Page 111 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

“We’re pinned!” Thor shouted.

There was no way to escape. The boat was pressed against the boulder sideways, with Mandy and Thor straddling the high-side baffle seven feet in the air, while Charlie and Guy sputtered at the water level, blasted by the full force of the waves. Between them, poorly secured gear shot out of the boat—PFDs, paddles, the braid of garlic—looping in the air before plunging like diving birds into the whitewater.

All Mandy could do was bear-hug the rubber tube and pray. Each surge of water shoved the boat against the rock again with a terrifying jolt. Thor urged her dad and Charlie upward, stretching out an arm to help them crawl one by one to the high side. Guy had lost his shoes in the driving whitewater, and Charlie was crying. But they inched their way upward, until all four of them were squished together on the high-side baffle.

They were safe for the moment. But they were also stuck, marooned above a swirl of angry waves against a sedan-sized boulder, their only form of escape the yellow raft flipped up on its side. The boulder was just big enough that they could probably crawl onto it, but it was uneven and slippery with spray, hardly stable or comfortable enough to stay long. And what would happen if they let go of the raft to move to the rock? Would it stay shoved against the boulder forever? Or would it unwrap itself and shoot downriver with the rest of their supplies?

“Now what?” Mandy shouted.

“We have to unpin the boat,” Thor said.

“How?” The river was still pounding the lower edge of the raft below them, jackhammering it in place against the boulder.

“There’s a little pocket of water back here,” Thor said. He pointed to a strap at the front of the boat. “I’m going to grab this end. You’re going to give the back a shove. With luck, it’ll catch the pocket, come loose, and we’ll jump on.”

“Jump?” Charlie asked.

“Yes.”

Charlie moaned and clutched the baffle tighter.

“How do we push it?” Mandy asked.

“Get up on the rock and line up as close together as you can. Hold the baffle and put your feet against the boulder for leverage.”

Carefully, Mandy heaved herself over the tube, pressing her shoes back against the rock. Her feet slid against the slimy surface, scrabbling for purchase, but the rock held. It felt solid. Charlie and Guy swung over as well, lining themselves up shoulder to shoulder with their hands on the back edge of the raft. She could feel Charlie shivering next to her.

“On my count,” Thor said. “Three . . . Two . . .”

On one, Thor yanked, and they leaned all their weight forward. But the raft didn’t budge.

Mandy looked down in the space where water was shooting up between the rock and the back of the boat. “I think there’s something caught.”

“Here!” Thor handed her the silver folding knife, its blade open and facing out.

She leaned down to take a closer look at the gap, shielding her eyes from the spray. One of the ratchet straps looped around the raft was snagged on a chicken head of rock. “You sure it’s okay if I cut this?”

Thor nodded. She took a deep breath and swiped the blade across the webbing. Her first cut missed, but on the second attempt, she sliced a screaming rip that split the strap in two with a bang, throwing it into the air. The old knife was sharper than she’d thought.

She gave Thor a thumbs-up, and he started shouting again. “Three . . . two . . .”

This time when they shoved the baffle, the high side of the raft came clear of the rock, the whole boat hanging in midair for a fraction of a second before it flipped upside down and started spinning away from the boulder.

“Jump!”

“It’s upside down!” Charlie yelled.

“JUMP!”

Just before the raft flew past them, they dropped onto its underside.

“Hold on!” Thor shouted. He was spread across the upside-down raft, digging in the river behind them with both hands. “We’re coming to the hole!”

She could see it. A deep, hungry mouth, sucking water fifteen feet down and shooting a wave at least thirty feet high. This was no washing machine. If they fell into that hole, there was no getting out.

Mandy clutched at her dad, at Charlie, at whatever straps she could find.

She held her breath.