Chapter Thirty-Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO HOUR 34 MINUTES

FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy, his bravery had held up as long as it could.

“Are they coming back?” Connor asked.

Dani nodded, trying to cover her chattering teeth, but she’d been wondering the same thing. Which was ridiculous. Of course they were coming back.

But where were they?

“They’re probably just putting the pizza order in,” she said.

“Pizza?”

“Oh, yeah. Making sure we have something warm to eat when we get up there. What kind do you want?”

Connor thought. “Pepperoni.”

“Good stuff. I want anchovies. You know. Little fish. I’m feeling one with the fishies.”

Seeing his toothy grin in the dim light boosted her. It was just enough. The moment of levity felt good. Necessary. But then it passed, and it was silent again except for their breathing and the soft sounds of water dripping in their little cave-like space.

Her mind went to Brianna. How could it not? Was her baby thinking about her, wondering where her mom was? Boy, would this be an amazing story to tell her. She could see her eyes widening, her jaw hanging down in disbelief. Bri would ask her to tell it over again. Tell the part where they were stuck in the river, and it was so cold. Dani was beginning to smile when Connor’s voice brought her back.

“They’re not sleeping, are they.”

It was more of a confirmation of a suspicion than a question, and it took Dani a moment to understand what he meant. God, it felt like a lifetime ago when Connor’s father had told his son to listen to the firefighters. Dani’s heart ached anew at the memory of him telling Connor that he was going to sleep for a little while, just like his mom.

“No, sweetheart,” Dani said softly. “No, they’re not sleeping.”

She could feel his grief in the way he didn’t say anything, but she wondered what that meant to him. At his age, had he experienced death before? Maybe a pet? A grandparent? Did he understand or was the worst of it still to come? Once he got out of here, was that what waited for him—the excruciating journey into understanding what it was to lose the ones you loved?

“At least,” Dani said, “they’re not sleeping in the way you think.”

In the dark of the van, she saw Connor look at her more closely.

“The way you fall asleep in your bed at night and wake up the next morning. They’re not doing that. But do you ever dream while you sleep?”

She felt Connor nod his head.

“I think maybe they’re sleeping like that. Wherever that is. You know how dreams sometimes make no sense but also make total sense?”

“I dreamed my cat Riley could talk.”

“Exactly. Riley can’t talk in real life. But it was totally normal in the dream, right?”

Connor nodded.

“I think maybe your family’s sleeping like that. Maybe they’re there. But instead of waking up the next morning like we do, they just stay there. And maybe they’re doing all sorts of things that make no sense but make total sense. And they’re loving it. They’re having a great time. And maybe sometimes when you sleep at night, you’ll meet them there. And you can have a great time together.”

“Can I stay there with them?”

Dani swallowed down the lump in her throat. “No, baby. Not yet. They would want you to wake up and go to school. Play with your friends. Grow big and tall. And while you’re doing that, they’ll be watching. They’ll be with you even if they’re not really with you. Because that’s how dreams work, remember?”

Just then, over his shoulder, out the back window, Dani saw light. A soft illumination that grew brighter by the second.

“Look,” Dani said, pointing. Connor turned to see. “They’re back.”

At that, R.J. appeared, dropping down from above, with Boggs right behind him. Both wore firefighter SCBA gear. R.J. held a crowbar; Boggs had a crash ax. R.J. turned to Boggs and waved his hand over the side and top of the van, indicating the air pocket. Boggs nodded. R.J. swam to the wide back window and pointed to the lower driver’s-side corner. Boggs nodded again.

“What are they going to do?” Connor asked.

Dani watched them, making sure she didn’t miss anything. “They’re going to break that back window,” she said. “Down there, in that corner. Where it’s fully underwater. That way, they don’t let our air escape. Once the glass is open, they can come in and we can go out.”

R.J. and Boggs began to signal a countdown. Dani held on to Connor, thinking through what could go wrong. Troubleshooting what she would do if it did. Realizing there was nothing she could do.

The countdown ended.

The crowbar came down.

And with a pathetic ting of a noise, nothing happened.

Another countdown. Another attempt. And again. Alternating tools, trying the crash ax and the crowbar. Nothing. They tried breaking into a different spot on the glass. Still nothing.

Boggs motioned to R.J., pointed at his mask. R.J. nodded and went up. Boggs looked into the van, gave Dani a Hold on hand motion, then pushed for the surface, following R.J. up, leaving Dani and Connor alone.

R.J. surfaced, gasping for air, with Boggs right behind him. They squinted into the air that moved all around them to see a helicopter descending on the scene, landing on a patch of grass not far from the fire truck. Its door slid open, and members of the Ninth U.S. Coast Guard District hopped out, hauling dive gear behind them.

“Glass won’t break,” Boggs yelled, choking on water as he swam for shore.

The Coastguardsmen were getting into their gear, preparing to dive, conferring with Frankie as Boggs crawled up the riverbank, describing it all to Levon.

“Underwater,” he said, breathless, “it’s weightless. No… no resistance. No force. It won’t break.”

But Levon was watching R.J., who was swimming for his truck.

“R.J.!” Levon called. “What are you doing?”

“I got an idea. Get me another SCBA ready,” R.J. hollered over his shoulder, water sloshing everywhere as he climbed up to his truck and disappeared into the cab.

Connor’s lips were turning blue. Dani knew children his age hadn’t fully developed the ability to regulate their temperature, so while he might not seem that cold, he was probably dangerously close to being hypothermic—and she was a few steps ahead of him.

Because, unlike Connor, Dani was in the water. She shivered and her breath hung in the air as little clouds as she tried to kick her legs to keep her heart rate up. But if she was honest with herself, she couldn’t feel any of her limbs. She wasn’t sure if she was moving at all. Dani’s brain was going fuzzy. She wasn’t sure of much of anything anymore.

“‘… no valley low enough, ain’t no river…’”

Dani could have sworn she heard Brianna laughing as Dani sang their song, her off-key voice filling the air pocket. Bri’s laugh was so real, so close—wait. Dani looked around. Was she there? No, Bri wasn’t there. Of course not. That was Connor. And there were no giggles; it was Dani’s own hand splashing in the water.

Dani’s thoughts felt scrambled. Her conscious mind was no longer in the driver’s seat; some primal survival source deep inside her was calling the shots now, telling her to make sounds and movements that would keep them both awake, alive, hanging on. She obeyed, continuing to jiggle her hand as she sang… but she didn’t know how much longer the tricks would work.

It’d been forever since R.J. and Boggs left. Where were they? They had to come back. They had to save them. Now . Connor was running out of time. They were running out of air.

She looked at Connor and saw his eyelids were beginning to droop.

“Hey,” she said, shaking him with ice-cold hands. “Connor. No . Connor! Stay with me.”

The boy’s eyes fluttered open and he moaned an understanding. But almost immediately, he began to nod off again. Dani flicked water on his face. He flinched, stirring.

“Stay awake, buddy. C’mon.”

“But I want to sleep…” he said, his voice trailing off. “I want to see them…”

“No,” Dani said, shaking him harder, knowing if he went to sleep, he would die. “Stay with me. You gotta stay with me, Batman!”

But Connor’s eyes remained closed.

Dani spun around, trying to figure out what to do. If she put him in the water, the shock of the cold would keep him conscious. But if he got wet, his time for survival would go down drastically. Both were terrible options. But what else could she do?

What would his mom have done? What would Dani choose if it were Bri here instead of Connor? Dani was losing her cool, starting to freak out in earnest. Suddenly, a tapping at the back of the van made her gasp.

Finally! They were back. Connor would be out of there soon. Dani couldn’t help but smile as she squinted out the rear windshield, where, to her surprise, she saw only R.J. floating outside—holding a handgun.