by Ginger Zee
Helicity pulled. Her foot slipped in something wet. Please let that be rainwater, she begged, not Trey’s blood!
“Go!” Sam groaned. “Go-go-go!”
She backpedaled frantically and dragged Trey free just as the skier’s side of the boards snapped in two. Sam’s fell from his shoulder. The tree thudded to the floor, shaking the cabin on impact. Helicity was shaking, too. Then someone thrust a towel into her hand.
“To stop his bleeding,” Mia sobbed from behind her.
Helicity pressed the fabric into the puncture wound and held it there. Sam tore another towel into strips. Helicity swapped her blood-soaked towel for a fresh one, then used Sam’s strips to secure it in place.
“Should we tie on a tourniquet or something?” the skier asked.
Helicity shook her head. “Do you know how? I don’t want it to hurt more than help.” She moved next to Mia. “Mia, I need these cushions to elevate his leg.”
Mia rolled off instantly. Helicity stacked the cushions and very gently eased Trey’s leg onto the pile. “That’s all we can do for him for now,” she murmured, sitting back on her heels. “That, and hope that someone finds us soon.”
Mia crept forward to dab a wet piece of towel over Trey’s forehead. He stirred, moaning, then stilled.
Outside, the rain hammered at the cabin walls. The wind shrieked and whistled across the hole in the roof. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the rain lightened. The wind’s fury lessened. Finally, a hush fell over everything like a blanket.
Something beat against the cabin door, startling them. Three times, then again.
“Hey! Anybody in there?” a deep voice yelled.
Summer sprang to her feet. “Help! Yes! Please, help me!” With no energy to add “help us,” the rest of the group simply ignored Summer’s narcissistic shouts.
The door cracked open and an old man peered in. He took one look at Trey and the speedboat driver, then pulled out his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.
“It’s over,” Mia whispered. She clutched Helicity’s hand. “It’s over.”
Helicity bowed her head and squeezed back. “And we survived.”
“Helicity. Helicity, wake up.”
Helicity groaned and opened her eyes a crack. Harsh overhead lights made her vision swim. She squinted to bring the person in front of her into focus. “Suze?” she croaked. “Suze. Where am I?”
“The hospital,” Suze replied. Her elfin features were pinched with worry, but she managed a smile. “Well, the couch in the waiting room of the Bolivar hospital, to be exact. How are you feeling?”
Helicity licked her parched lips. “My head is pounding. My throat is killing me. And the smell from this couch is making me feel sick.” She struggled to sit up.
“Easy does it,” Suze advised, quickly sweeping her arm around Helicity’s shoulders to steady her. “There. Better?”
For a split second, Helicity was better. Then it all came rocketing back to her. Not just the derecho, but the wailing sirens, flashing lights, and urgent voices of the first responders. Questions. Answers. More questions. A blanket around her shoulders. Her sodden beach bag rescued from the dinghy and thrust in her hand. And blood on her feet and legs. Trey’s blood.
She seized Suze’s arm. “Oh, God. Trey!”
Suze covered Helicity’s hand with her own. “He’s okay, Helicity. They transported him to a hospital near Lake Livingston. He lost a lot of blood and will need a ton of stitches. But his mother says he’s going to be fine. Mia will be, too. She’s here, getting checked out.”
“And Sam?”
“Right behind you.” Sam came around a corner with a bottle of water. Exhaustion had punched deep circles under his eyes. Like her, he was still wearing his dirt- and blood-streaked clothes. “Here. I thought you might need this.”
“Thanks.” Helicity drank thirstily, then wiped her lips and looked up at him quizzically. “The last thing I remember is getting in the back of your car with Mia after the police officer dropped us at the Valdezes’ cabin.”
Sam gave a little laugh. “Yeah, you both fell asleep while I was calling Suze. You stayed asleep when I carried you in here. Mia got the star treatment with a wheelchair ride.”
Helicity flushed to her roots imagining Sam holding her in his arms and silently gave thanks that she’d put on her cover-up before getting into his car.
Suze told her she’d called her parents. Helicity was about to ask if Andy knew what had happened when she saw her brother walking down the hallway. Shoulders hunched and hands shoved deep in his pockets, he seemed unaware of them.
“Andy!” she cried. “Andy, over here!”
His head snapped up. “Helicity?” Confusion contorted his features. He glanced around and hurried over, then stopped short, his eyes widening. “What the hell happened to you?”
Now it was Helicity’s turn to be confused. She knew she and Sam looked like they had been through war. And they had, in a sense. But wouldn’t Andy know why they looked so wretched?
“The storm,” she said in bewilderment. “The derecho. I—we—were caught in it.” In the cabin, she’d been too laser-focused on the immediate trauma to think about the bigger picture. But now the reality of what had happened—and what might have happened—sank in. Her throat suddenly tightened. Tears sprang to her eyes. She reached out her arms. “Andy.”
In an instant, he was folding her into a fierce hug. She sobbed quietly for a long moment, then drew in a long, deep breath. Her nose instinctively searched for Andy’s familiar, comforting scent. But instead, a sour stench like mildewed towels layered with rank body odor assaulted her nostrils. And something sharper, too—a whiff of vomit, strong enough to curdle her stomach.
She pulled back and stared at him. Andy’s eyes were red-rimmed, she saw now, his cheeks and chin stubbled with beard, and his wavy hair hanging in lank, greasy strings.
He noticed her expression and moved away. “Sorry. Haven’t had a chance to shower today,” he said gruffly. “Now, will you please tell me what’s going on?”
Helicity opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sam laid a gentle hand on her arm. “I got this.” He outlined everything that had happened. “I tried to call you. Text you,” he finished. “But I guess you didn’t see the messages.”
When Andy shook his head, Helicity found her voice. “I don’t understand. If you didn’t know we were here, then why did you come?”
In reply, Andy unzipped his hoodie and exposed his right arm. A thick bandage, stark white next to his yellowed, pit-stained tank top, covered most of his shoulder. “I fell off a ladder at work. Got a nasty gash and a few bumps and bruises. I wouldn’t have come in except…well, it’s my bad arm. But I’m fine.”
He started to laugh, then winced. “Okay, maybe not fine,” he admitted, gingerly pulling up the hoodie’s sleeve. “But better than Mia or Trey, it sounds like.”
“Trey’s in good hands, and the doctor says Mia’s lucky,” Suze told them. “A few inches higher, and she would have taken the boom in the back of her neck. Or her head.”
Andy gave a low whistle. “That would have been a concussion for sure.” He tapped his temple. “Been there. Had that. Not fun.”
Helicity nodded, remembering when Andy had taken a hard helmet hit to the head during a football game two years earlier. Had his bell rung, was how his father had put it. Her brother had been forced to sit out a few weeks until his doctor deemed him fit to return. He’d been a beast to live with. But once he got back on the field, he returned to his usual sunny self.
“Mia’s going to be hurting pretty hard for a few days,” Andy said now. “Hopefully just bruises and stuff, though. Poor kid.”
“Andrew Dunlap?” a woman called from behind a Plexiglas-enclosed countertop. “Your prescription is ready.”
Helicity blinked. “Whoa, what? I thought you said you were fine.”
Andy stood up. “Just some pain meds. I said I didn’t need them, but…doctor’s orders.” He shrugged, then flinched
again and touched his injured arm. “Maybe she was right after all.” As he moved to the counter, he added, “You know, Mia might need some of these, too. Sounds like she’s worse off than I am.”
When Andy returned with his prescription, Suze got to her feet. “I need to get back to Mia. She’s getting X-rays,” she informed Helicity. “We’re going to be a while yet, so you three should go on back to the Beachside. Get yourselves cleaned up. And buy yourselves something to eat on the way.”
She unzipped her purse and withdrew her wallet. Inside was a thick layer of bills. She pulled out two twenties and gave them to Helicity. When Helicity tried to refuse, Suze captured her face with her hand and fixed her with a searching look. “Helicity. What you did for Mia…I owe you more than this. Much, much more.”
Tears welled up in Helicity’s eyes. “You’ve given me so much already, Suze. You don’t owe me anything. Ever.”
Suze smiled, then turned to the boys. “You two stay the night, okay? My guests canceled at the last minute. And I think Helicity would like it if you were there.”
Sam nodded gratefully and Andy grunted. Suze left then to return to Mia.
“You guys ready to go?” Sam asked.
“Hang on,” Andy replied, pulling out a phone. “I gotta let Johnny know I don’t need a ride.”
Helicity frowned when she saw his phone. “That’s not your cell. Where’d you get that?”
“What, this? Oh. It’s for work.” Understanding dawned on his face. “That’s why I didn’t get Sam’s messages. I left my other phone in my duffel.” He shook his head at his own stupidity, then wandered off to make his call.
Helicity looked at Sam. “Why would he need a phone for a temporary painting job?”
Sam shrugged. “Who knows.”
Despite Suze’s insistence that they return to the Beachside, Helicity was reluctant to leave without seeing Mia. But exhaustion won out. She fought to keep her eyes open on the ride. Her feet felt leaden as she climbed the stairs to the deck and then to the loft. There, she sank down onto her bed as the full weight of the day’s events pressed down on her. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep. One look in the mirror told her a shower had to come first.
She caught sight of the swimsuit Mia had tossed aside that morning. For some reason, the colorful scraps of material jogged something in her memory. Something Mia had whispered to her just before she’d nodded off on the way to the hospital.
I can’t believe you jumped in to save me.
Helicity carried those words with her into the bathroom, turning them over and over as dirt, leaves, and dried blood washed down the shower drain. She’d been haunted by the same thought herself after the tornado. After the flood. After first Andy, then Lana, risked their lives for her.
Why? she’d wondered. Why did they put themselves in such danger?
In some warped part of her brain, she’d wished they hadn’t. Because then Andy would be packing for college, and Lana might still be out chasing storms with Ray.
But now she understood. They came after her because they cared about her. Loved her. And if someone you love is in trouble, you don’t choose to save them. You just do it.
Helicity didn’t think she had any tears left after crying in Andy’s arms in the hospital. But as she toweled off and dressed, fresh ones trickled down her cheeks. They weren’t tears of fear and anxiety, though. They were tears of shared love. Tears of grateful joy.
Good tears.
A soft knock startled Helicity back to the present. “Fifteen? Can I come in?”
“Hang on.” She dashed the wet from her cheeks and opened the door. Sam’s hair was damp, and he was dressed in a clean T-shirt and shorts. Bright red nicks and raw scrapes marred the skin on his arms, legs, and feet. A new bruise on his shoulder, courtesy of the plank, peeked out from one sleeve.
She sat on the bed and he took the floor.
“You okay?” He held up a hand before she could answer. “Sorry. Stupid question. Of course you’re not.”
“No, but I’m not losing it, either, Sam. Not anymore, anyway.” She drew her knees up to her chest. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
He blew out a long breath. “Incredibly lucky, that’s how I’m feeling. If Trey hadn’t shoved me out of the way…” He shook his head in disbelief. “He saved my life. I’ll never be able to repay him.” He looked at her. “By my count, that makes two people I owe my life to.”
Helicity knew he meant her, when she had freed him from the wreck of Lana’s SUV. She moved to the floor next to him. “You don’t owe me anything. Or Trey, either. He did what he did because…well, because that’s the kind of guy he is.”
“And you? Why did you rescue me, Fifteen?” His voice was hoarse and barely louder than a breath. He nudged his bruised shoulder against hers. And kept it there.
She stilled, acutely aware of his body next to hers. Of his long-fingered hands dangling over his bent knees. Of his chest rising and falling with breath. Of the warmth of his skin where it touched hers. Of the fact that they were alone in her room.
A jaunty ring tone jerked her out of the sudden sensations threatening to overwhelm her. She lurched to her knees and grabbed her phone from her bedside table. Her fingers tangled up in the chain of Lana’s necklace, and the phone fell from her grasp. It landed faceup, the selfie of her by the dolphin statue with Trey on the screen, announcing that Trey was calling.
Sam blinked when he saw the photo. But he didn’t say anything, just passed her the phone.
“Trey?” Helicity put the call on speakerphone so Sam could hear. “Is that you?”
“Heliztee!” Trey’s voice was overly loud and slightly slurred. “Yeeahhh, itz me! I got snitches. No. Wait.” He guffawed with laughter. “Not snitches. Stitches! Like a li’l ol’ train track on my leg. Woo-woo!” He made a sound like a train whistle.
Helicity and Sam exchanged bemused glances. “Um, Trey, are you okay?” Helicity asked.
“Oh, I’m fine. More than fine, I’m—Ah! Give that back! I’m talking to my girl!”
There was a muffled sound, and then Mrs. Valdez came on the line. “Helicity? I’m sorry about that. Trey seems to be having a rather strong reaction to the pain medication they gave him.”
“Woo-woo!” Trey cried in the background.
“Shush, you,” Mrs. Valdez chastised her son. “He called you when I stepped out of the room. Again, Helicity, my apologies.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Valdez, really. How’s he doing?”
“Well, aside from twenty stitches in the back of his leg, the doctors say he is very, very fortunate. A few inches one way or the other and that tree branch might have hit something major. They passed along praise for you and Sam, by the way.” Her voice turned tremulous with emotion. “Said your quick action probably saved his life. For which his father and I will be forever in your debt.”
Sam stared at the floor and shook his head. Helicity understood what he was saying without words: Trey wouldn’t have needed saving if he hadn’t risked his own life for Sam.
Mrs. Valdez cleared her throat. “Anyway. He’ll stay overnight just to be sure there’s no infection, then be back home tomorrow sometime.”
“Could we come by and visit?”
“Of course. I’ll have him call you. Assuming he’s more himself by then, that is.”
As Helicity hung up, she could still hear Trey in the background protesting. The faint sound of “my girl” echoing in her head, she turned to Sam, who pretended not to have heard that part. Or at least that’s what she felt his look away was all about. Then she heard voices downstairs. “Mia’s back!” She got to her feet. Sam remained on the floor, his brow creased as if he was deep in thought. “Sam? You coming?”
“What? Oh, yeah.”
Darkness had fallen while she and Sam were upstairs. Now stars sprinkled the night sky outside the picture windows, and the waxing moon was just showing over the horizon.
Helicity rushed over to her f
riend with her arms wide but stopped short in front of her. “I want to hug you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
Mia gave her a wan smile. “You sound like a bad country-western song. Here’s another lyric. ‘I might be bruised, but I’m not broken. So hug me, baby, hug me.’”
Helicity wrapped her arms around her and held on tight. When she finally let go, Suze helped Mia upstairs, returning a short while later to announce that her niece was down for the count.
“I just hope she sleeps right through the night,” Suze said, falling into an easy chair with a deep sigh.
Andy, showered and smelling much better, wandered in from the kitchen. “Did they give you something for the pain if she needs it? The first night after my car accident was the worst for me. I wouldn’t have gotten through it without my meds.”
Suze held up an orange prescription bottle and shook it. “I’ve got these, just in case. But Mia wanted to stick with an over-the-counter pill.” She put the bottle on the side table and glanced at Helicity. “She said you had bizarre nightmares when you took the heavy-duty stuff, and she didn’t want that to happen to her.”
“She’s right, I did.” Helicity shivered, recalling the bad dreams her drug-fogged mind had produced after the flash flood. “I think Mom tossed the rest of them after I told her.”
“Probably,” Andy agreed.
“You never had problems with your painkillers, though, right?” Helicity asked her brother.
“Me? Nah. But then I’m like, what, five times bigger and stronger than you. So, they wouldn’t affect me as much.”
Suze looked at him curiously. “I’m not sure prescription painkillers work like that.” She stood up. “I’m heading to bed. Helicity, come get me if you or Mia need anything in the night.” She disappeared into her bedroom.
Andy stretched luxuriously. “Ah! Sleeping in air-conditioning. Heaven.”
Sam shook his head. “I keep telling you to unzip the window flaps, let some fresh air into your tent.”
“And I keep telling you that I like my privacy.” Andy jerked up out of his chair, filled a glass of water in the kitchen, and retreated to his room with a cursory “G’night.” When the door closed, Sam turned to Helicity.