Mobile to the rescue by Kirsty Gill
6 January 2021 { General Fiction }
Mobile to the Rescue
Yet again she thanked God for the wonders of mobile phone technology and satellite navigation – and for the fact that she had signal and battery power left. Having a phone without signal or power was like having a cigarette without lighter or matches – useless! She had given up smoking years ago but still remembered that particular frustration. Although having no charge or signal would have been more than frustrating in this situation – in fact she did not know what she would have done!
Sarah had been a bit of a luddite when mobile phones first came on the scene. The vast majority of conversations she had overheard on the train (which was where she had first come across then), began with the inane fact that the speaker was on the train and she had not once heard anything that could not have waited till after the journey was over.
She remembered, as a child, being driven to school by her father as he drove past the place on his way into work. They had often passed the same chauffeur driven Rolls Royce en route. There were no such things as mobile phones then. Most people Sarah knew had a landline but not everyone had any kind of phone at all. Bright red public telephone boxes were common place and to be found on most street corners. The man in the back of the Rolls Royce drew attention to himself not only because of the exclusive make of his car, but also because he was always on his car phone – those in-car phones being pretty rare too back then – and another status symbol, of course. You could not help but notice, Mr On-phone-in-the Roller but Sarah’s Dad was not impressed. One day he commented to Sarah, “If he was that important people could wait till he got into his office”
It was the same mentality which stopped Sarah’s Dad from ever acquiring an answerphone of any description. He was not even interested in the free 1571 service from BT when that came about and which Sarah had tried hard to persuade him to subscribe to. Again, his attitude was that if he was available he would answer the phone and if he was not then whoever it was that was trying to reach him would just have to ring back. If it was important they would ring back sooner rather than later. He saw no need to be constantly available and so, of course, no need for a mobile phone either.
It could not have been more important to have a working mobile in the situation she found herself in right now. She had had time for these musings as there was nothing more she could do now but wait. This new man of hers was really into hill-walking – not an interest she had shared before she met him, but she was willing to give it a go. She had been worried that she might slip and make a fool of herself, but no, it had been him who had done that – and in spectacular style!
!It had all happened so quickly. One minute he had been cheerfully chatting to her as he followed her along the stony path – then silence. She had not seen or heard him fall – he just stopped talking mid-sentence. She had turned round and found him sprawling on the ground, eyes shut, head on a large stone. She had instinctively reached for her phone, rung 999 and after explaining the situation as quickly as she could, been put through to mountain rescue. As she was a complete hill-walking novice, Sarah had no idea how to describe exactly where they were. She could not give any co-ordinates but thank goodness for the sat nav on her phone. It was able to tell the team where to find them. Instinct had told her not to try to move him. It was confirmed by the team that she was told was on their way that she should not do so. She kept trying to talk to him but he was unresponsive.
Sarah was just glad, that thanks to the technology, (which she did not pretend to understand), help was on its way and she prayed quietly that it would come quick. It did – within 15 minutes of her making the call, although of course, to Sarah it seemed an awful lot longer.
As she could not talk to Alan, she was left with her own thoughts as she stared at the phone, still in her hands, which had been their saviour. She recalled that she had been dismissive of those first huge brick-like phones that she had first seen being used by young guns in the City, when she had worked in London. How important were those messages really, that they shouted so ostentatiously into them? Or were they just another status symbol like the Filofaxes they liked to carry about, the heavier the better? Today’s mobiles had, of course, rendered those Filofaxes completely redundant.
Sarah had never been one to be the first to jump on any new bandwagon. She had not been the first among her friends to acquire a mobile, even when they became smaller and more portable. Taking after her father, perhaps, she had never seen the necessity to be always accessible. But then, a few years later, when she was a young Mum in a local park, she remembered how grateful she had been when one of her friends whipped a mobile phone out of the bag she had slung over the handle of a buggy and summoned a first-aider. This had been when an egg-sized swelling had appeared on the forehead of one of the kids had been hit by a swing. Fortunately the swelling had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, but it was nevertheless reassuring to be seen by the first-aider so quickly too. Sarah had also heard conversations over mobiles in shops when the caller confirmed with someone at home what groceries they did or did not need – an eminently sensible call, in Sarah’s opinion. But she had never considered a call as important as the one she had just made herself.
She tried again to talk to Alan. She was not sure whether he could hear her or not but she thought she saw his eye-lids flicker. She was grateful that there was a torch on the phone too that she could use to draw attention to where they were if necessary. She would not call his Mum until she knew more about how he was. No point in worrying her right now when she did not know the facts. To try stop herself from worrying she continued her musings.
Nowadays, she thought, although we still call the ubiquitous gadgets most of us carry in our pockets (or even, for some of us, have almost permanently glued to our hands), mobile phones, mobiles or phones – they are so much more than that. They are also cameras, calendars, diaries, torches, email readers and senders, able to send and receive text messages and all sorts of social media – and so much more. There are apps for just about everything you might want to shop for or know about. They have become addictive. Her father would be horrified but tonight surely, even he would also be grateful. She knew that she certainly was.
She tried talking to Alan again. This time he murmured something incomprehensible in reply. Although she could not make sense of what he was saying, surely that was a good sign – that he was coming round.
And then she heard the whirring of the helicopter blades – in the distance at first, but coming nearer. She stood up and waved her arms about but that might have been unnecessary – they seemed to know where they were. The helicopter was heading straight for them – professional help was at hand. She was almost crying with relief, still holding the mobile tightly in her hand which had allowed her to summon that help and locate their position. She was so grateful that Alan would now receive the medical attention he needed and glad that she had made sure her mobile was fully charged when they set off.
By the time he had been lifted into the helicopter he was already talking coherently to the team and remembered falling. Alan suffered no permanent damage – and he too, now carries a fully charged mobile phone when he leaves home and has also invested in an extra charger to take with him – of course you have to remember to charge that too!
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