Mood music
Perfect Doesn't Last – Beth Crowley, It's A Small World – The Sweeplings, Eat Sleep Worry – Mree, Roots Before Branches – Room For Two, Rush – Lewis Capaldi
Chapter Eighteen
Thresholds are dangerous places, neither here nor there, and walking across one is like stepping off the edge of a cliff in the naive faith that you'll sprout wings halfway down. You can't hesitate, or doubt. You can't fear the in-between. ― Alix E. Harrow
.
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Molly was pounding down a tarmac path in Forrest Lane Park at a fair pace when her phone rang, interrupting the music playing through her head phones with her ring tone. She slowed a little, pulling her iPhone out of the holder on her arm and reading, 'Nan' on the screen.
Slowing to a walk, she answered, a little out of breath.
"Hey, Nan."
"Molls, is that you?"
"Dad, what are you doing calling on Nan's phone?"
"I'm out of credit, borrowed it while the dragon's havin' nap. Not sure how she's getting any sleep with that snoring. She sounds like a bleedin' jackhammer."
"Yeah, fine. Whatever. What do you need?" Molly said, with growing impatience, fully expecting another request for her to make her mother see sense and let him home.
"It's about your mother…"
"No, Dad, no! I'm not doing this. Her… you…the backwards and forwards. I want nothing to do with it."
"But Mols…"
"Fucksake, Dad. Get your shit together and leave me out of it, Okay!" Molly said, hanging up the phone with an angry sigh.
Most of her childhood had involved the Dave and Belinda drama show, and usually, it just washed over her as more of the same old same old. For some reason, this particularly drama she could not throw off and it just kept digging at her in uncomfortable ways. Molly's conclusion on the subject was she was just getting too old for her parents' shit.
ooOOoo
"That you, Mols?" Belinda called, as she heard the front door open then slam closed.
Sitting in the living room, she was trying to conquer the family's never-ending pile of laundry in the certain knowledge that she would, good naturedly, fail. Hands raised folding a towel, she looked up as a bedraggled looking Molly came into the room in her running gear, squeezing water out of her sodden pony tail onto her equally sodden hoodie.
"Raining cats, dogs and a whole bleedin' zoo out there." Molly grumbled.
"I told you you'd get caught in it." Belinda said, handing the towel she had been folding to Molly who moved to perch on the arm of the chair beside her mother towelling her hair dry.
"Ta."
"Forecast is better for tomorrow. Still don't understand why you couldn't have waited."
"It's my job. Fitness is a huge thing. Never happens if I don't keep it up. Working, studying and the fact that I like sleep. There never enough time unless I plan it."
Belinda grinned, then chuckled.
"Something I said funny?"
"Kind of, just hearing you now. All serious and responsible. I'm remember the nightmare it used to be getting you out of your pit for school or work before you join the Army. It makes me laugh. You were a right mardy little madam."
"Jackie would say I still am, on a bad day."
"Maybe. Go get yourself a shower, before you end up being a mardy madam with a long drive and pneumonia. You all packed up?"
"Yeah, dropped my bags in the car before I went out ready for heading home tonight."
"Funny hearing you calling Birmingham home. Your Dad was always convinced you'd never move out of an 'E' postcode."
"He also thought I should be married and knocked up by eighteen." Molly said with an eye-roll. "Never one to lack ambition for his family, Dave Dawes."
"It just how he is." Belinda replied placidly. "Nobody's perfect."
"Says the women who chucked him out and isn't speaking to him."
"Yeah, well. You know how I feel about that situation, and he knows what he needs to do to be allowed back through the door."
"At least I'm speaking to him." Molly said with a pointed tone which made Belinda indulge in an eye-roll of her own.
"Flowers arrived for you while you were out. Freesias, beautiful. Making the kitchen smell like a garden right now."
Charles and his Friday flowers. Figured that he would be on the ball enough to remember she was staying at her parents on delivery day.
Belinda gave Molly the look she always gave Molly when the subject of Charles was on her mind. Molly's knee jerk reaction was to ask her mother to leave the subject alone, but she knew she'd opened the door again on this topic after her heart to heart with her mother last weekend. No chance she'd let her slam it closed now.
"You not going to go see them?"
Molly pulled out her phone as a distraction tactic and fiddle with her messages.
"Maybe in a minute."
"He's being very consistent." Belinda said.
"Very." Molly replied noncommittally, but low level irked by her mother's fishing. She knew she was being unfair, just a bit, well more than just a bit...
"He is trying."
"Very."
"Come on, Mols." Belinda scolded.
Molly sighed.
"I know you want a good outcome from this because you've always had soft spot for Charles, but we've got more problems that a few flowers are gonna fix."
"I don't have favourites. I like Jades boyfriend as much as Charles." Belinda protested as Molly made a snorting noise in response.
"That's why you were calling him drama-lama, amongst other things, last Christmas when they had a ding-dong. Ironic, really, since it was Jade and a bottle of prosecco, or two, that kicked the whole thing off."
"Don't you start getting snotty with me, Molly Dawes. You and Charles were good together. He loved you, properly loved you."
"I know." Molly said, understanding her mother compassion for Charles, but wishing she would let it alone. "Weren't so good at the end though."
"I know, but you were good for each other at the start. Way he used to relax whenever you came into a room, let his hair down a bit, and you used to just light up around him. It's waste, the way it ended and he seems to be trying."
"You said that already. Look, it's not as simple as few flowers, and all's fixed, is it? If it was Dad would be sitting on the end of the sofa with an opinion after he turned up with flower last weekend."
Belinda's expression was mutinous. "Maybe if he looked into the chances of getting a job at the garage instead buy their crappy flowers and rocking up to my door with them and more empty promises, he might have been sat here now."
"Like I said."
"Give me your, phone."
"Why?"
"Just give it here."
Molly hand over her iPhone with all the reluctancy of a teenager surrendering a guilt proving device to a parent.
Belinda laughed. "That expression on your mug's never changed. Fourteen or twenty-four, you still look guilty."
"What do you want it for?"
"You'll see. I'm illustrating my… whats-its-name."
"Point?"
"Yeah, that."
Belinda scrolled through her on phone for a couple of seconds. "Last message from your Dad–" she turned the phone screen towards Molly "–Dave complaining that they're changing The Black Lion into a Wetherspoons and asking about picking up clean boxers."
She fiddled with Molly's phone, then turned the screen in her direction again.
"Last message from your Charles? Asks about how works going. Tells you he looking forward to meeting you for coffee again. Tells you he loves you. That's my point, Mols."
"He's not my Charles."
"You keep telling yourself that. You are your bleedin' Nan, stubborn as the day is long. Both of you, and that's why I put the rest of the photo albums you didn't want to look at last weekend, in your bag this morning."
"How many of those bleedin' books to you have? Honestly."
"You want to know if things are over and done between you. Make yourself look at those pictures, and tell me how you feel after. Don't bother giving me the stink-eye. You know I'm–"
They both jumped as Molly's phone started ringing in Belinda's hand.
"Who's Julian?" Belinda, asked reading the name on the screen then giving Molly side-eye suspiciously. "You got a new bloke on the go?"
"Ain't got time for the one I've not got at the moment, do, I." Molly said, more than a little irritated by her mother's disapproving tone and further proof of her denied favouritism. She held her hand out for her phone.
"He's Rebecca's husband. Give it here."
"Jules? Yeah, it's Molly, what's up? Is Rebecca needing maternity leave boredom relief?" Molly said with a smile.
Hearing his response, Molly's expression straightening into one of concern instead of amusement quickly as she sat up straighter.
"Mols? Is something wrong?"
Molly held up her hand to silence her mother urgently, turning away slightly as she held the phone tighter to her ear to better hear Julian's rushed words.
"Jules, slow down, slow down… Yeah, I'm at my parents. I'm leaving now, meet you there. Forty minutes, okay?"
"The baby?"
Molly ran an agitated hand through her hair, turning back towards her mother.
"Yeah. Look, I know I said I'd stay and help with the kid after school but–"
"But you need to go?" Belinda pulled Molly into a quick hug. "Don't be daft, Go jump in the shower. Sooner you're changed, sooner you can head out."
ooOOoo
The scene that greeted Molly when she arrived at the Portland Hospital made the urgency of Julian's call more than clear as a pale faced Julian greeted her in a waiting area off of the maternity ward.
As Julian explained the circumstances around rushing them all to the hospital, Molly's eyes strayed to where Sam was sitting across the room. He was a curled-up knot of silent tension, incongruently football kit, trainers and his outside jacket tucked into the corner of a sofa with his chin resting on his knees and his eyes firmly on Molly.
"She's doing okay?" Molly asked quietly, pitching her voice low so little ears might not hear too much.
Julian spread his hands expressively, his eyes flicking shut briefly. Like he needed to collect himself.
"Her waters broke. There was blood." He said, with a heavy sigh. "They're monitoring them both."
Molly reached out, squeezing Julian's shoulder gently. "She's tough as old boots and they're in the best place."
A tight smile curved his lips briefly. "She's been barking at the nurses since we arrived."
"Sounds like Becs."
"She wants to speak to you before you take Sam. I'll go see if you're okay to see her."
"Yeah, of course. I'll be here."
Molly approached Sam, crouching down so she was on his level.
"You okay, mate?"
Brown eyes, so like his father's, met Molly's and welled with tears as he launched himself into Molly's waiting arms.
Holding him for several minutes, Molly gave him quiet support as his formerly frantic breathing eased and he relaxed the death grip he had with his arms around her neck.
"You been being a brave little man for you mum?" Molly asked softly, smoothing a hand through his curls.
It was a few seconds in coming, but the reply she'd been trying for came quick enough as Sam pulled back, wiped his face with the back of his hand and levelled Molly with a stubborn scowl.
"I'm not little."
ooOOoo
Molly waited patiently for list of instruction that she knew Rebecca was bound to issue, knowing that control in this completely out of her control situation would be what her friend would need.
"Take my car. You're still on the insurance from when I was giving you lessons." Rebecca said, gripping Molly's hand tightly.
"Why? I passed my test ages ago." Molly said, referring to their former driving lessons together using Rebecca's beast of a 4x4 and still being on the insurance. Then on seeing Rebecca's scowl, rushed to soothe her earlier comment. "Not that that matters… I have my car here anyway."
"Really, that's what you're fixing on? I'm having a baby here, in case you missed the obvious, and you giving me lectures about my inadequacies as a domestic administrator aren't helping!" Rebecca snapped, before folding over her stomach with a moan. "Stop blooding arguing with me!"
"Okay, okay just breathe." Molly soothed. "I'll take your car."
"All Sammie's stuff and the present for his Gran are in the car. Jules will give you the keys."
"What about baby seat?"
"We hadn't even–" Rebecca said, voice cutting off on a sob as her eyes filled with tears. "It's too early, Molly. He's coming too early."
"Just in a hurry like his big brother. You've got this, Becs. It's gonna be okay."
Rebecca grabbed Molly up into a tight hug. "You promise?"
"I promise." Molly pulled back and held Rebecca's hand reassuringly, only to yelp loudly as Rebecca squeezed the life out of her fingers as contraction started again.
"Jesus Christ, this hurts like a bloody bastard!"
"Why does swear always sound twice as filthy in your accent?" Molly said, grinning.
"It's a talent." Rebecca said, pausing to pant heavily. "Up I want to get up."
Molly and the Midwife helped Rebecca to stand and she lean on the bed on her elbows and rocked from side to side and groaning.
"Okay, tell me what I told you to say."
"Oh, right. That this is gonna hurt but is worth it. Second time is easier than first and your body knows what it's doing." Molly ticked Rebecca's statements off on her fingers. "It will be worth it when you see the baby. You don't want an epidural–"
Rebecca let loose a huge groan. "I might be reconsidering that last one."
"Shit, Becs, let me go get a Julian."
"No, stay, rub my back, just rub my back."
Molly complied.
"I was completely full of shit when I wrote that damn list."
"Maybe?"
"What else was on it?"
"That you love Julian and you promise not the break balls too much while you're hurting."
"I never wrote that."
"Nah, that was my addition."
"Sam got a fright today, with all the panic and the driver over here. I need you to take our little man and distract him into having a fantastic time with his Granny and his Step Mum so he forgets all the nonsense he shouldn't have seen today."
"You'll meet your new baby soon, and Sam's going to have a new brother and forget all about this. You sort out the baby brother bit, and I've got the rest, okay?"
"There was blood. He saw too much."
"And it'll all be forgotten when he gets his little brother."
"Tell me I can do this."
"You can do this. I promise."
Rebecca managed a tight, one arm hug. "I've got this, don't I?"
"You've got this."
Turning, so she was half perched on the bed, Rebecca stretched out her aching back. Then wiped her wet cheeks.
"Okay, I'm ready. Go get Jules. This baby is coming whether I'm ready or not."
ooOOoo
Turning off the M4 onto the M3, Molly listened radio traffic report for the route with increasing worry. The rain was lashing down, with enough wind behind it to be buffering Rebecca barn of a 4x4 from time to time. With an Amber warning of localised flooding for Devon and Cornwall and the fact that Charles' parents holiday home was in the back end of nowhere in the middle of the Dartmouth National Park, Molly was increasingly grateful the Rebecca insisted that she took her car rather than Molly much smaller Mini, but she was beginning to wonder if even that was going to be enough to survive the weather and narrow one track countries roads in the middle of this storm.
Sam had been quiet for the much of the journey, declining Molly's offer to stop for food and instead sounding like a mini version of his Dad by saying he thought they should get out of London traffic before they stopped anywhere.
A thought had been nagging at Molly since they set off, that perhaps she shouldn't be attempting this journey at all, and maybe Sam might need his Dad given the fright that he'd had. With the worsening weather, she was becoming more convinced by the minute. They were fast coming up on the turn off that would take them towards Guildford and she knew she could come off the motorway and cut across country easy enough before they got much further on.
"You alright there, mate? You're awfully quiet."
"I'm fine."
"You sure about that?" Molly said, griping the steering wheel a little tighter as spray from the wheels of an HGV she was overtaking obscured the windscreen despite the way the windscreen wipers were working overtime the clear the water. The tarmac in front of the car was a flowing sheet of water except where the car in front's tyres had cleared leaving a parallel lined path which Molly followed as she guided the car back into the inside lane.
"I'm sure." Sam replied, turning to face Molly with a brave attempt at a smile on his face. He looked so very young as so like his dad it was heart melting and breaking at the same time. Rebecca's brave little man.
"You're Mums going to be fine, you know that don't you? Everything happened in a bit of scary rush this afternoon, but she is the best place with all the Doctors and nurses to look after her and your new baby brother or sister."
Sam turned to study Molly, a very serious expression on such a young face.
"I wanted to stay with Mummy and Jules to make sure she was alright."
"I know."
"There was blood. Lots of it." He said, his sounding very small.
"You must have been scared."
He nodded solemnly.
"Having babies isn't easy. It can be messy and it can take a long time. Your mum is in the best place, you understand that, right?" Molly said, choosing her words carefully to be age appropriate while also knowing the Sam was a clever child, who would like to be talked down to by anyone, especially when he was worried about his Mum. "Your Mum just wanted to make sure that you didn't miss out on seeing Granny, or might hear or see something worrying. Do you understand?"
"I know where babies come from, Molly." Sam said with a very serious expression on his face, leaving Molly with the impression that she was now being managed by a ten-year-old. "We did all that at school and mummy told me all about it."
"Well, that's good then."
"Findlay also showed us a YouTube video." Sam pulled screwed up his face. "He said that's what it was like when his little sister was born."
"Like what?"
"Wet and noisy and icky. Findlay said."
"Well, if Findlay said it was like that."
"Findlay says lots of stupid stuff, I told him I didn't believe him. That's why he showed us the video on his phone. I believe him then." Sam huffed out a big sigh and said very solemnly. "I'm glad I'm not a girl."
Molly struggled not to smile in the face of his terribly serious expression. He was such an old soul sometimes.
"Would it have been like that if you had a baby with Daddy?"
"I giving birth is pretty much the same for everyone, Sammie." Molly said, changing lanes to avoid a puddle. "Talking about your, Dad. How about we give him a call and let him know where you are?
"Just pick his name from the contacts on my phone." Molly said, nodding to where her phone was sitting in a cradle on the dashboard, the screen tracking their progress on a map app.
Sam rolled his big brown eyes at Molly. "You don't need to do that. Hey Siri, call Daddy."
"I don't have anyone in your contacts with that name." replied the phone.
Molly stuck her tongue out at Sam cheekily. "Not so clever there, clever clogs. I don't call him Daddy, do I?"
Sam threw up his hands dramatically with all the mock outrage of a ten-year-old. "This is why I need my own phone. Hey Siri, call Charles."
"Calling Charles James, husband." the phone replied, and Sam gave Molly a curious look, as though he had a question, but didn't quite know how to ask it.
Charles' voicemail picked up several seconds later, and Sam hung up the phone.
"Call Brains for me, mate. He'll know where you're Dad's at."
"You know somebody called Brains?"
"Yeah, watch. Hey Siri, call Brains."
Sam giggled as the phone said, "Calling Brains Wiggerty."
"He's actually called Harry, but we won't hold that against him, ehh?"
"Dawesey, how are you doing on this lovely day for ducks." Brains answered cheerfully.
"Hey, Brains, just in the car with Sam, and you're on handsfree, so little ears and all that."
"I'm not little." Sam replied with a snort of disgust.
"Okay them, what can I do for you?"
"I was trying to track down Charles. His mobile is going to voicemail."
"Not that surprising. He's out on manoeuvres on Salisbury Plains with the Officer Cadets and fifty odd poor sod– eh, soldiers doing their Stage Two."
"In this weather, that's gonna be miserable."
"British Army for you. Not happy unless they're keeping us busy being wet and miserable."
"Builds moral fibre and such like." Molly said laughing.
"I'm sure that's what Major James said at parade this morning. Grinning like a Cheshire cat at the same time, mind."
"Sounds like him. No reason to think he doesn't have his mobile on him?"
"Nah. Saw him with it this morning. Probably just out of range. I can get a message to him through the Scaley Operator at the Command Tent, if you want."
"It's not super urgent. Can you just let him know I've collected Sam because his mums gone into labour? We're heading to his parents' place at Widecombe. I think he was due there tonight or tomorrow, one or the other. He'll know what I'm on about."
"No problem, Dawesey. I'll let him know when he gets back from drowning the future one pip wonders."
"Don't let him catch you calling them that."
"As if. You got a long drive?"
"Yeah. It's a bit grim and slow going, but we'll get there. I'll stop for the night somewhere if it gets too hairy."
"On your mobile otherwise?"
"He can call me if he needs to."
"Sure. I'll let him know. Drive carefully."
"Will do, Brains. Bye!"
"Right, that's that then. You sure you don't want me to take you to your Dad's? It's closer than your Grandparents."
"No, thank you. I have a present for Granny's birthday, and she was already disappointed that you couldn't be there this weekend." Sam smiled at Molly broadly. "Now you can, so it's all perfect."
"There's that, I guess. Fine, we'll bash on." Molly compared the time on dashboard clock to the darkness outside and sighed. "It's gonna be dark by the time we get there at this rate, not that it isn't dark at the moment. You want to stop for some food?"
"Maybe later."
"Okay, service station pizza in a while coming up."
Sam pulled a face.
"No? Expresso and a doughnut?"
He giggled.
"Burger King?"
"Yes, please with a strawberry milkshake and an ice-cream, please."
"I think we can manage all that."
ooOOoo
One hour later and several hours earlier than scheduled, Charles walked passed Brain's desk, removing his water proof coat as he walked.
Brains looked up from his computer screen with a respectful nod and clearly stated, "Sir. Back early?"
"Yes. Complete wash out. Bit much, even for me. Travel back was a bit of challenge." Charles said with a wry grin as Brains slid a pile of mail and folders towards him across his desk. "Any messages?"
"Molly called."
Charles' head jerked up, looking away from the paperwork he'd been thumbing though and trying not to let the way his heart was suddenly thumping in his chest show on his otherwise carefully expressionless face.
"Said to let you know she'd picked up Sam because his mum had gone into labour."
"She's early, I hope everything is okay." Charles looked at his watch, considering the time it would take to drive down to London. "If I left now, I can beat the rush hour. Did she say if she was taking him back to her parents' place or Rebecca's house?"
"Neither. She was in the car driving when she called. Said to tell you that she was taking him to your parents place in some place called Widecombe."
"In this weather? She's talking about going to their holiday house in the arse end of nowhere down single lane roads and a long farm track up the side of a bloody hill. It's my mother's birthday this weekend so they were having a get together. They called me earlier to say they're staying in Bath because of the weathering warning."
"Maybe they called Molly too?"
"Doubtful, she was never planning to come this weekend. I was supposed to be driving up with Sam today." Charles said as he pulled his mobile out of his pocket with a worried frown and dialled Molly's mobile.
"She'll probably stop somewhere, said as much when she was one the phone."
"Voicemail, damn." He tried dialling again and got the same result. "Look, I'm going to head out there. Hopefully be able to get a hold of her before she hits worse of the rural roads and divert them to my parents in Bath. Can you get the motor pool on the phone and see if they have a Landy available, the only sort of vehicle that going to manage on those roads in this weather, I'll go and grab my stuff out of my car?"
"She said she'd stop for the night if it got too bad."
"Sam will want to get to his Granny's and if I know Molly, she'll do her best for him especially if he's worried about his mum and I don't like her chances on those roads in her little car."
ooOOoo
Molly stopped at the Services on A303 at Amesbury, with Molly managing to park fairly close to the entrance, even though the run from car to the door left them both with damp hair.
Giving them a solid hour to stop and stretch, Molly got Sam his requested Burger King and tried to call the house phone at Widecombe without success but didn't worry about it particularly. The continuing rain was more of a concern, checking with the traffic screens at the services, the A303 was open with no delays, so she decided to bash on bolstered by Sam's happy chattering about how excited he was to see his Grandparents and pass on his present to his Granny.
She phoned her mum before she left to explain why she wouldn't be home tonight, then headed out back out onto the road.
They were the wrong side of Honiton, when Sam, who had been previously happily engrossed in some sort of driving game on her phone, said, "Oh."
"What's the matter, mate?"
"Phone batteries dead."
"That's no problem, have look in my bag for the charger cable."
Sam rifled around in her handbag for a couple of seconds. "Nope." He said, popping the 'p'. "Not in here"
"Is that a Sam, it is in there but I can't be bothered looking, is it I really not in there?"
Then she remembered. It had been in there and now wasn't, due to the fact she'd been staying the night in Lewisham and it was currently plugged into the socket in her old bedroom.
"No, it's definitely not in there."
"Damn, sorry, Sam, you're right I just remembered. Charging cables at home. Does your mum maybe have one in the car?"
"Mum has an android. It wouldn't fit."
"I guess we'll just need to wing it without GPS."
Sam rolled his eyes at her again. "Or you could use the car's GPS." He pushed some buttons on the stereo, and a map appeared. "See."
"Okay smart fart. Set it up then."
ooOOoo
Driving down the A303, Charles tried Molly's number again and got her voicemail, again. He hung up with a sigh and tried to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about, even if it was very unlike her to not answer her phone at some point through the course of the last couple of hours, he' been driving.
ooOOoo
An hour later, Molly turned off the winding country lane they'd been navigating on full beam onto the stone track was the last leg of their journey to the cottage. The rain hadn't let up, horizontal the whole way with wind behind it, and they had been dodging fallen branches and puddles the whole way down the high-hedged lanes.
It was pitch dark now, and felt even dark since they were in the middle of countryside and miles away from any form of artificial lighting except that provided by the car as they bumped and jostled down the lane following it's winding path up the side of the hill the house sat on. Over a brow of one hill and down into a dip, Molly could feel how tired she was as she strained to see the edges of the track through the lashing rain. Then she slammed on the brakes with a curse whispered under her breath.
Sam turned to face her, then stretch up in his seat, looking over the long bonnet of the car to the ford which bisected the track they were travelling on. Usually a shallow flow of water beside a wooden foot bridge, it was now a rushing torrent.
"Oh." He said. "I'd forgotten about that."
"Yeah, me too,"
Molly chewed on her lip considering her options. The house wasn't actually that far ahead. A couple of hundred metres further up the track, but would get soaked doing the walk. The water looked deep and would have been a definite no in her own small car, but Rebecca's higher standing 4x4 might be fine.
"I'm not sure what to do, Sammie. Take the car through or walk."
Sam looked at the water and back to Molly practically bouncing on his seat with excitement. "Gun it, Clarkson!"
"Hold you horses there, mini Stig. For one, who's been letting you watch Top Gear, because I know your mother's not going to be on board with that, and for two, we have no idea how deep that water is."
"Findlay showed me on YouTube."
"Right, might have guessed that one. This is a bleedin' expensive car if I break something. Maybe I should just reverse and we can find a hotel." Molly said, looking over her shoulder and trying to judge the difficulty of reverse turning the large 4x4 on the narrow lane.
Sam pointed to the house with a determined finger. "The lights are on in the house, which means Granny and Pop made it, and their car is w-a-y smaller and lower than this one. This has four-wheel drive; it's meant for stuff like this."
"You sound very confident for some with no driving license."
Sam rolled his eyes. "You know I'm right about Pop's car."
Molly considered his determined expression for a second. Looking towards the lights on at the house in the distance.
"You might have a point there. "She put the car into gear and the car rolled forward cautiously slowly into the water, shuddered gently at the tug of water against the tyres and shifting gravel underneath as it straightened, leaving the slight downward slope of the tarmac road to the level surface of the ford.
"Nothing's going to happen, you a worry too much!"
"Sure, but if something does happen. Then this was all your idea and you're telling you're telling your Mo–"
The car engine stuttered and stopped suddenly, leaving a ringing silence behind, except for the sound of rushing water. Sam turned to Molly with a you've gone and done it now expression on his face which, she suspected, might well matched her own.