Allie's Bayou Rescue Page 9

  “And I didn’t bring a lot of clothes to change into,” Kendall said.

  Ruby stared at us, her hair frizzing and curling around her ears and forehead.

  “We’re all doing this, right Allie?”

  “Of course.” There was no getting out of this for me either. It would be hard to explain to my cousins now that the doctor had ordered me to stay warm and dry.

  “Let’s go before I freak out from mud anxiety,” Hunter said.

  Ruby smiled. “Okay, challenge number one. Starts. Now!”

  She pulled the top off the ice chest, and poured the frogs into the hole. You could practically hear the joy in their croaks.

  “Oh, no! They disappeared!” Hunter pushed his glasses up on his nose and then leaped into the hole after the frogs. He sank up to his hips in the mud.

  “He’s going to drown!” Lola yelled, and she knelt down next to the mud hole, which was about eight feet across.

  “He’ll be fine,” I said. “It’s not quicksand.”

  Hunter pushed both hands into the mud, which was more like a pool of muddy water now, with all the rain that had been pouring into it.

  “That is just gross,” Kendall said.

  “Think about poor Hunter,” Lola said.

  “Hey, I think I have one!” Hunter sank down a little lower, mud up to his chest now. “Yeah. There you are, you little bugger. I can feel ya!”

  Hunter swished his hands around a little more, and then, seconds later, they emerged from the mud holding a bullfrog. “One down, four to go!” Hunter yelled. And then he pulled in a deep breath and sank down to his neck in the mud. “Ooh, I think one is crawling up my leg!”

  “As soon as you feel ’em, you gotta pounce on ’em!” Ruby jumped up and down and then into the hole to retrieve the first frog. Hunter handed it over and then sank back down to get the second frog.

  That one emerged with a deafening croak—worse than one of Uncle Josiah’s burps.

  “That’s so nasty,” Lola said.

  “Get in here and get him, Sis!” Ruby reached up, grabbed Lola by the arm, and pulled her in the hole.

  “Hey! This isn’t my challenge! I shouldn’t have to . . .”

  Lola started to spit and cough, because Ruby had thrown a fistful of mud in her face, splattering sloppy chunks into her mouth.

  “Oh, you are so dead, Little Red!” Lola grabbed Ruby by the shoulders and shoved her down in the mud.

  “I got him! Number three!” Hunter now held two frogs in the air.

  “Kendall, can you get those frogs?” I pointed to the two sisters who were wrestling around in the mud. “Ruby and Lola are busy.”

  Kendall shook her head and grabbed at her leather choker, which had to be shrinking up in the rain and, well, choking her.

  “I’d really prefer to . . .”

  She didn’t get a chance to say what she’d prefer, because I moved over and pushed her into the hole with the rest of the cousins.

  “You ladies are clogging up my frog hunt!” Hunter said, passing off the two frogs to Kendall. And then he dove over to the other side of the hole after something. “Got you! Number four!”

  He held the biggest of the frogs up in the air. “This one has some meaty legs!”

  About all I could see of Hunter, besides mud, was his smiling, white teeth.

  “Put him in the ice chest,” I yelled, but no one could hear me over the squeals and screams and the fighting.

  “Don’t make me come in there. I’m not supposed to . . .”

  And then a muddy hand reached up, grabbed me, and pulled me in with the rest of the bunch. I’m not sure whose hand it was. At this point, everyone just looked like a mud monster.

  “Oh, no! There he goes! Don’t let him get away!” Hunter’s voice rang out over the laughing, squealing, and croaking.

  We all froze and looked in the direction Hunter was pointing. The fifth frog had escaped the hole somehow and started hopping merrily away from us.

  “Come back!” Hunter tried to climb out of the hole and follow the frog, but by the time he got out and on his feet, the croaking fellow was long gone.

  “Noooooo!” Hunter dashed forward, into the new torrent of rain coming from the sky. Lola, Ruby, Kendall, and I, still stuck in the hole, watched the drama unfold.

  “C’mon, Hunter! You can do it! Catch that thing!” Kendall shouted over the rain and other commotion.

  Hunter disappeared from our view, and we all grew silent. We pulled ourselves from the hole and tried to wash some of the mud off with the rain.

  “I can’t believe you pulled me in,” Lola said to Ruby.

  “I can’t believe you pushed me in,” Kendall said to me.

  “I can’t believe I’m outside,” I said, under my breath. I hope I haven’t made a terrible mistake.

  We waited another minute for any word from Hunter.

  Finally, he trudged back into our view, his head hanging and shoulders slumped.

  “He got away. I’ll never find him.”

  I was stumped for what to do next. The challenge was for him to catch all five frogs. The boy had been a trooper and had done more than I ever thought he would, given the severity of that mud. As far as I was concerned, he had passed the test.

  “I told you I’d fail, Allie!”

  We all just stood there in a circle and stared at each other.

  “Well, we kinda got in your way in the mud hole,” Lola said. “Sorry about that, cousin.”

  “Yeah, we got a little carried away,” Ruby said.

  “Carried Away with the Carroways,” Hunter said.

  We all laughed.

  “My choker is seriously choking me,” Kendall said. “Can we get out of this mess? Maybe you’ll catch that dumb frog during the hunting challenge.”

  “Hunting challenge?” Hunter glanced at me and Lola, his eyes wide. “You’re gonna make me hunt?”

  “It’s what all Carroways do,” Kendall said, and she pointed her index finger at him. “And you gotta cook it too.” Then she took off toward Mamaw’s house, pulling her choker away from her throat.

  Hunter just stood there, dripping and shaking his head.

  “I’m doomed,” he said.

  “No, you’re not.” Lola patted him on the back and then began to pull him with us as we walked toward the house. “You’re gonna do just fine. You’re not going to use a gun. Your slingshot should be able to take down a squirrel, no problem.”

  “I gotta cook a squirrel? How do I do that?”

  “Just roast it on a stick,” Lola said. “No one said we had to eat it. It just needs to be cooked.”

  “I think you should skin and clean it first,” Ruby said. “Squirrel is actually pretty tasty.”

  “That’s so disgusting,” I shivered.

  So did Hunter. Thankfully, we were almost to the house, where we could dry off, warm up, and prepare for the next challenge.

  Unfortunately, when I got back inside I realized that my Allie-Kit was missing.

  CHAPTER 19

  Challenge Two

  The last thing I remembered was pulling the straps onto my wrist when I left the house. But how long was it there before it fell off? Did I have it on when Ruby threw the frogs in the mud hole? It was all a confusing blur.

  “I call shower first!” Kendall pulled her rain boots off in the mudroom and shoved them under the wooden bench.

  “Why are you taking a shower?” Ruby stood there, dripping. “We’re not done with the challenges yet.”

  Kendall put both hands on her hips. “My challenge takes place indoors. Plus, I just want the mud off now!”

  “Me too,” Hunter said. “I’ll go rinse off outside with the hose.” He went out the door toward the spigot near the fish-gutting table.

  “Sounds freezing.” Lola shivered, grabbed a towel, and wrapped her hair up in it.

  “Guys, I think I have to go back out there for a minute.”

  Just as I said that, another downpour began. And then t
he lights flickered.

  “Never mind.”

  Hunter came running back in.

  “Then again,” he said. “A towel’s just as good.”

  “We better do the hunting before the river rises even more.” Ruby pointed down the walk from my grandparents’ house. The water was all the way up to the mailbox.

  “Whoa!” Lola gasped. “Should we pull the kayak out from under the house?”

  I stared out toward the river, wondering if my Allie-Kit was floating down it.

  “I’m calling Mamaw,” I said. “I wonder if she realizes that the river has risen so high?”

  “Where’s Papaw?” Hunter looked out the window. “Shouldn’t he be back with those sandbags by now?”

  I ran to the wall phone, still dripping a little, and dialed Aunt Janelle’s number, which was listed on the whiteboard in the kitchen. It rang and rang and rang.

  “Try Mamaw’s cell,” Ruby said, as she wrung her braid out with a towel.

  I knew that number by heart. It went right to voicemail.

  I shook my head and hung up. “Nothing.”

  “How about Papaw?” Hunter asked. “Can you call him?”

  I frowned and shook my head. “He only turns his phone on if he’s going to call someone.”

  “You should call your parents,” Lola said.

  No chance. Not till I find my Allie-Kit.

  “Nope. We’re perfectly fine. I’m sure the rain will let up soon, but let’s pull the kayak out and get it up on the porch. Just in case.”

  All of us—except Kendall, who was singing her lungs out in the shower—bundled up again and ran for the area under the house where all the “boats” are stored. Most of the “boats” didn’t float anymore, but the red tandem ocean kayak was brand-new.

  “Don’t forget to grab the seats and paddles,” I said. “When I count to three, we’ll lift and carry it up onto the porch.”

  Hunter bent down to grab a handle on the nose of the kayak. “Why exactly are we doing this?”

  “In case we have to escape,” I said. “Don’t you watch the news during Louisiana floods?”

  “Yeah,” Ruby said. “Everyone loads their family and pets in boats, and then they paddle themselves to higher ground.”

  “Okay, everyone!” I yelled. “One, two, three!”

  Hunter and I lifted from the handles on each end. Lola lifted her side a little too fast, which flipped the kayak upside down, spilling all the contents into the mud.

  I stood up straight and jammed my hands on my hips.

  “This would never cut it in a real emergency, people. Let’s try that again.”

  We flipped the kayak back upright, piled the muddy seats and paddles in, and lifted. Then we trudged toward the house, pushed and pulled awkwardly up the stairs to the porch, and set the kayak down.

  “This thing is long,” Hunter said.

  “That’s good,” I said. “It will hold all of us, and the Barn-Dog.”

  “Where is Barney?” Hunter brushed new mud off the sides of his shorts and scanned the soggy landscape for signs of Mamaw’s goofy dog. “I could use him to help me hunt.”

  Just then, Kendall emerged from the front door, looking all peaceful and mud-free.

  “Are we going to start challenge two? We don’t have much time before it gets dark.”

  I looked at Lola and raised my eyebrows. Challenge two was hers to conduct. She disappeared inside for a minute and came out with a slingshot. She handed it to Hunter.

  “Hunter Carroway, you have already proven that you can hunt doves when everyone is helping you during the TV show. But now you must show that you have what it takes to live off the land. As God intended.”

  “Oh, really? Then why did he give us grocery stores, huh?” Hunter flashed his witty grin, but it wasn’t going to get him out of this.

  Lola continued, “Dad calls the land out here God’s grocery store. If you’re gonna survive as a Carroway, you better get used to huntin’, guttin’, and then eatin’ whatever you find out here.”

  I scrunched up my face. I’ve been a Carroway since day one, and I still can’t stand the look, smell, or feel of animal guts.

  “So where am I supposed to go?” Hunter turned and looked out from the porch, and as he did, the rain tapered off to a heavy mist.

  “I think he should have a buddy,” Ruby said.

  Kendall smoothed her clean, wet hair behind her ears. “Don’t look at me.”

  I thought about my lost emergency kit—something I needed to hunt down before the wheezes came back.

  “I’ll go with him.”

  “Are you sure?” Lola looked relieved.

  “Yeah. C’mon, Hunter. Let’s go get some food.”

  “How much time do we have?” Hunter asked.

  “As long as it takes,” Lola said.

  “Or until you give up,” Kendall added.

  Lola gave her the stink-eye.

  “Just come back with something to cook. Squirrel, lizard, snake, frog, duck . . . it doesn’t matter.”

  The screen door slammed behind us, and Hunter and I made our way down the stairs.

  “Frog, huh? If we could find that one that got away, do you think they would count that for this challenge too?”

  “I doubt it,” I said. “Kendall’s not interested in redesigning the Diva. You don’t want to give her any loopholes.”

  Hunter nodded, loaded his sling with a big rock, and focused his eyes on the ground.

  “What animals do you think are still out here in this weather?”

  I thought about the only living things I knew that were stubborn enough to still be out.

  Gators. And Carroways.

  A familiar tightness gripped my chest. I stopped a minute, breathed in, and then blew out.

  “You okay?” Hunter stopped but didn’t look back.

  I breathed in again, and on the breath out, my lungs turned wheezy.

  Great.

  “Allie? What is it?”

  Hunter asked, his face still focused forward.

  I grabbed my throat.

  “I’m, uh . . . having a little trouble breathing.”

  Hunter stopped walking and turned toward me.

  “Are you having another asthma attack? Didn’t you see the doctor today?”

  He stared at me with those transparent green eyes.

  Might as well tell him.

  “Come with me.” I grabbed his elbow and led him back to the barn and under the eaves for cover. “Hunter, when we were all wrestling in the frog hole, did you notice a pink mini backpack attached to me anywhere?”

  Hunter looked out and scanned the hole.

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t really focused on you. I was busy freaking out about the mud.”

  “Did you notice if I had it when we were walking back to the house? Have you seen it on me at all?”

  Hunter shrugged. “Sorry, Allie. I haven’t.”

  I bent over, put my hands on my knees, and breathed in.

  “That’s okay. It’s just that the doctor gave me an inhaler to use when I get short of breath. It’s in that backpack. And . . .”

  I stopped to breathe.

  “And, what?” Hunter laid the slingshot down on the ground, and bent down, close to my face.

  “And, I guess I lost it.”

  “Oh no, Allie. What are we going to do?”

  “Well, it has to be somewhere between here and the house. I remember going to get it when we were leaving for the challenge. But then things got all muddy.”

  “Then that’s what we need to hunt for right now. You’re turning purple around your lips and eyes.”

  “I am?” I put my hands up to my cheeks. “I’m not supposed to be out here in the damp weather. Doctor’s orders.”

  “Then why are you out here?”

  “You needed a hunting buddy.”

  Hunter started to pace back and forth, under the eaves.

  “You’re really stubborn, you know that?”
>
  “I’m a Carroway. It runs in the family.”

  Hunter pulled his jacket off and threw it around me like a blanket. “Sit down here and don’t move. If there’s a pink back-pack out there, I’ll find it.”

  The sun had still not set, but it was getting close, and things were dark anyway because of the rainclouds. So, when Hunter got a little ways away from me, I could barely see him.

  A furry rodent scurried right in front of me.

  “Squirrel!” I yelled.

  Hunter came running back into view.

  “What? Allie, are you okay?”

  “Yes! There’s a squirrel!” I pointed to it as it leaped away from me.

  Hunter jumped up and down in the mud.

  “Seriously, Allie? I’m on a more important mission right now, don’t you think?”

  He looked hilarious, all wide-eyed and drenched. I started to laugh a little.

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  But then there was another one.

  “Squirrel! Get it Hunter!” I picked up the slingshot and held it out to Hunter.

  “Quick! You need it to pass this challenge!”

  “Allie! I don’t care about the challenge right now!”

  Hunter turned and ran away. I thought about trying to get the squirrel myself, but I felt too winded, not to mention that would have been cheating. So I just sat there, under the barn eaves, watching the rain roll off the roof and carve divots in the wet earth in front of me. I prayed for Hunter’s safety and that somewhere out there he would find my Allie-Kit with the magic inhaler.

  It seemed like at least thirty minutes went by before I saw Hunter again. Thankfully the rain had let up a bit, and I had formed a comfortable heat bubble under his jacket as I sat on the ground with my back leaning against the barn wall. I might have even fallen asleep for a few minutes.

  Hunter dragged himself up the hill to the barn. I’d never seen him with such a sad face.

  He sat down next to me and hung his head.

  “It’s not out there, Allie. I searched every square foot between the barn and the house. I dug through the mud and everything. I’m so sorry.” He held out his dirty hands. He really did look like a mud monster. Again.

  For some reason, seeing his desperation made me want to cry.