Submerged

“Mom, Ella’s wheezing again,” Colton said behind her.

“Give her another shot of Puff.”

Rebecca wanted to scream, cry, lash out. Every fiber in her being was enraged by her situation. Her children needed her and she was helpless.

“Is the 911 guy calling back soon?” Colton asked.

“Any minute now, honey.”

“Good.”

She tried to start the car, but the engine was dead. She jiggled the door, but it held fast. “Try your door again, Colton.”

She heard him grunting and straining, and she mentally kicked herself for not getting the damned door fixed.

“It won’t budge,” he said.

Every now and then, the car made small, subtle tremors. Somewhere in the fog of her mind, she knew it wasn’t a good thing, even though this time the movement was gentler, almost peaceful. At times the car would shudder, as if the ground beneath it had given way. And she swore she heard a sharp crack.

“My feet are freezing,” Colton said.

“Try to prop your good foot up behind my chair. Maybe you can massage it to get it warm.”

“Mom, I think our water bottles spilled on the floor.”

She shifted her feet and heard soft splashes. She glanced down at the floor near the brake. Water. She scowled. An awful lot of water.

That’s when it finally hit her. Water! The car had landed in water.

Panic rose in her chest and up her throat. Oh my God! The car’s sinking! A whimper escaped her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Colton asked, his voice tinged with fear.

“Nothing,” she lied, her mind racing to recall everything she’d ever heard about submerged vehicles and how to escape them. “My ribs hurt a bit.”

Stay calm. Try not to let him know what you’re thinking. Not until he has to know.

She turned on her phone and dialed 911. A stranger picked up.

“I need to speak to Marcus,” she said, struggling to keep the panic from her voice.

“Rebecca?” the man said. “Marcus is going to call you from his cell phone.”

“He said I should call in if—” she lowered her voice, praying that Colton couldn’t hear her, “there was water on the floor of the car.”

“And I take it there is,” the man said in a calm voice.

“Yes.”

“Rebecca? Here’s what we’re going to do. You hang up. I’ll call Marcus and tell him to call you right away. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And by the way,” the stranger said, “my name’s Leo.”

“Thank you, Leo.” She hung up.

Please, Marcus, call me and tell me what to do.

The phone rang. “Marcus?”

“I’m here, Rebecca.”

“You know what you asked me to look for? It’s on the floor. And the car keeps moving every now and then.”

“Tell me about the motion.”

“At first it was an occasional movement, but now it’s constant.”

“Describe it.”

“It’s like we’re balancing on a teeter-totter. And every now and then it feels like we’re sliding forward, and sometimes it feels like we’ve dropped a few inches. It’s probably my imagination.”

Marcus swallowed hard. “You could be hung up, rocking on an embankment of some kind, a small hill.” He dreaded the thought that her car might be nose-first in the river.

“Don’t try to open the doors,” he said.

She moaned. “They won’t budge anyway.”

“Can you tell if water’s coming in quickly?”

She wiggled her foot. “It’s almost to the top of my foot, but it’s not gushing in.”

“Good. Keep me posted on how high the water is. Let me know if it gets halfway up your calf.”

She shuddered at the thought. “We’re in a river or lake, aren’t we?”

“If you’d landed in deep water, the car would be sinking fast. We do know you’re not far from Edson. You did an awesome job at helping us narrow down your location.”

“But you still don’t know exactly where we are.”

“No.” She could hear the frustration in his voice. “How are the kids doing?”

“Colton is still pinned behind the seat. Ella has barely moved.”

“Keep administering her medication.”

“What happens when it runs out?”

“We’ll find you before that occurs.”

“I’m scared,” she whispered, clenching the cell phone.

“I know.”

“Talk to me. I need a distraction so I won’t lose it in front of Colton. Why are you a 911 operator? What made you do this job?”

“I wanted to help people.”

“Because you couldn’t help your wife and son?”

“I guess. And because I couldn’t do the job I was originally trained for.”

“What was that?”

“I was a paramedic.”

“Not too far of a stretch from that to what you’re doing now.” She massaged her icy fingers. “Why did you leave that job?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You were fired? Why would they fire a good person like you?”

She heard a sigh. “I wasn’t such a good person back then. I made some bad choices.”

“What kind of choices?”

“I had a shoulder injury after a mountain rescue. My doctor prescribed some heavy-duty painkillers. After a while, they stopped working. Some nights the pain was unbearable, but I still had to do my job.”

“Why didn’t you take time off so you could heal?”

“We were short-staffed, and I couldn’t afford to take time off.”