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A minute later, Zollner came out jingling a pair of car keys between his fingers.
“Yaaaay!” he said excitedly, like a child who had just found a prize. “Now – will you walk to the car, or must I drag you?”
All I could do was stare into the dead man’s eyes.
When I didn’t answer, Zollner sighed theatrically.
“You really could make this so much easier on yourself,” he said as he dragged me off the porch and towards the car.
Please, God, I prayed through my tears. Please let Massimo be okay.
82
Massimo
I jumped off the dam rather than dove because I figured it would be better to break my legs than my neck.
I needn’t have worried – the water was deep enough.
That was the one piece of luck in my favor.
Seconds after I jumped, I plunged into hell.
Not a fiery abyss, but chaos and cold.
Ice water swallowed me whole.
Everything was black, and a deafening roar filled my ears.
I whipped around like a monster had me in its jaws.
I covered my head with my arms to protect my brain –
But the rest of my body slammed into outcroppings and boulders.
I held my breath for as long as possible – maybe two minutes, though it felt like an eternity – but I finally broke through the surface to try to get some air.
I ended up with a mouthful of water and got plunged back under.
I was sure I was going to die –
I saw Lucia’s face in front of me in the darkness –
And then I slipped into a slower part of the maelstrom.
I raised my head above water to catch a breath –
And I saw my salvation.
A freshly downed fir tree was drooping over the water 50 feet away.
I kicked with all my might until I was underneath it and managed to snag a branch.
Water roared all around me and dunked me under –
But I was able to grab another branch, then another.
Bit by bit, I pulled myself towards land…
