Free Haunted Waters by Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry Page B

couldn’t imagine life without him. I cried, thinking of how I had yelled at him so many times, but now all I wanted to see was that big head of his coming out of the water. I promised a million things—that I would never complain about his messing up my room or tracking mud in the house after I had just vacuumed or his crying to get his way around Mom.

Chapter 51

    Ashley and I held each other, shivering and crying and praying. It wasn’t praying like you hear at church. It was just us two begging God for help.
    It seemed like years went by, and we didn’t see any sign of Dylan or Sam. I knew Sam would never leave my little brother down there, and soon I was sure they were both gone. How in the world would we tell Mom?
    Losing one dad is bad enough , I prayed. Isn’t it, God?
    Ashley turned to me and pointed at bubbles rising 10 or 15 feet from the rock. First it was only a few little bubbles, then a bunch, then bigger bubbles.
    Dylan’s head popped through, and Sam held him out toward us. Sam coughed and sputtered as Ashley and I whooped and hollered.
    But something was wrong. Dylan wasn’t coughing. His face was white, and his eyelids were blue. He looked as limp as a rag doll.
    “Take him!” Sam yelled. “Help me get him out!”
    We got our hands under Dylan’s armpits, but he felt like a sack of potatoes in his water-soaked clothes. Ashley helped me pull him up onto the cold rock.
    Sam crawled up quickly, panting. He knelt beside Dylan, but I could tell by the way my little brother’s body lay still that he was gone.

Chapter 52

    When Sam rolled Dylan onto his side, Bryce looked shocked too. I could only imagine what those last few seconds in the SUV were like for Sam and Dylan.
    Sam’s face was all screwed up in a mix of anger and tears while he patted Dylan’s back. “Not again,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re not putting me through this again.”
    At first I thought he was talking to Dylan, but then I realized he was praying. I’d never heard him talk to God.
    “Breathe!” Sam’s voice echoed off the walls of the mountains as he pushed on Dylan’s chest. “Make him breathe!”
    Then came the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Dylan coughed and burped. Water gurgled from his mouth, and his eyelids fluttered. It was better than Christmas morning.
    Sam hugged Dylan to his chest, and Bryce and I sat beside them and put our arms around them. I didn’t care that I was freezing or that there were goons out there who wanted to hurt us. My little brother was back, and I saw how much Sam cared about us. We all sat there crying, even Sam, which scared Dylan even more and he began to sob loudly. That made us laugh, which seemed to puzzle him to no end.
    All of us were trembling uncontrollably now, and I knew we had to get dry and warm fast or we’d be in trouble.



Chapter 53

    Something special was happening on the rock in that reservoir—something unexplainable. Was God watching us? I’m sure. Were angels protecting us? I think so.
    A guy in a Jeep saw us waving and stopped. We scrambled off the rock and piled into his SUV. I held Dylan, trying to warm him, and Sam hugged Ashley. After the driver turned on the heat full blast, Sam told him what had happened. The man drove us to the sheriff’s office and stayed with us to make sure we were okay.
    They laid out our wet clothes on an old heater and wrapped us in blankets. One of the officers made us hot chocolate while Sam drank coffee. The guy in the Jeep went home and brought back clothes for Sam and robes for Ashley, Dylan, and me. I couldn’t help smiling every time I looked at Dylan getting lost in that old robe.
    Sam gave the officers the license plate number of the green car, which amazed me. Despite all we had been through, he had memorized it. He also gave them the memory stick he had shoved in his pocket, but it was full of water and I doubted it would work.
    “I can’t believe those guys wanted to kill us,” Ashley said when