Smooth

by catt dahman

  A pit bull ran past the woman who lunged for his collar, jumped into the water, and swam toward the car.

  In a second, he turned back the way he had come and swam back to the porch where the woman waited for him, calling his name. Back on the porch, once he had crawled and scratched back to the dry boards, he ran to one side and shook off the dirty water. Then, he began barking at Ronnie and Jobie in the car.

  The man was waving his hands energetically, almost frantically and kept coming; the water was almost to the porch’s floorboards, but he didn’t pause. The man stepped off of his porch and didn’t land on the top step but slid down the steps as he misjudged and landed in the water, cracking his back, butt, and shoulders on the stone steps and smacking the back of his head on the porch.

  “I motioned him to go back,” Jobie yelped.

  The man splashed a few seconds but could do little more than get his eyes and nose above the water. Instead of slinking below the surface, he barred his teeth and pulled his way to his feet, gripping the handrail tightly.

  Behind him, his wife and child made noises of concern and fear, and the man’s head whipped around to locate them.

  The dog shook off again, catching them in his droplets of spray. Their eyes went wide. As the mother’s face began to take on the familiar fury, the toddler plopped down on the porch and started to wail and wave his fists.

  Jobie snapped his head around to stare straight ahead, holding one hand to the side of his head and eye to keep from peripherally seeing what the man and his family were doing. He didn’t want to see that man hurt the woman or child.

  Ronnie drove forward so that they couldn’t see what was happening. If she could have stayed dry by leaning out the window, she might have tried to shoot the man to save his family, but Ronnie didn’t know of a way to stay dry, and she doubted she could make the shot anyway. The dog had gotten them wet anyway, to some extent.

  She stopped the car. Despite her tough exterior, Ronnie began to cry. In a second, she was bawling her head off, heaving and wiping snot off her nose, just making a mess of herself. She felt Jobie reach over and pat her hand and then keep his hand close. Her knee hurt, and the man was going to rip into his family, and it was raining poison. She was having her damned period, which always made her feel weepy and crampy, and her job right then, just sucked.

  She squeezed his hand and held on tightly.

  To Jobie’s credit, he didn’t laugh at her or say anything meant to be soothing but gripped her hand tightly while she cried.

  When she was finally empty and finished, Ronnie wiped her face and blew her nose a few times. She dug two bottles of water out of the glove box, handed one to Jobie and drank one herself.

  Jobie handed her a piece of minty gum, which she unwrapped and popped into her mouth.

  “Jobie, for the record, those kids aren’t your friends; they are a bunch of dumbasses. They are just idiots…full of bullshit…really stupid kids. They are missing out on having a good, real friend,” Ronnie told him passionately.

  Jobie chuckled, “You cursed.”

  “I did.” She smiled a little.

  {The pain in her knee was the worst pain she had ever felt}.

  She drove down towards the end of the street where his house was. The yards were even lower down there, closer to the swampy area off the lake and were deeply submerged. Dirty water swirled over the porches ahead, running into the homes. All were wooden one-story houses, and everything inside would be ruined in each of them. People caught at home would either be standing on furniture out of the water or turned crazy {Rainie} {Smooth} by now.

  Ronnie stopped snickering at Jobie and felt like crying again.

  “My sisters don’t know how to swim,” Jobie said conversationally. “They are supposed to learn, but the lake is closed, so Mom and Dad said ‘wait ‘til this year, and they could learn.’ What do you think happened to them and all the other people on my street?”

  “I dunno. I guess some will be okay because you know things are that way. There are always miracles in times like this. You hear about heroes and magical things later. I just don’t know, Jobie.”

  “I think it’s raining less. I can see better.” Jobie watched out the window. He shuddered as a loud scrape ran from bumper to bumper beneath the cruiser, and Ronnie beat at the steering wheel with frustration when she tried a three-point turn.

  Caught sideways in the street, the Crown Victoria shimmied to a stop.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ronnie turned the steering wheel different ways, tried the accelerator, and even rocked her body back and forth; the grinding noise still came from under the car, but they weren’t moving. The undercarriage of the car was caught on something, and they weren’t moving, regardless of what Ronnie tried. She broke out in a sweat as she slammed her body backwards and then side to side, jarring her knee. Tears ran down her face.

  “I think we’re stuck,” Jobie said.

  “Damnit. We can’t be,” Ronnie said, but she stopped rocking and throwing herself about, “How can I be this stupid?”

  “You didn’t mean to get stuck; it just happened. It’s like anyone else, you can’t stop what nature throws at you,” said Jobie as he jumped when a series of thuds hit his side of the car.

  “Ewww.” He watched the three human bodies, plus a cat, two dogs, and a cow bob along, the animals and humans had bumped the side of the car, and all were bloated.

  The dead were swept along towards the apartments out of sight, but for a long time, Ronnie watched where they went. Several inches of water covered the floor of the cruiser, and when she moved her boots, the water splashed. “Jobie, it’s getting deeper.”

  “My feet are up.”

  “I know. I don’t mean…the water is still rising is what I’m saying. Just in a minute or two, it has risen a few inches in here. Look at the houses.”

  Behind them, water flowed over the porches and was covering some of the lower windows. It was more than halfway up the doors and sides. Closer to them where water had lapped at the porches, it was now streaming over and into the homes.

  Where the family had stood was awash with filthy water and trash. Maybe the father had gotten to his wife and child, but if he hadn’t, the water would now.

  Jobie whirled around as a big dog slammed into his door before floating away on the current. This thud had been significantly higher on the door than the other ones. “What are we going to do?”

  “I was thinking about that. We need to act fast before it gets too deep. You are going to have to roll down your window after you get into my slicker and the baggies, use the umbrella and that tarp to crawl out onto the ledge of the car window, and climb to the top.

  Once you’re there, you are going to have to sit tightly, stay still and dry under the tarp, and wait. Coral and the others will wonder what’s taking us this long and come looking.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. So you just sit there all dry and patient, and they’ll come.”

  “You mean we will, Ronnie.”

  Ronnie shook her head, “I’ve been thinking hard, Jobie, and the thing is I have one sicker and enough baggies for really one person. The tarp will cover one person. Look over here; crawl on me if you have to…see my knee?”

  Jobie stretched to look where she pointed. On the front of her knee where a slight bump of a kneecap was supposed to be, was a huge lump on the side where her knee had shifted and the top was kind of flat. Her slacks were loose fitting, but the fabric was pulled tightly over her sausage-leg and seemed about to split. He had known she hurt her leg, but this was far worse than he could have imagined.

  “Oh, Ronnie.”

  “Yep, pretty bad, huh?” She shrugged and said, “I won’t be climbing at all. I’d fall even if I could support my weight; the pain would buckle me.”

  “I can help you,” he offered. He was a skinny kid and would barely be athletic enough to climb up there himself.

  “Get into my slicker a
nd get going. We can’t wait around, or it’ll get too deep in here,” Ronnie ordered him. Jobie didn’t move. “Jobie, you….”

  “I heard you, Ronnie,” he said softly. He noted the water was rising even faster. “If I get up there and the water comes in and you get wet, what do you imagine will happen?”

  She blinked. She hadn’t considered that. He was right, however, and when she got wet, she would ignore her pain and get out and go after him. No one would rescue him before she attacked. “I’ll give you my gun. You’ll have to….”

  “I’m not gonna kill you! I don’t know how to shoot a gun, and if I could, I wouldn’t shoot you. I’d freeze or panic. I know for a fact I can’t, Ronnie.”

  Her brain spun, trying to find a way out of this. “Okay, then you go on out, and I’ll do it myself. God knows I don’t want to turn into one of those Rainies.”

  Jobie’s jaw dropped and he answered, “You can’t, or you’ll go to hell. Suicide is a mortal sin.”

  {It figured she would be stuck here with a damned Catholic}.

  “Jobie, I’m running out of plans here. Can you just work with me a little?”

  “I’m not leaving you. Please don’t argue this with me because I don’t want to be fighting as the water comes up. I can’t leave you, and seriously, I’m a scrawny kid, so I can’t do chin-ups or sit-ups in PE class.

  I can’t climb the rope or hit the volleyball when it comes at me. It usually hits me in the head, and Coach yells at me. The idea of my managing to pull myself to the roof and keep dry….” he chuckled softly and said, “is really amusing.”

  Ronnie put her head back, holding back another crying fit. “If I shot myself, then you’d have to….”

  “Sit right here alone. Seriously. Do you think that’s right? To leave me alone?”

  “Are you scared?” Ronnie knew the water was about to pout into her boots now. It was almost up to their seats.

  “No, yeah, kind of. It’s not bad like drowning would be. Maybe we won’t suffer; we’ll just change and really won’t know it.”

  “I’m scared to death,” she said as she held his hand tightly. The water in her boot was warm, caressing her flesh, tingling. It didn’t feel bad at all. Her legs relaxed, and the pain abated, slinking away to a far corner of her brain as she wiggled her toes in her wet socks.

  “Ahhh,” Jobie released a breath he was holding.

  Thirty minutes later as the dark water covered the Crown Victoria’s lights, neither Jobie nor Ronnie were alive but had drown calmly, without fighting the water. The anger had emerged for only a few seconds, but no one dry was around to attack, and they both welcomed the peace and nothingness that enveloped them like warm blankets.

  A new lake was forming from the river and rain water, and the police cruiser sat at the bottom of the new lake, two bodies inside that still held hands tightly; both their faces were free of expression, calm, and very smooth.

  Part 3

  Chapter 1

  When Coral saw that Ronnie, Jobie, and his family hadn’t gone to the hotel yet, he told George and Jake to get out, and he and Katie went to take a look. He could handle Oak, but he couldn’t get to the turn-off to go down South Oak at the apartment buildings because the water was too high on his big Explorer.

  Using binoculars, he looked at the last houses on the street; they were covered to their windows and were half way under the water. The way the street dipped, Coral figured that by the middle of the road, the houses would be submerged, and at the end, where Jobie’s home was, the houses would be covered by many feet of water.

  Coral didn’t see the police cruiser on the street and knew the officers couldn’t be on the far side on Farm Road because it was under water. They weren’t to the east because that direction was flooded out. Only a small area was where the car could be, and yet, it wasn’t there.

  “Katie, I think they had some trouble. I don’t think we’re going to find them on dry land.”

  Katie whined in agreement.

  One spot kept getting his attention. He didn’t know what he was seeing until he imagined the cruiser sideways and not straight on. Coral realized he was seeing the very tops of the lights in the dirty water as it swirled.

  Coral felt it in his gut: Ronnie and Jobie were gone.

  He drove around carefully, going slowly. Coral went to the hotel to meet with the rest, driving into the circle drive under the portico where the others had parked.

  Pax met Coral at the doorway with a warm handshake.

  He told him about their adventures, all that Oren had been through, and about the hospital, and said that Oren had not really taken charge but mostly everyone was asking him what to do, so he was glad Coral was there to take over. Pax knelt and gave Katie hugs and kisses, scratching at her ears and rubbing noses with her.

  “Why me? I’m not a leader.”

  “Sure you are, Boss,” Pax said.

  “Jeez, I’m really not.”

  “We think you are a very good leader.”

  “I have some guns in the Explorer and ammo that we should take out and secure. I don’t want everyone to know where the stuff is or have the guns. Only Oren and Gus, Mark, Dan, Jake, George, and you, and Annie, that’s who I trust.”

  “Appreciate that, Boss.”

  “I trusted Ronnie and the kid, Jobie. Level heads.”

  Pax paused a second and looked up. He had known Coral for less than twenty-four hours yet he was trusted; it meant a lot. “Okay, Katie. Go find Annie.”

  Following the big former football player, Pax wrapped the guns back in a blanket to take into the building. He wasn’t an expert with a weapon, but Pax felt okay about carrying one and knew he was competent. He got the feeling something more than the obvious was bothering Coral.

  “What do you want?” Coral motioned to the guns.

  “Glock is fine,” Pax said. “What’s bothering you? Where are Ronnie and Jobie?”

  “I don’t know. I think the car is underwater down at the middle of the street close to Jobie’s house. I’m not positive, but it looks as if that’s what it is, and that’s where they went. The whole neighborhood is flooded, and some of the places…you can barely see the roofs down south, but that cruiser isn’t on any other street, not any of the streets I could get to that aren’t under water.”

  “So you’re saying they just kind of vanished?”

  “I’m saying something happened, and I think they’re in the water. I’m pretty sure they’re gone. I dread telling Oren. I’m trying to get it right in my head before I tell him.”

  “Okay. I’ll show you what we have going,” Pax said as he pointed everything out to Coral as Dan and Jake came to get some of the weapons.

  Marnie and Tina had a medical area set up in one of the conference rooms, and supplies filled the kitchen area of the hotel. Usually the hotel offered a small buffet breakfast for people to sit and eat in the quaint, roomy dining room.

  “They were about a quarter full, and of those people, more than three-quarters were out and either never returned or came back pissed off and were locked out. What we have left is about a dozen people who were staying here and two employees, don’t recall their names.”

  “Just two?”

  “Two others went out to get something they needed and never came back.”

  “Where are they? Where are all the Rainies? We’ve seen some, but not the masses we should be seeing,” Dan said.

  “They’re hiding and staying dry,” Coral said, “I think they are. Not the Rainies, but the regular people like us. People aren’t stupid. They probably figured out what was causing everyone to go crazy before we did. We were slow. “Where?”

  “Anywhere there’s food and bottled water or drinks and a place to sit, maybe at the theatre or spa. The museum has a snack bar. The barbeque place maybe. At the B and Bs.”

  They were gathering or in their homes, staying dry and quiet and waiting for someone to come along and save them or for the rain to stop and everything to dry.
They would stay hidden until either they were rescued or the food and water ran out where they were.

  “If they ran out, maybe, they’d run over here to get our food? Is that what you mean?” Dan asked. He told Coral what Sammy had heard: this was happening all over. “We can’t let them come and take our food. It’s ours.”

  “We’ll protect it.”

  “They can bring their own food or whatever to add to our stash. They have to bring their own supplies and contribute,” Dan continued, “and all people have to contribute. We need help.”

  Coral brought up the idea of not just locking the doors but blocking off the doors and windows and posting guards at the one door they would have available. “Can you set that up, Dan?

  “On it, Coral. None of them will come to get our food. Uh-uh. No way. I’m on it, Coral,” Dan said as he removed his ball cap, ran a hand through his hair, and replaced his hat.

  “Pax, can you coordinate with Dan? Women and children can help this one, but I think we need someone on the top floor watching with the binoculars for anything such as Rainies or people coming over, a rescue team, or anything we need to know about. We need a look-out.”

  “Gotcha. How do you want to do food and water rations and who should do it?” Pax asked.

  Coral thought and responded, “Dana and Lydia are tough enough for that. Tell them to ration and plan a menu, and let me know how long we can go. Maybe set up a guard for the kitchen if you think we need one. Mark may be best for that.”

  “Coral, the hotel guy wants to know if he should lock the booze away or let people have it or what?” Jake asked, “what are we gonna do with the booze?”

  “Make a cocktail hour and hold the drinking to two drinks per customer so that we don’t have drunks. And ask Marnie and Tina what they need for medical…something for pain relief or washing injuries…whatever, and get all that to them and find a place they can lock it up.”