“Now what?” I shouted even louder.
“We’ll have to wait it out. I don’t want to drive in this.”
I looked at the window. The rain was pouring over it as if we were behind the curtain of a waterfall and I could no longer see the landscape outside.
CHAPTER 43
“So how much longer do you think we’ll have to wait?” The rain had not abated at all; in fact, it was coming down harder than it had been a while ago, if that was even possible. Huge pools of water were rippling across the surface of the road, and where the road was a little higher than the ground it was built on, waterfalls rushed off the edge, creating a river on the side of the road that raged down the slope.
“It looks like it’s really settled in. We might have to do the same,” Noah said, undoing his seatbelt and moving his chair back into a more comfortable position.
I looked around the car and wondered just how long we would need to settle in for. We’d left Johannesburg late, and it had already been getting darker when the storm hit. We sat in silence for a while. I too had pulled my chair back and stretched my legs out, my feet on the dashboard.
“I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘R,’ ” Noah said, and I laughed.
“Rain. Obvious!”
“I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘L.’ ”
“Lightning. Even lamer!” I laughed even more.
“You’re good at this game.” He turned in his seat to face me, and I turned too.
“No, you’re just bad at it.”
“That’s a matter of opinion. I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘W.’ ”
“Water! Youarebad at this!”
“Fine. I’ll try harder this time. I spy with my little eye something beginning with . . .”
I watched Noah, amused as his eyes flicked around the car.
“Stop looking at me, that’s cheating!”
“And you clearly need all the help you can get.” I put my hands over my eyes and let him continue.
“I spy with my little eye something beginning with, with . . . uh, with . . .” He paused, and I smiled as I imagined his eyes working overtime, scanning every inch of the car for something to grab a hold of. “Uh . . . ‘D,’ ” he finally said.
“ ‘D’?” I pulled my hands off my eyes.
“Yes. ‘D.’ Right next to us. Pointing at us.”
“Huh?” I looked out the window to where he was pointing.
“Double cab. Winding down its window.” Noah and I both leaned across the seat in an attempt to look through the blanket of water coating the window. And there it was, a big double cab with an elderly lady who looked like she barely peeked over the steering wheel, pointing at us and indicating that we wind our window down too. Noah cracked the window ever so slightly, and the rain took the opportunity to burst into the car.
“Helloooo!” she shouted at us. “You alright?”
“Thanks, we’re just waiting the storm out!”
“Here? On the road?”
I leaned over Noah to get a closer look at her and a spray of water hit me on the face.
“Oh no, look, you’re getting wet,” she said.
“Hi!” I waved.
