She collapsed into the small boat only to have hands gently console her. She awoke to a lot of screaming and a blue sky and even more hands lifting her onto the jetty. She had been unconscious for perhaps a day or so. The ambulance came and took them all to the hospital. She was safe and sound and soon her health would pick up.
She screamed as she felt herself sinking deeper into the water. ‘Oliver! Oh my God! Oliver!’ And as she sank deeper and the water entered her lungs all she could see was little Oliver’s face with his blonde hair mouthing ‘Mummy!’ with one tooth missing in front. She sank deeper – the horror of the day in her mind.
They had come up on deck to warn them – her and her friend, but being from such a genteel culture neither of them had taken the grubby, sweaty man seriously until they went below. The steward hurried her to her cabin to fetch Oliver and as she turned the key in the lock he ran to her. The steward scooped him up rushing him down the ship’s corridor to safety and she just couldn’t keep up. She yelled at him to slow down but filled with the urgency of the moment he just told her to hurry up and kept running with the boy. She helplessly followed the steward onto the deck but she was way behind him.
By the time she got there he was lowering Oliver into one of the lifeboats and the boat was being lowered into the water. She yelled at the steward but it was too late. Helplessly she got into the second lifeboat. Oliver was screaming for her and she was screaming to him. She stopped when she realised her second boat was following his but the first boat was too fast. It took off way in front leaving her to her dreary watery grave with all the others that were lost that day.
She was there in both places. In one safe and sound, in another lost to the ocean. Now she was talking to me in my office telling me how much she disliked boats and the ocean. Now she was alive and safe in the 21st century fully realising that each of these women were her in times gone by. In another lifetime, in another century, in another place.
Time is linear some say. Others say time is circular. Where was your soul in the timeless ocean of yesterday? Where is it now? What do you believe? What is it that rings true in your intuition and in your dreams? And which is the dream? Is it now reading this article or was it last night in your bed as you dreamt you slept? Time for you to awaken, to grow, to tune in. Ultimately there is only now for any of us. Seize the moment – it is your present truth. Be here now!
