Rushing Waters by Danielle Steel Page A

toward them. They had seen Peter hanging on, and they sped toward him. The dog was frantic as Peter refused to let go of his collar to keep him from being swept away. The boat was next to him seconds later, and two Emergency Services officers grabbed Peter and the dog and dragged them into the boat. Peter was breathless and nearly unconscious as they wrapped him in a blanket and laid him on the floor, and the dog whined as he lay beside him. Peter waved a hand at them before they could move on.
    “No…my friend…he’s in the water…we were together, he was with the dog…” They looked around the swirling waters, but saw nothing. They headed backward for a short distance, but there was no sign of anyone in the water, and without saying anything to Peter, they moved on, as he slipped into unconsciousness. He had swallowed a lot of water and threw up when he came to again. They brought him to a makeshift dock they had erected for emergency boats, and had ferried the people they rescued to it all night. They signaled for an ambulance for Peter, and as they put him on a gurney and slid him in, he waved wildly at them for the dog. The two men who had rescued him glanced at each other, and one of them nodded and helped the big, exhausted Lab climb into the ambulance, and he lay down on the floor. His leash was still attached to his collar, but there was no sign of Ben anywhere. Peter laid his head down on the gurney and was crying when they got to the hospital. He tried to explain to the paramedics what had happened, and that Ben was still in the water back there somewhere where they had found him.
    “Maybe he got ahead of you, son, and you didn’t notice. The water was moving pretty fast. We’ll tell the boys in the boats to go back and take another look. Just take it easy now.”
    “It’s his dog,” Peter said, crying like a child, feeling as though he had stolen Mike instead of rescued him. The Lab barely managed to crawl out of the ambulance and followed the gurney into the hospital. But no one stopped him as he dragged his leash behind him and followed Peter. The nurses in the ER had seen stranger things that night, as the paramedics rolled Peter down the hall, and left him there crying, when they went to fill out the admission forms. Mike lay down next to the gurney with a mournful look, and a little while later, the nurses came to check on Peter. He had his face turned to the wall and he was still crying, as he thought about Ben, and worried about him. All he could hope was that someone had picked him up by then.
    “Is this your dog?” the nurse asked gently. They both looked as though they had nearly drowned, which was the truth.
    “He belongs to my friend,” Peter said, turning to look at her. “They went back to find him.”
    They had heard a hundred stories like it as the rescue teams brought people in. And not all the stories had happy endings. Many of them didn’t. The death toll so far had been higher than they feared. “What’s the dog’s name?” she asked to distract him as she took his vital signs, and saw the cut on his arm, as Peter continued to cry. She asked Peter his name, how old he was, his address, and if there was someone he wanted them to call. He gave them Anna’s number because he didn’t want to frighten his parents if the hospital called them directly, and the nurse jotted down the number. “The doctor will take a look at you in a minute,” she reassured him, and Mike watched her go, as Peter leaned down and patted him. All Peter could think about was Ben and what might have happened to him after he jumped into the water. The current had been a lot stronger than he had expected, and he hadn’t even noticed he had a gash on one arm from when he’d been hanging onto the lamppost. The nurse had made note of it on his chart and was telling Juliette about him as she handed it to her.
    “The paramedics said he nearly drowned. I think he may need stitches in the arm. He came in