"Looks like somebody got banged up," a Texan drawl called out behind Reese. He turned Ben toward the small ranger station, a squat brick building trimmed out in pine logs and weathered cedar shake roofing that looked older than him. On the wide front porch, next to a large wooden welcome sign, stood a woman almost as large, with her hands on her hips. She had a long gray ponytail that reached over one shoulder to her waist, but the two-tone ranger uniform was unmistakable under her wide-brimmed campaign hat. She nodded to herself. "Well, bring ‘im on in, then—I'll have a look."
Ben grimaced, leaning on Reese. “Don't roll your eyes at me, man—I don’t care who she is—get me inside. My leg is killing me!" Aiden moved over to support Ben’s other side, and the three of them hobbled up the wooden steps while the grim-faced ranger held the door for them.
Reese, as a native South Carolinian, didn’t consider August in Maine “hot weather”, but he couldn't help but notice the difference in temperature as they stepped into the ranger station. Moving past wall-size maps of the island and its fjords, created by prehistoric glaciers, Reese marveled at the natural beauty Mount Desert Island offered. They shuffled by samples of dried local flora and taxidermies portraying island wildlife, all interspersed with rocks collected from all over Acadia National Park.
Reese and Aiden helped Ben limp toward the doorway marked ’authorized personnel only.’ The ranger moved quick despite her bulk and opened the door ahead of them.
"Take ‘im on in, first room on the left. There's a cot. It’s for emergencies only, but as I might be the only ranger left on this island, I’m declaring this a dadgum emergency.“
Reese turned sideways to help Ben navigate the narrow door, shaking his head at the insanity of the day. After all they’d been through, now, instead of hearing a nasal New England accent at the park ranger station, he found himself with a Texan.
Reese helped Ben lie down on the cot, and gingerly helped the injured leg straighten out. Ben winced, clenched his teeth, and gripped the side of the cot with white knuckles.
The ranger clicked her teeth as she approached, rolling up the sleeves of her uniform. "Take a fall on one of the trails?" she asked.
“I-I…uh…” Aiden stammered, hovering in the background.
"Spit it out, son," the ranger said over her shoulder, removing her hat and placing it on the cot next to Ben. She whistled, looking at the swollen knee adorned by cuts and scrapes down Ben's leg.
"I kinda hit him with my car," Aiden blurted. “My dad’s car,” he added, looking at the floor.
"I'll say," mumbled the ranger. She glanced at Ben. “Alright, then. Let’s get this dog and pony show on the road. Any sharp pain or grinding when you move it?"
Ben shook his head, beads of sweat on his brow. "No, just constant pain."
"How about your toes?" she asked. "Can you move ‘em? And your ankle?" She watched as Ben moved his toes and rotated his foot, albeit slowly. She nodded. "Well, I don't think anything’s broken. Can you bend that knee at all?"
Ben shook his head, a little jerk. “Not much—feels thick as mud—but it moved a little when we got out of the car."
The ranger nodded to herself and crossed her arms. “Yep, don't reckon you broke it, but you might've wished you had. I've seen plenty of sprains from people fallin’ on the hiking trails around here in my time. And this looks like a honey of a sprain. Don't think there's much I can do…but I got some fabulous government ice packs,” she said, standing with a grunt. “Don't go nowhere, now—be back in a jiffy.”
Ben arched an eyebrow and looked at her as she left. "Really? A jiffy? Golly gee willickers!“
Reese wanted to snicker but found he couldn’t. A few hundred feet away, the wrath of the ocean was destroying the town of Bar Harbor. Who knew how many people were drowning as they stood there, mincing words with the odd ranger?
“Dad's gonna kill me," moaned Aiden.
Reese ran a hand through sweaty hair. He hadn’t even thought about the kid. The trip was supposed to have been a four-day jaunt, not a week-long expedition.
“He’s gonna kill you? Just wait till I get on my feet again…” Ben groused.
Reese stared at the map of Acadia National Park on the wall above Ben's head. It was a smaller version of the massive, relief carved map that covered the wall out in the lobby. "I don't think you have to worry about cops or insurance, Aiden. Everyone has something much bigger to worry about."
His gaze drifted over the map as his mind traveled south. When would the wave hit South Carolina? Was it really that big? Would Cami know it was coming? Did anyone on the mainland know? The scattered reports from the Coast Guard didn't give him a lot of confidence that the general population had been warned.
He and Cami had lived through their fair share of hurricanes in the Carolinas—even if a warning went out, he knew a good number of people would ignore it and stay put. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool cinderblock wall. If what he’d just witnessed coming ashore was any indication of what was happening down the seaboard, there was a fair chance that life as he knew it had just ended.
This was everything Cami had been preparing for…for the last decade of their lives together. And he was 1,300 miles away from home. From Cami, from Amber.
In short order the ranger interrupted Reese’s morose line of thinking, bustling into the room with ice packs,
