Flood Friday (6 page)

“Yes,” said Sally. Her heart was in her mouth. Was she going to be scolded for walking in the hall?

“Take this girl back to the gym with you,” said Mrs. Bradford.

An older girl of about thirteen, in wet and muddy clothes, came out. She was sobbing and crying bitterly. Her red and mottled face was hidden under her tangled black curls.

“I won’t go!” she said. “You can’t make me. I’m going back home and stay there till I find my little sister. They took my mother to the hospital and …”

“You can’t go back, Angela,” said Mrs. Bradford patiently. “Your home isn’t there any more. Your little sister will be brought in any time now, just as you were. The helicopter is sure to find her.”

“Linda! Linda! Oh, Linda!” called Angela. “Oh why did I ever go away and leave her?
Linda! Linda!”

When the girl lifted her face, Sally saw that it was Angela Marciano. She remembered seeing Angela and little Linda in the River Bend store—was it only yesterday? And now Linda was lost. Sally wanted to comfort Angela but did not know how. Shyly she took her hand to walk down the hall with her. Angela looked up at her once, but did not seem to recognize her.

“Angela, don’t you know me? I’m Sally Graham.” But Angela gave no sign that she heard.

Mrs. Bradford told the doctor about the Marcianos. Angela and her mother and two brothers and little sister had been taken from their home by two volunteer firemen in a boat. When the boat overturned, the family managed to climb on the roof of a floating house. The two firemen were with them. When the roof collapsed, they clung to trees until rescued by a helicopter. The second fireman, Leo Rogers, with Linda in his arms, swam for a tree farther away. But no one had seen him or the child again.

“Do you want something to eat, Angela?” asked Sally, starting toward the cafeteria. “That will make you feel better.”

The girl’s eyes filled with tears. “No! No!” she cried. “I want Linda! My little sister, Linda! When are they going to find her? I’ve got to go back and see. I won’t eat until they find her.”

She broke away from Sally and ran back to the front of the building. Mrs. Bradford heard her cries and brought her into the health room again.

“Come, come now,” said Dr. Otis, “this won’t do, Angela. Lie down here and rest a while.”

He gave the girl a sedative. She stopped crying, lay down on the cot and became quiet.

Sally went back to the gymnasium, feeling sorry for Angela. As she passed the boxes of clothing, she saw two women sorting them into piles. They were choosing clothes for the Marciano family.

In Sally’s concern over Angela, she forgot about looking for her mother. Now suddenly, Mrs. Graham appeared in the hall. Barbara Boyd was with her and Barbara held baby Betty in her arms. Barbara took the bottle from Mrs. Graham and went back into the gym to feed the baby.

“Where have you b
een, Sally?” asked Mother. “I wanted you to help with the baby. I had to ask Barbara to give her her bottle.”

Sally put her arms around her mother’s waist and began to cry. “When are we going home, Mother?” she sobbed.

“I don’t know, Sally,” said Mother. “Let me go now. There are people here who need me. I must go and help them.”

“
I
need you, Mother,” cried Sally. “Don’t go away and leave me.”

Mrs. Graham sat down and talked to Sally.

“You are warm and well-fed and dry here,” she said. “Many people are in real distress. They are sick, hurt, half-drowned, homeless. Have you thought of them?”

Sally hung her head and did not answer.

“Don’t act like a baby,” said Mother. “I depend on you to be an example to your brothers and sister.”

“Linda Marciano must be drowned, Mother,” said Sally. “Angela says they can’t find her anywhere. Don’t you care? What if it was Karen?”

“Stop worrying,” said Mother. “Worry won’t bring Linda back. Go and stay with the other children. Look after Jack and Tim. Help Barbara with the baby.”

As Sally returned to the gymnasium, she saw a man with his arm in a sling. He sat huddled over, unhappy. He was worse off than she. Her arm was not broken. He looked so sad, she asked him, “How do you feel today?”

The man looked up, surprised, and said, “I’ll be better pretty soon.”

“How did you get hurt?” Sally asked.

“I hit some wires when I was swinging on that long rope,” the man said. “It broke my arm and a couple of ribs.” He smiled and added, “But I’m still alive.”

“I’m sorry you broke your arm,” said Sally. Her concern for herself had now widened to include concern for others.

Back in the gymnasium, she sat down beside Barbara and played with baby Betty for a while. Then she went over to the window where the boys were looking out.

“Gee! Look out there!” cried Barbara’s brother Ronnie. “That old chopper’s working overtime. It keeps on bringin’ people in.”

“What do you know—it’s stopped raining!” cried Tommy Dillon. “Let’s go outside. We’re missing everything by staying in here.”

The boys went exploring, looking for an unlocked window. Soon they found one, in the small room offstage. Sally followed and watched them jump out one by one. The window was on the rear of the building, so no one saw them. The boys crept round the corner to watch the excitement.

Sally came back and whispered to Barbara. The baby had fallen asleep now beside Mrs. Dillon, who was resting. Karen was sleeping, too, with her rag doll in her arms and Rusty curled up at her feet. Sally and Barbara went into the stage room and climbed to the window sill. Like the boys, they jumped down. They crept up to the edge of the crowd. The people were listening to reports coming in on the radio on the fire engine:

“John Ferguson wants Alonzo Patterson to know that his hogs are O.K., safe in the barn … Mrs. Ralph Woods on Liberty Street will house a homeless family. The J. T. Websters are O.K. and can take in neighbors … Get in touch with the Red Cross about food, shelter and clothing … The Governor of Connecticut is flying over towns in the Naugatuck and Farmington River valleys to learn the extent of the damage. Hundreds of homes have been washed away, stores and industries wiped out …”

“It’s a real flood all right,” said the man next to Sally.

“Go to the Town Hall … ask your Civil Defense worker what you should do,” the radio voice went on. “Boil all water for ten minutes, no matter what the source, whether from spring, shallow well or artesian well. Boil all water ten minutes before using. Use one-half pound chloride of lime in three gallons of water for disinfecting … We urge you to stay off the roads. Stay in your home if you still have one … The three children of R. T. Webb of River Bend are reported missing …”

Sally knew the little Webb boys. They had often played with Jack and Tim. “The Webb boys too!” said Barbara.

“They didn’t say anything about Linda,” said Sally.

The girls went over where the boys were. Ray and Ralph Marberry were there and Tony Marciano was talking to Ronnie and Tommy.

“Me and Al floated on our backs,” said Tony, “like the firemen do, till we came to the railroad trestle. Angela was still hangin’ in the tree. I told her not to let go. When we got up on the tracks, I waved and the man saw us and come and got us. He got both of us and my mother and Angela out of the trees …”

“How’d you like it hangin’ on a long rope?” asked Tommy Dillon.

“Ugh!” said Tony. “I sure was scared. They can’t find my little sister anywhere. They left her in a tree …”

A helicopter came over the school, then lowered to make a landing. A man and a woman got out. It was the Webbs without their children. Tears ran down the woman’s face.

“I don’t like this,” said Sally. “Let’s go back. Floods are no fun at all.”

“We can’t ever get back up to that window,” said Barbara. “It’s too high off the ground.”

“What will we do?” asked Sally.

Just then Sally saw her father talking to one of the firemen. Both men saw the girls at once.

“Go back in the gymnasium and stay there,” called Mr. Graham. “Don’t let me see you out here again!” He called the boys and sent them in too.

The children went in the front door and hurried to the gymnasium. They hated the place now more than ever. It was filled with crying babies.

“W
HERE’S
D
ADDY,
M
OTHER?” ASKED
Sally.

“He and Mr. Dillon went to Farmington to get flashlights and candles. I don’t know when he’ll get back.”

“Do we have to go to bed
here
,” asked Karen, “with all these people?”

“Yes,” said Mother. “We’ll take our shoes and stockings off and leave our clothes on. Then we’ll lie down on these cots.”

Sally and Karen helped the little boys get ready for bed. They both shared a cot, Jack at the head and Tim at the foot. They kicked each other, then started tickling until Mother shushed them. Bobby curled up on a cot with Rusty in his arms.

Mrs. Graham and the girls put two cots together. Sally’s baby sister slept between her and her mother, so she would not roll over and hurt her head. Karen slept on the other side of Sally. The baby cried once, but Mother gave her a bottle and she was all right.

The gymnasium looked stranger now than ever. Five long rows of Army cots, standing side by side, filled the floor. Here and there were baby cribs on wheels. Army blankets had been given out. Women and children in all stages of dress and undress were trying to make themselves comfortable. Some sat on the cots, doing nothing. Some laughed and talked. Others walked briskly around. A few sobbed and cried, thinking of the homes they no longer had and wondering what was to become of them. The room grew quieter as more and more families settled down for the night.

There were no men. All of them were out helping with rescue work. Outside it was raining again. The rain made a steady tattoo on the roof.

As darkness fell, a woman came in with flashlights, candles and matches. Sally wondered if her father had brought them, but she did not like to ask. Soon, soft lights were glowing here and there over the room. Sleeping with strangers was a new experience for all. Sally lay awake long after Karen and the little ones had fallen asleep.

Sleeping beside the Grahams was an old lady with a child. Sally did not know them. The Nelsons were in the next row and the Boyds and Dillons across the room. Sally sat up in bed several times and waved to Barbara. After the room got dark, it looked spooky with flashlights going off and on. Sally could see Ruth Nelson holding a flashlight up to a comic book, trying to read it.

Sally began talking to Mother in a low voice.

“Is our house gone?” she asked.

“I don’t know if we have a house or not,” said Mother. “Daddy will tell us as soon as he finds out.”

“When are we going back home?” asked Sally.

“I don’t know that either,” said Mother. “We have food, drink and shelter here. We must thank God for that.”

Sally lay quiet for a time. Then she turned to Mother and said, “Oh, I want to go home … I don’t like it here.”

Mother reached over and patted her. “Go to sleep, dear,” she said. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Sally kept turning over and back again.