Page 1 of Born a Hero

Chapter One

Bryce Kelly had a hangover that would put a dog down, and he didn’t need this… this nonsense happening today. Yet Mother Nature didn’t give a hot damn about his needs. She was mad and her tantrums were gonna let the whole world know.

The rain had been incessant. The constant drumming on the roof and the flashes of lightning through the windows had begun to create havoc around the bar. Worried about the safety of his family, Sponge, the owner, had his fill of the lazy drunks and slackers hanging around and wanted to get the place closed up.

“Hey, Bryce, can you give me a hand clearing the joint out. That weather isn’t playing around. I want to get home to the wife and kids.”

“Sure, Sponge, but it’ll cost ya.”

Grinning, the older man agreed. “Right. The next beer’s on me but not today. It’s getting dark early, and the crazy storm has begun to worry me. I doubt there’ll be anyone out in this mess tonight. The Governor has been going on about the levee holding and warning everyone to be prepared in case it doesn’t. I’m closing down. Just give me a hand to get these losers out and help me pack away the liquor. I’m not sure it’s safe being up on the shelves.”

In a short time, Bryce had guided the last of the customers on their way through the river of water crawling higher on the stoop and had helped his old friend make his place safe. When the two of them headed in different directions, Bryce started walking through the huge puddles to his car and turned the corner in time before all hell broke loose.

The levee must have let go because a wall of water came at him, and he could see the danger. Just ahead an older woman struggled in the rushing stream, gripping her plastic shopping bag as if it held the importance of the crown jewels. She fell to her knees and her empty arm reached out for a bush that gave way under the pressure.

Without thinking, he struggled through the knee-high and rising water to help her stand. He used his arms to get her upright and took her bags to get her hands free.

“Oh, God. Thank you. My house is just there.” Screaming now, she pointed at a two-story place close to the now empty street that normally held a lot of traffic.

Bryce nodded and with his arm guiding around her back he urged her toward the building. When her footing gave way, he lifted her against his side, hefting her as best he could while struggling to get them both to the door.

Once there, he took her key and using his strength against the water, he got them through the door and even shut it behind them. The water was quickly rising and not a moment too soon, he forced them both up the stairs to the second level.

Once there, they both collapsed on the floor, trying to catch their breath.

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d have done without your help. I must have twisted my ankle in the first fall. I doubt I could have gotten this far alone.”

“Jesus, lady. Have you ever seen anything like this rain? I can’t believe we were in so much danger, and that it all happened so fast.” He watched as the rather spry woman who must be in her seventies rushed around, her limp obvious but ignored, gathering towels from a closet, and coming at him with a worried look on her face.

“My name is actually Sonja Bacevich not Jesus Lady.” She grinned at her pun and added, “Are you alright? You look like you’re hurting.”

Her Ukrainian accent delighted him. She sounded like his grandmother, the one he’d always loved more than any of his other relatives. Needing to take a moment, and not having a lot of strength left, he waved off her worry.

“I’ll be fine. Just need to catch my breath.” Bryce had gone to a wall and slid down to crouch while he let his body stop screaming at him for using the strength he didn’t have yet. When he saw Sonja hovering worriedly, he added, “I was in a hiking accident recently and my innards are still mad at me for cracking a few ribs. I’ll be fine as soon as I relax for a minute.”

Sonja pushed a chair over to him and helped him sit. “Haven’t you been watching the news? They said there’d be a storm and the rainfall would break records. I didn’t have many groceries left, so I went to the store, hoping I’d be back in time before the worst of the weather. But I twisted my ankle stepping off the curb. Thank God you came along when you did. Me and my bags of cookies might have drowned.”

Bryce, thinking she was being slightly dramatic, smiled at her joking and stood to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going, young man? Have you looked outside?”

While she spoke the words, she pointed at the window she now leaned against and without thinking, Bryce followed her instructions and did just that. What he saw had his pulses clamoring and his head clearing from the few beers he’d consumed earlier. As if a fog lifted in his brain, he unmistakably watched trees drift past and parts of houses disappear under the sudden lake of rushing, dirty brown waves.

Oh, my Godand more words to that effect rang in his head. Suddenly, he noticed a car drifting past. Like a sailboat to nowhere, the water carried it along. And through a broken back-seat window, he saw the face of a terrified child.

Chapter Two

Without hesitating, Bryce pushed the lock on the panel upwards, forced the window to slide as far as it could, and sent the screen flying. Thankful for it being wide enough for him to crawl out, he heard Sonja’s high-pitched voice.

“What in God’s name are you doing?”

“I have to get to that kid. He’s in danger.”

“Yes, but are you strong enough? We better get you a rope or something so you can get him back here.” She ran to the bedroom closet and came back with a package that had an old dog’s outside leash in it. “I lost my dog, Randy, last month, and I put this away. Used it to let him run around the yard. It’s a couple hundred feet. Take it and tie it to the sill.”

Seeing the intelligence of her suggestion and using the base of a nearby lamp, he busted through the pane of glass and tied the end of the narrow cable around the check rail. The other end he clipped to his belt.

Then he removed his jacket and leapt into the water, flinching at the sudden coldness against his skin. Jeans now soaked to his waist, his drenched shoes offering little support, he could barely walk through the flowing water. In places the terrible coldness came to his chest.

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