THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)   By Tessa Harvey     Sylvie was slowly climbing a hill. Her four children were with her, the two older ones racing ahead, excited, then peeling to return back to her - happy as lambs in spring sunshine. Reaching a safe flat level, she sat them all down, sharing the food and drink, then asked them what they could see and hear.     "Fairies," said her littlest girl, the dreamer, "and I am a princess on this big rock." She jumped up onto a small flat grey rock. The eldest ones were warned not to jeer or laugh as their mother gently put her finger to her lips.     "A giant puddle!" yelled the smallest boy, "down there! I walked my hardest, bestest getting up here." He stuck out his little chest proudly.  "I hear birds and sheep," yelled her older boy, "and see a boat on the lake too."      But suddenly a mist came down swirling round them, touching them with damp and chilling tendrils like ...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey     "I want the rest of my family, dad!" Jack stated firmly when his father walked into the kitchen the next morning. Sunlight streamed through the window, glinting on the shiny taps.     The splodge of tomato soup splattered on the shiny bench top shone as though lit from within.     Last night, his dad had yanked open the tomato soup can, heating it both for them both, then running a hot bath for Jack, gathering the sodden discarded clothes while respecting his privacy. He was behaving like a decent dad, not ignoring or berating him.     Now the boy watched his father closely, half-afraid, but determined. For years there had been lies, petty deceptions.     Mark felt angry also as he stared at his son. He stepped forward to intimidate him, but the boy held his ground. Perhaps he was truly his son.     The man slumped wearily onto one of the two kitchen chairs and b...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey     Jack was dreaming. In his dream, he was once more on that tiny ledge. The waves were breaking ferociously, flung spume falling like rain, making the rock slippery and treacherous. The wind had again risen, pulling at his thin jacket with malicious fingers. He felt suspended between sea and sky and cried out in fear.     The boy woke suddenly - he had heard a voice when he was on the ledge earlier before the tide came in.     It was getting dark. A child's voice had called "Oy, boy! What ya doing up there? Jack remembered a dog barking also. It was easy to imagine voices, when you were desperate - less likely to imagine the dog. So it was real. He had called for help then and heard a faint reply and the sound of scampering feet. The dog's bark came once more far away.     The child must have gone for help. Then why had he only just recalled the incident? Because even in the dwindling...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey     Abbie tiptoed out of the children's ward at the hospital. The nurses had taken her to see David. He had been very upset, but calmed down when he saw her, tears falling down his cheeks like rain. Her arm had ached, but she had climbed up onto his bed and cuddled him. Soon he would be four years old and now she was seven.     As she went out of the ward the doors swung shut behind her. The nurses were talking in their little room.     Someone had gathered their few belongings from their car and she saw that David had Rabbit. Last time they were in Care, no-one had brought his toy. It had hurt her, knowing he was sad. Listening hard to the doctors, she had heard where their mum was and headed for the stairs.     It was a bit creepy and lonely and cold but the lifts would be busy. She could be seen. She sometimes wished she had a friend like Rabbit.     Then she finally found ...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey     Sylvie fought hard against the encroaching darkness. She did not want to go where it was dark and cold. She reached out in her spirit towards warmth and light. The truck's lights had dazzled her. She had swerved and gone over a small embankment. Trees had loomed near the car. Somehow she had missed them. The woman wanted to call out for her children, trying to get up to find them.     She felt tethered down and trapped. She tried again to call, but something was caught in her throat. Panic flared.     "Sylvie, Miss O'Toole, be still.  You are in hospital. Your children are nearby. You cannot talk. You are on a ventilator just for now. Look at me if you hear me."     Slowly the woman turned towards the senior nurse. Sylvie's eyes were dark and frightened. The nurse was relieved.     A head trauma could be much worse. "Your little boy is calling for you, and his sister ...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey     Night was falling and Jack felt hope was dwindling. It was a lonely stretch of coast. Normally Jack loved the sea and the solitude. They were a respite from the pressure  of home and the clamorous demands of school.     He kept imagining he heard voices calling to him and looked for torchlight along the shore. But there was no light and no one came. The tide was almost fully in, close to the cliff and breaking waves flung spume high in the air, making his perch even more precarious.     A wind was rising as night fell and the embattled youth felt he was weakening, his fingers becoming numb and losing strength as he clung to the rock face.     "Please," he whispered. "please help me." Some of the kids at school talked about Jesus. Was he real or just like Santa or the tooth fairy? Make-believe like Peter Pan and the pirates?     His mind wandered, then a light shone on...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)   By Tessa Harvey     Jack knew instantly when the rock crumbled beneath his feet that he had not been very smart. Running towards the cliff edge, he had leapt over a small fissure close to the edge of the steep cliff near his home, and slipped - right over the edge.     He had only slithered a few metres, fingertips scrabbling frantically, feet flailing for some kind of foothold. Miraculously he had found it. A tiny ledge. The boy looked up and knew it was beyond him to climb back up. He was at least two metres down. It was almost sheer. Jack looked below and wished then he had not.     Birds were screeching around him, some swooping close, guarding skimpy nests, eggs and young.     Below then the sea surged hungrily over black flat rocks. He gulped and clung tighter to his precarious position.     Telling his volatile father he was too old to be bullied had not gone down well. The cracking b...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25) By Tessa Harvey         "You're in," said the school lady. She wrinkled her nose. When Rabbit was with him, he could get him to wrinkle his nose too. Rabbit liked Day Care. The sandpit was their favourite place. But a big, dark-haired girl threw Rabbit very high. He fell outside the fence. The worker came over.     "Come here, David," but he gripped the fence tighter. She looked and said, "Oh, Rabbit has flown away." She went to get Rabbit and held him very carefully.     Rabbit was very happy to come back. He wrinkled his nose again. "You're in," said the boy quietly.     When it was dark, his mum came. "Stop wetting your pants. You are too big to do that." She thought for a while. "Look, Rabbit doesn't do that and he is smaller than you."     It was raining. They went fast to get Abbie, then faster and faster to get home. The road was swirling by the car. Abbie cried. The b...

THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE (Isaiah 49:25)  By Tessa Harvey      Rabbit, thought the little boy, despairingly. Oh Rabbit. He was sat, tight in a little corner of the couch. His legs stuck out straight. He saw his shoes were muddy. Did these old people know about mud? Or Rabbit? He clutched his small iPad. Game snakes slithered around. Had they got out and got poor Rabbit? I died, he thought in the game. Later he said it loudly at the doctor's. One of the old people next to him smiled. The others were not smiling. They looked sad and tired  Did they see him - David? His old people saw him. He looked at them sideways, uncertain. Had he seen them before? Suddenly he didn't know and he didn't care/.     He felt sad and tired too. He wanted to throw his iPad at the floor. Abby tossed a chair at the window when her mum said "You have to go back to CARE." David wanted Rabbit and Abby and MUM." He scrunched his eyes tight shut, and then the tears fell down inside...