TWENTY-NINE #2
I reached the pontoon just seconds before Oliver.
‘Noah!’ Oliver’s voice boomed out.
Noah and Henderson looked around.
Dom came tearing up towards the pontoon, only seconds behind his brother.
Noah waved, and Henderson held up a hand in acknowledgement. They started to walk back down the pontoon.
Buddy was excited to see me, Oliver and Dom all at once.
I stepped aside to let Oliver go first. He squeezed my shoulder softly as he went by. Dom came to stand beside me.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
‘Yeah. Fine.’ I was trying to catch my breath as well as hold onto my arm in the sling which was throbbing.
‘I don’t want Noah up here,’ said Oliver as he met Henderson.
‘Sorry,’ said Henderson. ‘I was just showing him––’
‘I don’t care. This is a no-go zone for him.’ Oliver took Noah’s hand. ‘Come on, mate.’
‘I was just looking at the ice,’ said Noah, his voice small.
‘It’s okay,’ said Oliver as they stepped off the pontoon and onto the shoreline. ‘You’re not in trouble. I just don’t like you up here.’
‘I wasn’t going to fall in again.’
‘Accidents happen even when we think we’re safe,’ said Oliver.
I looked down at Noah. ‘It’s still very slippery on the boardwalk with all that ice. I was just worried, that was all.’
‘You’re a fast runner,’ said Noah.
‘I had a head start,’ I said, then immediately regretted saying that.
Both Dom and Oliver threw me a look.
‘What made you start running?’ asked Oliver.
I shrugged. ‘I was already on my way down to play with Noah and Buddy.’
Oliver and Dom exchanged a look. I knew they didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed me either.
We started walking back around the edge of the loch. I glanced back at Henderson. He was standing on the top step of the boardwalk. The smile on his face cut through me.
I caught up with Oliver. ‘Why don’t we go out earlier than planned?’
He looked at me, then back towards the boardwalk. ‘Yeah. We can go now, if you like.’
He didn’t ask why.
Oliver had a quick word with Dom and arranged to catch up with him later. Dom didn’t appear to question it either. I was beginning to understand the Laker brothers. They communicated with little fuss and no questions, totally trusting each other.
And I trusted them too.
‘Right, all set?’ said Oliver, climbing into the Range Rover.
I was glad to put some distance between us and the estate. Correction, myself and Henderson. Not the estate. Never Risk. Just who was there.
Oliver’s friend, Greg, at RAF Lossiemouth was brilliant. He chatted away to Noah, showing him around the control tower, then into the changing rooms to look at the flight suits and equipment.
‘How on earth did you wrangle this on an RAF base?’ I asked.
‘I asked nicely.’ He winked. ‘I did some teaching up here last year.’
There was no doubt more to it than that, but I smiled at the downplaying of it.
‘Right, let’s go and see the helicopter,’ said Greg.
We went around to the helicopter pad where a Merlin HC4 sat. The exact type of helo that I’d been in when it had crashed. That particular incident I had dealt with physically and mentally. It was scary at the time, but it hadn’t stayed with me.
‘Want to go inside?’ asked Greg, opening the cockpit door.
Noah was in his element. Sitting in the pilot seat, looking at all the gauges and switches, Greg let him move the control stick around and try on the headphones.
‘I’ve been in one of these a few times,’ said Oliver, running his hand along the side door.
Noah looked up at me. ‘Have you been in one?’
‘Yes. I have,’ I said. I spotted some more aircraft. ‘Wow, look at all those planes out there. Typhoons.’
We walked across the tarmac towards the jet planes.
Noah was running on ahead. I felt Oliver’s hand rest gently between my shoulder blades.
Just a few seconds. Just letting me know he was there.
A gesture that almost moved me to tears.
He was offering me comfort for the crash, not realising it was the aftermath that upset me most.
We left Lossiemouth shortly afterwards and headed into the nearby town of Elgin.
‘There’s a nice pub where we can get lunch,’ said Oliver. ‘They do a highly recommended burger and chips.’
‘I take it you’ve been there before,’ I said as Oliver steered the car out through the gates of Lossiemouth.
‘I looked it up,’ he said. ‘Checked it out.’
‘Recce mission. Of course.’ I smiled at him across the Range Rover.
‘Burger and chips are my favourite,’ said Noah.
‘Like I don’t know,’ replied Oliver.
The pub was indeed everything we needed. Warm, inviting and an excellent no-frills menu that suited all three of us.
‘Have you enjoyed today?’ I asked Noah once he was finished eating.
‘Yeah. It’s been great.’
‘What was your favourite part?’
Noah appeared to consider this for a moment. ‘Sitting in the plane. I want to be a pilot. Were you a pilot?’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘I was just crew. A medic.’
‘Crew. You were crew. No just about it,’ said Oliver. He rested his hand on my knee for a moment. Not discreet enough to bypass Noah’s eyes.
He was in the middle of sucking up his milkshake through a straw. He looked at both of us, then moved the straw from his mouth. ‘Are you two dating?’
I could tell Oliver had not been ready for that one. For once, he looked lost for words. I rested my arms on the table.
‘Well, me and your dad like each other a lot,’ I said. ‘Would it bother you if we were?’
‘No,’ said Noah simply and resumed sucking up the remainder of the milkshake—noisily.
‘And just like that, he knows,’ said Oliver under his breath.
I looked at him. At Noah attacking the last of his milkshake. At Oliver trying to compose himself beside me.
I was going to tell him. Today. All of it.
I didn’t know what came after that. But I knew I was going to tell him.
On the drive back to the estate, Oliver reached over and rested his hand on my leg like he’d done in the pub.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
I realised I had been gazing out of the window, rehearsing what I was going to say to him. Trying to anticipate my response to any one of his responses. How I hoped he’d respond and how he might respond were not necessarily the same thing, and that scared me.
I held his hand. ‘All good.’
We stopped a couple of times on the way back so Noah could scout for wildlife using the binoculars Oliver had brought with him. There was low cloud cover that afternoon and not much to see across the damp, boggy terrain.