Excerpt
From CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Disappearance The next day the headwind hit us early and Dad and I had to sit facing each other, doubled up on the oars--him pulling, me pushing. My mind kept replaying images from yesterday--Cassidy hoisting the log, my dad sprawled in the sand, Lisa hiding behind a tree--and I wanted to say something, but we were straining so hard at the oars that we couldn't speak. Even doubled up, we moved turtle-slow in that wind, and by lunchtime the other two rafts were far out of sight ahead of us. By the time we got to the pull-out, the others had already eaten lunch and were ready to head out again. "Change of plans!" Cassidy said, hopping onto the bow of our raft. "Dude," he said to me, "join Roger. I'm rowing this rig. Your dad's holding up the show, big time." This struck me as a dangerous mix--like fire and gunpowder--but Dad just pulled his hat down tight and said grimly, "Okey-dokey, Aaron, go on and help Roger out, okay, kiddo?" I looked at him, my eyes pleading, Are you nuts? He just nodded. I snatched my gear and jumped ashore. Willie handed me a sandwich wrapped in foil and tossed one to Dad. I untied Roger's raft and helped push it out, then Lisa and I hopped in together. I was going to help Roger row but Lisa got there before me. Roger tossed me a bag of gorp (my favorite mix of nuts and chocolate) and said, "Your dad and Cassidy have some issues to work out, mate." I guess Roger still didn't see Cassidy as a dangerous problem for all of us--at least, he wasn't showing it if he did. Willie looked at Cassidy and my dad, shook his head, then untied the kitchen raft, gave it a shove, and hopped in. He was going solo. The wind got worse and worse. It roared down the canyon like a locomotive. It got so strong it actually started to push the river back upstream, blowing us backwards with each gust. The wind created waves that were five feet high and some gusts lifted the front of our raft clear into the air. "Gusts like this can flip a boat like a pancake," Roger yelled. I had to sit in the bow just to hold it down, hanging on for dear life. Roger and Lisa rowed. I offered to spell her but she just shook her head and kept rowing, harder than ever. The last I saw of Dad's boat, Cassidy was alone at the oars, his muscles bulging, his cap turned backwards. Guess he wouldn't let Dad help him. Even without doubling up at the oars, he'd pulled about fifty yards ahead of the rest of us. Pretty soon they were out of sight around the next bend. I was drenched from the spray and freezing cold when Lisa finally let me spell her at the oars, opposite Roger. I rowed with all I had, and in no time I was dog-tired, too. But I wasn't about to show it. I rowed stroke for stroke with Roger, but between strokes we slipped backwards in the wind. Finally Roger signaled Willie to eddy out. Thank God, I said to myself. We could rest where the current turned back on itself and died along the shore. "Gotta hold up till the wind drops!" Roger yelled. The wind tore his words away. Sand crusted his lips. He looked as wild and grizzled as a pirate. We lashed our boats together and hunkered down in the eddy next to shore. Our rafts sloshed around and bumped with each gust of wind. For an hour, maybe two, we stayed huddled like that, shivering with the cold. My right arm and knee were pressed against Lisa's, though, and that at least kept my heart warm. Any attempt at talking and the words were ripped from our mouths. I thought of whispering something cool in Lisa's ears, but I couldn't think of anything. Suddenly the wind scurried something upriver toward us. It skimmed the surface, dancing across waves, and flipped over next to our raft. "Dad's hat!" I yelled, fishing it out. The crown of his straw hat was crushed and stained a dark maroon. The feather was missing. "Blood," Roger said, taking the hat from my hand and staring at it. My mind froze. My heart thundered. Roger stuffed Dad's hat beneath a strap, and said, "Let's move it! Go go go go!" Ropes flew and everybody scrambled to their places. I helped Roger row and Lisa held down the bow. We battled the wind but the current was faster now so we made better time. Plus adrenalin surged through me, flushing fatigue from my veins and sending shots of pure energy to my heart. We rowed and rowed, carving the water, curving through canyons of red sand. Still no sign of Dad's boat. Nothing. Panic gnawed at me like a rat. Then we rounded a bend and there it was. Their raft! It was upside down, half out of the water on the sandy beach. Dad and Cassidy were gone. My heart hung suspended in a high dive off a steep cliff. My eyes, like caged animals, searched the shore. "Dad! Dad!" I screamed, my words torn away in the wind.