to stand on her own. “I don’t need your help,” Hara said, loud enough to be heard over Mother Nature.
He backed away, hands in the air. “Fine.”
Water, rushing and slapping, ran over her feet, and wind gusts pushed and pulled at her and rattled windows and fire escapes. It was more frightening than she expected. Following Derek, she was almost knocked off her feet by an especially hard gust.
Without thinking, she grabbed the back of his coat, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look around, thankfully, as they buzzed Naomi’s door and waited, bent against the wind. Her pride stung but better that than getting knocked down.
“You’d think these tall buildings would serve as a wind block.”
Derek buzzed again and then glanced around. “I think, instead, the placement of the buildings has created a wind tunnel through here.”
“Lucky us.” Hara saw a light bobbing in the window on the floor above. Naomi’s frightened face appeared, highlighted creepily by a flashlight. Hara shined her own flashlight under her chin and grinned. The light upstairs diminished.
Naomi had the door open for them in record time. “Derek Darcy? Is that you? And Hara? Are you here to rescue me?” She stepped back so they could come into the alcove, out of the deluge. “Where’s Charles?”
“Charles?” Derek said, stomping his feet and shaking out his coat. “He’s not here.” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why would he be?”
Hara slowly took off her fogged glasses and put them in her pocket. They’d been useless in the weather anyway. So. Derek really doesn’t know about Naomi. What had he been talking about after the interview, then, telling Charles to come clean? Hara wanted to punch her fist in the air and yell, “I knew it!” She’d been right in the first place; there was a story she was missing.
Naomi colored, realizing her error. “Oh, nothing, no, I figured you guys were always together,” she finished lamely.
“Uh huh,” Derek said. He sniffed. “I can smell the smoke. I assume it’s much worse on your floor. More importantly, the water is rising. You should hurry, if you want to bring anything with you.” He prodded Hara from behind. “You, too.”
“Touch me again and I’m going to rip your finger off.”
* * *
Derek waited in the SUV. It took less than five minutes for the young women to reconvene at the bottom of the staircase, Hara having quickly exchanged her blazer for a sweatshirt and her mules for tennis shoes. She didn’t have rubber boots, and Naomi’s shoes didn’t fit, so sneakers would have to do.
“Be careful.” Hara put a hand on the other girl’s wrist as Naomi reached for the doorknob. The wind howled and the rain hammered down, even worse than it had when Hara first arrived.
Naomi nodded, put down her overnight bag, turned the knob, and slowly opened the door.
An intense blast of wind grabbed the textured metal slab in Naomi’s hands, tugging it outward. Hara watched, helplessly, as the slightly built girl held on to the doorknob, a shocked look on her face, before she was snatched off her feet and yanked outside.
“Naomi!” Hara screamed. “Let go!” But it was too late for that.
She jumped out after Naomi, who’d toppled headfirst down the cement stairs, while the door banged loosely behind her, against the side of the building. Hara was almost blown away herself, buffeted back and forth by the wind, but, keeping low, she was able to withstand the gusts and make it down the stairs to Naomi.
The girl lay facedown on the sidewalk. Water sluiced around her head, her face.
Hara jumped to her side, her mind trying to keep a grip on logic. She crouched low and lifted Naomi’s head clear of the water, praying she wasn’t harming the girl further. Please don’t be a paraplegic, please don’t be a paraplegic.
Hara’s jeans and sneakers were soaked; she knelt, making sure she was planted firmly enough not to get knocked over by the rushing water, and rolled Naomi onto her back, her friend’s head propped on Hara’s leg. With rain pelting Naomi’s closed eyelids and slack face, Hara burst into tears. A huge lump protruded from the middle of the girl’s forehead. “Naomi! Wake up!” About to shake her, Hara pulled herself together. Be gentle. Think.
“Is she breathing?” yelled Derek, crouching next to Hara, swaying in the wind, his face ashen.
Hara nodded, pointed to the girl’s rising and falling chest.
“I am so sorry.” The wind carried away his words, making it hard to