The rain was still coming down, but it wasn’t pouring anymore. Still, I pulled my hood up over my eyes so the water wouldn’t blur my vision. The headlamp beam was weak, so I needed all the help I could get.
“HUNTER!” Kendall cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled with all of her amazing lung strength.
“Hunter!” Lola tried, but I could barely hear her. I think she was still crying.
We paddled downriver for a couple of minutes, maneuvering around trees that were quickly disappearing because of the rising river. The current moved much faster than I expected. Sticks, leaves, and other junk that had washed down the hills into the river scraped the sides of our kayak as it floated by.
“Ruby and Kendall, paddle backward so we’ll slow down. If he’s out here we don’t want to float by him.”
“If he’s out here?” Kendall swung her head back to look at me. “If?”
“Hunter!” Ruby yelled from the back while back-paddling with all her might.
I tried to yell. “Hunt—” but then I had to stop. All of a sudden my lungs were fighting me.
“What’s that?” Kendall pointed to the right bank, close to where the slough usually joins the river. It was hard to tell with the water so high. I glanced that way, and I thought I saw movement near where the water swirled around a couple of trees in front of a flooded gazebo. I pointed my headlamp and tried to take a deep breath to yell Hunter’s name. Thankfully, Kendall yelled first.
“Hunter!”
A voice came out of the trees.
“Over here!”
It was him alright.
“Ruby, paddle forward now, but just with your left paddle. We need to get over near those trees.” I pointed over to where I thought Hunter was.
“Hunter, stop moving! We’re coming for you!” It took about all the energy I had to shout.
Lola brought her headlamp out and shined it in Hunter’s direction. The light caught some reflective strips on his raincoat, and now I could see his teeth. What was that boy doing smiling in the middle of this flood?
“Paddle harder, Ruby!” Kendall dug in harder. “We’re almost there!”
“I’ll jump out when we get close to land and drag us in,” I said. “Kendall, give me your headlamp. I can barely see him.” Kendall reached back with her light, and I leaned forward to grab it. I pushed my hood off and strapped mine onto my head and held Kendall’s with my hand, hoping to shine more light in the same direction. “We can’t pass him!”
“Girls! Over here!” Hunter came into clearer view now. He was crawling along what was the new bank of the river and reaching into the water.
“You’re gonna get swept in!” Kendall yelled. “Move back, Hunter!”
Right about then, our kayak hit a tree stump, and the rushing current turned us backward and beached us near the first tree by the gazebo.
“Grab the boat and drag it up on the dirt so we don’t lose it!” I jumped out of the kayak, fought my way through some low hanging tree branches, and ran toward Hunter.
“Hunter! We’re here with a boat. Come on back here!”
“Allie! I found your backpack! It’s caught around a frog’s neck!” Hunter leaped forward a couple of feet downriver. “I almost have him!”
“Leave it! You’re going to fall into the river!” I stepped forward and tripped over a stick, landing on my hands and knees in the spongy swamp. I looked back, realizing it wasn’t a stick. It was Hunter’s slingshot.
“He keeps hopping toward me and then away. I’ll have him in just a couple of minutes!”
“Hunter! This is really dangerous! Come back!” Kendall ran in front of me and kicked mud up behind her which splattered on my face. Ruby and Lola passed me too. Lola picked up the slingshot.
My lungs were giving me the fight of my life. I tried to get up, and I took a few steps, but then I stopped, bent over, and coughed as hard as I could. I breathed in and . . . nothing.
I put my hand out and squeaked. “Guys . . . wait . . . up!” But they were too far ahead. Hunter kept hopping, forward then back. I prayed he would catch that frog so I could use my inhaler in a couple of minutes. I resolved to keep moving forward. One step. Two steps. Three.
I finally caught up.
There they sat, at the side of the river, all my cousins, drenched, muddy . . . and laughing.
“He did it!” Though rain was running into her eyes, Ruby was smiling. “He completed challenge one! This is definitely the frog that got away. I can tell by his beefy legs.”
She held up Mr. Bullfrog. Then she kissed it. Disgusting.
Hunter held up my pink Allie-Kit.
“He tried to get away with this, but I wouldn’t let him.”
I sat down and worked to catch a breath.
“Thanks, Hunter.”
I reached for the backpack and tried to open it to get to the inhaler, but the zipper was stuck. Or my fingers were frozen.
“Why did you leave the shed?” Kendall pushed her brother in the side of the arm. “You scared us half to death.”
Hunter looked confused. “The hour was up, and you didn’t come back, so I headed back down to the house. It was cold in that shed, you know! But then I saw this pink thing hopping around, and I realized it was Allie’s medical kit that she lost, so I followed it. I didn’t realize the river was up so high though, so I had to swim a little.”
Hunter poked at the frog that Ruby was holding and it croaked. Everyone laughed but me. I was still trying to conserve air and unzip the dumb backpack.
Lola handed Hunter the slingshot. “We thought you went out hunting for squirrels so you could pass challenge two.”
Hunter smiled. “That would have been a good idea too. But I can’t believe any animals would still be out in this mess.”
“We need to get out of this mess,” Lola said.
“We brought the kayak,” Kendall said, and pointed back upriver to the boat, which now had to be about a hundred yards away.
“I hope it’s still there,” Lola said.
Kendall stood up and tried to brush some mud off her pants.
“Ruby, let that dumb frog go and let’s get outta here.”
Ruby kissed the frog again. “I’m gonna miss you, little troublemaker.” She got up and walked a little way to let him go in a shallow area of the river by some trees where the slough comes in.
Then she screamed.
CHAPTER 26
Reptile Wrestling
It was a blood-curdling scream. Nothing like I’ve ever heard before from Ruby. We all jumped to our feet and bolted toward the river.
Lola got to the riverbank first.
“Ruby! What’s wrong?”
Ruby screamed again. She was backed up against a tree.
“It’s a gator! He’s coming at me! Help!”
Kendall got there next.
“Gator!” Kendall cried.
“Oh no, you CANNOT have MY SISTER!” Lola reached for a loose branch on the ground and began smacking the water near the gator’s tail.
Ruby inched her way around the tree trunk but slipped and fell into the swollen river. She coughed and sputtered and backed away from the gator, but it moved forward and snapped its jaws. Ruby squealed and thrashed in the moving current. “He has my coat!” She pulled herself backward, twisting and turning to try to free herself from her raincoat.
“Let . . . me . . . go!”
“He’s gonna drown her! Somebody do something!’ Lola’s cry was a mixture of anger and sobs.
“Jesus, help us!” Kendall grabbed a rock and threw it at the gator’s back.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Hunter and I ran side-by-side, down the bank, behind the girls. That is, until I ran out of air and fell to the ground. I had nothing left. All I could do now was pray and hope this nightmare would all end soon.
“Lola and Kendall! Move outta the way—I’m comin’ through!”
I looked up at that moment and I’ll never forget what I saw. There wa
s my new cousin, running strong and confident toward the back of the gator. With the roll of duct tape in his hand.
Could this really be happening?
Hunter picked up speed and let out a warrior yell.
Lord, please help him!
I watched as he dove headfirst, over the tail and on to the gator’s back.
Kendall screamed, “Nooooo!”
God, rescue us!
I heard a ripping sound. Hunter’s feet kicked, and he and the gator thrashed around in the river.
Thunder cracked.
And then everything went black.
CHAPTER 27
Bayou Blackout
Allie. Wake up. Come on. I have your inhaler.”
It was a familiar voice. Then I felt a sharp pain on my cheek. I opened my eyes. I was on my back, on spongy, wet ground. Thankfully, the rain had stopped.
Hunter was staring me in the face.
“Oh, good. You’re awake. Sorry I had to slap you. But I guess it worked.”
He grabbed my hands and pulled me up to a sitting position.
“Here.” Someone else stuck the inhaler in my mouth. I pulled it out.
“Hold on. I have to blow out first.”
“Well, blow out then. You’re making me nervous, passing out the way you did.”
That was Lola, of course.
I coughed and sputtered but managed to blow out. Then I put the inhaler in my mouth, pressed the button, and breathed in. Held my breath a minute. And spotted Ruby at my side.
I blew back out.
“You survived.” I coughed, before reaching out to give her a hug.
“Hunter stopped him, Allie! He taped his mouth shut with the duct tape! It was so scary, I thought he was going to bite Hunter’s arm off!”
I craned my neck around to look toward the river.
“Is it gone?”
“The gator? Yeah,” Kendall said. “He’s gone. And even if it came back, it can’t hurt anybody.”
“You taped its mouth shut? That’s crazy!”
Hunter sat down, took his glasses off, and tried to wipe off the moisture. But every bit of clothing on him was wet.
“Yeah. I saw this guy do it on TV once. If you’re on its back, an alligator can’t do anything to you, except maybe break your leg with its tail, but I had to take the chance. To save Ruby.” He put his glasses back on. “That was really scary!”
I sat there a minute, trying to review the night’s events while my lungs cleared. My hands began to shake.
Hunter took off his coat and wrapped it around me.
“We have to get you back to the house, where it’s dry and warm. Do you think you can stand up?”
I grabbed my forehead with my hand.
“Let me get this straight. You just wrestled a gator and won?”
“Yes.”
“Lola?” I turned to my cousin. “Will you count that as a pass for the hunting challenge? That took a lot more guts than just roasting a squirrel.”
Lola wiped tears from her eyes. “Yes. Absolutely. He saved my sister.”
“So that means Hunter passed the initiation.”
“What? No, I didn’t!”
“Hear me out. You had four challenges to complete tonight, right?”
“Right.”
“Challenge one: catch five frogs in the mud. You did that. And you caught my backpack too.”
“That was so weird how it was stuck on—”
I continued. “Challenge two: hunt something and then cook it.”
Lola interrupted. “I say he doesn’t have to cook the gator.” She looked around at our group. “Is everyone good with that?”
“Yes,” Ruby said. “I never want to see that alligator again, not even on a plate with horseradish.”
“Disgusting,” I said. “Okay then.” I glanced over at Kendall. “Challenge three was to sing with our quartet and sound good. Hunter, I feel like you did that—and more—but Kendall is the final judge.”
We all looked at Kendall.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Y’all know what this means, right? Because we know Hunter passed the haunted shed challenge too. If I say yes, the Diva’s history.”
“Sometimes change is a good thing,” I said.
Kendall crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She didn’t say anything for a few moments, and it started to rain again.
“Kendall, we’re gonna be washed away in a flash flood if you don’t respond soon.” Lola pulled her beanie down over her eyes.
“Okay! He passed.” Kendall went over and pulled Lola’s beanie back up. “I just hope you’re ready to do some creative redecorating.”
“We can rebuild it and make it better than ever. For everybody.” Hunter grinned. “I already talked to Mr. Dimple about helping us with the design.”
“Mr. Dimple?” I said. “Did you talk to him today at the burger place?”
“Yes! He’s an inventive genius, you know.”
“You were that confident that you would pass our initiation, huh?” Kendall pushed her brother over in the mud.
“Hey!” He stood up and held up his hands. “Man, I hate this stuff.”
“Then let’s get out of it, people.”
I pushed myself up, relieved to be breathing better, though I was still a jittery mess.
We all started back to the kayak. Hunter picked up his slingshot but then called me back.
“Hey! Don’t forget your backpack.” Hunter grabbed my kit, which I had left lying in the mud, and latched it onto my wrist. “We don’t want to have to chase it back down the river again.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
CHAPTER 28
Mamaw’s Return
Wake up, Grands! I’ve got breakfast for y’all!”
I cracked my eyes open but then closed them again when Mamaw pulled up the window shades in the family room and the bright sunshine blasted me in the face.
“Why are y’all sleepin’ out here when we have perfectly good beds in the other room?”
Ruby jumped up off her blanket pile on the floor.
“Mamaw, you’re safe!”
“We were so worried,” Lola said as she pushed up the recliner and sat up from where she was sleeping. “We’ve never seen the water up that high.”
Mamaw brushed the comment off with her hand.
“That flood last night? It wasn’t anything. Before you kids were born, we had a flood that came right up to the porch. Luckily, we had a blowup boat in this very room so we could escape. We paddled for miles to find dry ground.”
“Are you serious?” I sat up, stretched, and yawned. “Or is that just another exaggerated Carroway story?”
“Exaggerated? Our family never exaggerates! Now come on over and get some French toast. Y’all must be starvin’!”
Kendall climbed her way out of Papaw’s chair in the corner. She stretched her neck back and forth.
“For the record, that chair may look comfy, but it’s NOT.”
I pulled my feet off the sofa and almost kicked Hunter— who was still sleeping on the floor—in the head.
“Hunter,” I nudged him with my hand. “Wake up. Do you want breakfast?”
Hunter opened his eyes and got a big grin on his face.
“Are the lights back on?”
“It’s hard to tell with the sun blasting, but I think so. Mamaw’s here, and she’s cooking.”
“She’s back?” Hunter pushed his way out of his sleeping bag and ran into the kitchen to hug Mamaw.
“I’m so glad you aren’t hurt,” he said.
Mamaw hugged him back. “Sweet boy, your Mamaw’s tough. I’ve lived in the bayou a long time. Not much can bring me down.” She pulled back from the hug and looked Hunter in the eyes. “Are you okay? Were y’all starved and bored out of your minds last night?”
Lola choke-laughed but then caught herself. “No, we certainly weren’t bored. Not one bit.”
Mamaw sighed. “Oh, good. When the lights and phones w
ent out I was wonderin’ what you were all gonna do without your electronic devices.”
“We’re Carroways,” Hunter said. “We create our own entertainment.” Then he did a little beatbox sound and we all laughed.
Mamaw pulled a huge platter of French toast out of the oven and placed it on the island, along with some paper plates, syrup, and butter.
“Eat up,” she said. “Papaw might be needing your help with some cleanup today when he finally gets home.”
“Oh, no. More mud.” Hunter’s distressed sigh caused us all to laugh again.
“Yeah, it’s a muddy mess out there,” Mamaw said. “And speakin’ of messes . . .”
She walked over to the side kitchen counter and picked up a couple of photo albums. “What were y’all doin’ with the family albums, takin’ all these pictures out and leavin’ ’em on the island?”
Oh, boy. Here we go.
“We were just curious about our family history,” I said.
“Like where I got my red hair,” Ruby added.
“And what our dads used to do when they were younger,” Kendall said.
“Same things they do now.” Mamaw went to the refrigerator, pulled out pitchers of iced tea and orange juice, and placed them on the island. “Hunter, can you get some cups out?”
Hunter did.
And then I decided to wade into some muddy waters.
“We were looking at all those family reunion pictures. There sure were a lot of boys in the family back then.”
Mamaw chuckled. “And isn’t it much better now with all the girls?”
“Hey! What’s wrong with boys?” Hunter shoved a big forkful of French toast in his mouth.
“Nothin’ at all, darlin’. And you, my boy, are extra-special! It’s just I was so outnumbered back then. I couldn’t wait for one of my sons to finally get married so I could go shoppin’ with someone who didn’t want to buy just fishin’ gear.”
Mamaw went back to the stack of photos and picked up the one on the top of the stack. She wrinkled up her forehead, and her voice turned stern.
“Where did this come from?”
She turned the picture around so we could see the mystery boy standing next to the cornucopia tent.
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