The sound of waves crashing against
the cliffs is a background noise that Charlie has lived with his whole life.
From day to day it had been as loud as a thunder storm cracking across the
night sky to as soft as the patter of waves lapping against a sandy shore.
As a
little boy, Charlie remembers running up and down his stairs until he drove his
parents crazy. He loved to hear the clang of the cold metal echo beneath his
feet.
Every
morning his father would wake up bright and early to make sure every gear was
in working order. When Charlie was young, he never fully understood why. They
never seemed to have any problems during the night. Charlie often wondered if
their time would be better spent doing other things. Obviously, he wished he
could be playing, but even cleaning his bedroom made more sense to him than
fixing something that wasn't broken.
Often Charlie’s
father would go into town and leave Charlie to finish the check list of maintenance.
Every time Charlie’s father left, Charlie would try really hard to finish the
checklist before his father returned. It made them both proud. Charlie looked
forward to that moment when his father came home to find the checklist complete.
Charlie liked it so much that more than once when he didn't finish the check
list, he would tell his father did it anyway. As much as Charlie loved it when his
father was proud of him, he hated it even more when his father was disappointed
in him. Looking back, Charlie didn't think his father would have been disappointed
at all; he would have simply helped him finish the inspection. Yet, for some
reason the assumption was always there.
The first time Charlie didn't finish the checklist, when night came he was a little nervous. Charlie was
relieved when he woke in the morning to find he had slept right through the
night. The uneventful evening only served to prove his theory that there was no
need for his father to check and recheck every nook and cranny of that old
machine.
Charlie will never forget the day
that he realized just how important it was for his father to be so
painstakingly thorough.
The second or third time he didn't finish the checklist—but told his father he had—the night did not pass without
incident. He can still hear his heart thumping in his chest. Each palpitation
was much louder than any blaring noise that evening.
The roar of the waves lulled him to
sleep that night. A ship’s horn found its way into his dreams, but it was the
squeal of the fog signal that really startled him. Footsteps stomped up stairs
and down stairs. His father’s frantic voice called out to him. Charlie shoved
his blankets aside and leaped from his bed. He hit the floor and ran out of his
room. At the foot of the stairs, he
looked straight up to see if his father was at the top. He could barely make
out any movement. What Charlie saw was a sight he had never before seen. The
light was out—in the middle of the night. Charlie knew exactly what that
meant. He ran upward taking two steps at
a time. In the distance, more horns alerted their presence.
“What’s wrong, Father?” Charlie had
to scream over the clashing thunder.
“The Sun Valve is not working,”
Father yelled back, as calmly as he could. “It won’t allow the pilot light to
ignite.”
“It was working just fine when we
went to bed, wasn't it.”
“It was.” The wind howled. Waves
crashed.
“The Sun Valve has never given us
problems before,” Charlie said.
“Because we have checked it every
day,” His father replied.
There was nothing Charlie could say. He stood frozen with a look of horror
widening his eyes.
“Son, you finished the checklist didn't you?” His words still repeat in Charlie’s ears.
Charlie’s father did not wait for
Charlie to respond. He just went to work, bypassing the Sun Valve as so many
keepers had done before him. There was no anger or disappointment in his eyes.
He only knew what had to be done; he knew what his responsibility was.
The guilt ate at Charlie’s stomach.
He knew he had made a terrible mistake and that any accident that happened
during the night was because of his inaction.
From then on, Charlie helped his
father check and recheck every seemly unimportant point on their checklist.
