Waterfall
Page 5
Somehow, her fingers found the top of the stone and gripped. She thought of Brooks, her best friend since the womb, her childhood next-door neighbor, the boy whod challenged her to be a more interesting person for the past seventeen years. Where was he? The last shed seen of him was a splash into the ocean. Hed dove in after the twins had fallen from his boat. He hadnt been himself. Hed been Eureka couldnt stomach what hed been. She missed him, the old Brooks. She could almost hear his bayou drawl in her good ear, lifting her up: Just like climbing a pecan tree, Cuttlefish.
Eureka imagined the cold, slick rock was a welcoming twilit branch. She spat salt. She screamed and climbed.
She dug her elbows into the rock. She flung one knee onto its side. She felt behind her to make sure the purple bag containing The Book of Lovethe other part of her inheritance from Dianawas still there. It was.
Shed gotten a portion of the book translated by an old woman named Madame Blavatsky. Madame B had acted like Eurekas sorrow was full of hope and promise. Maybe thats what magic waslooking into darkness and seeing a light most people missed.
Madame Blavatsky was dead now, murdered by Anders Seedbearer aunts and uncles, but when Eureka tucked the book under her elbow she felt the mystic spurring her on to make things right.
The rain fell so intensely it was difficult to move. Claire clung to the chain, keeping the shield permeable for the rest of them. Eureka thrust herself over the rock.
Mountains stretched before her, ringed by a pearly mist. Her knees slid on the rock as she turned and plunged her arm into the churning sea. She felt for Williams hand. Ander was supposed to lift him to her.
Small fingers traced, then grasped Eurekas hand. Her brothers grip was surprisingly robust. She pulled until she could reach under his arms and heave him above the surface. William squinted, trying to focus his eyes in the storm. Eureka moved over him, needing to protect him from her tears brutality, knowing there was no escape.
Cat came next. She practically launched herself from the water and into Eurekas arms. She slid onto the stone and whooped, hugging William, hugging Eureka.
The Cat endures!
Pulling Dad up was like an exhumation. He moved slowly, as if drawing himself up required a strength he had never hoped to possess, though Eureka had cheered him across the finish line of three marathons and watched him bench-press his weight in the sweltering garage at home.
Finally, Claire rose in Anders arms above the surface of the waves. They held the orichalcum chain. Wind lashed their bodies. The shield glimmered around themright up until Claires toes slipped past its bounds. Then it split into mist and vanished. Eureka and Cat pulled Ander and Claire over the ledge and onto the rock.
Rain pinged off Eurekas thunderstone, stabbing the underside ofher chin. Water sprayed up from the ocean and down from the sky. The rock they stood on was narrow, slippery, and dropped steeply into the ocean, but at least they had all made it to land. Now they needed shelter.
Where are we? William shouted.
I think this is the moon, Claire said.
It doesnt rain on the moon, William said.
Head for higher ground, Ander called as he unhooked the anchor from the rock, pressed the switch to retract its flukes, and slipped it back inside his backpack. He pointed inland, where the dark promise of a mountain sloped up. Cat and Dad each took a twin. Eureka watched the backs of her family as they slipped and slid along the rocks. The sight of them stumbling and helping each other up, traveling toward a shelter they didnt know existed made her loathe herself. Shed gotten themand the rest of the worldinto this.
Are you sure this is the way? she shouted at Ander even as she noted that the rock theyd landed on jutted out above the sea like a small peninsula. Every other way was white water. It stretched forever, no horizon.
For a moment she let her gaze float on the ocean. She listened to the ringing in her left ear, deaf since the car accident that had killed Diana. This was her depression pose: staring straight ahead without seeing anything, listening to the lonely and unending ring. After Diana died, Eureka had spent months like this. Brooks used to be the only one who let her go into these sad trances, gently needling her when she was through: Youre a nightclub act without the nightclub.
Eureka wiped rain from her face. She couldnt afford the luxury of sadness anymore. Ander had said she could stop the flood. She would do it or die trying. She wondered how much time she had.
How long has it been raining?
Only a day. Yesterday morning, we were home in your backyard.
Only a day ago, shed had no idea what her tears could do. Her eyes focused on the ocean, made wild by a single days rain. She leaned down and squinted at something bobbing on its surface.
It was a human head.
Eureka had known she would face terrible things above the ocean. Still, seeing what her tears had done, this demolished life. She wasnt ready. But then
The head moved, from one side to the other. A tan arm stretched out of the water. Someone was swimming. The head pivoted toward Eureka, took another breath, and disappeared. Then it appeared again, a body moving fast behind it, riding the waves.
Eureka recognized that arm, those shoulders, that dark, wet head of hair. Shed watched Brooks swim to the breakers since they were little kids.
Reason vanished; amazement prevailed. She cupped her hands around her mouth, but before the sound of Brookss name escaped her lips, Ander leaned in next to her.
Eureka imagined the cold, slick rock was a welcoming twilit branch. She spat salt. She screamed and climbed.
She dug her elbows into the rock. She flung one knee onto its side. She felt behind her to make sure the purple bag containing The Book of Lovethe other part of her inheritance from Dianawas still there. It was.
Shed gotten a portion of the book translated by an old woman named Madame Blavatsky. Madame B had acted like Eurekas sorrow was full of hope and promise. Maybe thats what magic waslooking into darkness and seeing a light most people missed.
Madame Blavatsky was dead now, murdered by Anders Seedbearer aunts and uncles, but when Eureka tucked the book under her elbow she felt the mystic spurring her on to make things right.
The rain fell so intensely it was difficult to move. Claire clung to the chain, keeping the shield permeable for the rest of them. Eureka thrust herself over the rock.
Mountains stretched before her, ringed by a pearly mist. Her knees slid on the rock as she turned and plunged her arm into the churning sea. She felt for Williams hand. Ander was supposed to lift him to her.
Small fingers traced, then grasped Eurekas hand. Her brothers grip was surprisingly robust. She pulled until she could reach under his arms and heave him above the surface. William squinted, trying to focus his eyes in the storm. Eureka moved over him, needing to protect him from her tears brutality, knowing there was no escape.
Cat came next. She practically launched herself from the water and into Eurekas arms. She slid onto the stone and whooped, hugging William, hugging Eureka.
The Cat endures!
Pulling Dad up was like an exhumation. He moved slowly, as if drawing himself up required a strength he had never hoped to possess, though Eureka had cheered him across the finish line of three marathons and watched him bench-press his weight in the sweltering garage at home.
Finally, Claire rose in Anders arms above the surface of the waves. They held the orichalcum chain. Wind lashed their bodies. The shield glimmered around themright up until Claires toes slipped past its bounds. Then it split into mist and vanished. Eureka and Cat pulled Ander and Claire over the ledge and onto the rock.
Rain pinged off Eurekas thunderstone, stabbing the underside ofher chin. Water sprayed up from the ocean and down from the sky. The rock they stood on was narrow, slippery, and dropped steeply into the ocean, but at least they had all made it to land. Now they needed shelter.
Where are we? William shouted.
I think this is the moon, Claire said.
It doesnt rain on the moon, William said.
Head for higher ground, Ander called as he unhooked the anchor from the rock, pressed the switch to retract its flukes, and slipped it back inside his backpack. He pointed inland, where the dark promise of a mountain sloped up. Cat and Dad each took a twin. Eureka watched the backs of her family as they slipped and slid along the rocks. The sight of them stumbling and helping each other up, traveling toward a shelter they didnt know existed made her loathe herself. Shed gotten themand the rest of the worldinto this.
Are you sure this is the way? she shouted at Ander even as she noted that the rock theyd landed on jutted out above the sea like a small peninsula. Every other way was white water. It stretched forever, no horizon.
For a moment she let her gaze float on the ocean. She listened to the ringing in her left ear, deaf since the car accident that had killed Diana. This was her depression pose: staring straight ahead without seeing anything, listening to the lonely and unending ring. After Diana died, Eureka had spent months like this. Brooks used to be the only one who let her go into these sad trances, gently needling her when she was through: Youre a nightclub act without the nightclub.
Eureka wiped rain from her face. She couldnt afford the luxury of sadness anymore. Ander had said she could stop the flood. She would do it or die trying. She wondered how much time she had.
How long has it been raining?
Only a day. Yesterday morning, we were home in your backyard.
Only a day ago, shed had no idea what her tears could do. Her eyes focused on the ocean, made wild by a single days rain. She leaned down and squinted at something bobbing on its surface.
It was a human head.
Eureka had known she would face terrible things above the ocean. Still, seeing what her tears had done, this demolished life. She wasnt ready. But then
The head moved, from one side to the other. A tan arm stretched out of the water. Someone was swimming. The head pivoted toward Eureka, took another breath, and disappeared. Then it appeared again, a body moving fast behind it, riding the waves.
Eureka recognized that arm, those shoulders, that dark, wet head of hair. Shed watched Brooks swim to the breakers since they were little kids.
Reason vanished; amazement prevailed. She cupped her hands around her mouth, but before the sound of Brookss name escaped her lips, Ander leaned in next to her.
