Teardrop

As soon as Eureka was sure the twins were okay, she pressed against the edge of the shield and began to paddle bewildered strokes through the flood of her backyard.

The current was nothing like the steady ocean. Her tears were sculpting a wild and whirling tempest with no discernable shape. The flood had already crested the flight of stairs leading from the lawn to her back porch. She and the twins were floating in a new sea, level with the first story of her house. Water battered the kitchen windows like a burglar. She pictured the flood lashing inside the den, through carpeted hallways, washing away lamps and chairs and memories like an angry river, leaving only glittery silt behind.

The vast trunk of one of the uprooted oak trees swirled by with chilling force. Eureka braced herself, her body sheltering the twins, as a giant branch thrashed into the side of the shield. The twins screamed as the impact reverberated through them, but the shield did not puncture, did not break. The tree moved on for other targets.

“Dad!” Eureka shouted from inside the shield where no one would hear her. “Ander! Cat!” She paddled furiously, not knowing how to find them.

Then, in the dark chaos of the water, a hand reached toward the boundary of the shield. Eureka knew instantly whose it was. She fell to her knees with relief. Ander had found her.

Behind him, holding his other hand, was her father. Dad was holding on to Cat. Eureka wept anew, this time with relief, and reached her hand toward Ander’s.

The barrier of the shield stopped them. Her hand bounced off one side. Ander’s bounced off the other. They tried again, pushing harder. It made no difference. Ander looked at her as if she should know how to let him in. She banged on the shield with her fists, but it was useless.

“Daddy?” William called tearfully.

Eureka didn’t want to live if they were going to drown. She shouldn’t have invoked the shield until she’d found them. She screamed in futility. Cat and Dad were trying to writhe toward the surface, toward air. Ander’s hand wouldn’t let them go, but his eyes had filled with fear.

Then Eureka remembered: Claire.

For some reason, her sister had been able to penetrate the boundary when they were in the Gulf. Eureka reached for the girl and practically shoved her against the border of the shield. Claire’s hand met Ander’s and something in the barrier became porous. Ander’s hand broke through. Together Eureka and the twins yanked the three soaking bodies inside the shield. It swelled and resealed into a snug space for six as Cat and Dad sank to their hands and knees, gasping to regain their breath.

After a stunned moment, Dad grabbed Eureka in a hug. He was weeping. She was weeping. He gathered the twins in his arms as well. The four of them rolled in a wounded embrace, levitating inside the shield.

“I’m sorry.” Eureka sniffed. She’d lost sight of Rhoda after the flood began. She had no idea how to console him or the twins for the loss.

“We’re okay.” Dad’s voice was more uncertain than she’d ever heard. He stroked the twins’ hair as if his life depended on it. “We’re going to be okay.”

Cat tapped Eureka’s shoulder. Her braids were beaded with water. Her eyes were red and swollen. “Is this real?” she asked. “Am I dreaming?”

“Oh, Cat.” Eureka didn’t have the words to explain or apologize to her friend, who should have been with her own family right now.

“It’s real.” Ander stood at the edge of the shield with his back toward the others. “Eureka has opened a new reality.”

He didn’t sound angry. He sounded amazed. But she couldn’t be certain until she saw his eyes. Were they lit up with turquoise luminescence, or as dark as a storm-covered ocean? She reached for his shoulder, tried to turn him around.

He surprised her with a kiss. It was heavy and passionate, and his lips conveyed everything. “You did it.”

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