In the background, voices were still calling out. Some sounded almost calm, others were pleading, desperate. I scanned the area, looking for the people, but I couldn’t see anything but water and debris and…the water and the objects floating on the surface were no longer being swept inland. Everything was now being pulled back toward the ocean again. The water was rushing out and, judging by the speed of the objects on the surface, it was moving almost as fast as it had before, but now in the opposite direction.

I stood there, watching, trying to figure out if what I thought was happening was really happening. If the water was flowing back, if it was being sucked back toward the ocean, then that meant it was all over, that we were safe…didn’t it?

“Look!” my father yelled, and he pointed.

There, almost directly below us, was a man in the water. He had one arm wrapped around a log and he was waving with the other. He and the log were being pulled out.

“Catch!” my father screamed.

Now I understood why he had dragged the fire hose over with him. He threw it and it sailed into the air. The man desperately reached for it but it flew too far, over his head. But that was okay…the log was headed right for the hose! He could still get it.

The man leaped into the water and grabbed the fire hose, and it almost instantly went taut as the current tried to pull him farther away. For a second my mind raced—was this the baby’s father? No, this man was older, bigger, and his hair was gray.

My father held tight and I grabbed on as well. We started pulling on the fire hose, reeling the man in like a big fish! We struggled, frantically, foot by foot, moving him closer. He was bigger than the woman, and now the current was pulling away from where we were instead of helping us. We were making progress, straining, fighting against the current, but it was so slow and—I tumbled backwards, and my father landed on top of me! The fire hose was still in our hands but it was obvious that there was no longer anything on the other end.

My father jumped to his feet and ran for the railing. I scrambled after him and got there in time to see the man flailing and pawing at the water. Then he disappeared beneath the surface. He just had to get back to the surface and grab onto something else. There was so much floating around for him to hold on to. I waited and waited, watching and…nothing. The debris that had surrounded him bobbed and swirled and then it all disappeared into the distance. And I knew he wasn’t coming back up.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It took longer for the water to flow out than it had to rush in, but now it was almost all gone. My father and mother and I waded through the knee-deep water that remained. The whole patio—including chairs, tables, trees, bushes, and shrubs—had been scoured clean. All that remained was the deck itself and the pool, which was a filthy brown, practically filled in by the sand that had been carried up by the wave and left behind as the water receded. The water was still flowing back out to the sea, but it was now so low and moving so gently that it was no longer capable of carrying anything with it.