The Outlaw's Son

The Flood

CHAPTER 13 - The Flood

     I made it back to Aunt Maria and Uncle Seth's a little after dark. The rain had moved in while I was leaving town and the drizzle had caught up with me when I reached the house. I quickly unsaddled my horse and let him go in the pasture. I ran to the porch and stepped inside the warm house. The fire place was crackling and sending an orange glow over the room. The smell of the fire had me feeling how tired I was.

     "How'd it go, boy?" Paw asked as I walked through the living room.

     "We went swimmin'." I answered and turned to keep Paw from seeing the grin I couldn't keep from my face.

     "Didn't take ya long, huh?" Paw and Uncle Seth laughed and I just shook my head. I went down the dimly lit hall and opened the door to my bedroom.

      I stripped off my wet clothes and hung them over the wooden chair by the window. It was chilly and that was unusual for a late summer night. The rain should make the hot air humid, but it didn't. The rain was pouring down and the sky was darker than it usually was at this time in the evening. I wriggled around trying to get comfortable but I couldn't. I was already starting to feel sore in muscles I didn't know I had. I knew that in the morning it would be worse. I hadn't been swimming for fun in a long time.

     I drifted off listening to my little cousins babble about their dolls in the room next to mine. It seemed like I had only closed my eyes for a few seconds when a loud crashing noise jolted me out of sleep. I jerked into a sitting position and scanned the room. I jumped when I heard it again. Thunder.

      The rain was still coming hard. I sat on the edge of the bed and the moment my bare feet hit the floor I knew something wasn't right. I looked down at the floor and saw it was covered in water. I jumped up from the bed and grabbed my shirt from the chair. I didn't bother buttoning it, I just slipped it on and grabbed my boots. I quickly put them on and opened the door. The hall was flooded, too.

      "Paw!" I yelled from the doorway. I waited a few seconds and yelled again. "Paw!"

      The door across from mine jerked open and Paw was looking at me with a crazed expression. Then he noticed the water. How he hadn't noticed when he first got out of bed was beyond me. The water was rising every second. "What the-"

      "Oh! The house is floodin'!" Aunt Maria screeched from her bedroom. She swung the door open and ran across the hall to the girl's room. Uncle Seth came out right behind her and looked down the hallway to us.

       "We need sand bags." Uncle Seth said calmly and walked past us. Paw and I followed him outside and to the barn.

      The three of us carried sand bags from the barn to the house and stacked them around the perimeter. The water had risen almost 3 inches since we started and I couldn't figure out where it all was coming from. As if reading my thoughts, Uncle Seth gave me the answer.

       "The Creek floods the town every once in a while when we get a hard rain."

       "Blue Creek?" I asked, my mouth suddenly becoming dry.

        "Yeah. It starts south of town and when it gets high enough, it finds it's way here."

       Mary Beth. I knew her house had to be under water by now. The creek wasn't far from her house and she was at the bottom of the hill. The water would have reached her first. The thought had me fighting off panic. I had to go and find her, just to make sure she was safe.

       Paw and Uncle Seth jumped over the sand bags and went inside to check on the girls and Aunt Maria. I stood where I was, debating on if I should even go. Thunder roared again and I felt the rain coming even harder. I had to go.