Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I returned to England after the awful news had sunk in with Alex's family and
friends but I still needed to visit them all. There were no accusations when I told
them I had not been with him. Both Jean and Sarah even displayed sympathy, feel-
ing compassion that I had been a witness and survived. But even if they didn't ask,
I was asking myself, 'what more could I have done?'
Having seen Jean at the family home as soon as I got back, I now needed to see
Sarah. I tried to think of what to say, how to make amends. She came up to Millom
the following weekend as she used to do with Alex. It was less than a month after
the accident. We decided to walk the ridge from the top of Walna Scar onto Dow
Crag where Alex and I had stood to watch the sun set over the Irish Sea the year
before. I borrowed a friend's collie to come with us, a dog Alex liked to walk with.
This was the first time we had found time to reflect. It was just another damp
November afternoon, empty of sunshine, yet charged with emotion.
'When you phoned last week John, you said to me something that I really hold
true.'
We were stood on the summit of Dow. 'You said the Buddhists believe that big
events begin when you throw a pebble into a pond; the ripples expand, and contin-
ue to do so forever after the event, less visible but still expanding. I really believe
that.
'When I first met Alex, I had never known anybody die. Then a short time later, a
mutual friend of mine and of Jim Curran's died and that was when the sequence
began, then Joe died, then Alex was killed, then my close cousin died, then my
aunt, it went on and on in a short space of time.
'And it was so strange with Alex,' Sarah went on. 'The night before he died, I was
staying on my own in Hayfield. But I just couldn't sleep. All night long there was a
shadow on the wall, like a vision.' I realised that this experience was perhaps what
Alex described as 'astral walking', reaching out with his being to be with Sarah.
'You know John, Jean also said to me that perhaps the whole sixth sense thing
exists, and possibly Alex knew he was going to be killed. Maybe it is not all that
farfetched. To survive in that environment you need to have all of your senses
working and more.'
Sarah, Jean and Libby were already considering making a pilgrimage to An-
napurna base camp as Maria had to Everest. Terry Mooney was going to organise
the journey.
'How is Terry taking it?' I asked Sarah.
'Hard. He has a sort of love for Alex, he wanted to be what Alex was, and share
some of his adventures. When he gave Alex money, he wasn't buying favours or
prestige; it was just genuine good-heartedness. And the same was true of Alex. He
