His head’s down. Quickly!”
    Nothing happens quickly in a narrow boat. It doesn’t travel quickly. If you pull the tiller, it doesn’t react instantaneously. When we thought split seconds may be important, we were in a vehicle that did things at its own, very slow pace.
    “Geoff, hurry!” Deidre shouted.
    “I can’t bloody hurry, woman. It won’t go much faster than this. I don’t want to hit him, either.”
                  We were all panicking. Sarah and Joanne were anxiously looking at Deidre and me, hoping we could rescue this floating creature, whatever it may be. I could see the hair on the back of its head, as it was face down, it had a white t-shirt on, Deidre was right. It was a child, definitely a child. I manoeuvred ‘Monty’ so we were alongside him. He was now on our ‘starboard side’.
    “Oh my God, Geoff! Get him out from the back. I won’t be able to lift him.”
    At the front of ‘Monty’, there was plenty of room on deck for the whole family, but at the back, there was very little room for anyone other than the person steering the boat. My initial reaction was to think it would be far wiser for me to stop all power, move through the cabin and lift whatever it was out at the front end. My wife is an intelligent human being though and I think her decision was made, not just taking into consideration the floating object, but also her two young daughters looking nervously on beside her. With adrenalin pumping through my veins, I was purely focused on retrieving what we thought was a boy out of the water and saving him. I think, at this point, Deidre had realised he was beyond saving. She is a protective mother and Deidre did not want me lifting a body out of the water right