Deep Wate - Sarah Epstein Page 0,99

loose from its bolts and shredding it to ribbons. At one point the wind and rain blasted sideways like someone had dropped a huge water bomb from the sky. The storm was as bad as the weatherwoman had said it would be.

Wherever Chloe was, it didn’t seem like she’d be back anytime soon. She said she was going to bed early but now she wasn’t even home. Henry had knocked on her window, then at the back door and even at the motel office. If Chloe was staying at Sabeen’s or something, she could have told him. She didn’t have to lie.

Henry had a lot of time to think in the laundry while the storm did somersaults outside. He decided it was time to tell Chloe that he was looking for his dad, and maybe ask for her help. He’d talk to her about it tomorrow before she headed back to Sydney. And he wanted to meet Missy in person, he decided. She’d become a good friend and she listened whenever he needed to vent about Mason. It was nice having someone else to talk to when Chloe wasn’t around.

Henry wondered if Mason had calmed down yet. He’d never seen his brother explode like that before. He’d wanted to explain about the money but Mason had been too angry to listen. Henry only took it so he could delay Mason from leaving, until he had a chance to track down his father and make his own escape plans. He had to get away from her. He couldn’t be left alone in that house with their mother.

Henry felt inside the zippered pocket on his backpack to double-check the blue envelope was still safely tucked inside. It wasn’t a good idea for Mason to keep it taped to his drawer anyway, not after Henry had caught Ivy going through their wardrobes last week, searching through their jacket pockets. He slung the backpack onto his shoulders and pulled his green cap down tighter, ready to face the weather. There was still some thunder, but the hail and lightning had moved on, and the rain was nowhere near as heavy as before. It might linger for hours and Henry couldn’t stay here all night. He had a numb backside from sitting on the laundry floor.

He grabbed his bike and pedalled up the driveway, cutting across the soggy lawn to the path running down the far side of the motel. Dodging the dripping gutters, he used both hands to shove Chloe’s window open. He slipped the note out of his pocket that he’d written earlier, folded it small, then pushed back the curtain and tossed it towards the bed. It was a bad throw and Chloe’s room was dark, but he was pretty sure it landed on the bed. She’d find it. She was like a detective, always spotting things that were out of place.

When Henry reached the street and rode on towards Railway Parade, he noticed a number of large trees were down. There were leaves and broken branches all over the road, and water gushed along gutters like rivers. At the dip in Railway Parade, a huge lake of brown water covered the road and footpaths, the nearby drains bubbling and overflowing. If it’s flooded, forget it, he thought, recalling the slogan he’d seen on TV. He doubled back to Bridge Road to find another way, weaving his way through tree branches and garbage scattered all over the street.

The road out of town was even trickier, with masses of debris washed over the bitumen. Cutler Bend was a slog to ride at the best of times, the way it curved around the mountain, some parts uphill, others steep dips, and a couple of risky blind bends. With so much mud on the road’s shoulder and rain hitting him in the face, it was even slower going than usual. For the millionth time, Henry wished his family didn’t live on the outskirts of town.

As he neared the section of Cutler Bend where the bushfire came through last year, a flash of lightning revealed the ghostly tree trunks, all skinny and limbless, some fluffy with new leafy growth. Halfway home, he thought. He couldn’t wait to get out of the rain. He rounded the bend and leaned into the decline until his bike light picked up movement on the road ahead. Squeezing the brakes, his back wheel almost skidded out beneath him as he struggled to keep the bike upright. Fast-flowing water was over the