Chapter 3

It was Charlie calling.

“Charles! Are you alright? Where are you?” Charlie asked as he choked back tears.

“I’m fine.” I gritted my teeth hard to stop my voice from shaking. “Have you all reached?”

“Yes, we have! A hotel in the city where there’s hot water, blankets and even hot tea the staff prepared for us…”

He started sobbing as he spoke.

“Charles, what are you going to do all alone at home?”

A loud sound rumbled above me.

The other half of the roof was blown off by the wind. Rain poured in, drenching me even further.

I shrieked and almost dropped my phone.

“Charles! What happened? What was that sound?”

“No… Nothing. Some roof tiles just got blown away…”

The signal started becoming spotty.

Charlie’s voice started breaking up.

“Charles…do…hear…”

The signal returned, but was weak.

I heard Charlie yelling and crying on the other end of the call. “Mom! The house is collapsing! Think of something, quick!”

I heard Mom’s voice through the phone. “He can still answer the call, which means he’s perfectly fine. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.”

The water level has crossed my knees.

“Mom! I’m not blowing things up! Didn’t you hear that? Charles is…”

“What could happen to Charles at home? The stove that your dad built last year is rock solid! How will he survive society next time if he can’t even take a small storm like this?”

Dad spoke up, soft and muffled, “Why don’t we send someone back to check on him…”

“What do you know?” Mom’s words shut him up. She then said to Charlie, “That’s quite enough. Tell your brother to hang up and not rack up such a high phone bill.”

I squatted in the rainwater, saying nothing. The water level had risen to my thighs.

The signal was still weak at only one bar and very intermittent.

Charlie was still crying as he said brokenly, “Charles… Find a way to climb to higher grounds…”

The moment he said so, an unfamiliar voice sounded through the phone. It was a man who sounded very anxious. “Little boy, who are you calling?”

Charlie said through sobs, “My big brother… He’s still at home and didn’t make it out…”

“What?!”

His voice went a pitch higher.

“There are still people left in that town?! Where are the adults in your family? A flash flood warning has already been issued for that area. Staying there can be fatal!”

Chaos broke loose on the other side of the phone.

I heard many people talking all at once.

Someone was shouting, “Contact the emergency team at once!” while another was asking, “Exactly how many people are still stuck in that town?”

That emergency team member’s voice overpowered everyone else’s and I heard him ask, “Where is the child’s parent? Please come here! Why did you leave your child behind?”

Mom’s voice sounded through the phone. “He won’t die. He’s tough as nails.”

At the next second, the call ended.

That was when the signal completely died.

My screen went out as well.

“He won’t die. He’s tough as nails.”

Mom’s words rang in my head, over and over again.

The water level rose to my waist and then my chest. The space under the stove was getting smaller and smaller.

I hugged the brick column propping up the stone stove, my fingernails digging into the brick joint.

Cold… So cold.

The water was icy cold, the wind was cold and I felt a bone-piercing chill from head to toe.

I recalled how Charlie caught a cold when he was so busy playing he forgot to wear his jacket.

That night, Mom forced me to stand in the courtyard on a winter night in just a shirt. I had a 40 degree fever which frightened Charlie so bad he burst out crying.

That was when Mom finally allowed me back into the house.

“See that? Your brother caught a chill because of you. From now on, you’ll make sure to put on more clothes before heading out,” she said.

Charlie hugged my leg as he sobbed hard.

My fever made me so delirious I could hardly stand straight, but I managed to pat him gently on his head to reassure him I was fine.

The cold I was feeling this time was a hundred times worse than that winter night.

The water level had now risen to my neck.

I could no longer grasp the brick column. I was all out of strength in my fingers.

Mom said I was tough as nails.

But Mom, I’m not that tough.

Gradually, I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I was losing consciousness.

Right before I blacked out completely, someone yelled from a distance away.

“He’s here!”