A TRUE STORY - LOST IN TIME 

By Tessa Harvey


    Moira next door smelt the smoke first. She hobbled outside, grabbing her stick. Martha, across the way had a phone now and she hurried to alert her.
    But before she could, Jim's car drove up and he banged open the door and raced straight inside. The smoke was thick and disgusting, cloying and terrible.
    Sensibly, he pulled back, calling his wife Amy to get help. Moira, shakily, pointed her in the right direction. People were gathering. Lucy ran up with an old baby blanket. "Dad," she yelled, though he was standing right there, "tie it round your face. They showed us at school. Keep low," she added and began to cry. But Jim was gone, crawling. Dimly, he heard sirens, but was focusing all his strength on  locating his father. His mum had just died. Now this.
    Swiftly, he reached his dad's chair. Flames were flickering, but it was smoke that had overcome his dad. He lolled, unresponsive. Jim pulled at him, desperately, standing on singed carpet and kicking at the armchair.
    Then men in masks and protective clothing were helping him, carrying father and son to safety. A woman doctor waited outside. Quickly, she bent to help the older man, to assess his condition. "Hospital!" Ambulance officers stretchered him away. The doctor turned to the younger man who was bent over, wheezing and coughing.
    Amy was praying over him out loud, asking her God to help him. Inwardly the doctor winced. Misguided fool, she thought, not realising that God declared: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'"
    But the young wife knew the power of God and kept praying and believing. Jim straightened.
    He assured the doctor he was fine, dropping Amy and the children home, then to follow and find his father.


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