Page 36 of Everybody Needs a Hero

“Yes, I sure am,” Tess answered, lowering her face closer to the mud as she felt her hair graze the concrete above her. “As luck would have it, I was the only one who would fit. Thank God I’m not claustrophobic.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” Linda said, the first hint of a tremble in her voice. “I’ll never be able to repay you.”

Trying to ignore how close the walls were getting around her, Tess forced a laugh. “Just make sure you keep coming to my movies.”

“How’s it going in there?” Tess heard Bryce yell into the hole.

As another piece of broken concrete dug into her side, Tess held back a grunt of pain. “Walk in the park,” Tess answered. “Reminds me of the time I was in that horror movie. Maybe you saw it, Linda?” She wanted to keep her talking as much for her morale as for the other woman’s.

“Oh my, God,” Linda replied. “Are you talking about the one where you’re trapped in a coffin? But that is so morbid right now.”

Tess had to agree, considering the circumstances. She hadn’t thought that through and hoped it wasn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy or something absurd.And I am not going to think about what might happen if there is another tremor or anything shifts,she thought,forcing herself to keep crawling. Finally, she reached her side of the narrow gap between her and Linda. In the bit of light coming from Bryce, Tess saw Linda’s face pressed up against the hole, watching her crawl closer. “I have a little something for you,” Tess said. “How about a drink of water?”

“You have no idea how good that sounds,” Linda said. “I never thought I’d be so excited to have a drink of water.”

Carefully, Tess pushed one bottle and then the other through the opening. “Do you have them?” she asked.

She heard Linda cough and then the snap of the water bottle top opening. “I have them,” she said, and then there was a gulp of the woman taking a drink.Mission accomplished, Tess thought, preparing to start her way back out. “Tess?”

“Yes?”

“Can you hold my hand for a minute?” Linda asked, and even though every second Tess spent in the hole made her heart race faster, she reached through the small gap and felt Linda’s fingers on hers. “I only wanted to touch someone. You know, just in case.”

“You’re going to be okay,” Tess reassured her. “My friend Bryce has a plan.”

“Does she?” Linda asked, and Tess nodded.

“It’s a jigsaw puzzle above you, but they can work together as a team, and one by one take the pieces off. You’ll be free in a matter of no time.”

Tess felt Linda squeeze her fingers and then let go. “Thank you, Tess,” she whispered. “Now get out of here.”

Not needing any more encouragement, Tess started to push back. “See you soon,” Tess said and then turned her head enough to yell into the gap. “Help me out.” She heard Bryce echo the words to the others a moment before gentle hands took hold of her ankles.

“Take it slow, guys,” Bryce said, and inch by inch, Tess moved backward through the mud until she was finally free of the opening. Once she was sitting and able to take a deep breath of the fresh air, she realized what she had done.Crawled under tons of rubble, she thought, amazed. Bryce knelt beside her, handing her a bottle of water. “That was incredible, Tess. You would make a great Marine.”

For Tess, that was the best compliment in the world.

28

“And then you ran into the storage building?” one of the boys on the bus asked. All the team listened with rapt attention, their eyes wide.

Ashley nodded. “That’s right. Bryce rammed the gates, and then we went inside,” she said. “Just in time. We were very lucky to be in there when the water went past.”

All of them were quiet for a moment. “So, your friend,” started a boy in the last row. “She lost her truck? Wow, that sucks.”

Ashley blinked, pausing for a second. She found it interesting that with all the things that happened in her story, although she didn’t get into all the details, the boy focused most on a lost truck. I guess that’s what boys think about when they’re turning twelve, she thought.At least I haven’t scared them. It all started when one boy had asked if she had heard about the tsunami, and she hadn’t thought twice about saying she was almost caught in it. As soon as Ashley said the words, she had second thoughts about giving the details, but they wouldn’t let it go. “Yes,” she answered. “Bryce lost her truck.”

“Your friend is a girl?” asked another boy sitting across the aisle from her.

Feeling proud to say the words, Ashley smiled. “Yes,” she replied. “She’s a girl, and she’s a Marine.”

“Whoa,” a few of the boys said. “Marines are cool.”

From her limited experience, Ashley had to agree. Bryce was cool in her book. “My dad was in the Army,” chimed in another boy in the seat behind her. “He served in Afghanistan.”

Ashley looked at him. “And is your dad still there?”

The boy shook his head. “No, he’s home, and mom’s really happy.”

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