513 The Flood, Ch 26



Chapter Twenty-six


There's a couch in the bedroom, and it's starting to float. Grabbing one of the cushions for floatation, I stand in the open sliding door, up to my hips. Waiting. Watching. Afraid.

The dinghy first moves to the west, then something shifts in the current, and it begins coming back toward me.

"This is it," I say it out loud, to give myself confidence. "You've got this."

---

There's a saying among sailors, "Step up into the life raft." If you're on a boat, and it's sinking, you're still better off than in a life raft. Wait until the big boat is truly going down before you get off of it.

This was racing through my head as I watched the dinghy getting closer, and felt the water still rising. 

The cold hit my nuts, and still, I didn't go. Now, my waist was underwater. Moving was getting difficult, even inside the condo the pull of the water was overwhelming.

---

My feet were slipping. I felt myself being pulled around. The windows cracked and then burst, one from the inside, one from the outside. Clinging to the couch cushion, I struggled to stay on my feet.

And then I was sucked outside.







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