Haunted Waters

by Jerry B. Jenkins

  Chapter 46

  I fought to stay focused. There was no way I could afford a seizure now. Bryce said the green car was behind us, but I forced myself not to glance back. It was like monsters in your closet or under your bed—you knew they were in there but you didn’t want to look. The car nudged us again, and Sam fought the steering wheel.

  I was crying and trying to comfort Dylan at the same time. “If I’d just taken my medicine!” I wailed.

  “Stop it,” Sam said. “This is not your fault.”

  Bryce dialed the cell phone again, but it still wasn’t working. Dylan pointed to the left, and I saw a flash of green. The car was right next to us!

  It veered right, but Sam swerved and avoided it, jerking our heads to the left. Dylan was crying, and I forced myself to worry about him to get my mind off myself. If only I could distract myself until I got my medicine . . .

  The lake was on our right, the reservoir rimmed with a fresh patch of snow. We crossed a bridge and the car kept up, trying to run us into the guardrail. Sam kept both hands on the wheel as the green car pulled just ahead. Sam was going fast—too fast.

  Bryce’s neck was rigid. He sat ramrod straight, holding on to the grip above his door. Dylan held my arm and whimpered. Air rushed into the SUV as loud as a freight train. It was so cold I could hardly feel my fingers.

  “Shh,” I whispered to Dylan, “it’s going to be all right.” But I had spoken too soon.

  The green car forced Sam off the road and into a patch of snowy grass where he lost control. We went up an embankment. Sam slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. At the top of the small hill we went airborne, and it felt like the whole world had slipped from beneath us.

  Everything went in slow motion. I saw crystal blue water below. Sam’s knuckles turned white around the steering wheel. Bryce put both hands on the grip above his door. Dylan’s eyes grew wide, and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

  Amazing what pops into your head when you think you might die. Would I ever get to talk to Hayley again? Would this be a story we would share? Would the police know this wasn’t an accident? Would Mom ever know the truth? Was this what Dad felt like as his plane was going down?

  The green car slid to a stop on the road. Our Land Cruiser dipped forward into its freefall toward the water.

  A white bird flew by us, its wings flapping lazily, as if nothing in the world was wrong.

  Oh, God! I prayed.

  Chapter 47

  I couldn’t believe this was happening.

  Twice before in my life I thought I was going to die. Once was when I was riding bikes back in Illinois with my friend Tim. We were crossing a road in town, and I looked both ways, but Tim was blocking my view and I didn’t see a car coming. I was halfway into the street when the car slammed on its brakes and squealed to a stop.

  The driver was just as shaken as I was. “Son, I don’t know how I stopped. Must’ve been some angels looking out for you.”

  The other time was at my uncle’s house in Indiana. While Ashley and I were fooling around with a tractor, she got on and pretended to start it. Only it did start and it raced straight at me. Ashley banged into the back of a hay wagon. If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, I would have been flat as a Frisbee.

  But neither of us had faced anything like this. As we floated in the air, I thought about my friends and wondered what they would think when they heard that Ashley and I were dead.

  The SUV hit the water and the air bags blew into our faces. Like lightning, Sam unfastened his seat belt and tried to open his door, but the water kept it shut. It gushed through the broken window as we sank.

  I held my breath as the water rushed in.

  Ashley screamed, which made Dylan scream.

  Sam yelled, “Don’t panic! I’m going to get us out of this.”

  Ashley stopped screaming, but none of us could calm Dylan.

  Chapter 48

  Sam helped Bryce out of his seat belt and told Dylan to hold his breath as the water poured over us. “Buddy, we’re getting out of here. I promise,” he shouted over the torrent.

  He fumbled with the car seat, his hands shaking in the freezing water. “We’ll go out the broken window. Bryce first, then you, Ashley. I’ll follow with Dylan. Swim like crazy to the surface and get to the shore.”

  We were out of our belts as the freezing water almost filled the Land Cruiser. We floated to the ceiling, where there were a couple of inches of air. The SUV turned slowly, like a boat listing to one side.

  “Act fast and don’t be afraid,” Sam said. “God’s going to help you.”

  I wondered how he knew that.

  “Jesus, help us get out of here!” I prayed.

  “God, please help us,” Bryce said.

  Sam held Dylan tight to his chest while the Land Cruiser went fully under. He signaled wildly and pushed Bryce and me toward the open window.

  Dylan was holding his breath, but his little face looked chalky and his eyes were glassy. This was a kid who only went into a pool if he had his plastic turtle that held him way above the water.

  Chapter 49

  I sucked in a last good lungful of air and dived out the window. The cold water stung my eyes. I turned and reached for Ashley’s hand, and she shot out, bubbles streaming from her mouth and nose.

  It felt like we had dived into a pitcher of freezing lemonade. The murky water enveloped us and seemed to reach into our souls, trying to take our air away.

  We rose hand in hand, struggling to keep from sucking water into our lungs. Just as I thought I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, golden rays shimmered above us and we broke to the surface, gasping.

  Chapter 50

  As soon as Bryce and I reached the surface, I thrashed about, freezing but searching desperately for Dylan and Sam. “They’re not going to make it, Bryce!” I screamed. “Dylan will never hold his breath that long!”

  Bryce tugged me a few yards to some rocks where we sat huddled, trying to protect each other from the icy wind that froze the water to our clothes and skin. “Please, Jesus, please, Jesus, please, Jesus,” was all I could say.

  My whole body was numb, even worse than at Dad’s funeral, and I couldn’t move my fingers. The frigid water lapped in a lazy rhythm against the rocks.

  “I’m going back down,” Bryce said.

  “No!” I said, holding him with all my might. “Don’t try and be a hero. I can’t lose you too.”

  Bryce’s lips were blue and quivering, and his eyes were red. “I’m not trying to be a hero. I just want my little brother and my dad to be okay.”

  His dad? Bryce had never called Sam that before.

  I kept my eyes peeled on the water. Dylan could be a pain, but I loved him with all my heart and couldn’t imagine life without him. I cried, thinking of how I had yelled at him so many times, but now all I wanted to see was that big head of his coming out of the water. I promised a million things—that I would never complain about his messing up my room or tracking mud in the house after I had just vacuumed or his crying to get his way around Mom.

  Chapter 51

  Ashley and I held each other, shivering and crying and praying. It wasn’t praying like you hear at church. It was just us two begging God for help.

  It seemed like years went by, and we didn’t see any sign of Dylan or Sam. I knew Sam would never leave my little brother down there, and soon I was sure they were both gone. How in the world would we tell Mom?

  Losing one dad is bad enough, I prayed. Isn’t it, God?

  Ashley turned to me and pointed at bubbles rising 10 or 15 feet from the rock. First it was only a few little bubbles, then a bunch, then bigger bubbles.

  Dylan’s head popped through, and Sam held him out toward us. Sam coughed and sputtered as Ashley and I whooped and hollered.

  But something was wrong. Dylan wasn’t coughing. His face was white, and his eyelids were blue. He looked as limp as a rag doll.

  “Take him!” Sam yelled. “Help me get h
im out!”

  We got our hands under Dylan’s armpits, but he felt like a sack of potatoes in his water-soaked clothes. Ashley helped me pull him up onto the cold rock.

  Sam crawled up quickly, panting. He knelt beside Dylan, but I could tell by the way my little brother’s body lay still that he was gone.

  Chapter 52

  When Sam rolled Dylan onto his side, Bryce looked shocked too. I could only imagine what those last few seconds in the SUV were like for Sam and Dylan.

  Sam’s face was all screwed up in a mix of anger and tears while he patted Dylan’s back. “Not again,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re not putting me through this again.”

  At first I thought he was talking to Dylan, but then I realized he was praying. I’d never heard him talk to God.

  “Breathe!” Sam’s voice echoed off the walls of the mountains as he pushed on Dylan’s chest. “Make him breathe!”

  Then came the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Dylan coughed and burped. Water gurgled from his mouth, and his eyelids fluttered. It was better than Christmas morning.

  Sam hugged Dylan to his chest, and Bryce and I sat beside them and put our arms around them. I didn’t care that I was freezing or that there were goons out there who wanted to hurt us. My little brother was back, and I saw how much Sam cared about us. We all sat there crying, even Sam, which scared Dylan even more and he began to sob loudly. That made us laugh, which seemed to puzzle him to no end.

  All of us were trembling uncontrollably now, and I knew we had to get dry and warm fast or we’d be in trouble.

  Chapter 53

  Something special was happening on the rock in that reservoir—something unexplainable. Was God watching us? I’m sure. Were angels protecting us? I think so.

  A guy in a Jeep saw us waving and stopped. We scrambled off the rock and piled into his SUV. I held Dylan, trying to warm him, and Sam hugged Ashley. After the driver turned on the heat full blast, Sam told him what had happened. The man drove us to the sheriff’s office and stayed with us to make sure we were okay.

  They laid out our wet clothes on an old heater and wrapped us in blankets. One of the officers made us hot chocolate while Sam drank coffee. The guy in the Jeep went home and brought back clothes for Sam and robes for Ashley, Dylan, and me. I couldn’t help smiling every time I looked at Dylan getting lost in that old robe.

  Sam gave the officers the license plate number of the green car, which amazed me. Despite all we had been through, he had memorized it. He also gave them the memory stick he had shoved in his pocket, but it was full of water and I doubted it would work.

  “I can’t believe those guys wanted to kill us,” Ashley said when the officers left us alone.

  “Maybe they just wanted to scare us,” Sam said.

  “They did a good job,” I said.

  After Sam called Mom, the officers drove us to a nearby hospital to get checked out. It was fun riding in the cruiser, and I expected Dylan to be all over the car. But he just sat next to Sam and held his hand.

  A nurse clucked her tongue and said, “You poor things,” then led us into a room to wait for the doctor.

  The doctor came in and looked at Dylan’s eyes with his light. He checked his ears and lungs, then looked the rest of us over and shook his head. “You guys are either very lucky or you have somebody upstairs looking out for you.”

  Chapter 54

  When Mom got to the hospital, Bryce and I ran into her arms. The only time I’ve cried harder was the night of the plane crash. She and Sam hugged a long time too.

  Mom’s mouth popped open with each new wrinkle in the story. She put her hand on Sam’s arm. “They think it was the people who stole the gold?”

  “Had to be,” Sam said.

  The real miracle was that I had not had a seizure, even with all we had been through. The doctor found some medicine and gave it to me.

  A police officer came in and asked Sam to sign a couple of things. “Oh, and the local paper wants to talk with you and take your picture,” the officer said.

  Sam looked at Mom kind of funny and asked to speak with the officer outside. I was trying to think of what I would say to the reporter when Sam came back and told us we wouldn’t be doing any interview or pictures.

  “Why not?” Bryce said, looking disappointed.

  Sam sighed. “We’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

  I don’t remember much of the drive home except waking up once and hearing Dylan snore. Bryce slept against the other door. The dashboard lights lit Mom’s face, and I saw her wipe away tears as she and Sam listened to the radio. I usually gag when she turns on the Christian station with the slow music, but tonight it felt good to hear those old songs.

  Sam carried me to bed when we got home, and it felt so good to be held in his strong arms that I pretended to still be asleep. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I started calling him Dad too.

  Chapter 55

  I got up late Sunday, even though I had wanted to go to church and tell all my friends everything that had happened. I could see Ashley and me standing with the pastor, telling our story, thanking God for saving us. Maybe next week.

  Leigh seemed amazed at all we’d been through. I was glad Sam had been with us, because I don’t think she would have believed it otherwise. She usually treats us as nuisances, but that day she kept smiling at us and playing games with Dylan, which she never does. I wondered how long that would last.

  I was feeling better until I noticed our ATVs in their stalls in the barn. We’d cheated death, but I still had to face Boo Heckler the next day.

  Sam and Mom subscribe to two newspapers—The Denver Post and The Gazette from Colorado Springs. Neither carried anything about us, but the report about the stolen gold was on the front page of each. The story said police were following several leads.

  I wondered why Sam hadn’t wanted our pictures in the papers. Did he really think it was too much for us? Or was he afraid the guys would find out where we lived and come for us? Something about it didn’t make sense. I kept looking at Sam, waiting for an explanation, but he seemed different somehow, like something was going on that none of us could understand.

  It was cloudy all day, and Ashley and I didn’t feel like doing much outside, so we stayed inside. I creamed her playing video games. Then she chose Boggle, Scrabble, and Battleship and beat me at all three.

  Dylan cried for his miner’s hat, monkey, and raccoon, and Sam promised he would get them back. The police called in the afternoon and said they had pulled the Land Cruiser from the reservoir and that it was totaled—ruined.

  Sam fixed dinner that night, and when we all came to the table, Mom had us hold hands. She asked who wanted to say grace.

  “Dear God,” I prayed, “thanks for getting us out of the water and helping us the way you did. And thank you that Sam was there. Help the police catch those guys so they can’t hurt anybody else. Help them find the gold.” I took a breath. “And thanks for giving us this food and for making us a family.”

  Mom squeezed my hand.

  Sam coughed and went back to the kitchen.

  Chapter 56

  I was helping Mom with the dishes when the phone rang. I had wanted to call Hayley and some of my other friends to tell them what had happened, but Mom asked me not to tell them yet.

  Sam got the phone, snapped his fingers, and motioned all of us over. He hit the Speakerphone button and said, “Go ahead, sir.”

  “I thought you’d like to know we caught the guy who ran you off the road,” the officer said. “We have him in custody so he’s not going to bother you anymore.”

  The officer told us the man was Gavin Winkler, and they had caught him at the airport in Denver. “He was on his way to Las Vegas.” The officer said he hadn’t confessed to anything, and they hadn’t retrieved the nugget, but there were big scrapes on the right side of his rental car that matched the paint on Sam’s SUV. He also said they were going to try and charge him with attempted mur
der. They weren’t sure who had been driving the pickup.

  I wondered if they’d catch the second man. Who was the guy with his back turned in the picture? And where was the gold?

  That night I lit my candle and started a new diary. I didn’t want to wait to get my old one from the cabin. I remembered the situation with Hayley and felt guilty again.

  Someone knocked lightly on my door.

  Chapter 57

  I helped Dylan get ready for bed, then read him his favorite book. Sam tucked him in and said good night, and Dylan kissed his cheek. I didn’t remember that happening before.

  Sam followed me to my room and sat on my bed as I got under the covers. He sat there a long time, just looking at me. “I was proud of you in the SUV, Bryce,” he said finally. “You kept your head.”

  “None of us would have gotten out if it hadn’t been for you,” I said. I felt the corners of my mouth giving way like a riverbank about to fall into the rushing water.

  Sam looked at the floor and put his hands together. “A lot of adults wouldn’t have been able to do what you and Ashley did.”

  “Thanks,” I said. It seemed like Sam wanted to say more, but maybe he couldn’t find the words.

  He scratched at an eye and leaned back. “About tomorrow. I know this Boo kid is on your tail and could cause problems.”

  I nodded and sighed.

  “I have a trip planned in the morning, but I could get another pilot to take my place. With all that’s happened, it might be good. Plus, if you needed a little backup, I could be here.”

  Sam was doing what my dad would have done. Dad used to sit on my bed, talking about stuff before I went to sleep. He never seemed too busy. Sam seemed a little nervous, but at least he was trying.