Emily and Einstein by Lee Linda Francis

Author:Lee, Linda Francis [Lee, Linda Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2011-03-01T06:00:00+00:00

einstein

chapter twenty-two

A surprised woof rushed out of me as I hit the water.

On the bow, standing on a pile of extra life jackets, I had realized this was my chance. I waited, poised to leap, but I made the mistake of looking down. The water was thick with mire and no doubt crawling with germs. Vertigo hit me hard, my stomach clenched. I was too afraid to jump. Which depressed me even more, and in turn sent me over the edge. Literally.

“Damn it!” I barked on the way over the side, praying I didn’t have the ability or strength to swim, at least for very long.

The bite of cold took my breath away. Surprise made me gasp, my mouth opening on a gush of water. The sting of algae burned my lungs as I choked. The instinct rose to fight, but I clamped it down and let my body sink. I sighed in relief that soon it would be over.

It didn’t take long before I hit the bottom. The water was cloudy, making it hard to see more than eerie outlines of whatever lay below. My paws hit things on the bottom. Discarded rope or tree branches, I couldn’t tell, though I hardly cared as my legs settled into the debris.

I heard the shouting above, muffled even to my ears, distant. Jordan angry. Emily trying not to panic. They were fighting. Always fighting. Wasn’t life too short to fight? I had made mistakes in my life as Sandy, but I had never wasted time fighting with people. If I was unhappy, I didn’t go to the place of anger and frustration. I walked away. When someone phoned to apologize, I didn’t take their call.

That was something else I had done wrong.

The thought came out of nowhere, crystal clear, impossible to ignore.

It was too late to think about that or anything else as the soft dimness of water and a resolve to die surrounded me. But then my body twitched, something in me trying to push up from the bottom.

Don’t do it, I willed myself. This was my chance.

But my body fought with my mind. Did I really want to end what was left of my life, end it in a Central Park lake steps from the home I loved?

Yes, I told myself.

But the primal part of me took over. I let out a scream, my legs and paws completely tangled. I thrashed and kicked, squirmed violently, just as I had done with the cereal box on my head. But I couldn’t get free of whatever held me.

The water was even colder at the bottom, sapping whatever strength my thrashing hadn’t already used up. As quickly as it started, I couldn’t do it anymore. I knew I needed to keep trying, but I couldn’t. My mind grew foggy, thoughts becoming disjointed. I felt more than comprehended the thrashing of someone else next to me, the screaming underwater, the struggle to pull me up. I sensed more than saw that it was Emily, fighting against the debris with everything she was worth.

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