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Nikki shrugged off Melinda's weeping embrace. She had to shout over the rush of water. "What do we do?" They couldn't go after Lenny and Steven. But they couldn't stay here, either. Their perch on the straw stack bobbled.
The other kids stared anywhere but at Nikki, the way kids avoided eye contact if a teacher asked a difficult question. Willie clutched his dog with one hand and held tight to Melinda with the other. Tracy hugged her dinosaur and rocked. They were no help.
"What do we do? The flood's getting worse." September didn’t answer. Nikki craned to see into the loft, but September had moved back from the edge out of sight. Maybe working on some kind of plan? "Hey, September, where are you?" She hoped the woman wouldn't do something stupid, the way grownups sometimes did out of desperation. Nikki wanted to cry.
The bales heaved upward and tipped, and everybody squealed, even Nikki. "September, we got to do something now." The whole stack shifted toward the open doorway, a hayride gone terribly wrong. One more big wave and the water would squirt them out like jelly from a doughnut. They couldn't wait for September. They had to finish her plan themselves.
The crazy ladder beckoned, but the bales had shifted so much, they'd have to wade yards of water to reach it. Nikki caught up the extra baling twine—they'd cut far more than they needed—and patted Melinda's arm.
"What?" The older girl shivered uncontrollably and whimpered. Her tangled hair and runny mascara turned her face into a freaky Halloween mask. The collective bales, now a floating island, bobbed sideways. The whole stack slowly traveled toward the open barn door, and hung because the top tier of the straw wedding cake proved too high to pass through. It might scrape off any minute, though. The mountain of straw ground against the dirt floor. Flood pressure pushed from one side and sucked from the other, creating a temporary dam that slowed the outflow. When the top scraped off, they’d stream away with the rest of the bales.
Nikki thrust the twine at Melinda. "You're biggest, you have to go first. Tie one end to your belt loop. Then you." She poked Willie. "Put Kinsler inside your jacket and zip it. You’ll need both hands."
"What are you talking about?" Melinda's attention sharpened. "Go first?" But she threaded the end of the twin through belt loops, without being prompted a second time.
"I'm next to tallest so I go last." Nikki had grown a bunch in the past two months, and stood a head taller than Willie despite being the same age. "Tracy goes ahead of me, because she's littlest."
Nikki’s hands shook and her tongue wanted to stick to the roof of her mouth. At least she knew how to swim. Willie said he didn't know how, and there was no way Tracy could cross the water without help. Nikki scanned the loft again. She hoped September would be there when they climbed into the loft.
Now that the bales had moved, the swaying horse panel's eight-foot length still left a four-foot gap to the floor of the barn. Nikki measured the best route with her eyes. A direct path, though shorter, risked the tug and push of the current. Better to sidle off the bales and use them like anchors as they moved to the far wall first. "There." She pointed, and explained as the other kids finished stringing themselves together. "September has the ladder all ready. We just have to reach it without getting drowned."
Willie snorted. "Yeah, getting drowned would suck. Ask Kinsler." The dog's head poked outside his jacket like Wack-A-Mole and Willie pushed Kinsler's head back down. Willie’s complexion matched Kinsler’s pale fur.
Nikki figured she wasn't at her best, either. Her favorite shoes looked ruined, and her jacket would never recover, but at least she wasn’t swept away like Steven and Lenny. And Shadow. Before she could dissolve into a blubbering baby mess, Nikki pinched herself, hard. That hurt. But it worked.
Their bales shifted again. Nikki reached out and grabbed Tracy to keep her steady. The little girl didn’t notice, simply clutched her soaked dinosaur and rocked faster and faster. "We've got to go. Now."
Nikki gave Melinda a shove. "Wait, you mean into the water?" Melinda wrinkled her nose.
"It's either that or fly. Go ahead, step off real careful. Willie, give her your hand." Nikki paused, and when Melinda hesitated, her tone sharpened. "You want to die? You want all of us to die?"
"Okay, I'll do it. Willie, don't let go." Melinda sat on the edge of the bale, and let her feet drop into the cold brown water. "Nasty, stinks like a sewer. I'm going, already." She clung to Willie's hand and slid off to stand in the water, adjusting to the tug of the current. If the stack of straw let loose in the doorway, the current would turn into a water shoot and blast them out.
"Steady yourself against the bales." Nikki had already been in the water and knew what to do. Melinda gained confidence after a couple of steps. "Get to the wall, and wait for Willie. Once he's there, follow the wall until you reach the metal wire fence."
Melinda nodded, but said nothing, biting her lip in concentration. She reached the wall, and waited for her brother to draw near.
Willie joined his sister. "Go ahead, Melinda.” Nikki talked as loud as she could without screaming, so they could hear her. “Hug the wall, and be real careful you don't slip because there's nothing to catch you. That's the reason for the tether, see? It’s our contingency." Dad always said a contingency was the most important part of any plan. Dad was the smartest person she knew. Well, Doc Eugene was super smart, too, being a veterinarian and all.
Melinda moved more quickly. She reached the near edge of the suspended fencing and grasped the wire, but tripped and went chest-deep in the water.
Willie yelled and started toward his sister.
"Stay where you are, Willie. Keep the twine tight so you can reel her in!” Nikki held her breath.
"I'm okay." The older girl dragged herself upright, spitting and making a face after getting a mouthful of the runoff. "Willie, don't go toward the middle. There's a rut or something in the ground." Melinda turned back to Nikki. "What about the little one?"
Nikki had it all figured out. She spoke softly to Tracy, explaining exactly what would happen. She wasn't sure if the girl understood but talking worked with the spooky feral cats at the clinic, and they didn't understand people talk, either. Doc Eugene and September said tone of voice meant more than words, so she spoke with confident encouragement and hoped Tracy understood.
Tracy stopped rocking long enough to let Nikki lift her. With the girl's legs and arms firmly wrapped around her waist and neck, Grooby trailing down her back, Nikki took a first careful step into the water. She moved sideways, clawing deep with both hands into the bales to anchor herself along the way, until she reached Willie.
"Now you. Along the wall, Willie, to Melinda at the grid." He made hurried progress and soon joined his sister. "Melinda, how about you moved to the far edge of the fence to hold it steady, while Willie holds his side. Hang on tight, though." She waited until they sloshed into position. Was it her imagination or had the water got deeper, but the current slowed? Whatever. They couldn't stop now.
"I need some help here. Willie, make sure you have a good grip on the panel. Yeah, that's good, hook an arm through. Now find your end of the twine, and keep it tight as I come to you."
If she slipped while holding Tracy, they'd both head out to sea unless the twine held. September said it would hold. But they only had a single strand, while September used multiple thicknesses to secure the fence-ladder. "We don't weigh much, though, do we Tracy?" The little girl squeezed her neck, and Nikki smiled. "I'll take that as a yes." She took a breath. Here we go.
The tether tension Willie provided, along with leaning one shoulder hard against the barn wall, gave Nikki enough extra balance. She only slipped once, and thank goodness, quickly recovered. Finally, they all stood beneath the suspended horse panel. Water now reached Melinda’s butt and stood well over Willie’s waist.
"Now what?" Melinda waited for direction.
Nikki examined the cross beam above. It wouldn't be easy to climb the metal fence, and tricky to get from the beam to the solid floor of the loft. They'd come this far, though, and she wouldn't give the other kids any reason to doubt their ability. Dad said that, too. You had to believe, before you could do. I believe, Daddy.
"Tracy first." Nikki unwrapped the girl's arms from her neck. "You can do this. I'm going to hold you up to grab hold, and Melinda and Willie will hold the bottom steady. Climb, and don't look down. Climb like you do the monkey bars at the playground, okay?"
Nikki worried the girl would freeze, or cling to her and yell or something equally dumb. She was clean out of ideas if that happened. But happily, Tracy gripped Grooby between her teeth, and scrambled quick as a squirrel up the ladder contraption. "Wow, good job. Tracy, you're a champ." She turned to Willie. "You next. Watch out for the dog."
"Got it covered." Willie had tucked his jacket into the waist of his pants to secure Kinsler. "If Tracy can do it, so can I."
Nikki didn't appreciate the girl-slam, but at least it gave Willie incentive. Real heroes got scared, too. They didn't let the brain freeze shut them down. "So make like a monkey already."
He made a face, and hooted his chimp impression, but let Melinda give him a boost up before he quickly climbed the fence.
Nikki’s shoulders relaxed. September's idea worked great.
"Now you." Melinda wiped hair out of her eyes. "I'm the tallest, like you said. I can get up that first step on my own, but you'll need me to give the first boost. And I’m the oldest. You've done enough; I got to step up, too." She dropped her voice. "Girl power, right?"
"Girl power.” Nikki smiled. “Okay, we got this." She searched with her foot under the water to find Melinda's braced knee, balanced briefly on one foot while grabbing the wire, and pulled herself up.
With only one person steadying the make-do ladder, it wanted to shimmy as Nikki climbed. It took her twice as long to reach the loft as the first two kids, but her arms already ached from holding Tracy. Finally, she grabbed the beam, and crab-walked to the solid loft floor.
Nikki sank to her knees, so relieved she wanted to cry. She looked around, and saw the other kids around September, who sat in one corner of the loft with her knees drawn up, shaking and crying and acting totally weirded out.
She wanted to find out what was wrong, but had to wait for Melinda. Just as the older girl grabbed the wire handholds, the topmost wedding-cake bales broke off. The straw stopper unplugged and the rest of the bales washed out the barn door like bumper cars. The sudden outflow swept Melinda off her feet.
