Lance had salvaged an assortment of camping boxes, ice chests, and suitcases from the cars and trailers before they were covered with water. Frannie dug through them, looking for anything that might help.
She came back as Mel was getting the campfire blazing and dumped her discoveries on the ground. One life vest, several lengths of rope, and a blow-up air mattress.
Frannie explained her plan.
“Absolutely not.” Mel’s voice went firm. Since when did Mel start sounding like her dad?
“Frannie,” Paul said, “that sounds dangerous.”
“I can’t just sit here,” Frannie argued back. In truth, the thought of going into that dark water scared her. A lot. Who knew what was under the surface? But hadn’t Red told her that growing up was mostly about doing things you didn’t want to do? She was going to save her sister and that was that.
Paul grabbed her hand, and whispered, “Frannie, I don’t want to lose you.”
The look on Paul’s face made Frannie falter. He’d almost died tonight. She’d held his hand and prayed with him and now there was something between them. She didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t like Jonny. It was something real. “It might be my sister out there,” she argued weakly, her eyes burning.
“All the more reason,” Paul said. “If something happens to you...” He didn’t have to explain. Her Dad... what if he lost two of his daughters? But how could shenottry to save whoever was in the water?
“I’ll go,” Mel said. “You hold the rope.”
Frannie looked at Mel with her raised eyebrow. He didn’t look like he could do a lap in a kiddie pool.
“I used to be a lifeguard,” he said. “I can do it.”
Frannie wasn’t convinced, but Paul blew up the air mattress while Mel spliced together the nylon ropes.
“You think it’s long enough?” Frannie asked.
Mel frowned. “It’s all we’ve got. And I’m not going out there without a way to get back.”
The clouds had continued to gather and it was pitch black when Mel tied the rope around his waist and put the life vest over his pajamas. The canvas straps barely reached around his chest.
Paul handed him the air mattress. “This should hold whoever is out there and we’ll pull you all back.”
Frannie called into the dark. “Hello! Are you out there?”
Was that an answering call? She couldn’t tell.
Mel waded into the water with grim determination. Frannie fed the rope out as he disappeared into the dark.
Frannie started praying again.Lord, help us save them. Claire and Jenny... or whoever it is.She had faith now. This would work just like it had worked with Paul. She fed out the last of the rope. That had to be enough. They listened. Her hope rose when she felt the rope go taut. “He’s got them!” The tension loosened, then the rope jerked like she had a fish on a line.
She pulled, her hope soaring. Until Mel came out of the dark, stumbling and wading up the bank, gasping for breath.
Alone.
Frannie’s hope drained away, leaving her weak.
“What happened to the air mattress?” Paul asked.
“Got hit by a branch twenty feet out, put a hole in it,” Mel gasped out. His pajamas dripped muddy brown water. “There’s too much out there, branches and trees and debris.” He was breathing hard. “Rope kept getting hung up. Just about pulled me under.”
“How close did you get?” Frannie said.
He shook his head, his teeth chattering. “No idea where they were.”
Mel and Paul climbed back up the ridge to the fire. Frannie stayed by the water, looking out in the dark. If Mel was this cold after tenminutes in the water, how was whoever was out there surviving? And how much longer could they wait? She tried not to think about Jenny. The kid was so cute... so tiny. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes and despair hit her like an ice-cold dunk in the water. What had happened to that warm glow of faith she’d had? Frannie looked up at the sky.Lord, why did you give me faith just to fail me again?
Lightning flashed through the darkness like a flashbulb, illuminating for an instant the devastation of the fallen mountain, the destroyed campground, the dark water. Her spirit plunged to a new depth. Weren’t an earthquake and a slam-bash wind and a flood enough? What more was God going to do to them? A plague of locusts? As if in answer, a crack of thunder shattered the night and—like a curtain dropping over the canyon—the rain poured down.
