‘Right.’ I looked up and down the line from my halfway position. ‘Marilyn, can you see what’s on the other side of the gate?’
‘There’s a dirt road. I can’t see far but it doesn’t look too bad.’
‘Everybody who’s already gone past me, keep going and get to the track. The rest of us can work our way back and help April.’
‘I want to help April!’ Rowan said from her position three people in front of me.
‘Tough. If there are too many of us, we won’t all fit on the safe spots and someone else will end up falling in. Come on, let’s go!’
The back half of the line hopped, skipped and shimmied back to find April thrashing about in the mud, now up to her thighs.
‘Stop moving!’ I yelled.
‘She’s not listening.’ Hester squatted on a larger rock, holding out a branch towards April, who was a metre or so into the field. ‘She’s panicking.’
We tried a couple more times to get her to stop moving, as it only wiggled her deeper into the mud, but to no avail.
‘Is someone going to have to go and get her?’ Uzma asked, wide-eyed in the torchlight.
‘They aren’t going to be able to pull her back.’ Mags frowned. ‘She might even pull them under without meaning to.’
‘Hang on a minute.’ Uzma took off her coat, arranging it on top of the marshy mud. Slowly laying down, she spread her surface area out as much as possible. She sank several inches into the squelch, but keeping still seemed to be working.
‘Hand me the stick.’
Hester passed it over, and with a mixture of gentleness and urgency, we ordered April to grab onto it. Somehow, she had twisted around, in the opposite direction to the torchlight, her wails and gasps becoming more frantic.
‘I’ll go round the other side.’ I found a rock a metre or so into the meadow, and stepped onto it, holding on to Yasmin for balance. When I moved onto the next one, she followed me andRosa stepped into her place, so we were now holding on to and supporting each other like a human chain.
I managed to reach three-quarters of the way round before the stones ran out. Copying Uzma, I spread out my coat and gingerly started to lie down. The mud reached April’s hips now. Things were starting to look seriously dangerous. And every second, the job of pulling her out grew even harder. Yasmin passed me a torch.
‘April. You have to stop moving!’ I begged her, trying to keep the fear from my voice. ‘Keep still!’
No response.
‘Reach forwards and lean on me!’ I screamed.
Then, from beyond the gate, a hundred metres away, came the voice of an angel.
It was the chorus for ‘Lean on Me’.
Through the mizzle, the wind, and the anxiety came a pitch-perfect harmony as the rest of the choir joined in with the next line.
As part of the stronger together theme for the competition, Hester had got us using this song for our ‘out with the stress in with the strength’ breathing exercises and warm-up.
After several weeks, none of us could hear it without automatically dropping our shoulders, blowing out our no-good tension, and becoming still.
April paused in her struggling and cocked one ear towards the sound. Those of us near her joined in with the rest of the chorus.
‘Keep breathing, April,’ I called out, my words stronger now. ‘In and out. Breathe with me, honey. I’m with you. We’re going to get you out.’
She splashed around to face me.
‘Faith!’
‘I’m here. I’m getting you out. But you need to listen to me, April. You have to stop moving and follow my instructions. Ready?’
April looked at me sprawled on my belly in the mud, her face ghoul-like in the torchlight. ‘I think so.’
