Nina snorted. “Don’t count on it. This isn’t the East Coast. Arizona is a planet of its own, like Mars or Jupiter, and it’ll stay stifling hot with or without rain.”
Lightning speared into the desert floor somewhere in the distance, and Gretchen could feel static electricity snapping through the air.
“The monsoon,” Nacho muttered, with increased agitation.
“Flashflooding,” Nina said.
Nacho turned to Gretchen. “You have to take me home. Quickly.”
“Lead the way,” she said, feeling she was finally breaking through a barrier.
The storm moved in behind the Impala as they traveled from Scottsdale into Phoenix’s central city. Nacho led Gretchen past the Southern Pacific Rail Yard and the freight trains that brought lumber and building materials into the construction-crazed city. They drove along the Black Canyon Highway on an elevated viaduct and exited with the first drops of rain beginning to splatter on the windshield.
The monsoon, Nina explained as they drove, started in July and ended sometime in August. It brought torrential rains and damaging hail, water that the hard-packed earth couldn’t absorb and the inadequate drainage system couldn’t transport.
Streets could become rapidly moving rivers, tearing out trees and destroying buildings.
“Surely, you’re exaggerating,” Gretchen said, her eyes wide.
Nina shook her head. “Six inches of fast-moving water can knock you right off your feet. I’ve seen cars swept away.”
Gretchen glanced back and saw black sky outdistancing them and swirling clouds approaching fast. Ahead, in the boulevards, palm trees bowed under the increasing force of the wind.
Nacho directed them to pull off beneath a freeway viaduct. As soon as the car stopped, he bolted out the door and ran down into a shallow wash. Nina and Gretchen followed, stumbling on the rough ground. Nina, who thought shopping at the mall qualified as strenuous exercise, scrambled to keep up, and Gretchen slowed to wait for her.
“How do we know he isn’t dangerous?” Nina puffed. “He could have killed Martha and lied about helping your mother.”
“I’m willing to take that risk if it means finding her.”
The sky gave way, and rain pounded down, hammering the car and everything else in its path. The bridge overhead saved them from the deluge.
“This isn’t too bad,” Gretchen said. “We can wait out the rain right here.”
“You have a lot to learn,” Nina said, tripping along. “It’s a good thing I’m around to protect you. This dry wash will be underwater in no time at all. You’re standing in the worst possible place.”
Gretchen looked back at the rain, then turned in time to see Nacho disappear into the side of a large beam that supported the viaduct. One minute he was running toward the support beam, the next minute he was gone. She opened her mouth in surprise and started running. Rain trickled past her feet. Over the roar of the wind, she thought she heard her cell phone ringing on her belt clip. She let it ring and kept running in the direction she had last seen Nacho.
On closer inspection, his shelter under the cover of the bridge was a work of genius. Nacho had created a facade around the beam, a false wall of cardboard made from several refrigerator boxes. He had painted the cardboard a slate gray to match the color of the beam and brought the pieces together with gray duct tape, effectively concealing his makeshift home from prying eyes.
Gretchen found the opening and pushed through. Inside, Nacho leaned against Daisy’s shopping cart and took a long draw from a cheap bottle of wine. He offered her the bottle, and she shook her head. He raised it to his lips and drained what was left. The shopping cart, filled to overflowing, took up most of the room in his hand-made shelter. An old piece of outdoor carpeting covered the ground.
Gretchen knew enough about the plight of the homeless to feel a deep empathy for Nacho and Daisy. Through the years the homeless had been herded from a visible presence in tent cities to old warehouses where they huddled conveniently out of sight. The few social programs still operating couldn’t support the growing numbers, and now jails were becoming the new shelters of the future. Nacho had found an alternative to living on the street and an alternative to abiding by the rules of the government-funded shelters.
The gale-strength wind threatened his newfound home. The cardboard rattled violently, and Gretchen wondered how much longer the duct tape would hold.
Nina slid through behind her. “We have to get out of here,” she said, an edge of panic in her voice. “This wash is a death trap.”
“I can’t leave without my stuff.” Nacho’s arms swept to encompass the tiny room. “And Daisy’s cart.”
“The cart won’t fit in the car,” Gretchen said. “We’ll wheel it up to the top of the wash and unload the contents into Nina’s car. Maybe we can tie the cart to a girder so the wind won’t blow it away.”
“This entire wash is going to be a running river before you get done talking about it,” Nina screamed into the wind as they pulled the cart along. A large black lawn bag filled with Nacho’s possessions bounced behind him as he half carried it, half dragged it along.
Water rose over their shoes.
The rain pelted Gretchen’s arms and face as they hurriedly stuffed the contents of Daisy’s shopping cart into the trunk. Nacho tossed his bag into the backseat and ran back down into the growing water swell. He called out, but the wind lifted the sound away from her. Gretchen watched him splash through the growing swell, then he disappeared inside the corrugated board.
When she moved to follow him, Nina grabbed her arm. “Stay here. He’s a fool.”
“What’s he doing?” Gretchen wiped her wet face with her good hand. So much for staying dry. Her clothes were soaked. Ignoring Nina’s advice, she decided to follow him. What if he refused to abandon ship? She would drag him out if necessary.
She slipped into his shelter and he seized her from behind, pining her arms against her side, his breath foul on her neck. She realized how isolated she was. Nina couldn’t help her from the top of the wash. If he had killed Martha, he would kill her without hesitation. Then what? Would he go after Nina? No one knew where they were; it might be days before someone discovered their bodies. Victims of flashflooding. Who would guess the truth?
His hold was strong, and she bent forward, twisting and pushing up to free her arms. When she began to struggle, he released her and backed up. “You shouldn’t have followed me,” he said with dark, emotionless eyes.
“I came to help,” she said, breathing hard.
He shoved her. “Get out while you still can.”
The same words he had spoken to her outside of the restaurant. At the time, she assumed he was threatening her, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe, then as now, he was warning her away from a dangerous situation. He was a strange man with abrupt and edgy mannerisms. Not quite right by society’s standards, a little off.
Gretchen burst through the opening and glanced back to see him following. Nacho kicked through the flowing water, carrying another bag.
Six inches of water, Nina had warned. Strong enough to bowl you over and sweep you away. They struggled through the water, not running now. Walking thickly, off-balance with each step.
“Follow the flow,” Nacho said, close to her ear. “And angle toward the embankment.”
They had no choice but to turn away from Nina and the car. Gretchen felt the calf-deep water pulling her along. She quit fighting against it, accepting it instead, but edging slowly at an angle toward the embankment. She glanced back and saw Nina waving her arms frantically.
Gretchen felt firm footing below, less pull from the current, as Nacho rose ahead of her on the hill, clutching the bag. She looked back at the swelling river then loped all the way back to the car.
“Martha’s,” Nacho said, peering intensely at Gretchen and pushing the bag at her. She took the bag from him and threw it in the backseat.
“We don’t have anything to secure the shopping cart,” she said with rain pouring down her face. “We’ll have to abandon it.”
“It’s not like she can’t get another one,” Nina shouted.
Nacho wedged it between the face of the concrete ramp and a metal pole, and Nina pulled away just as the whirling water ripped apart Nacho’s home.
