Page 79 of Vows in Sin

I’m ending a squabble over the only fluorescent pink chalk stick when I first hear the sound. Splashes. My thought immediately goes to Eloise’s request, and I pop right up, scanning the lake behind me.

Quiet ripples smooth over the water.

More splashing. Then, the cry. My world shrinks to one thought. “The pool!”

We’re at the patio outside the front door of the pool house. I take off, through the door, calling as I dash through the pool house. “I heard someone in the water!”

She’s there, halfway between the shallow and deep ends, splashing as she struggles through the water. Eloise. Mr. Bear is discarded on the pavement beside the pool.

I jump right in, and I reach out for her, pulling her to my chest. My head goes light, stars behind my lids. I feel faint, but I haveto keep going until she’s out of the water. “Eloise! Eloise! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She holds tough, but her bottom lip trembles. “I know how to swim.”

Clutching the little girl, I trudge through the water, getting her to safety.

Ophelia is suddenly right there at the edge of the pool. “Eloise! Thank goodness.” She bends over the edge of the pool, arms reaching out for the little girl.

I hand her up, helping Eloise onto the concrete with Ophelia’s help. Ophelia stands, taking Eloise into her arms. “She slipped away from the group,” Ophelia gasps, holding Eloise tight to her chest. “She mentioned the lake, so I looked there first. This was my next check.”

“We got her,” I reassure Ophelia. “We have her.” Standing in the water at the edge of the pool, I lay my cheek against the coolness of the concrete. “We got her.”

I’m taken back to another time, another life, another little girl.

I can do it myself! Sissy kicks my thigh, hard, attempting to get away from me, her eyes glued to that blue and white line of buoys separating the deep end from the shallow one.

But I don’t let her cross that line.

And I never take my eyes off her.

Later, after she’s had the snack I packed us, and the lifeguard break is over, she hops up from her chair. “Ready!”

“Forgetting something?” I smile, holding up a pink water wing.

“Don’t need it,” she says.

“Butterflies need their wings.”

The other kids are hopping over the side, diving into the cool water. “K,” she finally relents.

After dipping the plastic in the pool to make them slippery I pull the water wings on over her dry skin, securing them on her upper arms.

“All set!”

I take her hand, leading her to the stairs.

And I never, ever take my eyes off her.

Arm, pulling me. Ground under me. White lights above me.

Voices swarm like colors, red, yellow, orange, creating swirls behind my eyes that move further away till it’s all white again.

“I’ll go get Tabitha,” Ophelia says. “She’s a medic.”

“No.” A woman in love, too, Cleopatra shakes her head, knowing what I need. “She’ll want Reign. Get him. Now.

The voices are quiet, the bright light welcoming me home.

Finally.