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Chaz watched in horror as Megan’s kayak slammed against the boulders and overturned. The current was so strong she had to paddle furiously in order to stay in place. She was trying to position herself to intercept Megan’s kayak as it was swept downstream, when the worried chorus of the others reached her ears.
“Megan’s gone over!”
“Watch out!”
“Don’t bunch up!”
“Back paddle!”
“Oh, shit! Does anybody see her?”
Chaz’s breathing accelerated with every second that passed without Megan reappearing. She kept her attention on the overturned kayak as she stroked powerfully toward it, but risked glances around her, hoping to spot Megan in the water.
She saw Megan’s red helmet fl oat past her, out of reach, and felt a stab of fear.
Somehow Pat suddenly appeared beside Chaz, skillfully maneuvering her own boat into a position to help. They reached the bright yellow kayak at the same time from two sides and managed to get it turned partially over—enough to see that Megan was out of the cockpit.
“She’s out!” Chaz yelled to the others as she desperately scanned the water around her.
“There she is!” Yancey cried, pointing toward a car-sized rock in the middle of the river farther downstream.
Megan was hanging on precariously with one hand, her head barely above water. Her face was contorted in pain. She had her PFD
on, but there was a deep black hole of churning water downstream of the rock, and its sucking whirlpool was pulling her down.
• 165 •
KIM BALDWIN
“Hang on, Megan!” Chaz screamed. Her heart thudded in her chest as she dug in her paddle and raced toward the rock.
Megan looked right at her then, with such terror in her eyes that Chaz’s own fear rose, the taste of it sour in her mouth. She was only four feet away when Megan’s hand slipped from the rock, and her head disappeared beneath the surface as she was sucked into the hole.
Chaz lunged after her, almost overturning, but her groping hand found nothing but water.
Megan bobbed to the surface several yards downstream, coughing violently.
“There!” Several voices yelled at once.
Chaz sped toward Megan as fi rst Pat, and then Linda, tried to toss Megan their rescue lines. Pat’s fell short, and Linda’s landed several yards to the left, and the current took it downstream and away.
Megan glanced off another large rock. There was a sickening crack as her head impacted the hard surface. She lost consciousness and bobbed downstream with the current, as limp as a rag doll.
“Oh, my God!” Justine cried out.
Chaz’s blood ran cold as she closed the distance to Megan with power strokes and absolute focus of purpose. I can’t… won’t miss herthis time. Six feet away. Four. Two.
Gotcha! She clamped onto the collar of Megan’s PFD with one hand.
“Sally!” she bellowed, desperately trying to keep Megan’s face above water as the current propelled them toward a sharp overhang of rock thirty feet downriver.
Sally was right behind her, already maneuvering into position.
She scooted the raft next to Chaz’s kayak, and Chaz tossed her paddle in, then grabbed hold of the sturdy rope that ringed the infl atable. As Sally towed them away from the outcropping with long pulls at the oars, it was all Chaz could do to maintain hold of both the raft and Megan, while keeping Megan’s dead weight from overturning her kayak. Megan wasn’t moving, and Chaz couldn’t immediately tell if she was breathing.
“Come on, Megan. Stay with me,” she urged, holding so tight to the vest that her knuckles were white. “Stay with me.” Dear God,please be all right.
Sally got them to shore and laid Megan gently on the gravel bank
• 166 •
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