“Nikhil, thank god,” the voice replies. “I’ve been trying and trying, but no one’s been answering. I thought I had the frequency wrong.”
“No, this is the right one,” Nikhil says. “What’s the matter? Are you all right?”
“No,” the voice responds. “There’s water in my house. I’m not sure how deep, but it’s well past my knees. Is there any in yours?”
Nikhil glances at me. “I’m not sure, Alan. We’re on the second floor. We haven’t checked.”
“What’s going on?” another voice chimes in.
“Jenny, it’s Alan. You have a one-story house too, right? You doing okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Jenny replies. “So’s everyone else on this side of the street.”
I picture the street. And Alan’s house. I remember him gesturing toward it. It’s right at the center of the cul-de-sac. The street has a bit of a slope to it, and I’m pretty sure that’s where it dips the lowest. If Alan’s house has only one floor…
“How fast is the water rising?” Nikhil asks. He’s obviously thinking along the same lines I am.
“It was only up to my ankles an hour or two ago.”
A muscle in Nikhil’s cheek jumps. “You can’t stay there, Alan.” He gets up and opens the closet door. He takes the lantern with him but doubles back to grab his headlamp.
“I’m going to check the first floor,” he tells me as he adjusts the strap around his head. He passes me a flashlight, steps out, and shuts the door behind him.
I wait a second, then follow after him.
“Who’s next to you, Alan?” Nikhil asks as he moves swiftly down the stairs. “The Trans?”
“Yes, but they evacuated yesterday morning. Booked a flight as soon as they heard.”
“Anyone else around?”
“No. Laura and Jody are on the other side, but they took the kids and went uptown to ride out the storm with Jody’s parents. Her parents are getting older, and they were worried about the two of them being alone during this. Pretty kind of them, if you ask me. Sometimes I wish I had family in the area. Well, I guess there’s my sister, but you know she and I don’t really get along…”
“Hey,” I whisper, trying to get Nikhil’s attention as Alan keeps going, sharing details about the rift between him and his sister.
Nikhil turns, something flashing across his face when he notices I’m right behind him. Disbelief? Or maybe…concern?
“Go back upstairs,” he says, not offering any additional explanation.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
The first floor is clear. No water anywhere as far as I can tell, which is a huge relief. But even though everything’s fine, Nikhil hasn’t turned around. He’s not climbing back up the stairs. Not retreating to the closet. He’s still down here. And from the grim expression on his face, I can tell he has a reason.
But the moment his mouth twists into that familiar pained smile, I know he’s not going to share it. “Nothing,” he says. “Go back upstairs. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Fire travels through my veins, hurt and anger from the past bleeding into the present. “You know you always did this.”
His eyebrows jump. “What?”
I wave my hand at him. “This. When something was hard or yougot hurt or you were worried, you’d just…brush me off like this. As if I couldn’t tell something was wrong. As if you didn’t think I could be there for you or that I could help. You just pushed me to the side. Like I was too delicate or fragile—”
“That’s not— I didn’t do that.”
“Really?” A harsh sound escapes me. “I guess we remember things very differently then.”
He stares at me, his jaw clenched. Then he shakes his head. “I have to go.”
“Gowhere?”