CHAPTER ELEVEN
The ferries trafficked people across town in large packs. Families huddled together in one large pod, easily seen by the helicopters overhead. Francine, who was safe across town in her apartment, watched the story unfold with Katherine at her side. They were stunned at the sudden exodus going on in Elwood City. By the droves, people were being moved to the temporary shelter of George Washington High School. Newscasters and analysts agreed this would only go so far to help the city if everyone needed to be moved.
Muffy watched the same newscast. Unlike Francine, who looked out the window and only saw rain and puddles, Muffy saw the flooded creek, rising well past its banks to become a raging river. It was very close to a sign that Muffy knew was four hundred and thirty steps from her house, and she doubted that was far enough away. She was scared, but when she turned to her parents for comfort, she saw that they were scared too. Ed assured them that the first dam break wouldn't affect their particular creek, but he doubted that would be the only one. It was be the first of many, he said, but he refused to do the research. Bailey offered to help, but Ed wouldn't let him. It was as if he didn't want to know, as if not knowing would keep them safe.
On Fern's street, she felt the same way. She'd been focusing on a good book, but two days into the flood emergency, her book was done and none of the others seemed interesting. She turned her attention to the news in time for the next breaking story: The National Weather Service was predicting that another foot of rain would fall over the next twenty-four hours, only exacerbating the flood problem the northeast was already facing.
Fern felt real fear then. When she looked outside her window, she could see a ROAD CLOSED sign in the distance from a road with faulty storm drains that was no longer passable. She knew a few blocks away was the neighborhood her mother mentioned at dinner the night before, the neighborhood next to Ratburn's whose houses were now entirely covered in water. Doria said they weren't even in a flood plain, that those poor people couldn't even get flood insurance because they weren't but now they'd lost everything in the one thing the insurance company said couldn't happen, a flood. Fern could only imagine how much water that would take, how much water was in the sky falling down on them. She knew Brain would know, but she didn't want to bother him. He was probably worried sick, she thought, remembering how he looked that last day of class.
He looked worse now, something his parents confirmed. Brain couldn't stop repeating numbers and scribbling on napkins and rushing to the computer for sudden research. His mother wanted him to stop completely so he could eat and be less stressed, and finally her husband was ready to support her. Together they went upstairs to his room. They opened the door without knocking. Brain looked up, his bloodshot eyes twitching slightly as the light from the hallway flooded into his dim room.
"Your mother and I have decided that you need to stop. You need to eat, and you need to rest," Mr. Powers said firmly. His general-like tone washed over his son. It took him several moments to process his father's demand.
"B-But I can't stop. I have to know how much is falling. I have to know how much danger we're in," Brain said with a crazed tone.
"We'll keep you safe, Brain. Even if you tried to calculate the rain, you could never know for sure. That's data you gather after a storm, not during. You have to stop. You have to put everything away, eat, then sleep. You can sleep in our bed if you don't feel safe," Mrs. Powers said in the most motherly tone she could muster in her frazzled state.
Brain's eye twitched again. He looked from his calculations and back to his mother, "You're most correct. This is data for after the storm, when you can get data from other places to see how much is flowing here by proxy. You'll help me get the reports later?"
"Only if you stop what you're doing right now. It's not helping anyone," his father insisted. Brain nodded, putting down his pen and following his parents downstairs. He ate multiple servings of food and drank a glass and a half of milk. Then he took a shower in his parents' master bathroom while his mother listened from her room. When he was done, she helped him into bed, where he soon fell asleep.
His parents were nervous, but they refused to show it. One would keep watch over Brain while the other returned to the den to check on the news. The water was still rising, the evacuations were expanding, and there was no real end in sight.