Gumbo ran, and I ran, and Ben ran with me, and, somewhere in front of us all, was Blocker.
Rain pelted us and lightning lit the rapidly approaching night. Without raincoats we were soaked in seconds. It was freezing and miserable. Rain ran down the back of our necks and lashed at our eyes.
I don’t know where Blocker was going, but it wasn’t home. He took off up the side street, towards Manuka Ridge. I glanced behind and Ben was right there, and Erica too.
Gumbo was surprisingly quick for an old dog but his legs could not hold out and, eventually, he stopped and looked back waiting for us to catch up.
I peered through the rain up the hill where I could see a brief flash of Blocker’s jumper.
‘Where’s he going?’ I shouted, holding on to Gumbo’s collar, but I already knew.
Thanks to Ben’s prize-winning photo, there wasn’t a kid in school who didn’t know about the power pylon on Manuka Ridge and the way it attracted lightning.
‘The pylon!’ Ben confirmed my thoughts. Lightning cracked its way across the sky nearby, followed soon after by rolling thunder.
‘Go after him,’ Erica yelled, her hair in her eyes.
I hesitated.
‘Go after him,’ she repeated. ‘You can’t just leave him!’
She grabbed Gumbo’s collar out of my hand and said, ‘I’ll bring your dog.’
We ran. The wind was freezing my legs and my lungs were beginning to gasp for air. Beside me, Ben ran effortlessly, mechanically, tirelessly, robotically.
By the time we got to the top of Manuka Ridge my chest was burning and my guts were retching. Blocker had turned into Ridge Road, towards the pylon.
Something about that scared me in a way I hadn’t been scared before and my legs found new strength.
Lightning cracked again, and thunder drummed all around us only a few seconds later.
‘Three seconds!’ Ben shouted into my ear. ‘Just three kilometres away!’
The pylon stood, sentry like, in its empty grassy field. Up this close, I could see that the legs were set into huge concrete blocks. It soared into the sky above us, impossibly tall when viewed from its base.
About six metres up the pylon, completely encircling it, was a horizontal fence of barbed wire, jutting sideways out from the structure to prevent anyone climbing it.
Blocker was clinging to the tower, a dark figure, just below the barbs of the barrier.
Lighting flared again. ‘Two seconds!’ Ben shouted.
We ran up close to the base of the pylon and I had to gasp some air back into my lungs.
‘Come down!’ I shouted into the driving rain. ‘You’ll be killed!’
Blocker said nothing. He was gripping the strut of the pylon with grim determination against the gusting wind.
Beside me, Ben said, ‘I think that’s the idea.’
‘Blocker!’ I screamed.
He turned away from us and put his elbow around a strut for better support.
Without stopping to think, I ran forward and started to climb. The struts were icy cold and slippery. My foot slipped twice, crashing my knee into a sharp metal edge, and I clung on desperately before regaining my footing.
I was a couple of metres high when there was a different voice. A female voice, terrified.
‘Jacob, get down!’ It was Erica.
I ignored her and kept climbing. Lightning flashed and, almost immediately, the thunder followed. For a second, I froze with fear, then realised we hadn’t been struck. It would have already been all over if we had.
‘One second!’ Ben yelled. ‘It’s right on top of us!’
I hauled myself up to Blocker’s level and shouted at him. He turned to face me. He was bawling his eyes out.
‘It’s not worth it!’ I screamed. ‘Not this!’
He shook his head, and shouted back over the noise of the wind and rain. ‘You have no idea. You don’t know what it’s like. Since Dad died …’ and that was all he could say.
Amidst it all I reflected, once again, how you never really know what is going on inside people.
‘It’s not worth it,’ I repeated, but it had no effect. I tried to focus my power on him but I already knew it wouldn’t work; it never did against fierce determination. ‘Blocker,’ I said, moving closer so that I wouldn’t have to shout. ‘I don’t know what your life is like. How could I? I’m not you. But the way I see it, life is like a book. There are good chapters and bad chapters. But when you get to a bad chapter, you don’t stop reading the book!’
He looked up at me and it seemed something was getting through.
I continued, ‘If you do, then you never get to find out what happens next!’
He looked hesitant now. I couldn’t remember how long it had been since the last lightning flash.
I bellowed. ‘You’ve only just started the book.’
He unhooked his elbow from the strut but still gripped the grey metal tightly.
‘You’ve gotta want to find out what happens next!’ I repeated, and his grip loosened.
‘Get outa there!’ Ben’s voice screamed from below.
‘Let go, Blocker!’ I cried and hit him with the full force of my power at the same time.
Let go! Let go! Let go! Let go! Let go! Let go!
His hands straightened and his grip failed. He dropped the few metres to the ground below.
I glanced down to see Erica helping him away from the base of the pylon. To safety. I looked up at the rumbling black clouds above and breathed a long slow sigh of relief.
‘Jacob!’ Ben yelled and my brain started working properly again. Blocker was safe, but I was still clinging to the tower.
I leaped away from the pylon just as a blinding flash enveloped me. My nostrils were filled with the smell of ozone and my eardrums burst with the explosions of ten nuclear bombs all going off simultaneously.
But I was in the air and falling and, somehow, I sensed Ben running forwards below me.
I landed in his arms, but it was too much weight and all he really did was break my fall. I thought I heard a sharp crack, but it was difficult to be sure with my ears ringing with the thunder.
I rolled off Ben. The grass was hot. Wet, but burning hot. I rolled and rolled, away from the heat, away from the danger.
There was a warm, wet sensation on my face, and it took me a moment to realise it was Gumbo, slopping and slobbering all over me.
‘I’m all right, Gumbo, I’m all right,’ I said, and looked around for Ben. He was a few metres away and obviously in a lot of pain. His arm was broken. The skin was torn and a jagged white edge of a bone poked out through it.
He had done that trying to break my fall.
Ben Holly. My mate.
‘Ben!’ I said, in that weird dream-like world of shock where crazy things make perfect sense. ‘Ben, you’re not a robot after all.’
And Ben, despite the pain, began to laugh.