by Liz Adair
“Grange!” she screamed as the roots tore farther away from the bank and dropped her knee-deep into the water.
He reached his hand out in a futile gesture. “Hang on, Mandy. I hear Moses coming. Hang on, darling. He’s almost here.”
Grange disappeared for only a moment, but in that instant, the bank gave away around the roots, and Mandy and the willow slipped into the icy waters of the Hiesel and began to drift downstream.
There was a surreal, slow-motion quality about the whole experience. She sank up to her chin and then bobbed and twirled around in the water, facing upstream where she had a good view of Grange standing on the bank making sweeping gestures with his arms as he spoke to his companion. Then he sat on the bank and slid over the edge, dropping feet first in the river. He disappeared from view in the foliage at the bottom, but soon Mandy saw his head sticking up above the muddy flow.
Her teeth began to chatter as chilling reality set in, and she examined the nearest bank. It rose steeply and offered no way out of the floodwaters for as far as she could see, but she knew that around the bend the bank wasn’t so high. In her mind’s eye, she saw the dike that protected her house and decided she would put all her energies into staying afloat until she could make her way to the side of the river, where she could climb out at the levee.
Mandy turned around to look for Grange, but all she could see was the dark bulk of a tree trunk bearing down on her, sideways. Stroking as hard as she could and coming up with a mouthful of dirty water in the process, she tried to get to the end of the log before it bumped into her. She just made it, and as it passed, she kicked and lunged, reaching to grasp a crooked limb. Her hands were so cold she couldn’t feel the branch, but she immediately felt the drag of the river lessen. She pulled herself close to the log, draped her arms over it, and was just about to murmur a thankful prayer when she heard Grange.
“Mandy!”
He sounded quite close. She twisted around to mark where he was.
“Mandy!” He was upriver and farther out. “You’ve got to let go,” he hollered. “Get out in the middle.”
She was so cold she could hardly unclench her jaw, but she shouted, “No! We’re just about to the bend. After that the bank drops off. Come here.”
He began swimming toward her. When he got nearer, he shouted urgently, “The logjam, Mandy! You’ve got to get away from it! Come out here!”
Grange didn’t have to say it twice. Mandy’s adrenal glands kicked in the afterburners as she remembered the story of how his fiancée had died. She pushed away from temporary safety and began furiously swimming toward the middle. He continued to stroke towards her, calling encouragement.
“Come on, Mandy. A little farther. We’ve got to be past the middle.”
“I don’t think— ” she began, but she got another mouthful of water and came up coughing and sputtering.
Grange’s voice was louder. “Come on, Mandy. You can do it.”
She saw that they were sweeping around the bend, and she lost heart. “I can’t. I can’t go any farther.”
Then he was there beside her. She heard his voice in her ear and felt the warmth of his breath on the nape of her neck. “Yes, you can,” he said. “Grab onto me and I’ll pull you.”
She turned and looked into his eyes. “My hands won’t work. I can’t hold on.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, looking downriver. “We’d never make it now. We’re too close. Listen, Mandy, I’m going to try to steer us to the best place, and at the last minute, I’m going to get us as far out of the water as possible, so when I say kick, you kick like a mule. I’ll get the best handhold I can, and I’m going to hold onto you while I do it. I’ll pin you to the log. It won’t be comfortable, but it will keep you from going under, I think. If we can hang on until help arrives, we’ll be all right.”
She felt him put his arm around her as they drifted toward the jumble of logs that didn’t look anything like they had the day she sat there in the sunshine. They were partially submerged, and the water boiled around them, but there was no great sucking sound, no evidence of danger.
“Ready?” The logs loomed closer, and they were being swept laterally. “Now! Kick!”
Mandy did her best, but she couldn’t feel her legs to know if they had obeyed the message. Grange had his arm firmly around her waist, and as his efforts lifted them out of the water, he grabbed onto a limb on the opposite side of the log. The current pinned him against her and held her fast.
“Can you grab on to that knob sticking up?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can work my hand.” She reached out and saw that her hand did close over the stubby limb, though she couldn’t feel it against her palm.
“That’s my girl. Now grab that other one with your other hand.”
Mandy did so, and they clung in silence to their tenuous handholds as the inexorable pressure of the Hiesel tried to scrape them off of the log and swallow them whole.
“Grange?”
“Yeah?”
“It feels like it’s pulling me down. It feels like I’ve slipped down.”
“I’ve got you,” he murmured. His mouth was by her temple. “We’re going to be all right. We just have to hang on.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Then I’ll hang on for both of us. Don’t give up, Mandy. I’ve got you.”
“I’m slipping, Grange. I can feel it.”
“It’s an illusion. The water fools you into thinking you’re going down, but you’re not. Listen!”
She strained to hear, but could detect nothing over the sound of the water. “What is it?”
“I thought I heard— there it is. It’s a boat. Do you hear it?”
She shook her head. “Don’t tell me lies just to give me hope, Grange Timberlain.”
“I’m not. We’re going to be all right.”
“How do you know?”
“I told Moses to go to the Qwik-E Market and get Vince.”
Just then Mandy heard the roaring engine of a riverboat. It swept in an arc until it was just above them, and then it drifted down under power, stopping to hang just feet away from the logjam. Moses stood in the back with a rope, and between him and Grange, they got it fastened around the two in jeopardy. Moses said something to Vince, and as he slowly eased the throttle forward, Mandy felt the rope tighten around them, cutting off her wind.
“Oh, Grange!” she gasped.
“It’s all right. It won’t be long,” he promised through gritted teeth.
He was right. The next moment, she heard a deep voice say, “Slack the rope,” and she felt herself being lifted into the boat by the strong hands and arms of Grange’s friend. Shivering violently, she looked anxiously over the gunwale as Moses grabbed Grange under the arms and hauled him in.
Immediately, Vince pushed the throttle forward, and the boat leapt into the current, leaving the logjam behind as it circled around and headed downstream to the boat landing at Limestone. It was only then that he turned and looked at Mandy. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were stern and his face ashen.
Her teeth began to chatter again, and Moses silently handed her a fleece jacket. She pulled it on and turned to look at Grange, slumped on the bench seat beside her with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. He held his left arm with his right hand, and blood trickled between his fingers.
“What happened?” Mandy tried to pull his hand away. “Let me see.”
“Leave it,” he said without opening his eyes. “I’m putting pressure on it.”
“What happened?” she repeated.
“There was a branch sticking out. Puncture wound.” His dark beard accentuated the pallor of his skin.
She sucked in her breath as she remembered his arm around her and how the current had pressed them against the massive tree trunk. She had been frightened and whining, and he had held her, even though doing so drove a wooden spike into his flesh. “Oh, Grange, I’m so sorry.” She
covered his hand with hers.
“Not to worry.” His fingers lifted just slightly and curled around hers.
Moses peeled his jacket off, wrapped it around Grange, and then pulled off his watch cap and put it on Grange’s head.
“You’re a true friend, Moses,” he murmured.
Vince piloted the boat slowly through submerged shrubbery to the floats that had risen in the flood well above the regular docking area. As he tied up the boat, Vince spoke to Moses. “You’d better get him down to Stallo and have someone look at his arm. If there’s some of his shirt inside the wound, it could turn ugly. He’d better have a tetanus shot, too.”
“Yes, sir.” Moses put his arm around Grange and helped him to rise.
Grange turned to Vince, who had climbed back in the boat and was standing by Mandy. “Thanks for coming, Vince.”
“I came because of Mandy,” he said curtly as he scooped her up in his arms.
Grange met his eyes. “I know.”
Moses nodded to Mandy. “Ma’am.” Pulling on Grange’s good arm, he supported him as he stepped over the gunwale and made his way up the walkway to the pickup.
“You don’t need to carry me. I can walk,” Mandy said as Vince stepped out onto the dock. “Oh, look. It sucked the shoes and socks off of my feet.”
Vince carried her up the hill to his SUV. “Whatever possessed you to be running along the side of the river?” he asked grimly.
Watching Grange shamble up the incline with Moses’ arm around him put her on the edge of tears. “Oh, Vince, don’t scold.”
“I’m not scolding,” he said, tightening his hold on her. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it in time, that’s all.”
“Well, you did,” she said, smiling for the first time all day. “And I was sure glad to see you.”
Vince put her on the seat and went around to get in. After starting the car, he turned the heater on high. He didn’t speak as he drove, but more than once his eyes rested on Mandy as she sat with her knees pulled up under her chin, the jacket tucked under her feet, and her hands buried in the sleeves.
When they pulled into her driveway, there was a car with Tennessee license plates parked by the Miata. “Who is that?” Vince asked as he opened the door and lifted her out.
“I don’t know.” Mandy put her arm around his neck.
He carried her up the front steps. “Is the door locked?”
“No. I didn’t intend to be gone long.” She looked up as the door opened and a tall, raven-haired woman stood on the threshold. Mandy stared. She knew she had never seen this stranger, yet there was something familiar about the high cheekbones, slender frame, and hair that fell straight and loose down her back.
Vince paused briefly. “Hello, Lovey,” he said as he passed through into the living room. “What brings you to this part of the country?”
MANDY OPENED HER eyes and looked at the digital readout on her bedside clock. It said eight, but it was full dark, and as she tried to remember what day it was and why it should be dark at eight in the morning, the sound of a rich contralto voice singing on the wings of a pure, white dove… floated up to her loft from the room below. It was then that she remembered.
She remembered Vince carrying her upstairs with the black-haired stranger following, asking questions about what happened. Vince had answered in clipped sentences, but as he set Mandy down by the bathroom door, his tone had changed. “Take a hot shower,” he advised tenderly. “I’ll go fix a warm drink.”
“I’ll do that,” Lovey said. “I can take over from here. I’ll put her to bed with a hot water bottle and stay with her while she rests. I know you’ve got things you’ve got to do.”
Vince’s voice had showed more than a hint of irritation. “How do you know that, Lovey?”
“When I was at the Qwik-E Market a while ago, people were standing in line four deep because there was only one clerk. She looked pretty frazzled.”
Lovey walked past Mandy into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “I thought you’d be glad to know that I’m going to stay with her,” she continued over the sound of running water. “Ease your mind.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Vince turned to Mandy. “I hate to leave.”
“Don’t worry!” She kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much for dropping everything to come to my rescue. I know you saved my life.”
His eyes filled with tears, and he cleared his throat. He laughed a small, rueful laugh. “It was pretty tense there for a few minutes. I was worried about, um, our project. I’m glad it turned out all right.”
Lovey came and stood with her hand on the bathroom door. “I’m going to put her in the shower now.”
Vince dropped a quick kiss on Mandy’s lips and smiled for the first time. “I’m outta here. Call you later?”
“Call her tomorrow,” Lovey said. “I’m hoping she’ll sleep.”
Mandy did sleep. Sometime in the late afternoon she warmed up and surfaced enough to pull off the wool socks that were making her feet sweat. Then she rolled over and disappeared again into a deep, restoring slumber.
Awake now and with her memory returning, questions she had been too cold and tired to ask earlier came tumbling one after another. She threw off the covers and padded over in her red sweats to stand at the balustrade. Below her, haloed by the light of a single lamp, sat Lovey Timberlain, playing Jake’s guitar and singing.
“Hello,” Mandy called down to her.
Lovey looked up and smiled. “Feeling better?”
“Yes. I finally got warm.”
“I’m Lovey Timberlain— Willow and Jake’s mother.”
“I know. Even if Vince hadn’t said your name, I’d know who you are because Willow looks so much like you.”
“Does she?” Lovey set the guitar in the corner. “Do you want to know why I’m here?”
“In the worst way!” Mandy came downstairs and sat in a chair opposite her guest.
Lovey watched her descend but didn’t look at her as she began to speak, tracing the pattern on the upholstery with her finger. “I came back to see Rael, to see the kids, to see if maybe there was a place for me in the family again. I called Granny Timberlain and told her I wanted to stay in neutral territory, and she said I should come to your house. She was going to call and let you know, but I think you must have been out.”
Mandy laughed. “I was otherwise engaged this afternoon. But tell me, what made you decide to come back?”
“It’s a bit of a story, and one that begins badly. I was such a fool.” Lovey shook her head at the memory. “Have you ever done something that you knew you shouldn’t, but you couldn’t help yourself? No, that’s silly. Of course you haven’t.”
Mandy tucked her feet under her and leaned back against the chair. “Like falling for three men in quick succession? The first is married. The second owns a winery, and the third runs a still.”
“Oh, no! Really?” Lovey thought a minute. “Is Vince the second one? Then who is the third? Is he from around here? Do I know him?”
Mandy covered her face with her hands and wailed, “It’s Rael’s cousin, Grange, and I’m just sick about it.”
“Grange has a still? No! That’s not possible!”
“I saw it with my own eyes. This afternoon.”
Just then there was a knock at the door. “What if that’s Grange?” Mandy whispered.
“Do you want it to be?”
Mandy stood. “He was hurt, you know, saving my life.”
“I thought you said Vince saved your life.”
“He did. But Grange saved it first. It’s all so complicated.” Mandy walked to the door, opened it, and stood gaping at the man who stood on the porch holding out a package.
“Hello, Mandy,” Rael said. “I brought you something.”
With her hand on the doorknob, Mandy looked at Lovey and back at Rael. “You’re not going to kiss me again, are you?”
“Well, now that you mention it— ” He strode in and chucked the package
onto a small table by the door. Eyes twinkling, he put one arm around Mandy’s shoulders and another around her waist, bending her back in a vintage Hollywood pose as he brought his lips down to hers.
“Mmm,” she said, pointing awkwardly to the corner where Lovey sat. When she could speak, she whispered, “We’re not alone.”
Rael looked up, did a classic double-take and would have dropped Mandy if she hadn’t had her arms around his neck. As he straightened suddenly, she regained her feet, laughing at his discomposure.
“Breathe, Rael, breathe,” she whispered in his ear. Stepping away, she smiled at Rael and said cheerfully, “I see you already know my guest.” Turning to Lovey, Mandy was surprised to see a tear running down her cheek.
“It’s not like it appears,” Mandy assured her. “It’s a bit of a joke, really. You see, he kissed me the other night in front of the whole town… ” Her voice trailed off as she realized she wasn’t helping the situation.
Lovey’s face lost color as she watched Rael move to stand by Mandy, and her voice was husky. “You didn’t tell me the name of the married man.”
“His name is Guy Noel,” Mandy said briskly and added, grinning, “Grange calls him the Dog’s Dinner.” Looking sideways at Rael, she was glad to see a tiny smile crease his grim face.
“I want to see what you got me,” Mandy said, trying to ease the tension. She picked up the package, and after tearing off the paper, she looked up, mystified. “You got me a box of printer labels?”
Rael had been staring at Lovey. “What? No. I used that because it was the right size.”
Mandy opened the box and frowned. She flipped a switch to illuminate the room so she could see to read and examined the sheet of paper lying in the bottom. “It’s music,” she said. “By Carlos Rosa? Manuscript? And signed ‘To Mandy’? Rael! Where did you get this?”
“From Carlos. He was on the tour with me. Playing one of my guitars, I might add. I told him how big a fan you are, and he sent that to you.”
“Oh, thank you, dear friend!” Mandy danced over and hugged him. “We’ll play it together later, but you interrupted a story Lovey was telling me. Finish the story, Lovey.”