to maintain her balance. The thin rim of sandy beach was gone, washed away by
the pounding waves. Clinging to the slippery bank with an arm around a tree,
she pulled out the radio.
“Leslie? Leslie, this is Dev. Where the hell are you?”
She hoped someone had had the good sense to keep Leslie off
• 149 •
RADCLY fFE
the lake. The surface of the water was so churned up it looked like the ocean
rather than an inland lake. The sky had darkened to the point where she needed
to use her ? ashlight to check her watch. It’d been a little over an hour since her
last communication with Leslie. Dev squinted into the rain and scanned the lake,
but the visibility was less than ? fty yards. She jammed her hands into her
pockets, hunched her shoulders against the wind, and ignored the cold as icy
rain soaked through her jeans below her anorak.
Five minutes later, she heard it—the sound of an engine laboring somewhere in
the inky mist. She switched on her ? ashlight and waved it in a wide, slow arc
above her head, squinting so hard into the rain that her eyes ached. The air
howled like a creature in pain, and for a moment, Dev thought she’d imagined
the sound of a motor. Then a ? icker of light caught her eye, went out, and ?
ickered on again. A rhythmic on and off that she recognized as a bow light,
cresting and disappearing into the troughs between the waves as a boat fought
its way to shore. She couldn’t make out the ? gure in the boat as the craft
wallowed, spun sideways, and threatened to go over. Miraculously, the pilot
maneuvered the bow around until it pointed toward shore again, but the water
was so rough the boat couldn’t land. Holding the ? ashlight above her head with
one hand, Dev waded into the water up to her thighs and stretched out an arm.
“Throw the line!” she shouted against the wind, knowing it was hopeless. She
could feel the words being forced down her throat before they’d even cleared
her lips. Nevertheless, a line snaked through the air and whipped across her
chest. Re? exively, she caught it and wrapped it around her forearm.
Fortunately, her jacket protected her arm, because the rope immediately
tightened like a noose. She could feel it biting into her skin even with the
protection of the nylon. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she leaned backward
toward shore, using her body as an anchor to keep the front of the boat directed
toward land. Each time the rope loosened she stepped backward, keeping the
guideline tight.
She could see Leslie’s face now, screaming something to her.
One step. Two. Three. Dev stumbled, fell backward into the lake, and lost her ?
ashlight. The rope around her arm loosened as she swallowed water and ? ailed
in the shallows just offshore. Coughing and sputtering, struggling in her boots
and wet jeans, she tried unsuccessfully to regain her feet. Then an arm circled
around her waist and steadied her. She broke the surface spewing water and
gasping for air.
• 150 •
WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE
“Are you crazy?” Leslie shouted. “You could’ve gone under the boat and gotten
tangled up in the propeller. I could have killed you!”
“Look who’s talking,” Dev shouted back. “What the hell are you doing out
here? You’re lucky you didn’t capsize in the middle of the lake and drown.”
“The storm’s coming in faster than they predicted,” Leslie said, ignoring Dev’s
chastisement. “The lake’s too rough to make the return trip now.”
“Let’s secure the boat and get to high ground!”
Even as they shouted, Dev and Leslie both grabbed the towrope and dragged
the boat as far up onto what remained of the shoreline as they could. Then
Leslie staggered up the muddy bank and began wrapping the line around a
rocky outcropping. Dev joined her, and between them, they secured the boat as
well as they could.
“We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t wash away,” Dev said, her mouth close to Leslie’s
ear.
“We’ll be lucky if we don’t wash away!”
“Come on,” Dev said, taking Leslie’s hand. “Follow me.”
Just as they cleared the underbrush and reached the relative sanctuary of the
forest, a tremendous crash sounded overhead and a giant pine toppled and fell
almost directly on top of them. Dev yanked Leslie with her as she dove off the
trail and against the base of another evergreen. The trunk of the falling pine
ended up canted against the tree that protected them, about four feet above their
heads.
“Are you okay?” Dev yelled.
“Scratched up a bit, but in one piece,” Leslie called back.
“We need to crawl out from under here and head uphill. I’ll go ? rst. Hold on to
my jeans so you can follow me.”
“Be careful.”
Dev pushed at the branches with one arm and forced a tunnel through them with
her head and shoulders. Now and then she registered discomfort, but her whole
body felt bruised and battered and a little more pain barely mattered. Once she
cleared the maze of branches, she turned on her back and reached down for
Leslie’s arms to pull her free of the debris. Leslie crawled out and collapsed on
top of Dev. The rain was so heavy it felt as if they were at the bottom of a
waterfall and, once again, Dev was breathing water. She coughed.
Leslie sheltered Dev’s upturned face with her body. “You’re bleeding!”
• 151 •
RADCLY fFE
Dev pressed her cheek to Leslie’s chest and managed to draw air into her lungs
instead of rain. “I’m okay. The…campsite’s…a hundred yards from here.
Let’s…go.”
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“I’m good.”
Reluctantly, Leslie slid to the side so Dev could get to her knees.
Then Leslie wrapped her arm around Dev’s waist and helped her up.
When Dev tried to pull away, she tightened her grip. “Don’t be stubborn.
Just get us there.”
Traversing the slope was like walking through a sluice jammed with logs. The
rain was a solid wall of water, and branches skimmed by out of nowhere,
bouncing off their bodies and scraping their faces and hands. After what felt like
an interminable struggle, Dev stumbled to a halt next to a nylon tent. With hands
numb from cold and swollen from batting away projectiles, she fumbled with the
zipper and ? nally got it open. Together, she and Leslie pushed through the ?
ap, Dev zippered it behind them, and they both collapsed onto Dev’s sleeping
bag.
