The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer

Author:Nancy Richardson Fischer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: 2019-07-15T15:41:55+00:00

22

I swim beneath the massive felled tree. Swamp water streams along my body. I’m petrified of contact with anything, everything. I can hear the fast tick-tick of a stopwatch as the air in my lungs starts to evaporate.

Swim hard to me.

I flail forward. Something snags my shirt. Spastically, I reach back, anticipating teeth or an electric jolt. It’s a knot of wood. I twist hard and tug free, push forward. I’m thrashing too much. Predators are attracted to vibrations. They can feel panic. Smell it even in water. Episode 173—New Zealand, with Olympic skier JA Barrett. A great white shark circled JA and Cougar’s man-made canoe. My lungs ache, oxygen deprivation creating a hungry void.

I’m taking too long.

Something bashes into me. I wait for an anaconda’s coils to slither around my body, squeeze the final drops of air from my lungs.

Fight like hell. No predator wants to battle for its prey.

How can I fight a giant snake or a prehistoric alligator? I open my eyes but can’t see anything in the muddy water. Still, I want to know what’s going to kill me and reach out. It’s slimy, solid...a thick branch, way too big to break. I pull my body under it, belly now touching the muck where stingrays and eels burrow. The ache of my lungs has become a scream. I wiggle forward. The branch presses down harder.

Go under right where I did.

I did!

I manage to get free, propel myself forward and up. There’s another limb angling down. I shove halfway through the thick branches, but now I’m so tightly wedged that it’s impossible to work my way back.

If your mind wanders, you get smashed.

Fireworks burst behind my closed eyes—sparklers of bright reds and blues, all flash, no big boom. The pain in my lungs is now excruciating. The urge to open my mouth, suck in oxygen, even though I know it’s water, know I’ll drown for sure, is overwhelming.

Don’t stay up too late, girls.

Now I’ll never know why I was named after a breakfast cereal.

He left, Danielle.

But you can cut open Poppy without a problem?

Pigeon drowning.

Something twists around my wrist. I flail with the last shred of my strength. It yanks me forward so hard my shoulder almost rips from its socket. I’m rocketing through the water, then surface, gasping for air. My dad pulls me toward him. I climb him, desperate to be out of the water.

“Easy,” he says, untangling himself. “You’re okay.”

I splutter, half choking. “How did you know I needed help?”

“Jupiter yelled when you went under. I counted to thirty. Figured that was all the breath you had in you. No Danny, so I went looking.”

I hug him hard, overflowing with happiness, gratitude, after my near-death experience. “Thank you for saving me.”

Cougar pulls free, grins. “Can you imagine the negative PR if I let my own kid die out here?”

Joy flakes away like old paint. “I wouldn’t want to be the reason for bad press.”

Cougar kisses my cheek. “Kidding, buddy.”

Jupiter pops to the surface, his dreads arcing a spray of water.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.