“Does that mean you’ll stop busting my chops because I’m dating your sister?” came a raspy voice from the opposite side of the bed. The sentence was followed by a long, drawn-out yawn.
Statler chuckled. “Not likely.”
“I’m so sorry we woke you up, Julian,” Petula lamented, giving her brother a sisterly “shut up” look. “You clearly need the sleep.”
He brushed that off almost immediately. “Forget about me, how are you feeling?”
Petula paused and took stock. “Umm, good, I think?”
She couldn’t detect any aches or pains, and other than still being tired—even after sleeping the entire day and evening away—she had no lingering effects from her accident that she could discern. Looking out the first-floor windows of her room, she could count the parking lot lights without any trouble, so her brain was intact.
“How about…?” Statler tapped the side of his head, and she knew exactly what he was asking.
“You want to know how I’m dealing with the whole water thing?” She put the elephant in the room, right out there.
Julian sat up straight and moved closer, placing his hand on her blanket-covered leg, waiting for her response.
“It’s funny,” she said, thinking back. “I was gripped with fear while I was inside the van. I…couldn’t seem to move, knowing I was floating in the reservoir. Then I looked out the window and saw Julian swimming toward me. He was underwater, then he wasn’t, like he was keeping his eyes on me, no matter what dangers were beneath the surface. I knew then that I couldn’t let him down. I had to help myself as much as he was trying to help me. If the van had submerged, his job would have been so much harder.”
She remembered what happened next.
“It took everything I had to move from my seat,” she said softly. “And I realized almost immediately that I had to stay on the high side of the vehicle, or risk swamping it.”
The van had tipped pretty drastically by the time she’d decided to move.
“I carefully slid open my window, and forcing myself not to think about it too much, I stood on the seat, leaned out, then turned around and reached up for the lip of the roof. I tried to ignore the water below me, and instead concentrated on my footing as I braced on the window-frame and hoisted myself up.”
She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
“I made it,” she added triumphantly. “As Julian can attest. But that’s when my resolve crumbled. From my perch, I looked at the water again and froze. Not just with the cold that was seeping into every pore of my body, but with my precarious position.”
She shivered, remembering. “Between the wind, the rain, and the water below me, I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. Then Julian was there, right below me, talking me down, both literally and figuratively. He kept saying over and over that everything was going to be alright.”
Petula looked at Julian, and shook her head, marveling. “You knew just what to say, and where I had to place myselfto come down into your arms. I understood then that if I lost consciousness, there’d be no guarantees as to where I’d land, but that I’d be safe if I just came to you.”
He nodded, because he’d lived it.
“I made up my mind quickly,” she added. “I positioned my body appropriately, and let go.”
Petula recalled those few moments as seeming surreal; like they were happening to someone else, but after that…
“Once I felt Julian’s arms around me, I knew everything was going to be okay,” she marveled. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think about the water at all, except for how cold it was. I was surrounded by Julian, and then his brothers, and I knew they’d all get me to safety.”
She glanced over at Stat, and his eyes held a sheen of moisture. Petula couldn’t remember the last time her big, stoic brother had cried, and tears welled up in her eyes, in solidarity.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Statler addressed Julian. “Seriously. If you hadn’t been there, and Diver Downeast’s gear hadn’t been in your truck…” He let the sentence hang.
Yeah.Petula realized she would have been screwed. And if Julian had arrivedwithoutthe diving equipment,heprobably would have been in jeopardy, too. Knowing him, he would have swum out to get her, regardless, and they both might have succumbed to hypothermia before his brothers had arrived.
They’d been very lucky.
“It all came togetherbecausewe were being so vigilant where Petula was concerned, Statler,” Julian demurred. “I didn’t do anything more than you or your crew would have, if it had been your day to tail her.”
Julian put the thought out there, but the three of them in the room knew that the outcome could have been much different.
But now? Petula was through talking about it.
“Okay. We’re good, here. I’m alive. Everyone is well, and right now I could drink a gallon of something, and I’m actually hungry.”
