He saw her hanging onto a tree, her body buffeted like a rag doll by the intense wind and pelting rain.
"Can I get to her?" he muttered to himself. "She's going to let go and be swept under by the water at any moment."
He drove his Ram to the highest spot he could find, and stopped, without turning off the engine. The water still covered the wheels. He picked up the binoculars he had in the glove compartment and focused them on her. She saw his vehicle. The look of total despair on her face suddenly reflected a glimmer of hope.
"I have to try," he told God. "Best to get as close to her with the truck as I can. I hope this Dodge can swim. Help me, Lord."
The hurricane had already hit the Florida Keys with thirty-foot waves, causing extensive flooding, destroying homes, flipping cars, uprooting trees, and cutting power. And now he knew it was moving directly toward them.
Surprising to him, he was able to drive right up to her. But the water pressure prevented him from opening the passenger side of the truck, or his door. He rolled down the passenger side window and screamed at her. She couldn't hear, and continued to hold onto the tree for dear life.
He unfastened his seat belt and moved over to the passenger side, extended his arms through the window and yelled as loud as he could, "Take my hands, I'll pull you through the window!"
She let go of the tree and reached for him, but lost her footing and began to slide under the water. But he grasped her by her long red hair just as she almost totally submerged. Slowly, he pulled the gasping young woman up and they locked hands, and he struggled to pull her through the window. He did, all but her feet.
His head hung out the driver's side window as she lay on top of him, with her feet still out the other window. She clung to him fiercely, her body trembling spasmodically. Not knowing what else to do, he petted her hair like he did to his beloved dog.
She sobbed, and it seemed as if her entire body made gurgling noises.
Her blouse had been torn partially open. No bra. He wondered if she could feel his building erection. Finally he spoke. "Good thing you're skinny, miss, or I never would have been able to pull you through the window." Yes, a little skinny, but very pretty, he concluded, despite her disheveled appearance. He gazed into her bright blue misty eyes, and wiped some sort of sea slime from her sparsely-freckled cheek.
"I thought I was going to die," she moaned sorrowfully. "You saved my life!"
"We are not out of danger. The worst of the storm is yet to come."
"Maybe, but I feel a whole lot safer with you than I did a few minutes ago."
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Honey."
"You're not serious, are you?"
She laughed lightly, color beginning to come back to her face. "No, but you called me honey when you petted me like a dog."
Now he laughed. "Well, whatever your name is, you are getting very heavy lying on me like this. And your waterlogged clothes are not helping matters much."
"Sarah, my name is Sarah." She struggled to get her feet in the window, and as she did, another button on her shirt ripped loose. "Sorry. Am I hurting you, squirming like this?"
"Your knee is in my crotch, Sarah. Other than that I'm fine," he managed to say in as much of a monotone voice as he could, trying to look away from her breasts, most of which he could see. Just the size he liked. The kind that stare you in the face, daring to be sucked. "Got milk?" he wanted to ask at that moment. And more than just ask. He fantasized about finding out for himself. His wife hadn't let him see her breasts, or anything else, for quite some time.
Finally Sarah got herself in a sitting position in the passenger seat. "What's your name?"
"James R.—"
"I'll call you Jim," she interrupted. "You look like a Jim. I'll bet you're a famous writer." She smiled, glancing at the desktop computer, discs, and manuscripts sitting on the backseat of the cab. "You look like a famous writer."
"Whatever you say, Sarah. I'm glad to see you are recovering rapidly. What in the world were you doing out here?"
"I'm a student at a Christian college outside of Philadelphia. Taking some summer classes. I was attempting to make it down the coast to my parents' home in Florida. They are elderly but refuse to evacuate. I wanted to be with them. I'm adopted, and they are the only mother and father I've ever known."
"You shouldn't have taken this highway," he chastised. "Too close to the ocean. Didn't you notice there were no other cars on the road?"
"Yes, Jim, I did notice there was nobody on the road but me. My car stalled out in the water. I started to walk. It got worse." She began to cry.
"It's okay, honey," he consoled, putting his arm around her, trying to avoid obviously staring at her breasts that continued to peek inviting out of the open blouse.
"What are we going to do now?" she asked softly.
She looked so innocent and vulnerable. "Find someplace to ride the storm out. I have a cottage about a mile back. On a little hill. The water hasn't reached it yet, at least not as of a half hour ago. I went up to get my computer equipment and manuscripts. Didn't want to take the chance of the stuff being damaged. On the weekends I often come up here to work on my novel. I wish I would have brought some plywood to board the windows, and sandbags to bolster the foundation. Oh, well."
Sarah put her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes, and prayed in barely a whisper.
It took an hour to get to the cottage. He drove slower and slower as the water level got higher and higher.
"Here it is," he murmured as he drove up the dirt trail to the cottage. The water had almost reached the front steps.
"We'll be safe here until the storm subsides?" she asked hopefully.
"Perhaps. But we can't go anywhere else now. The surge hasn't hit here yet. A couple hours, I would suspect, judging by the weather reports I heard on the radio."
"What will the surge be like?"
"Somewhere around seven to ten feet of storm surge, and waves of another twelve feet or so will ride atop the surge."
"Oh my God! We're going to die!"
"Let's just go inside." He took the computer equipment and manuscripts from the back of the truck, to put them back inside. "It'll be safer in the cottage, and so will we. This could be the last I see of my new Dodge Ram."
The outside of the old stone cottage reminded Sarah of a church she once attended, but smaller, of course. The inside impressed her even more. Sleeping loft, red brick floors, cast-iron stove, a little refrigerator.
"I like this place," she offered approvingly.
