16 TnR

Chapter 16 TnR TnR (n) abbreviation for Torn and Restored, a special kind of trick in which the magician cuts, rips, or breaks something into pieces (a string, a card, a stick) and then makes it whole again "I'm drowning! Evan, I'm drowning!" Evan splashed down into the dirty water and grabbed hold of Jessie. "You're not drowning! Just stand up!" One of Jessie's flailing arms smacked him across the face, and Evan fell back, dunking himself in the sludgy water. He came up sputtering, not sure where Jessie was. The basement was as dark as night, with just a dribble of daylight coming from the open door at the top of the stairs. Evan could hear Jessie splashing and gasping for air, but he couldn't see her. Then he felt a sharp kick underwater. He

reached in that direction and grabbed something, pulling it up to the surface. "Jessie!" he shouted. "Stop it! The water isn't that deep. Just stand up!" Jessie wrapped both arms around his body, as if letting go of him would mean the end of the world, but he could feel that she had set her feet on the basement floor and was standing on her own. She was coughing hard, but it sounded to Evan as if she was breathing okay. "C'mon," he said. "This water is gross." He half dragged her to the stairs and helped her walk up and out of the water. "Why did you yell 'Look'?" asked Jessie, still coughing. "Because! The water's lower. It's gone down two whole steps." It was good news, but nothing sounded like good news now that he was soaking wet. When they reached the top of the stairs, Jessie stopped and sat down. "My socks are squishy wet." Evan knew that Jessie didn't like to have wet clothes on, especially wet shoes and socks. She'd been this

way ever since she was little. He sat down on the step below her and helped her untie the soggy shoelaces and then pull off each shoe and peel the soaking-wet socks off her feet. Jessie carefully tucked each sock inside her shoe and then tied the wet laces together so that they made an easy-to-carry shoe bundle. She looked at Evan. "Professor Hoffmann is dead." Evan nodded. "I know. And the Climbing Tree is gone." Jessie looked at the water below them. "And Dad left us." Evan nodded again. He pushed the bottoms of his pajama pants up past his knees. The wet fabric was sticking to his legs like octopus tentacles. He'd lost both slippers when he'd plunged into the water, and it was too dark to see if they were floating or if they'd sunk. And that's when Evan realized the worst thing of all: they'd lost all the flashlights. Every single last one of them. They were all underwater, and there

were no more in the whole house. How would they make it through another night without flashlights? "This is the worst day ever," said Jessie. "And that is not hyperbole." Evan nodded. There was nothing else to say. "Do you think it's over?" asked Jessie. Evan pointed to the steps below. "The water's going down." "But it's not over yet," said Jessie. "It's mostly over," said Evan. "But not completely. The rain hasn't stopped." "Yeah, but the worst is over," said Evan, starting to feel a little annoyed that Jessie wouldn't just let it go. "The wind is still blowing. Another tree could fall." "But it probably won't." "I'm just saying..." said Jessie. "Stop!" said Evan, exasperated. "We survived a Category 1 hurricane all by ourselves, and that makes it one of the best days of our whole lives!"

Jessie was silent for a split second; then she raised both hands over her head. "We're Treskis, and we're tough," she crowed. "Okay, it's a good day." She stood up. "But I swallowed dirty water, and I need to go brush my teeth and gargle." "Good idea," said Evan, who was eager to get out of his wet T-shirt and pajama pants. "And then, let's open the freezer and grab the ice cream, really quick. Even if it's soup, we can still eat it. All of it!" "Dibs on peppermint stick!" shouted Jessie as she raced up the stairs and into the kitchen. By the end of the afternoon, the storm was definitely winding down. The wind still gusted from time to time, like a child after a temper tantrum who lets out an occasional howl just to remind everyone of the fury that has passed. The rain, too, slowed down until it was nothing more than a steady drizzle. Evan couldn't believe there was any rain left to fall. When it started to grow dark, Evan and Jessie discussed the idea of lighting candles. Their mother

had several decorative candles for special occasions, and Evan knew how to strike a match, although he wasn't allowed to do it without a grownup present. In the end, though, they decided to just get through the night in the dark. "If we burned down the house, on top of everything else," said Jessie, "Mom would just kill us." Evan agreed. Besides, at this point, walking around the house in the pitch darkness seemed like no big deal. After what they'd been through, it was hardly worth thinking about. Even Jessie didn't seem to mind the dark as much. "It's like being backstage in a play, waiting for the curtain to go up," she said. Just before going to bed, they emptied the drip buckets into the bathroom sink one more time, and Evan felt confident that they would make it through the night without the buckets overflowing. The rain had slowed to a gentle patter, the perfect noise to listen to as they fell asleep.