A Matter of Mercy Read Online Free PDF Page A

mesh bag of U-hooks, she blocked his next step as she shouted, “I can do this.” She pointed to the end of the raceway. “I’ll keep going here so you can get the other side.” Maybe he couldn’t make out what she was saying; the sky and bay rumbled, arguing constantly. Several more lightning strikes had zigged over the horizon, these still distant but advancing.
    Rid started to shake his head no; hesitation was on his face, but Caroline bent and put in a U-hook and must have gotten it right because he released the bag to her and was gone. He didn’t go get more U-hooks though. He waded in deeper, bent again, and this time hoisted a nursery tray out of the water, and carried it to the bed of his truck where he shoved aside racks, crates and a bull rake to make space for it. Then another, another, and another, all the while Caroline made slow headway toward shore, stopping to place a U-hook every eighteen inches. When she looked up between steps, she saw Rid scanning the sky while he shouldered another tray. Rain began, not with single drops here and there, but in a pelting downpour.
    Caroline quit standing up between securing hooks because water poured in the gap between her neck and chin when she did. Her jeans were soaked from the flapping slicker, but if the wind plastered it momentarily against her body, rainwater slid directly into her boots. She couldn’t feel her hands anymore although the water felt warmer than the air now.
    She’d not quite finished when she saw the black rubber of his waders sloshing toward her. Her back locked into its bent-over position, she splashed in the hook she was holding and started to unfold herself, but before she could, Rid had her elbow and was pulling.
    “Too close!” He shouted, leaning into her ear. “…Now! Gonna sink the truck.” The yank on her arm was in the direction of the pickup. The big tires were donuts half dunked into the black bay coffee. Straightening painfully and splashing behind Rid as best she could, Caroline realized that most of the apparatus of the grant was already submerged.
    Rid wrestled opened the passenger side of the truck, boosting her into the seat with a hand on her rear before slamming the door and running through a fury of rain to climb into the driver’s seat himself. Later, Caroline would remember that she found the gesture oddly chivalrous. The engine coughed twice and caught. Rid dropped the gearshift into reverse, then rocked it into a forward crawl toward the beach. At the highwater mark, he made the left turn and drove along the sandy strip toward the access road. He stopped at the edge of the access road, still on the sand. Caroline’s house was faintly silhouetted across the horseshoe beach. She could feel as much as see the trees, dizzy in the torrent.
    “God. Whew. Thanks,” he said, as their panting slowed and Caroline used her wet sleeve to staunch the trickle running from her hair into her eyes. “Wait, I’ve got something, I think.” Rid twisted to rummage behind the passenger seat and came up with a crumpled, ragged towel. “Oh,” he said. “This isn’t pretty. Sorry.”
    “Gimme that.” Caroline laughed and grabbed it. “When you’re desperate, you’re desperate.” She blotted her hair. “You probably need to go, I know.”
    “Nah, let’s wait for it to die down. Can’t drive you closer to the house than you are here. Can’t very well walk in this,” he said. “Stuff’s okay outta the water. I wanted to get the hats too, but they’ll do better than the nursery trays might’ve. I can’t replace that stock, ARC can’t get any seed now, it’s too late to plant anyway, and … you don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? Just thanks. Really, I mean it. Thanks .” Then, an afterthought. “But is somebody with your mother?”
    “She’s in the hospital tonight.”
    “Oh no, is she worse?”
    “I don't know. The doctor says it’s terminal, but not right now. This is to drain fluid from