With the Water

[Debob]

Thank you FMJ.

[juco]

Good story! Thank you!

[Texican]

Buttoning up....

Thanks for the chapter FMJ....

Texican....

[FMJ]

(9)

As the water rose steadily to the foot of the steps, Ma-ma Boudreaux paced, the floor boards creaking old familiar voices with her every step. With a sigh of weary resolve, she walks to stand by the door.

“I can’t just stand here and do nothing. The least I can do is make the effort, no matter how small the result,” she whispered as she straightened her back and picked up her gnarled black cane. “Andre, if only you were here.”

Lightning strobed behind the clouds racing on before the howling wind, driving the continuous rain sideways in its fury. At the foot of the stairs, the black water swirled as she slowly descended the maelstrom to be closer to the water. Ma-ma Boudreaux stood precariously on the last step still above water and held tightly to the rail and her cane. Closing her eyes and concentrating to try shutting out the keening wind was nearly impossible.

The parts of the water she could hear screamed of confusion, desperation and an almost visceral fear driven before a relentless power.
Slowly reaching past that thick emotional oil slick riding the surface of the swirling tide to the vast undercurrent below, she sensed the on-rushing surge of the powerful storm.

Taking a deep breath, Ma-ma Boudreaux braced herself firmly upon the step and slowly attempted to bodily resist the rising surge. Pausing only for a moment, the undercurrent divided to flow around the intrusion, laughingly mocking her best efforts as the water rose higher around her feet.

“Merciful Father, God in Heaven, help me!” she cried clinging tightly to the rail in the storm to hold her concentration. Lightning flashed across the heavens and the roar of the wind rose higher as the torrential rain soaked her to the skin and the water rose above her ankles.

Ma-ma Boudreaux is startled when Jamie appears out of nowhere to stand at her shoulder on the step above. “Grand Ma-ma? I heard you call. Let me help you,” Jamie pleads as he places one hand under her elbow and the other on her thin shoulder.

[FMJ]

The contact is electric and Ma-ma Boudreaux gasps as Jamie’s touch opens a floodgate to a power she has never known. Even as the storm winds still rage in the distance, the air around the shack gradually becomes still and then calms to a whisper. The flood waters rush away so quickly that Little Bayou Pigeon is drained leaving the little dock high and dry with fish flopping helplessly on the muddy bottom. The relentless rain slows and then stops completely as the brilliant pinpoints of stars appear in the night sky above.

Claire slowly awakens from a fitful sleep in the straight-back chair beside the boy’s bed, groggy and confused. Reaching out to check on him, she is alarmed to find the bed empty.

Stumbling, she quickly searches the other rooms but finds only Thibault asleep in the rocker by the stove. In a state of near hysteria, she shakes Thibault awake babbling something about Jamie and Ma-ma Boudreaux being gone.

Together, they rush to the door only to find the missing boy and his grandmother standing statue-like outside on the front steps. Defying the might of the storm by the sheer force of their combined will, the pair stand side-by-side, every sense drawn inward, enveloped within the embrace of a softly glowing blue corona.

With sightless eyes, they gaze across the empty expanse of an impossibly silent bayou. Thibault and Claire are frightened to find they are unable to interfere or even touch them. Feeling a need to be close, they are drawn to them and maintain a silent vigil throughout the long night.

As dawn slowly brightens the eastern sky, water trickles back into Little Bayou Pigeon and Jamie abruptly collapses in a heap by his grandmother’s side. Thibault scoops up the boy and carries him back to his bed where Claire can dry and warm him. As the catatonic trance ends, Ma-ma Boudreaux slumps to the steps in exhaustion. She will sleep for two days unaware of the passage of time and remember little of the astonishing events Thibault and Claire witnessed the night of the storm.

[nancy98]

WOW!

[Lone_Hawk]

I suspected that the boy had been overcome by what he was hearing on the wind, and that is why the old priestess showed up, the boy is a threat to her in some way, I suspect part of the battle of good and evil. Excellent story FMJ!