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What a relief , Ian thought as he took a deep gasp and resurfaced. He swam over to the slab to catch his breath. Finally he began to chuckle, for he thought the difficult was over with.
“We made it! Let’s all just forget how much of a close call this was, Barley,” Ian finally spoke with a smile as he looked around to see if either Barley or Dad would come into his position.
“Barley? Barley? Dad? Where are you?” Ian asked, now confused. This was when he knew something was really up. He thought that his brother or father was going to follow him back into the fresh air and venture onward into the end of the quest. This, unfortunately, was not what had happened, and so Ian started to panic.
“Barley! Dad! Where are you guys? Hello?!” Ian called for them. He set down the wizard staff as he continued to search. “Barley! Dad! Barley!”
Suddenly, a familiar figure of a patched vest Phoenix steadily floated up to the surface. Ian noticed it and became shocked as he recognized too little too late who it was that float facedown, before sinking back into the water.
“ BARLEY! ” He cried out as he swam over to his drowning brother. “ Hang on, I’m coming! ”
Ian took another deep breath as he dived back underwater. Barley was unconscious and unresponsive to the actions going on around him. Ian first grabbed the leash and pulled Dad back right up to the surface and set the legs on top of the platform.
“Stay here, Dad. I’ve gotta get Barley!” Ian called before taking yet the last deep breath he would need to save his poor brother.
Barley by now sank more and more that even his black beanie, which Ian had to retrieve first, had floated off his head. Barley was almost to the bottom tile way down in the middle when Ian quickly swam down and grabbed him by the back of the vest. He then pulled Barley upward until he was safe inside his arm, clutching him tightly with his hand. Ian then used all of his strength and determination to finally, with a deep gasp, emerge from the chamber back to the surface.
Panting heavily, Ian continued using all of his power and especially muscle to drag the limp Barley to safety. After a few heavy coughs, he placed his free arm onto the platform to use for support, set his senseless brother on top of it. Ian now knew full well that he would not have finished this quest unless his brother was with him.
Ian climbed up to Barley’s side and placed a hand on the side of his face and, after setting the black knit cap on Barley’s head, began gently but firmly shaking his shoulders, trying to rouse him up. “Barley. Barley, can you hear me?” Ian called, “Come on, it’s me, Ian. I need you to stay with me, okay?”
No response.
Ian quickly applied downward pressure with his hand on Barley’s forehead and gently lifted just under the chin with his other hand. Ian then placed an ear close to Barley’s nose and mouth and a hand on his chest, listening for breathing and feeling for a rising and falling of his chest.
No heartbeat. No breathing. Not one single sign of life.
Ian became a little panicked, for he was afraid he would lose Barley. This was his brother. His flesh and blood. His best friend.
Ian took some deep calming breaths to compose himself as he pinched his brother’s nostrils, opened his mouth and breathed in two slow but steady rescue breaths, pausing one second after another. Placing the heel on one hand in the center of Barley’s chest and the other hand on top, Ian started 15 chest compressions.
“Come on, Barley. You can’t quit on me. Come on, breathe,” Ian called to his unresponding brother. He kept up this procedure as he counted to 30 in a steady beat.
Ian once again placed an ear over Barley’s airway, laid a hand on his chest and put two fingers under his neck to check for a pulse.
“Barley, we can’t give up now, we’re too close,” Ian once again called as he continued. “Come on, buddy. You gotta see Dad, remember? And he wouldn’t want you to give up either.”
The chest compressions, unfortunately, were not nearly enough to arouse Barley from his subaquatic induced coma, yet Ian continued.
Barley, please don’t do this, Ian thought as soft, tiny sniffles began coming out of him. “Barley, come on. You’re a fighter, and right now I need you to fight this, okay? Come on, I know you can do it!”
Yes, his spirit was breaking at the thought of Barley not coming home to New Mushroomton. With each part of his heart breaking, his attempts to resuscitate Barley began slowing down one by one.
Ian’s next thought, though, was perseverance. He was going to help his brother out of his predicaments, no matter what. So with that, his perseverant side started kicking back in, added with his immense love for his big brother. Ventilation, chest compressions, and never giving up. Yet all this combined, he began to think once again, were never nearly as efficient in saving Barley’s life.
As he got to the 30th chest compression, Ian began despairingly looking down on the face of his ostensibly departed brother. Still no sign of life, no minimal movement, nothing but the paleness of cold blue skin beginning to sink in. Tears filling his brown eyes, Ian folded sorrowfully on Barley’s chest.
“Oh, no…no!” he sobbed as he broke down, his face buried in his arms. “Barley, please…I am not gonna let you do this. I’m not gonna lose my brother too…”
Still, with all hope lost, Ian pushed on. “Come on, Barley…,” he tearfully begged as he breathed in two more rescue breaths, “…please.”
Chest compressions now…Ian found himself quietly counting to 15…
…when suddenly, he heard a choke on water, then coughing it out. He acted fast, for it was miraculously obvious who the culprit of this was.
“Barley!”
Ian turned Barley on his side and pulled him into his arms as he solaced him. “Breathe, breathe, breathe. Breathe, buddy, okay? All right, I got you,” he spoke softly as Barley continued to cough and began gasping for breath. “That’s it, deep breaths. Just breathe easy, okay? Dad and I are right here. It’s okay. It’s okay,” Ian continued to console.
Barley felt not only himself returning to life completely, but also the presence of a comforting hand rubbing his back and another holding his head. “Ian?” He said weakly as he looked up to see his little brother staring in sweet relief.
“Yeah, buddy, it’s me,” Ian said tearfully yet gently as he hugged him not as hard, but lovingly. “Oh, I thought I lost you. Are you okay?”
Barley, as he was recovering rapidly, mustered just enough strength to return the embrace.
“Yeah, it’s okay, Ian. I’m all right,” Barley answered in a more consoling manner.
Dad’s legs made their way to find his firstborn son and see if he was okay. As a foot made its way to Barley’s side, it felt a move, followed by his signature “shave and a haircut” foot tap.
“He’s okay, Dad!” Ian happily exclaimed as he felt a sense of happiness and he helped Barley up.
“See, Barley, we made it, buddy! We’re almost there!”
Barley himself expressed the same joy Ian felt. They both chucked with delight. They were all safely out of the water as Dad’s legs shook off all the excess water like a wet dog.
“We made it!” Barley exclaimed as he placed Dad atop his shoulders and Ian started climbing up a ladder, wizard staff in hand. “The Phoenix Gem awaits beyond this door. Shall we?”
“We certainly shall!” Ian called. “Dad, we have followed the quest, and it has led us to our VICTORY!”
Ian eagerly pushed the top, expecting to find the Phoenix Gem…
…only to find his high school right in front of him.