| |
SPARROW VALLEY:
Robert drives into town and stops at the intersection near the school. Several high school kids are stringing a white banner across the road between two light poles and he waits for them to finish. Derek told him about the encounter with Arnie and asked him to convince the Sheriff to cancel the track meet. He doubts Arnie will listen, but he has to try.
The banner becomes taut between the poles, and SPARROW VALLEY PANTHERS RULE is written in bright red letters on a white background.
He continues through the intersection and past the high school, where the parking lot is already getting crowded with supporters from Darrington. Several motorhomes and camping trailers are parked on the football field north of the track field, and even the parking lot at the restaurant is crowded with vehicles, including the Sheriff’s patrol car.
He parks down the street and walks back to the restaurant, and as he approaches the door, the aroma of hamburgers and fries drifts out through the open windows. The bell above the door tinkles when he steps inside, and a few of the customers glance up at him as he continues to the counter and sits on a stool.
Molly sets a mug on the counter and fills it with coffee. “Can I get you something to eat, Robert?”
He looks up. “No thanks, Molly, just coffee.”
“Everyone’s getting excited about the track meet this afternoon. Since Darrington won most of the events in the last playoffs, we all want to kick their butts this year.”
“Hey, Cave?”
The room is suddenly quiet, and Robert swings his stool around. Everyone is watching as Arnie strolls across the restaurant and stops next to him at the counter.
Arnie slaps a one-hundred-dollar bill down next to Cave’s coffee cup. “There’s my bet. Put up your money and let’s make this official.”
Robert slowly looks down at the money, then up at Arnie. “That’s my tax dollars you’re betting with. I’d be betting against myself.”
Arnie hears a few chuckles behind him and stares at Cave. Everything about the man irritates him. “So what? I earned it.”
Robert looks around the room, and all eyes are on him. He looks up at Arnie. “It’s not too late to cancel the track meet.”
“Don’t tell me you believe that crap Patterson was spouting about the dam breaking. Has that old hermit suddenly become a psychic? Or are you just afraid of losing the bet?”
Robert looks around the room at the grins and expectant expressions. The rivalry between the two schools is more powerful than common sense, and he knows to argue the point would be useless. He stands, pulls out his wallet, and lays five twenty-dollar bills on the counter.
Arnie grins and looks around the room, satisfied he has gotten the best of Cave. He decides to take advantage of the situation. He leans forward and takes a long, animated sniff of Cave’s clothing. “I guess Patterson’s not the only one full of horseshit.”
Robert’s hands clench into fists. The smirk on Arnie’s face is making it difficult to resist his urge to knock it off his face. He tries to step past him, but when Arnie shoves his palm against his chest to stop him from leaving, he can’t take it anymore.
Arnie doesn’t see Robert’s fist flying through the air until it’s too late and he staggers backward from the punch. It’s the first time anyone has hit him since high school, and he isn’t used to it. He grabs his jaw and moves it from side to side, as he watches Cave walk out of the restaurant. For a moment, he’s tempted to follow him outside and continue the fight, but the expressions from the people in the room let him know he deserved it, and he lets the matter go.
Molly watches the Sheriff turn and look at the money. When he reaches down to grab it, she snatches it off the counter. “I’ll hang onto this until after the games, Sheriff.”
Arnie hears a few chuckles and walks out of the restaurant.
***
SPARROW VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL:
Derek fidgets in his chair and cannot concentrate on the teacher’s instructions. He tried calling Wesley last night and again this morning, and left two more messages between classes today, but he has not returned his calls. The school bells finally ring and classes are over for the weekend.
He grabs his backpack and leaps out of his chair, then runs to the door before anyone else. He slips and loses his footing as he turns the corner into the hallway, nearly driving Jessica into the lockers on the far wall. “Sorry about that.”
He continues down the hallway at a slower pace, but is anxious to get to his motorcycle.
“I just got a message from Jamie.” Jessica hollers.
Derek stops and walks back down the hall. “What’s going on?”
“She said they’re opening the dam, and you need to get your grandfather away from the ranch.”
“This is bad, Jessica. It’s not just the ranch. If they need to open the dam, then it means the lahar is about ready to come down the mountain. I need to pick up Kristy at the middle school, first. Tell anyone who will listen to leave the valley!”
“They won’t leave.”
Derek looks up and down the hallway at the students rushing to put their books away and get outside to the track meet. “Then it’s not our problem.” He sprints down the hallway and out of the building to his motorcycle. A moment later, the rear tire throws gravel into the air as he races out of the parking lot. First, he has to make sure Kristy is safe, then he’ll go to the ranch and warn Robert.
When he arrives at the middle school, he slams on the breaks and the rear tire slides sideways on the gravel. The buses are gone. “Damn!”
He circles the buildings in case Kristy is waiting for a ride, but the school grounds and buildings are deserted. He stops, puts his feet down, and looks around, trying to decide what to do. “Where are you, Kristy?”
He spins the rear tire around and drives back onto the highway. He might still have time to get Kristy and Robert away from the ranch in Robert’s old truck.
Derek shifts gears to slow down as he passes the store, turns onto the bridge, and once across, shifts gears and races down the road.
Two-miles farther, he slams on the breaks when his way is blocked by water across the road. The river has crested its banks, and the water is streaming down from the mountain on his left, forming a twenty-foot-wide shallow river across the road. From there, it continues down to meet up with the main river below the pasture. It does not appear too deep, so he slowly drives down into the water, holding his feet up until on the other side, then he opens the throttle and the motorcycle roars down the road, leaving a long wet trail in the gravel.
He stands on the pegs to see over the white fence. The water is flooding the lower pasture, and he’s running out of time. With the water acting as a level, he sees Robert is right. The house, barn, garage, and workshops are sitting on an island. The problem is relying on the island as protection would be foolish. Wesley said the lahar will destroy everything in its path, and the ranch will be washed away.
He feels the weight of the satellite phone in his backpack and frustrated Wesley has not called back. Wesley said he was going up the mountain to check the damage, but he should still be in range. Derek drives up to the porch, shuts off the engine, and hangs his helmet on the handlebars as he climbs off.
He runs up the steps and into the kitchen, but doesn’t see Kristy, so he drapes his backpack over a chair and hurries into the living room. “Is Kristy here?”
Robert stands up from the recliner. “I haven’t seen her. Did she go to the track meet?”
“No. She’s smarter than that. She knows what could happen.”
Robert walks into the kitchen. “We had better go to town and find her.”
“The road is already flooding.”
Robert continues walking outside, and Derek follows him across to the garage where they climb into an older model pickup and Robert heads for the bridge. Just over two-miles from the house, he slows down for the water across the road and they stop and climb out to check the depth.
“When I came across on the motorcycle, the water was a lot lower.”
“This is what’s makes this an island. This is always the deepest part when the river floods. It’s about five-feet-deep right here and tapers up to the bridge. We’re too late to get across in the truck. Let’s go back and I’ll call Arnie.”
***
Jessica is correct, and nobody at the school believes her. She climbs into her mustang and starts the engine, then backs up and drives out of the parking lot. She turns the corner in front of the main school building and picks up speed on the way to the highway. She recognizes a small yellow backpack on the ground in front of a little girl standing in front of the building.
She slams on the brakes and the tires squeal to a stop, then she throws open her door, climbs out, and looks over the top as she waves her arms. “Kristy! Over here!”
Kristy slings her yellow backpack over one shoulder and runs across the grass. “I can’t find Derek.”
“How did you get here?”
“I made the bus driver stop here at the school.”
“Get in. We have to warn your grandfather the ranch is going to flood.”
They climb in, and Jessica drives to the stop sign, then turns left onto the highway.
Kristy stares through the right window. “I heard grandpa say he doesn’t need to leave the ranch because it’s on an island.”
Jessica’s phone rings and she grabs it out of her purse and hands it to Kristy. “Answer that for me, so I don’t have to stop.”
Kristy smiles and takes the phone. “Maybe it’s Derek?”
“I doubt it. He doesn’t have a phone.”
“My uncle Alex gave him a fancy one. He can reach all the way to Alaska.”
“Answer it and find out.”
“Oh. Right.” The screen shows the picture of a young man. “I think it’s your brother.”
“Put it on speaker.” Kristy does, and holds it out toward her. “I’m here, Danny.”
“Jamie has been trying to reach you. What’s going on up there in the valley?”
“Everything will be flooded, and nobody believes me.”
“I didn’t understand everything she told me, except you should drive up to the park as soon as you talk to somebody named Derek Cave.”
“Already done. I’ll call her when I’m on my way. Thanks, Danny.”
Kristy sets the phone on the seat, then stares out the side window. “I guess I should have stayed on the bus.”
Jessica glances over, and Kristy is slumped down in the seat. “You’re safe, and that’s what matters. We’ll meet Derek at the ranch.”
Kristy sits up as they approach the grocery store. “We might be too late, Jessica. The water is already all over the pasture.”
“It looks like the road on the other side of the bridge is still good, so we’ll be okay.”
Jessica turns onto the bridge, and notices the water is ready to overflow the banks as she drives across. Once on the other side, she steps on the gas pedal and the mustang shoots forward, but it isn’t long before she is stopped by the water over the road. “We’ll have to go back.”
She backs up until she finds a place to turn around, then heads back to the bridge. When she arrives, the river is overflowing the banks, tearing massive chunks of asphalt from the road between her and the bridge, and rushing through the gap in the washout. She shoves the shifter into reverse when more of the road is washed away thirty-feet in front of the car.
She backs up onto the shoulder to turn around, shoves the shift lever into drive, and steps on the accelerator. The engine screams, and the rear end of the mustang slides sideways off the shoulder into the ditch.
Jessica lets off the gas and stares at Kristy. “We’re trapped!”
“We can walk back and cross the other water. It wasn’t moving so fast.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
Jessica grabs her purse, and Kristy her backpack, and they climb out of the car. They hurry along the road as fast as Kristy’s short legs can move for nearly one hundred-feet, then Kristy suddenly stops and runs back along the road.
“Where are you going?” Jessica hollers.
“I left your phone on the seat. Be right back.”
Jessica thinks about following her, but Kristy is faster than she imagined, so she puts her hands on her hips and taps her foot while Kristy disappears around the mustang. She hears the door slam shut, then watches Kristy run up onto the road, her little yellow pack bouncing across her back.
Jessica smiles at how cute she looks, then her eyes go wide and her mouth hangs open when the mustang disappears. “Kristy! Run!”
Kristy looks over her shoulder and the road is washing away behind her. “Jessica!” She screams and tries to run faster.
Jessica tosses her purse on the ground and runs down the road, desperate to reach Kristy as more of the road disappears behind the little girl. When they meet, she grabs the backpack from her shoulders and takes her hand, dragging her along the road.
After several hundred-feet, she looks back over her shoulder and slows to a walk, then stops to catch her breath. “Whew. That was close.” She notices the frown on Kristy’s lips and the fear in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
Kristy looks up at Jessica and slowly nods yes, then turns and walks away.
Jessica catches up with her in two long strides and places her hand over Kristy’s shoulder as they continue toward the ranch.