Undertow

by Steve Behling

  For the first time since he entered the house, Arthur smiled a little. “They’re jokes for people who think they’re funny. You know that’s just not true, right?”

  Tom shrugged. “Agree to disagree. Anyway. Your mother would have wanted you to have this, Arthur. Keep it safe. It’s a piece of her that you can take with you wherever you go.”

  “She . . . ,” Arthur said, struggling to find the words.

  “She what?” Tom replied.

  “Mom . . . She’s never coming back, is she?”

  Tom grew quiet, then took a deep breath and forced a smile. “It’s getting late. Get some sleep,” he said, then he left the room, leaving Arthur alone with his mother’s book.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “HOW MANY YOU GOT LEFT?”

  With a broad smile, Arthur tugged the sides of the canvas bag apart, turned it upside down, and shook it. “None,” he bragged. “I have NONE left. How about you?”

  Claudia circled back on her bike, stopped pedaling, coasted, then hit the brakes. She came to a stop right in front of Arthur’s bike. “Let me see that,” she said, grabbing hold of the bag and peering inside. Claudia shoved her right hand into the bag, running it all around, touching all sides. “That’s not possible. Does this thing have a trapdoor or something?”

  “No, I finished! I swear!” Arthur said.

  It was the first time all summer that Arthur had beaten Claudia on the paper route, and Claudia couldn’t believe it. She stood astride her bike, feet planted on the ground, staring at Arthur’s empty bag, dumbfounded. “I still have five papers left,” she said, talking more to herself than to Arthur. “How. Is. This. Possible?”

  “The universe works in mysterious ways,” Arthur jabbed. “You wanna do something after you’re done? Head over to May’s, check out the comics?”

  Claudia looked up at the gray sky. The storm clouds had been building all morning, and the winds had continued to strengthen overnight. An old tree next to the Amnesty Bay pharmacy had already lost a branch thanks to the wind, downing some power lines. But the rain and flooding were still to come.

  “I dunno. The storm’s supposed to be pretty bad,” Claudia said. “You wanna watch movies or something?”

  “Yeah, that’d be cool. You wanna come over?” Arthur said.

  “Sure!” Claudia answered. “Just need to use the pay phone to call my dad and let him know.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Claudia had finished up her paper route. She and Arthur rode through downtown, where she stopped to use the pay phone at May’s Pharmacy while Arthur browsed the comics.

  When they had finished up, they hopped back on their bikes and rode toward the shore, on their way to the Curry house. A light rain started to fall, but Arthur didn’t mind it. There was something about the droplets hitting his face that he liked.

  Arthur looked down at the beach, watching the waves crash into the shore. The surf looked rough, and it was—the approaching storm saw to that. The water churned, foaming white at the top. He thought about Topo for a second. He hadn’t seen Topo since the incident at the dock, and he hoped that the octopus would be okay with the storm and all.

  It’s an octopus, Arthur, he thought. It lives in the water; it’ll be fine. Knucklehead.

  “What are those idiots doing?”

  Arthur whipped his head around to see Claudia riding next to him, staring out toward the ocean.

  “What idiots?” Arthur asked.

  Claudia pointed a finger toward the shoreline. “Those idiots!”

  Arthur notice a group of kids on the beach, surrounding a catamaran. The boat sat on the wet sand, its twin hulls half in the water, half out.

  “What kind of brainiacs take a boat out with the storm of the century coming our way?” Claudia asked. She squinted, then smacked her forehead with an open hand. “Of course it would be them.”

  Arthur squinted, too, and saw Matt and Mike.

  Figures, he thought.

  Matt and Mike were trying to push the catamaran into the oncoming waves, along with two other students that Arthur recognized from class—Nikki and a kid that everyone just knew as Peanut.

  “I get that Matt and Mike would want to do something this dumb, and everyone knows that Peanut is a lost cause,” Claudia ranted. “But Nikki? Shouldn’t she know better?”

  As if on cue, Nikki started to wave wildly. “Hey, guys! Give us a hand?” Nikki said, shouting over the wind.

  “Rats,” Claudia said. “Spotted.” She stopped pedaling and let her bike come to a slow stop.

  “We could just ignore ’em?” Arthur said, hitting the brakes. “Pretend we couldn’t hear her? Or see her?”

  “Yeah, give us some help getting this thing in the water!” Matt bellowed. “Unless fish boy’s afraid of getting wet!”

  Arthur bit his lip, feeling anger welling up within him. Claudia noticed it, too. She put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Ignore the jerk,” Claudia said. “Let’s just get to your place, and we can hang out and watch movies the rest of the day. I know you’re dying to watch The Blob for the thirtieth time.”

  Arthur felt his anger subside a little. He knew Claudia was right.

  “I don’t know if you guys noticed or not, but there’s kind of like a storm rolling in?” Arthur yelled over the sound of the wind. “Don’t you think it’s a little . . . not smart to be taking the boat out in weather like this?”

  “Hey, it’s Curry. Cool,” said Peanut, nodding slowly, as if he were the only one who’d noticed that Arthur had arrived.

  “Peanut,” Arthur said. “Can’t you guys wait until the storm is over to go out?”

  Matt looked at Arthur, smiling. Then he turned to Claudia. “Yeah, I’m not waiting for anything, especially not some dumb storm,” he said, a snide tone in his voice. “Everyone get on the side of that hull and push.”

  “Yeah, I’m not pushing anything,” Claudia said. “For the record, I think you’re all a bunch of dopes. Why are you going out now? The storm’s gonna hit soon. You wanna be lost at sea?”

  Mike laughed. “Oh, come on. That guy on the TV doesn’t know anything. He just sits there squawkin’ in a weird voice, thinkin’ he knows all about the weather and stuff. Besides, the bad stuff’s not supposed to hit for another couple of hours. I say we go!” Then he hit his chest with both fists.

  “You guys should come with,” Matt said to Claudia, then turned to Arthur. “Bring fish boy with you. He’ll be good for a laugh. Maybe we can feed him to the sharks.”

  Once again, Arthur felt the bile rising in his throat.

  Where’s a friendly octopus when you need it?

  “Ah, thanks, but no thanks,” Claudia replied. “I have better things to do than become a newspaper headline. And so should you. This is dumb.”

  “She’s right,” Arthur said in a clipped voice. “It’s not safe.”

  “It’s not safe? Listen to you! You sound like my mom!” Matt roared, and Arthur winced at the comment. “We’ll get this thing in the water and see you losers later.”

  “Claudia, we can’t just let them go—” Arthur protested.

  “Do you think they’re even listening?” Claudia shot back.

  “See ya later, fish boy!” Matt yelled, as he and Mike pushed the catamaran into the turbulent ocean waves.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “LISTEN—NOW, LISTEN TO ME, everybody! This town is in danger! Now, several people have been killed already!”

  Arthur scooped a handful of popcorn and shoved it toward his mouth. Some of the popcorn actually managed to go in, the rest falling on his lap.

  Claudia made an “ewwwww” face. “Is that how your dad taught you to eat?” she said. “Gross.”

  “Shhhhhh!” Arthur said, his face glued to the TV screen. “This is the best part!”

  “You’ve seen this movie a bazillion times!” Claudia replied.

  “Thirty-one,” Arthur corrected. “Well, thirty-two, now.”

  Arthur’s dad had won
the VCR in a holiday raffle at city hall a couple Christmases ago. Since then, Arthur had been taping his favorite movies whenever they would come on. About a year ago, he’d managed to record The Blob.

  “What do you think’s gonna happen to Matt and Mike and those guys?” Claudia asked as she took a bite of popcorn.

  Arthur shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe the waves’ll push ’em back to shore, and they’ll just give up.”

  Claudia made a mock choking sound. “Yeah, Matt and Mike will definitely give up.”

  “Maybe not,” Arthur said. “I just hope they don’t get hurt.”

  Claudia nodded, and the two turned their attention back to the movie. An oozing creature had trapped a couple of teenagers and a small boy inside a diner and was threatening to overwhelm them. Arthur was on the edge of his seat, even after so many viewings.

  “What, The Blob again?”

  Arthur raised his head, and saw Tom standing in the kitchen doorway, wearing a raincoat.

  “Dad,” Arthur said. “You going out now?”

  Tom buttoned the heavy raincoat. “Have to,” he said. “Storm’s coming in faster than expected. It’s gonna be bad. Heard on the radio that we might even lose some fishing boats.”

  “Really?” Arthur said.

  “Or worse,” Tom said. “I’m headed out to the lighthouse. I’m just glad you two are safe inside. Stay put, now, y’hear?”

  Arthur nodded sharply as Tom left the kitchen and opened the door. A gust of wind shot through the house.

  “Arthur, you don’t think . . . ,” Claudia started to say. Then Arthur stood up without saying a word and hit the “pause” button on the VCR.

  “Let’s listen to the weather,” he said and walked over to his dad’s old AM/FM radio unit. He switched it on and dialed in the local news station.

  “—gale-force winds already hitting the shores of Amnesty Bay. Storm surges are expected, with water reaching inland faster than anticipated.”

  “Storm surges?” Claudia said. “We learned about those in science class. The waves are gigantic.”

  Arthur walked away from the radio and looked outside the window. Rain was falling now, and the gray sky was rapidly changing to a dark gray, almost black on the horizon. The storm was rolling in now, full force. Trees were bending over, caught in the high winds that assaulted the shoreline. He looked up at the lighthouse and saw the rotating beacon in full operation.

  “It’s getting really bad out there,” Arthur said.

  “Authorities report that all fishing boats have returned to dock, but one boat seems to still be out in this inhospitable environment,” the radio voice interrupted. “According to Amnesty Bay police, a catamaran was spotted heading out to sea roughly ninety minutes ago . . .”

  Claudia gasped. “They’re never gonna make it back in.”

  Arthur swallowed hard. “Not without some help.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY FOR the record that this is the worst idea in the history of worst ideas!”

  Claudia was standing on the shore, screaming at Arthur, barely able to hold her stance in the sand. The winds were punishing, and it took all her effort to try to stay in place. She shielded her eyes with her right hand as the driving rain assaulted her from the sky.

  “If I don’t go out there and get them, they’re gonna die!” Arthur yelled back. He was walking forward somehow, pushing against the wind.

  “Arthur, if you go out there, you’ll die!” Claudia shouted. “And you’re my friend! I don’t want my friends to die! Then I have to make new friends! I hate making new friends!”

  “Get into town!” Arthur yelled back, as the tide rolled in, shoving him backward. The storm was worsening, and water was coming into shore farther and farther with every swell. “Get the paramedics and the police and bring them here!”

  “And just what are you going to do? Swim out there and drag them back?!” Claudia fumed.

  “Something like that!” Arthur screamed, and he dived into the water headfirst.

  And he didn’t come up.

  Claudia cursed under her breath, then ran back to the bike she had thrown onto the pavement. She jumped on and rode into town, the weather fighting her at every turn.

  From the moment he hit the water, Arthur approached something like a state of shock. Not from the icy chill of the waters, nor from the extreme wind and rain, nor from the epic waves that were battering the shore. Instead, the shock came from how easy Arthur found it to swim in such conditions.

  No, not just easy—like he was born to do it. He found himself swimming faster than he ever thought he could, somehow pulling ahead with every stroke despite the ocean’s best efforts to thwart him. Not only was he pulling ahead, but he was speeding up.

  He could see the catamaran now, just up ahead, but he was having difficulty keeping his head above water for more than a couple of seconds at a time. Whenever he popped his head out of the ocean, a wave came along and crashed into him, and the undertow dragged him back under. Then he would give a mighty kick, propelling himself toward the surface, where he would bob up again.

  Only this time, he didn’t break the surface. He felt himself sucked down into the ocean, and no matter how hard he kicked, the water wouldn’t let him go.

  Arthur looked left, then right, and felt his heart beating. It felt like it was in his throat. Arthur didn’t know how, but he could feel himself sweating an icy-cold sweat, even in the water. Every pore felt like it had opened up, and he was aware of his breathing.

  My . . . breathing?

  Blinking his eyes, Arthur realized that he actually was breathing.

  Beneath. The. Water.

  He gasped, taking in a lungful of salty liquid. Arthur expected to choke but was stunned to find that he simply sucked the water in and then out, just like breathing air. He didn’t gag, he didn’t feel like he was going to throw up, and his lungs didn’t feel like they were going to collapse.

  Somehow, Arthur was breathing underwater, just like in his dreams.

  The panic subsided.

  He felt the current tug at his legs, and just like that he was pulled downward, just like in his dreams.

  Summoning his strength, Arthur gave a swift kick with his right leg, straight up. As he did, the world around him suddenly moved away. Arthur felt himself moving with a speed that he could only have imagined before. A second later, the dark water gave way to the surface as Arthur exploded outward.

  What is going on?! Arthur thought, a good ten feet above the waves below. He saw Matt clinging to a life preserver, struggling against the waves, getting nowhere.

  Arthur splashed back into the water, going down below the surface before coming back up again. With the slightest kick, he managed to stay afloat this time, half his torso above the rolling water line. The catamaran was about twenty feet away from Matt. Arthur could make out Nikki and Mike at the catamaran’s tiller, and Peanut, straining to hold on. The small boat was being tossed all around in the crashing waves, and the storm was only getting worse.

  There’s no way they’re gonna make it.

  Then he looked at Matt and saw him trying to hold on to the life preserver.

  Just trying to hold on. And barely managing that.

  “Matt!” Arthur screamed over the ocean’s roar. “Hang on! I’m gonna come and get you!”

  But how can I save him and save the kids on the boat? I can’t do both. I need help! There’s no way . . .

  Arthur ducked beneath a wave and gave a kick. He propelled himself forward, only to hit the next wave beyond it. The water took Arthur with it, knocking him backward. He took a mouthful of water and spat it out instinctively, even as he realized he didn’t need to anymore.

  Need help . . .

  The catamaran began to lean to the starboard side as the mast started to crack.

  Then, just as Arthur had before, Matt started to bob beneath the surface. Even with the life preserver, the ocean and the storm were too formidable a foe
.

  Arthur kicked, swimming against the waves. He was making progress, but it was slow going. Too slow.

  There was no way he could save everyone alone.

  Then . . . he felt it.

  Something swiped past his leg.

  Then again.

  And again.

  Arthur dived below the water’s surface, and saw a blank, featureless face staring back at him, its eyes wide, and determined. Then he saw the legs. Or rather, tentacles.

  All eight of them.

  Topo!

  Can you help?

  The octopus wrapped a tentacle around Arthur. He felt the limb tighten around his waist as Topo swam off, pulling Arthur along with him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “PEANUT!”

  Mike’s voice rang out over the sound of the storm as he watched his friend washed overboard. He had lost his grip on the tiller. Mike had tried to grab Peanut, but the boat was tossing too hard, and Mike’s skin was too wet and slick. His hand slipped, and Peanut hit the water, hard.

  Again, Mike screamed for his friend who was no longer there. “Peanut!”

  Then Mike screamed.

  His jaw dropped when he saw Peanut rise out from the ocean, a tentacle wrapped around his waist. Then, like a pitcher hurling a baseball, the tentacle flung Peanut toward the catamaran. The boy hit the port-side hull, and Mike scrambled to his friend’s side. Throwing his arms down, he grabbed onto Peanut and somehow managed to pull him back aboard.

  “Was that a freakin’ octopus?!” Mike stammered, white as a sheet. When he looked back at the ocean, he saw nothing except the waves.

  And, peering out from them, a face he recognized instantly.

  “Arthur?” Mike gasped in disbelief.

  Bobbing up and down in the water, Arthur thrust his arms forward, heading for the boat. Then Topo broke the surface, the octopus’s head right next to Arthur’s. The two began to swim, and in mere moments, they reached Matt, who was losing his grip on the life preserver.