A Life-changing Moment

In my new book, All the Wild Weather, writer Paddy sets out to investigate the elusive, disappearing Isle of Larus. In this extract he has his first taste of the island’s mysteries:

It was a life-changing moment, and he knew it. Paddy Fields stared at the extraordinary, and impossible, sight before him. Life-changing. He would have been very frightened indeed if he had thought it was real.
“Watch out!”
The urgent warning came too late, and he was aware of a thudding blow just above his left eye. The thought was still with him when he regained his senses. What was I thinking about? Oh, yes. Life-changing moments. Normally, they pass by unremarked. You only recognise them in retrospect, when the effects begin to show, and you trace it all back to that one moment. It was easier to ruminate on this than deal with the pain and the popping yellow lights that exploded before his eyes. But he needed a moment or two to collect his wits before he could cope with anything life-changing.
“Give me a minute,” he heard himself say aloud.
“Paddy. Paddy! Are you all right?” Maria was looking down at him. Looking worried.
“What happened? Did we…collide?”
“It was the boom – the boom hit you. I yelled, but you seemed to be staring into space.”
Paddy sat up, carefully, nursing his head. Fragments of memory were reassembling themselves. It all made perfect sense. And it made no sense at all.
“Now listen, Paddy. I’m going to take you ashore. You might be concussed.” And she set about getting the boat under way again.
Under his fingers, Paddy felt a bruised lump appearing on his forehead. Amazing how quickly that happened, straight after the impact. And there was the first problem: who would believe him? After a bump on the head you might think you’d seen any sort of odd thing, people would say. Figment of the stunned imagination, so to speak.
He watched Maria as she sailed the boat; calm, competent, business-like – and look what people had said about her, when she claimed to have seen something strange. Written her off as a nutter, and very publicly, too. She had told him she bitterly regretted saying anything at all. Well, of course. It had destroyed her sailing career. Be very careful what you say, Paddy.
Oh, he would be careful. No blurting out. He’d tell the world when he’d investigated thoroughly, answered all the questions in advance. There was much more to learn, first. But he would tell. He had seen what he had seen, and he was involved now. Nothing would stop him.
“How’s your head?”
Paddy shrugged. He wasn’t actually sure what the cranial damage was. “I saw it,” he said. “It was there. Right on the spot. Exact co-ordinates.”
Maria looked confused. “Saw it?”
“Yes. Your disappearing island. I saw it.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I am,” said Paddy. “Very.”
“It’s what you were thinking about. It was on your mind.”
“Nothing wrong with my mind. I saw it, large as life. Tall cliffs. Lots of rocks. No wonder it frightened the life out of James Fortune.”
“It did more than that,” said Maria, grimly. “It cost him his place in the sailing team. It cost him a fortnight in a padded cell. It cost him twenty-four hours in a strait jacket. Poor guy. So you think carefully before you say anything, anything at all. There’s been enough damage done over this. I should never have brought you out here.”


Adventure and gentle humour: The Larus Trilogy – Isle of Larus myBook.to/MyAmazonLinks, Sea of Clouds myBook.to/MyAmazonBooks and All the Wild Weather http://amzn.to/29QyIqJ