bucket in to fill it and saw fish swim by. When he got back to the cabin Winona was busy making food for the get- together.
Everyone had agreed to meet at the Worth cabin shortly after the sun was at its zenith. The food would be set out, and they would talk and play games and have fun until late into the night. Nate was looking forward to it. So when he stepped outside shortly before noon and saw the western sky, he scowled.
A dark cloud bank blotted out the horizon, a thunderhead rent by flashes of lightning. As yet it was too distant to hear the thunder. But in a while it would be upon them. He went back in and informed his wife.
“I hope it passes over quickly,” Winona said.
So did Nate. Otherwise it would spoil their plans. He went back out and made sure the corral gate was secure and brought in all his tools so they wouldn’t get wet and rust. As he was carrying his ax in he heard the first far-off rumble and smelled moisture in the air. It wouldn’t be long.
The first drops were big and cold. They hit like gunshots on the roof. The wind picked up and churned the surface of the lake with wavelets. Lightning crashed and thunder boomed, and the dark sky opened up and unleashed a deluge. The rain fell in sheets. It was so heavy that Nate, standing at his window, couldn’t see the chicken coop or the woodshed only a dozen yards out.
Winona came to his side and peered into the torrent. “Please do not last long,” she said to the heavens.
A cannonade of thunder shook their cabin. Evelyn came out of her room and took one look and said, “This better not keep me from seeing Dega.”
“Oh?” Nate said.
Evelyn blushed.
The storm lasted more than an hour. It rained so hard that at its peak the ground was inches deep in water. Gradually the downpour tapered to a sprinkle and ended entirely. The sky turned from black to gray and then to blue. In its wake it left pools and puddles and mud and muck.
Nate was still at the window, Winona at the counter placing a pie she had baked in a basket. “It’s a mess out there,” he said. “I should go tell everyone to hold off a couple of hours. Give things time to dry out.”
Evelyn jumped up from a chair by the table. “Let me, Pa. I’m tired of being cooped up.”
“Is that the only reason?”
Evelyn blushed again. “Of course.”
“You’ll have to ride careful. The ground is slippery.”
“I will. Don’t worry,” Evelyn said. “Nothing will happen.”
During the height of the storm the rain cascaded into the gulley as water over a waterfall. The gully quickly filled. It often did when rain was heavy. Usually it rose to a gap near the bottom and was channeled out and over the adjacent ground before the bottom was covered. This time the rain came down so hard and so fast that the level rose more swiftly than it ever had, and the gap wasn’t wide enough for the water to drain out before it covered the gully from end to end.
The rain kept on falling and the level kept on rising and the water reached the cleft and flowed in and down. It poured into the underground chamber like water down a funnel. It drenched the enormous mass of serpents and the mass writhed to life, annoyed. Like strands of unraveling thread, the multitude uncoiled and unwound and swarmed up the cleft. Not by scores or by hundreds but by the thousands. So many filled the cleft that they temporarily stopped the water. In a living torrent of their own they flowed out of the cleft and up and out of the gully onto the ground above. They didn’t stop there. The battering rain, the wet and the cold, were not to their liking. In sinuous clusters they fanned out, crawling every which way, anxious in their instinct to escape the wet.
But there was no escape. The rain was so heavy that the ground couldn’t absorb it all. The snakes crawled in water inches deep, and they didn’t like that. Some crawled faster and farther than they had ever gone, to all points of the compass. Those that fled to the west vanished into the trees. The rest spread out along the lakeshore, living currents of reptilian flesh.
The rain went on and on and the snakes crawled and crawled until finally the black clouds drifted east, the lightning and thunder dwindled and the rain became a mist that soon ended.
In many places the water was still inches deep, with scattered pools and countless puddles.
Nearly everywhere, the water moved as if alive.
Evelyn King couldn’t saddle her horse fast enough. She was eager to be on her errand. She would give her father’s message to the Worths and her brother and his wife and then ride on to the Nansusequa lodge and give the message to them, and get to see Dega.
As Evelyn smoothed the saddle blanket she thought of the night before when she snuck out to see him. A warm tingle spread through her tummy. His kisses were like sweet honey. Strange that a girl would think that of a boy, but there it was.
Evelyn swung her saddle on and bent to the cinch. She had chosen a sorrel she was fond of. It had a gentle disposition and never gave her a lick of trouble. The bridle was already on so when she lowered the stirrup all she had to do was swing up and jab her heels and she was away. She was wearing a light blue dress she had made herself and shoes she bought in St. Louis. The shoes were a bit too tight, but they were the fanciest she owned and she wanted to look especially pretty for the get-together, and for Dega.
The thought of him made her warm again. She stayed close to the water’s edge where there were fewer rocks and she could go faster. The Worth cabin was off to the northwest a ways and she would have to cross the shore to reach it. Then on to Zach’s.
“Why go to them first?” Evelyn asked out loud. She had a better idea. Why not go see Dega first and give the others the news on her way back? The sooner she saw him, the sooner they could sneak off into the woods to hug and kiss. Laughing at her brainstorm, she brought the sorrel to a trot. Its heavy hooves dug deep into the rain- softened earth, leaving broad pockmarks.
To her right was the lake, to her left puddles and pools and areas where the water appeared to be ankle high. She thought she saw something move in one of the puddles.
Evelyn passed the Worths’ cabin and her brother’s place. Smoke curled from his chimney. The door was closed and the curtains were over the window. She almost hollered a greeting but didn’t. If they came out, she would be obligated to stop and she didn’t want to stop until she reached the east end of the lake, and Dega.
“You handsome devil,” Evelyn said softly. She had never felt about anyone as she did about him.
The sorrel had not been ridden in a while and was eager for the exercise. Head straight, mane flying, it raced along the open belt that edged the lake.
Evelyn glanced at a tract of water-covered ground and noticed dozens of ripples. Odd, she thought, since the wind had nearly died. Almost as if fish were in the water, swimming about. They must be small fish, she reasoned, since the water wasn’t very deep. She couldn’t account for how they got there since the lake hadn’t risen much during the storm. Not like the time a while back when it poured rain for half a day and the lake rose midway to the trees.
Ahead, the belt of clear space narrowed; a strip of rocks and small boulders came down nearly to the water. She slowed and saw that a shallow pool had formed on the near side of the strip. She must cross a swatch of water maybe ten feet wide.
Suddenly the sorrel stopped.
“What on earth?” Evelyn was perplexed. She hadn’t pulled on the reins. The horse had halted on its own and now it was staring at the pool.
“What’s gotten into you?” Evelyn poked with her heels, but the sorrel just stood there. She didn’t know what to make of it. The sorrel had never acted this way. She jabbed her heels harder, but all the sorrel did was bob its head. Annoyed at the delay, she slapped her legs and lashed the reins. The sorrel took a few steps—and
