Read Online The Cinderella Hour by Katherine Stone - Free Book Online

from
shoulders to wrists. Another volunteer drove Daniel and Wendy home, to the pumpkin
farm that should have been safe.
    But wasn’t. Recent manmade ground covers—a superstore parking
lot and the expansion of a two-lane road—redirected flow from swollen rivers.
    No one envisioned the floodwaters swooping where they did, or
that it could happen so swiftly.
    In moments, the Hart farmhouse became a flimsy island in a
raging sea. A rising sea. Daniel summoned help via cell phone and then broke
the plaster at his elbows, enabling the casted joints to move. He needed to
prepare for their journey—Wendy’s journey—and get her to the rooftop.
    Daniel saved Wendy. Daniel, not Luke.
    Yes, Luke insisted on being lowered from the helicopter. To
hell with the wind. But it was Daniel who stood on the speck of roof and lifted
Wendy up to him.
    When Luke had her firmly in his grasp, he extended his other
arm to Daniel. Luke was strong enough to hold onto Daniel. But Daniel had to
return the grip. It was the only chance they had. There wasn’t time to get
Wendy into the chopper and lower Luke again to rescue Daniel.
    The only chance. Unless Luke traded places with Daniel.
    Luke was a strong swimmer. And he was familiar with being
held under water to the point of near-drowning. That had been a favorite
torture of Jared’s, inflicted numerous times before Luke’s fourth birthday . .
. and remembered with brilliant clarity ever since.
    Luke knew how to surrender without fighting, to conserve
every molecule of oxygen. He could survive the raging river, at its surface or
below, longer than Daniel could. And thanks to another of Jared’s torments,
Luke could also endure the cold.
    Jared had delighted in forcing Luke to swim to exhaustion and
beyond. And beyond. Jared didn’t care that his son’s body shivered and his lips
turned blue. Or that Luke pleaded to be allowed to stop. Jared would promise an
end. Two more laps, he would say. Then, when Luke had accomplished that
impossible feat, he would laugh and say two more.
    If anyone could outlast the floodwaters, it was Luke. Above
the roaring helicopter and howling wind, Luke shouted the suggestion to Daniel,
who, with a shake of his head, declined.
    Perhaps Daniel sensed that even in their casts his freshly
broken bones would not permit the midair acrobatics necessary for such a
switch—and that, in the process, he might drop his little girl. Or maybe he
would have declined in any event. Why should Luke perish for him?
    Daniel’s wishes were clear. Save my Wendy.
    Daniel saw his wish come true, watched his daughter ascend to
safety as he awaited his fate.
    Luke tucked Wendy’s face against his chest. Her memories
would be horrifying enough without witnessing her father’s death. But Luke saw
the moment. Daniel’s solemn nod of gratitude—and of acceptance—as he lost his
footing and was swept away.
    “Luke? You there?”
    “Right here. How is she?”
    “Cold. In shock. But getting better, the doctors say. Warmer.
She’s going to be okay, Luke. And so is the kitten.”
    “What kitten?”
    “The one zipped inside her knapsack. There were holes poked
in the pocket. Daniel must have done that so it could breathe.”
    Daniel had touched Wendy as long as he could, shoulders,
waist, knees, toes. Only when she was out of reach had he shouted his final
words to Luke.
    Be careful of the knapsack , he had yelled. There’s a letter inside, who to
call, who will take care of —the rest had been carried away by the wind.
    “There was a letter in the knapsack,” Luke said.
    “They found that, too. It’s addressed to Wendy’s legal
guardian, a doctor in Chicago. No one’s opened the envelope, but they’re
working on finding him.”
    “She doesn’t have family in the area?”
    “No family anywhere.”
    Luke hoped like hell the Chicago physician wanted nothing
more in life than to be a father to the orphaned girl. It made him hurt in ways
he hadn’t hurt for a very long time