"Inventing the Future"

"Chapter 21: Take Cover!"

Jaming kept a low profile while Max and Monica took care of whatever secret business they had in Veniccio, but he also kept tabs on their movements, and he found it worrying that they kept going in and out of Ocean's Roar Cave. Each time they came out, they seemed tired and a little worse for wear, but the next day they would head right back in again as if they were searching for something essential.

'How is it that the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of these two children?' It certainly went against everything that Jaming had thought he knew!

Also, they freely did what he had practically begged Meredith not to do, and he could see by the way that she sometimes looked at him when Max and Monica went back in that she wanted to know why. He hoped that she wouldn't ask him, and he was relieved when she didn't. It would have been a fair question, but his answer would have been complicated, and possibly a tad hypocritical.

On the fourth day, the sky darkened with thick storm clouds mere moments after Max and Monica entered the cave. The wind picked up, causing the younger palm trees to bend almost double and, in some cases, to fall over. The ocean, normally so calm and placid, turned angry. The tide quickly rose, almost level with the bottoms of the docks within half an hour of the storm's onset, and the breakers tore greedy chunks of sand from the beach and dragged them out to sea.

Jaming hurried for the shop boat to retrieve Meredith, but she met him half-way, leading her mother by the arm. The older woman seemed to be having some trouble, and Jaming realized that she must have twisted her ankle as the ships pitched and bobbed like floating corks.

Behind the two women, Cap was bellowing for everyone to get off the ships and hurry inland. "No, leave it all behind! That stuff's all replaceable! Lives aren't! Get a move on! Go!"

Jaming met Meredith's eyes long enough to glean from her expression that things had gotten very serious very quickly, and he hurried to walk at Sarah's other side to help her keep her balance. He called out to Cap, having to almost raise his voice to a roar to be heard over the ever-increasing winds. "What sort of storm is this, Captain?"

"Don't know, lad! A damn strange one, if ya ask me! I don't think these metal sheds you kooks are living in are gonna cut it, either! Who's bright idea was it to build a town right over the water, anyway? Right pack of idjits, that's who!" Cap then stuck his pipe between his teeth and continued to shout orders to the increasingly frightened townsfolk. "Get a move on! We go high and dry!"

"Right," Jaming muttered, "Scream at them. That will calm them down..."

Meredith sputtered as her hair was blown into her mouth, when she moved it out of the way she actually had a tiny welt forming on her cheek from where the end of a lock of hair had lashed it. This was some wind! "I'm not sure if getting under all those palm trees is a good idea, either. And I'm definitely not going near the tree houses!"

"Surely not!" Jaming agreed wholeheartedly. Then something occurred to him. "Meredith, take your mother to my garage and shut the door, but don't lock it. I need to tell the Captain something. Sarah, do you think you can make it that far? I can carry you, if you can't."

"We'll manage, young man."

He nodded, then doubled back to get Cap's attention. "Have them go to my garage!"

"What's that, now?" Cap put a hand behind his ear and squinted.

Jaming's throat felt the strain as he yelled even louder, "My garage! It will be a tight squeeze, but it's large enough to hold everyone, and I built it to withstand tropical storms! We should be safe there!"

Cap's face lit up and he clapped Jaming so roughly on the arm that he caused the younger man to wince. "All right, everyone, you heard the man!"

Jaming and Cap directed the frightened assortment of humans inland, and as soon as they saw shelter in the distance, the prospect of safety spurred them on.

All was not well, however. Jaming noticed that Max and Monica were nowhere to be seen, and he realized that they were still deep in the Ocean's Roar Cave. Deep enough, he hoped, to escape this foul weather, but there was something else. He had done a head count, assigning names to the faces that he recognized, and when the last group cleared the docks he realized that he had not seen hide nor hair of Pau.

The weather was getting worse; an icy rain had begun to pour from the clouds, drenching Jaming and causing the spikes of his hair to wilt. Logic told him that if he didn't run for shelter immediately, he probably wouldn't make it at all. Pau was most likely lost already; either that, or he had made it to the garage before anyone else.

But if this wasn't the case...

Meredith would never forgive him if he didn't at least try to find Pau. He would never forgive himself, either.

Jaming looked off in the direction of Pau's home, and the next minute he was off at a sprint. The water had risen considerably, and Pau's house, a little cave right on the beach, was being flooded at that very moment. The water level wasn't dangerous for an adult human, but Pau was neither adult nor human.

Until he was nearly through the cave's entrance, Jaming wasn't sure if Pau was even inside. As he half-waded, half-swam, he heard something that sounded like it had been going on for several minutes.

Coughing. Panting. "I can't swim! Is anybody there?"

"I'm here!" Jaming yelled back, unable to see anything in the darkness of the cave. The rising seawater must have put out Pau's campfire. "Keep yelling so that I can find you!"

"Jaming! I'm over here! I'm-" Pau broke off into a violent coughing fit as sea water gushed into his mouth, and a note of hope came into his voice as he heard Jaming's approach. "I'm holding onto the wall! Can't-"

There was another loud splash, and Pau's voice stopped in mid-sentence. It did not resume. "Pau! Keep yelling, you little-"

Something brushed past Jaming's leg, and he plunged an arm deep into the water to snag whatever the undertow was trying to pull out to sea. As he pulled the retching, spluttering Moon Person from the water, he realized that he had just barely managed to catch Pau by the ears!

"Owww! That hurts!" Pau sounded peevish now, but he didn't object as Jaming adjusted his grip and deposited the boy onto his back.

Looping the Moon Person's arms around his neck, Jaming quickly began to make his way out of the cave. The water was almost too high for him to keep his head above the surface without going on tip-toe, and soon it would be too high for him to stand at all. Then he would be completely at the mercy of the current, and he and Pau might still end up dead. "Sorry! Hold on, I've got you! I need both hands for swimming, so whatever you do, don't let go! Ggck! That does not mean 'choke me'!"

Pau loosened his grip the tiniest bit, and Jaming made his way out of the cave and up onto the beach. A wave crashed into his back, knocking him to his knees and causing Pau to renew his death grip on Jaming's neck, but a few moments later they reached the relative safety of the palm grove.

Jaming bellowed in surprise and pain as a large coconut bounced off his shoulder, and as he neared his garage he realized that it was sheer luck that it hadn't struck either him or Pau in the head.

Meredith opened the door before they even reached it. She had been keeping watch at the window, wondering with increasing distress why Jaming hadn't arrived with the last of them, and when she finally saw him pelting towards the garage with Pau clinging to his back she nearly broke down in tears of relief.

Jaming grunted as Meredith tackled him with a hug that knocked the breath out of him, and he felt Pau slide off of his back to stand on the solid garage floor. He half expected Pau to drop to his knees and kiss it; the boy's relief was that obvious.

Meredith kissed him fiercely, then held his face between her hands as she glared at him. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

Jaming, still out of breath, pressed his forehead against hers as Cap shut the door behind them and locked it. "I'm sorry. I noticed Pau was missing. He was trapped in his cave. Couldn't be helped, my dear."

Meredith knelt down to look Pau in the eye. "Are you okay, Pau?"

Pau nodded, clearly still very shaken, and wrung the water from his left ear. "I am now." The boy took in his surroundings, and seemed to realize for the first time that the place he was in was warm and safe. Pau blinked rapidly as if trying to stave off tears, and surprised Jaming by throwing his arms around the man's waist in a tight hug. "Th-thanks..."

Jaming awkwardly gave Pau a pat on the back, unused to being thanked very often, much less being hugged. "There are towels in that cabinet over there. Go dry off by the heater. Is everyone all right?"

There were a few scattered replies of 'yes', 'I'm fine', and 'we're okay', but there was also the whimpering of frightened children and low whispers. Jaming turned on the ceiling light, opened a control panel by the door, and keyed in a code so quickly that no one who might be watching would be able to see which buttons he pressed in which order. There was a rattle and a clang, and metal panels slowly lowered to cover the windows.

"What's he doing? He's shutting us in!" Someone near the back of the room pointed.

"Everyone will please remain calm," Jaming said evenly, holding up his hands for silence. "The accommodations are less than ideal, it's true, but you are not trapped in here. You may leave whenever you like, but I advise you to remain here until the storm blows over. The panels are merely to guard against broken windows. Now, is anyone hurt?"

"I have a scrape..." a little girl sniffled, holding up her hand to show that she had skinned her palm. "It hurts..."

"I'll bet it does..." Jaming said kindly, trying not to look as baffled by his response to the child's injury as he actually was. He hardly recognized his own voice! "But not to worry, we'll have you fixed up in a jiffy. Anyone who is injured, please form a line here, and we'll see what we can do. Meredith, would you help me?"

Gradually, the panicked atmosphere became more casual. No one was seriously hurt, and though Jaming's refrigerator was quickly cleaned out, everyone cooperated by rationing out the drinks so that no one was left thirsty.

Pau was soon very dry indeed, having removed his clothing so that he stood in his pelt by the heater, but as he so quickly pointed out, he never wore pants anyway and his fur was more than adequate coverage.

Jaming, on the other hand, balked severely at the suggestion that he disrobe in order to get dry and warm. "Absolutely not! I'd rather freeze!"

Cap, who was of a practical mind, actually agreed with the blasted rabbit! "You're shivering pretty bad, son. We can probably rig up some sort of screen for privacy, and-"

"No," Jaming hissed through gritted teeth, "I'd rather die from hypothermia! Leave me alone! I'll just sit by the heater, and I'll be fine."

"You could end up sick," Cap pointed out, but he got no further because Jaming slapped his palm on his work table with a deafening 'whack'. His voice, however, was a low hiss.

"I said no, and that's final! There are ladies and children present, and I absolutely refuse!"

"What's wrong?" Meredith asked from across the room as several curious eyes turned to look at the embarrassed inventor.

"Never you mind..." he muttered, turning away and getting himself a towel as he went to dry his hair by the heater.