by Laura Dragon
“Gee was worried. She needed help and he wouldn’t give any. What about him, Hollis?”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“What about he was a loser who couldn’t handle responsibility?”
Hollis glared. “Gee says that. I’ve heard her.”
“Don’t matter who said it if it’s true.”
“There has to be more.”
“Why? ’Cause you want it that way? Sounds like you blame Mama for bein’ sick.”
Hollis felt the blood rush into his face. “That’s not fair—I miss Mama somethin’ awful. But she’s gone. What if something happens to Gee? Where would we go? Foster care?” He shuddered. “Got no other family but Dad and, well, Grammy Williams.” He and Jonas both rolled their eyes. “And she won’t take us, and we don’t want her anyway.”
“Well, Dad don’t want us either.”
Hollis scowled. “Dad’s a part of us, and I want to know him.”
“Grammy Williams is part of us.”
Hollis grimaced. “Yeah, but we already know everything we need to know about her.”
Jonas frowned. “I’ll be eighteen next summer. I can take over then. It’d be hard, though. As for that man, you have to wait until you’re eighteen yourself, ’cause Gee’s never gonna let you look for him before then. In fact, you’d better just wait until Gee dies, or she might never forgive you. She’s sure never forgiven him.”
Hollis opened his mouth to reply, but Jonas put up his hand. “Listen!” he said as he scooted over to touch Gee’s arm, awakening her.
Hollis strained his ears and caught the faint whup-whup of a helicopter. Hope flared inside him. Finally! Help’s coming!
The sound grew stronger, and all over the neighborhood, people scrambled to their feet and cheered. Hollis and Jonas leaped up as well and kept hopping, waving their arms and shouting, “Over here! Over here!”
“Boys!” Gee’s voice grated. She cleared her throat. “Stop that bouncin’ and sit. You’ll fall, and we don’t need that.”
The two boys stopped jumping but kept waving. The helicopter flew past them in a steady line, neither slowing nor turning. It grew smaller and smaller in the sky, its sound fading away. Hollis felt his heart sink. His hands dropped to his sides.
“What are they doin’?” Jonas asked, his hands on his hips.
“Seems like they leavin’,” Gee said. “And now Algie’s awake.”
Leta and Algie were blinking and stirring. Leta sat up, but, to everyone’s relief, Algie turned onto his side and went back to sleep.
Hollis scuffed his shoe against the shingles. “Maybe they’ll be back soon,” he said.
“Maybe,” Gee said. “Y’all miserable up here, I know. No games, no TV. C’mon, Noodle, help me, will you? Need to stretch my back.”
Jonas climbed over Hollis and helped Gee sit up. He squatted behind her, holding her up.
She took a long, slow look around. “Couldn’t see much before. My, my. We’re in a pickle, no mistake. Don’t let that helicopter leavin’ worry you, Hollis. They flyin’ around to see what’s what. Got a lot of people to pick up, and they can’t fit everyone in that one helicopter, now can they?”
“Maybe they want to see where the people are to send boats,” Jonas said, rubbing his forehead. “I mean,” he said, nodding at the neighborhood, “where’s that thing gonna land?”
“Okay, baby,” Gee said and patted Jonas’s hand. “Lay me out. I’ve stretched enough.”
“Baby!” Jonas laughed. “You’re slippin’, Gee. Haven’t called me ‘baby’ in years.”
Gee smiled. “You’ll always be my baby, Jonas. Each and every one of you. Gifts from my most wonderful baby—your Mama, God rest her.” She groaned a bit as he eased her down. “Thank the Lord the sun’s not out. There’s no shade, and all this water’s gonna make a whale of a stink. Smells like sewer and motor oil. Nasty! Listen. If I go back to sleep and Noah shows up with the ark or a couple a gallons of water we can drink, wake me up, you hear?”
The day went on. No boats motored past, but several more helicopters flew by. Each time, fewer people jumped up to wave. Eventually, everyone just watched as the big machines roared by. One or two slowed, hovering over the houses for a moment before flying away again.
“Maybe they’re counting us,” Hollis said. “And they’ll bring a really big boat or a whole fleet to get us out.”
Jonas nodded. “Maybe. Weird to think of boats drivin’ up and down the street like cars.”
“Hey!” The faint call came from a house across the street.
Jonas waved to acknowledge them.
“Y’all got an axe?” the man yelled.
Jonas held the axe up over his head.
“Can you swim?”
Jonas waved again.
“We got people on the next street stuck in their attic. Our axe fell in the water, so we can’t help them. Can you?”
Jonas turned to Gee. “Can I?”
“No, indeed,” she said in surprised irritation. “Don’t want you in that water. Dangerous. ’Sides, I need you here.”
“But—” Jonas began.
“No!”
Jonas sighed and made a “wave off” motion with his arms.
“They got babies,” the man persisted.
“Babies, Gee,” Jonas said.
“I heard him,” she barked, glaring at him. “What did I just say? You’re my baby! I say no!”
“Sorry,” Jonas yelled to the neighbor, and he glanced at the sleeping Algie.
The man waved to let him know he’d heard.
“They’ll find someone,” Gee said. “All these folks on their roofs. One of them can go help.”
Jonas didn’t say anything, but Hollis saw his jaw tighten.
“Listen, Jonas,” Gee rasped. “It’s gonna get dark soon. There’s no light but the lantern, and it’s gonna be blacker than my winter coat. You won’t be able to see your hand in front of your face. No time to be swimmin’ around.”
Afternoon turned to evening, and evening darkened into night.
Hollis said to Jonas, “You gotta admit, you’d a’ been in trouble. No way anyone could swim in this dark and find anything.”
Jonas glared at him. “I’m tired,” he said. “I didn’t sleep this afternoon.” He lay down on the roof, positioned his arm over Algie, and drifted off to sleep.
Hollis sat up for a while longer, thinking that he didn’t want to wait seven years to find his father.
Chapter 8
Hero
The pearl-gray light of dawn streaked the sky as Hollis eased himself into the dark water, the axe stuck down the right leg of his basketball shorts. He’d come up with his plan the night before. Get up before anyone else, sneak the axe from Jonas, and swim out and save the trapped family. It would be easy—he was an excellent swimmer.
The water was warmer than he’d expected, and now that he was in it, he could see that there was more junk in his way than he thought. But he remained confident, driven by his visions of heroism from the night before. Once again, he saw an image of the surprised look on Gee’s face. She’d be mad at first—he knew that—but she’d get over it, and then she’d see. He was a hero. He was grown. Again he saw the pride in her eyes when he was given a medal. (There would surely be a medal.) Then, she would tell him that he could find his father. “Anythin’ you want, Hollis. Anythin’ you want,” she’d say. The smile he’d gone to sleep with last night reappeared on his face.
Hollis pushed away from the house and kicked toward the street. The axe hampered him, slowing his ability to raise his right leg. He adjusted the handle back, but it kept wagging forward and getting in his way. His clothing also felt odd in the water, especially his shoes. Floating back to the roof, he took them off and laid them on the shingles.
The breast stroke seemed the ideal choice, because his hands could clear boards and bits of debris out of his way, and he could keep his face out of the disgusting liquid. A thick tuft of twigs refused to budge.
His fingers followed them down, and they turned into branches and then into a ten-foot silver maple, standing where it always had but now hidden beneath the water.
The deluge had pounded into houses, cars, and gardens, stripping pieces of them away, lifting the debris, and tumbling it along to bash and scour away even more. The trees had acted like nets, catching the flotsam in their branches and causing even more of a roadblock for Hollis. He tried to clear a path by pushing aside the laden branches until he grabbed a block of wood caught in some twigs and just missed spiking himself on the nails sticking out from underneath.
Pitching the wood out of his way, he paused, treading water, and closed his eyes to better picture the neighborhood he’d lived in all his life. His eyes open again, he executed a quick side stroke, which took him past where he recalled the tree being, and paddled forward again with slow, careful movements.
The greenish-brown gumbo burbled around his body, trash bobbed everywhere, and a colorful chemical glaze floated on the surface. Gee was right. Stinks. Hadn’t noticed it before. Sewer water and motor oil. Makes sense—bet there’s a lotta cars under here.
A half-submerged Rubbermaid bowl with the price sticker still on it, a toothbrush, and a small contingency of green plastic army men told Hollis that houses closer to the levee might not have survived the inundation. A stiff and staring squirrel revealed that houses weren’t all that had suffered.
Reaching the halfway point made him feel more confident. Then something new floated by. As the thing drifted past, one word formed in Hollis’s brain, and his heart gave a sickening jerk, slamming it into overdrive.
Snake!
He thrashed at the water, trying to use it to push the reptile away, but the snake only rocked back and forth and turned over onto its back.
Oh. Hollis poked at it. Dead snake. He looked around. Wonder how many live ones are in this mess. He glanced back at his house, half wishing he’d brought Jonas along. He could see no movement on the roof. I’m almost there. Have to finish.
The house where the people had called for help was a bit taller than the Williams’s house. He reached up with the axe, caught the edge of the roof, and hauled himself high enough to grab onto the eave. Relief overwhelmed him when he heard footsteps scrambling toward him after he called out, “Yo!” A man’s head appeared over the eave.
“You need help?” the man asked.
“No. Got an axe. Where are the people you said needed to get out?”
“Came from that way. Six houses down on the next street over. Someone said they heard people inside yellin’ for help.” He shot a sideways glance at Hollis. “That’s kind of a long way. You up for it?”
The smile Hollis sent up wobbled, but he nodded and released his hold on the eave, dropping back down into the water. The axe stowed away again, he propelled himself through the backyard and headed for the next street. As he swam, he tried to picture what he knew of that area. He couldn’t remember much. Hollis squared his shoulders in the water. He was committed now.
Fifteen minutes later and two houses from his goal, he ran across another waterlogged tree with debris stuck in its branches. Only this time, the debris wasn’t wood with nails sticking out. It was a car.
The car was upside down and jammed tightly in the branches. Three fourths of it lay under the water. Only the nose and the front wheel wells rose out of the muck. Hollis found a back tire with his foot and pressed down on it, trying to determine how firm the tree’s hold on the car was. Nothing moved. Not the car, not even the branches.
Nevertheless, Hollis had no intention of climbing over the car or into the tree. He struck out to the left, intending to swim around the entire obstacle, and bumbled into an enormous snarl of wire.
Before he was aware of his danger, he was trapped deep in the clutches of the tangle. Panicked, Hollis jerked and kicked, fighting against the wire, which only tightened its grip. He began to sink. Whatever had been holding the nest of wire up had released it. The mass was dropping, and Hollis, his arms and legs somewhat restrained, was going with it. As the liquid closed over his head, a cold finger of caution cut through the shock, and he stopped fighting the wire and concentrated on finessing the water.
Careful, gentle movements helped get his head above the liquid. He maneuvered his way back to the car in the tree. His feet found the tire he had kicked earlier, and he stood on it. Head and shoulders now out of the water, he rested and checked out the trap ensnaring him.
“Hey, son!” a man’s voice boomed in the morning quiet.
Hollis pivoted carefully to the right and saw a man and two kids staring at him from the roof of the nearest house.
“You okay out there?”
“No!” Hollis shouted back in relief. “I’m caught up in some wire. Can you help?”
“Naw. Would if I could, but I can’t swim. Anyone I can call for you?”
“You got a phone?” Hollis felt surprised. Gee’s cell phone lay under the water.
“I do. Don’t work though. Can’t get nobody. I meant call like yell. House to house. Where’d you come from?”
Hollis told him as he began extricating his arms from the mass of wire. Now that he could see what he was doing, removing the wire was easy. It would be humiliating to have to get Jonas out to help him at this point.
“I think I’ll be okay, though,” he said. “Thanks.”
The man waved, but he and the two kids continued to watch Hollis as he struggled to get out of the wire.
“Best reality show around,” Hollis said to himself and pulled a loop of wire over his head.
Everything went well until he got to his hips, which were far enough under the water that they couldn’t be seen. At that point, his attempts to loosen the wire resulted in it feeling tighter. If only he could get higher up. Out of the water, where he could see. His eyes wandered over the way the car sat in the tree.
He placed his foot farther up the chassis of the car. His waist rose out of the water, and he could see the mistake he’d been making in trying to loosen the wire around his body. After a few quick movements with his hands, most of his upper body was free. One more step forward would allow him to complete his escape! He took his step—or tried to. His left foot, under the water, only moved a couple of inches before it yanked to a halt. Hollis’s eyes closed in disbelief. The wire was snagged on the car.
Forward, back, forward, right, back, left, right, forward, back. No combination of movements with his foot seemed to succeed. Bending over to work under the water hadn’t been effective either. Water kept going up his nose and made him feel dizzy. After almost falling over three times, Hollis decided he needed help. He put his hands on his hips and turned his attention to the man and two kids still watching him.
“You ready for that call?” the man asked. “You stuck?”
“Yeah. I’m the next street over. Four houses down and across the street.”
Hollis could see the grin on Jonas’s face when he first made his appearance on the street. He still hadn’t been able to free his foot. He watched Jonas approach, the smirk just getting bigger and bigger with every stroke.
“So what’s new, Blues?” Jonas stopped just short of the car, treading water.
“Stuck.” Hollis held up some of the wire. “Foot got tangled up.”
“Which foot?”
“Left.”
“Gimme the axe.”
“Why?” He handed the tool to his brother.
“Worse comes to worst, and I’ll just cut off your leg.” The axe disappeared under the water as Jonas stowed it away.
“Ha, ha,” Hollis said.
Jonas swam forward, put both hands on Hollis’s left leg, and disappeared under the water. Seconds ticked by while Hollis felt Jonas tugging and working on the wire. He surfaced.
“Gonna have to get higher. You think if I put my feet down, this car’s gonna stay in the tree?”
Hollis shrugged. “It hasn’t budged, and I’ve been climbing all over it.”
Jonas bit his lip. “I’m not chancin’ my weight on it. This car goes, you go too. I tap your leg once, pick up your foot. Twice, put it back down. K?” He submerged.
Hollis followed directions several times, picking up his foot and putting it down at Jonas’s urging.
Jonas finally surfaced. “Think I got it.” He disappeared again, and Hollis felt the pressure of the wire leave his ankle.
Jonas came up wiping water from his face.
“Okay, gotta get those people out,” Hollis said. “You still got the axe, right?”
“Hang on. I wanna see if we’d’ve been okay.” Jonas rose out of the water until he was standing next to Hollis, upright on the car. Nothing happened. “I guess we would have.”
“That’s good,” Hollis said. “Because I’m pretty sure I’ve still got some wire around my other—”
Just then, the car shuddered and slid out of the tree.
“Around your other what?” Jonas said, panic in his voice.
“Knee!” Hollis yelped.
The car disappeared, and Hollis was yanked under the water, Jonas right behind him. A moment later, both boys surfaced next to each other.
“What happened?” Jonas asked, gasping for air.
“Came loose. I guess you got enough of it off.” Hollis scrambled into the tree. “Man! That was too much!”
Jonas jerked his head. “C’mon. We need to get you back to Gee.”
“But Jonas, the house is right over there. Let’s get the family out first, then go home.”
“Nope. I promised Gee I’d bring you right back. Gotta go now.”
“But you know how hot it gets in attics . . . ”
“You ain’t gettin’ me in trouble, Hollis. We’re goin’ back now.”
It took much less time swimming back than it had going over. Only a few minutes seemed to have passed before they were able to see Leta and Algie. Both stood in the same position—one hand on a hip, the other shading their eyes—watching for them. Hollis waved. Leta waved back but had to restrain Algie from jumping up and down.
