Page 97 of Bailey

“Yes, but you film way more than that.”

“True,” Reeves nodded, and he seemed to be thinking about something, as he didn’t immediately speak again.

Luke wasn’t sure what had possessed him to bring it up, and he looked back out to the river where Lars had bent over and splashed Eric. Mav’s son had no problem being dirty or roughhousing, and Luke thought it best to let boys be boys. Several minutes passed in silence, wherein Luke drank in the beauty of nature and the goodness of family.

Reeves got to his feet and headed up the bank a bit, his gaze stuck on the southwest sky. Luke once again looked that way, shocked to see big, puffy, gray thunderheads moving in.

Reeves turned around, his expression harder than before. “We’ve got to get away from this stream.”

Panic rose through Luke, and he got to his feet too.

“Come on, OJ,” Reeves called. “Eric, Lars, Corrine, out of the water! It’s time to be done fishing.” He moved toward the kids, and despite their protests, got them out of the water quickly.

Luke had barely regained his focus before it seemed like the clouds had come half the distance toward him.

“I need everyone around me,” Reeves said, and he looked over to Luke.

Luke jumped into action and moved toward him. “Come on, guys, let’s listen to Reeves.”

He had a first-aid kit in his pack, as he never went camping without it. He had no idea what kind of survival equipment Reeves had brought. Please let him have anything and everything we need to make it through this quick-moving storm.

Luke eyed the clouds again as he prayed. The wind picked up ahead of the clouds, and they continued to advance as a solid wall of dark gray. Reeves turned his back on them and spread his arms out, bringing the kids closer.

“I need everyone to listen to me,” he said. “There’s a storm moving in right now.”

Corrine looked up into the sky. “It’s blue sky, Reeves,” she said.

“Hush,” Luke said.

“The water has already started rising in the stream,” he said. “And we had to cross it to get over here, which means we’re not going back that way.”

Luke looked out to the stream, and he couldn’t tell at all that it had risen. He frowned as Reeves continued, and he told himself to tune in, so he would know how to help keep everyone safe and be able to help Reeves.

“We’re going to leave our fishing poles here, because we don’t want to have anything too tall, and you’re going to listen to me, and you’re going to go where I tell you to go, immediately when I tell you to go there.”

Reeves looked at Luke, something powerful in his gaze that had even Luke nodding. “It’s going to rain or hail, and that means we’re going to get wet.”

“And when you get wet, guys, you get cold,” Luke said, picking up all the pieces Reeves was laying out.

“So drop your fishing poles over here,” Reeves said. “And let’s get our jackets and ponchos on right now.”

Corrine looked at Luke with wide eyes, but she moved immediately. The three boys stood there and stared, and Reeves said, “Guys, right now.”

He led the way over to his pack, which he opened calmly, and pulled out a sweatshirt and put it on. “Put on an extra layer, because the temperature is already dropping.”

Luke couldn’t feel that either, but as Luke handed OJ his pack and then unzipped his own, a loud clap of thunder filled the sky. He hurried to help Lars and Eric with their outer layers as well, and then he got their packs on and their ponchos over all of it.

Reeves hadn’t moved since the clap of thunder, and Luke stepped next to him. “What do you see?” he asked, trying to remain as calm and neutral as possible.

“It’s what I didn’t see,” Reeves said. “And that’s lightning.”

A gust of wind practically pushed both of them back a step, and Reeves turned as he said, “Let’s get the chairs and fishing poles up to the treeline, guys. We’ve got to get out of this drainage area.”

He turned, then grabbed his chair and seemed to collapse it in the same move, and put one hand on Lars’s shoulder. “You take this chair and your fishing pole up to the treeline. We’re going to put them in a pile. We’ll come back for them when it’s safe.”

“Yes, sir,” Lars said.

“Corrine, go with him,” Luke said. “Nobody should go anywhere by themselves,” he yelled after Lars, who’d already started for the treeline. “OJ and Eric, you’re a team. Reeves is in charge of you. You should be able to see him at all times.” He nodded to Reeves. “Corrine and Lars, you’re with me.”