Untitled - BoG-Archive

To their great dismay, that proved more difficult than they had thought.
The house was filled with water, but the hole in the roof they had made
when they fell in looked unreachable to them. It had not been difficult to catch
hold of it when standing in a boat…but now, Boromir was starting to feel terribly
hopeless.
‘Perhaps we could break a window,’ Faramir suggested.
…Having swum around the house yet again, they huddled together on the
stove, even more dismayed. The windows were not difficult to break, but the
frames had proven too strong for them, and the glass too small for them to swim
out through the hole where it was.
Unusually silent, Boromir put his arm around Faramir’s shoulders and
firmly banished the tears from his eyes. Not that they would be visible on his
already wet face…but Faramir would know, he knew it.
‘Someone is going to find us soon,’ he said.
Faramir did not answer, and Boromir was grateful to him for that. His little
brother was sharp enough to understand that no one was going to come looking
for them…
109
‘Listen!!’
‘Mmm?’
‘Boromir! You said we mustn’t sleep!’
‘Argh…what is it?’
‘There’s someone outside!’
Boromir’s head jerked up, and he nearly fell off the stove.
Meanwhile, Faramir was listening intently, and then plunged forward,
towards the faint shaft of light from the hole.
‘Help!’ he cried. ‘We are here, inside!’
And then, suddenly, a head peered into the house.
‘My goodness!’ the head said. ‘What are you doing there, lad?’
‘I…I fell down, with my brother…please, sir, would you be so kind as to
help us to get out?’
Even now, Faramir did not forget his manners.
The man on the roof did not ask further questions, but fiddled a little with
something, and finally there was a long, wide strap dangling from the hole.
‘Here, I’ve made a loop on the end…grab it, lad!’