The Iron Lighthouse

Give Up

It took me a while to find Grandpa. It definitely didn't help that I was close to having a panic attack, and Rebecca insisted she should stay lookout, a useless excuse because she was afraid of climbing ladders. Davy had a more reasonable one, saying that he would call for help. So I was left to deal with it all myself.

I spent some time yelling "Grandpa," but my voice was repeatedly lost in the wind. Then, after my voice had become hoarse from fear, anger, and from screaming so much, I gave up trying to call for him. After all, the tree could've knocked him out of the lighthouse. But such thoughts aren't the best to think on a rescue mission.

Looking was also difficult due to the rain and wind that threatened to extinguish my light source. Oh, and also the huge tree that had fallen over across the lighthouse was not much of a help either. It made it very difficult to look for Grandpa.

Then, a few minutes after I had stopped yelling, I heard a quiet voice. "Ellie, Eleanor, over here."

Then I found Grandpa, underneath the tree. Well actually, only his right leg was underneath it, but that was enough to freak me out. "Davy! Rebecca! I found him!" I screamed, hoping that I could get their help so that I could pull Grandpa out. I didn't hear any answers since my voice had probably been carried away by the wind before it could reach them, and so I desperately started to try and lift the tree to get Grandpa out.

"Ellie, it's no use," Grandpa told me, yelling against the raging storm. "I've already tried. Just...just get me a blanket or tarp or something to keep this rain off me until the storm is over, y rain coat isn't helping much anymore."

"What! You'll still get hypothermia! You're soaking wet!" I yelled back. "I'll go get Davy and Rebecca, stay here!"

I saw Grandpa try to say something, but it was lost in the wind. Chances are it was something along the lines of "I'm not going anywhere."

I didn't bother climbing down the ladder and instead just stuck my head down into the room below.

"Rebecca, Davy, I need help getting Grandpa out! His foot is stuck under the tree, and I can't pull him out alone!" I told them.

"What! There's a tree up there?!" Rebecca asked me, shouting to be heard. 

"Ya, come help. Please!"

"I couldn't reach anyone," Davy told me, appearing behind Rebecca, "The power lines are probably out and my phone isn't working.

"Ok, now get your ass up here!" I screamed at him. I half expected him not to come up, but to my surprise, he started climbing the steps and I backed away so he could pull himself up.

"Follow me," I yelled, showing him where Grandpa was. Within seconds he was drenched in rain, just like me.

Davy and I tried as hard as we could to pull the tree off of Grandpa but our efforts were useless. Nothing worked, and the cold from the rain was starting to get to me. "Davy, we are going to need more help!" I screamed, fighting to be heard. He understood and we tried to find the hatch that was supposed to be open and the ladder.

Then I tripped over something and my lantern fell out of my hand, shattering on the ground. Our only light source had been extinguished.

"Shit!" I yelled. 

"Ah! Ellie, where are you?" I heard Davy say. Then I felt his arm hit me. "Oh, there you are!"

"Davy, we will have to crawl on the ground so we can find the hatch, just be careful not to fall through it," I told him, getting onto my hands and knees.

I'm not the best at thinking in scary situations, and this was definitely qualified as a scary situation. So the fact that the shattered lantern was still on the ground completely escaped my mind as my hand dug into a pile of the glass.

"Shit!" I screamed. The glass dug painfully into me, and I didn't know what to do. I realized that Davy hadn't heard me and had probably kept crawling. I couldn't see him, but I guess it was so dark I had no reason to.

Suddenly I heard a quiet gasp and a loud sound somewhere in front of me.

"Davy?" I yelled, my voice losing itself in the wind.

"Davy!" I heard someone scream.

"Shit shit shit," I muttered. Not just had Grandpa been smashed by a tree and I had broken my lantern and gotten glass in my hand, now it was possible Davy was hurt to. "Shit shit shit."

I kept crawling, feeling around carefully and hoping there wasn't any more glass. Then I heard something slam and I stopped moving, hoping that nothing bad would happen. After a minute had passed I was still unsure about what the noise had been so I kept crawling around.

It took me several more minutes of crawling before I gave up trying to find the hatch. It was somewhere, that was for sure, but I had no idea where.

Then it dawned on me that it was possible that it had been there the whole time, but that it had shut. So maybe that was what the noise was.

It took a few more minutes of carefully sweeping the floor with my hands to find the hatch. In the process of doing so I managed to get yet more glass in my hands, but I was so scared that I didn't think much of it.

Once I found the hatch though, I realized it was too hard for me to open. The darkness made it impossible for me to see it and the rain and wind kept me from opening it.

I've always been a fighter, but some battles are just too hard. Today was one of those battles. Well, really the last hour was, and I just wanted it to be over. At this point I didn't care if I won or lost, I just wanted to be done with it all. And maybe giving up is never a good idea, but that's what I decided to do. Give up. But I think in this situation it's better to use the word rest. I was resting, and when I was ready I would go back inside. That's all it was.

So I closed my eyes and tried to forget about how cold I was, or how nice it would be in a nice warm bet, or how much my hands hurt because of the glass, forget about how Grandpa was somewhere nearby, also suffering. I just...let go.