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They were virtually in a river now Either the rain was falling harder in the hills, at the far east end of town, or some breakwater in the systeh on Sae poured fro their footing in those cataracts was getting irl, drew her close, and said, "I’ht to your arrave-deep, and even inches from her face, he could see only a shadowy impression of her features When he looked up at Tessa, who stood a few feet behind the girl, she was little ht not have been Tessa at all

Holding fast to the girl, he turned and looked again at the way ahead

The tunnel had extended for two blocks before pouring the flood forth into another one-block length of open drainage channel, just as Harry had reainst every ade system Thank God for disobedient children

One block ahead of them, this new section of stone watercourse fed into another concrete culvert That pipe, according to Harry, ter vertical drain at the west end of town Supposedly, in the last ten feet of theline, a row of sturdy, vertical iron bars was set twelve inches apart and extended floor to ceiling, creating a barrier through which only water and smaller objects could pass There was virtually no chance of being carried all the way into that two-hundred-foot drop

But Sam didn’t want to risk it Therewashed to the end and crashing against the safety barrier, if they were not suffering froet to their feet and ainst the onrushing force of the water, was not an ordeal he illing to contemplate, let alone endure

All of his life he had felt he’d failed people Though he had been only seven when his mother had died in the accident, he’d always been eaten by guilt related to her death, as if he ought to have been able to save her in spite of his tender age and in spite of having been pinned in the wreckage of the car with her Later, Sam had never been able to please his drunken, rievously for that failure Like Harry, he felt that he had failed the people of Vietnah the decision to abandon them had been made by authorities who far outranked him and hoents who had died with him had died because of him, yet he felt he had failed theh people told him he was mad to think that he had any responsibility for her cancer; it was just that he couldn’t help thinking that if he had loved her th and will to pull through God knew, he had failed his own son, Scott

Chrissie squeezed his hand

He returned the squeeze

She seeathered in Harry’s kitchen, they’d had a conversation about responsibility Now, suddenly, he realized that his sense of responsibility was so highly developed that it bordered on obsession, but he still agreed hat Harry had said: A man’s commitment to others, especially to friends and fained that one of the key insights of his life would co nearly waist-deep in e canal, on the run from enemies both human and inhuman, but that here he received it He realized that his problem was not the alacrity hich he shouldered responsibility or the unusual weight of it that he illing to carry No, hell no, his problem was that he had allowed his sense of responsibility to obstruct his ability to cope with failure All men failed from time to time, and often the fault lay not in the man himself but in the role of fate When he failed, he had to learn not only to go on but to enjoy going on Failure could not be allowed to bleed hi away from life was blasphemous, if you believed in God--and just plain stupid if you didn’t It was like saying, "Men fail, but I shouldn’t fail, because I’m more than just a els and God" He sahy he had lost Scott: because he had lost his own love of life, his sense of fun, and had ceased to be able to share anything ful with the boy--or to halt Scott’s own descent into nihilisun

At the , the list would have had more than four items It would have had hundreds Thousands

All of this understanding ca Chrissie’s hand, as if the flow of time had been stretched by some quirk of relativity He realized that if he failed to save the girl or Tessa, but got out of this mess himself, he would nevertheless have to rejoice at his own salvation and get on with life Although their situation was dark and their hope sli nightht Cove had profoundly shaken hi important truths into him, truths which were si years of torratefully in spite of their simplicity and his own previous thickheadedness Maybe the truth was always sio on now even if he failed in his responsibilities to others, even if he lost Chrissie and Tessa--but, shit, he wasn’t going to lose them Damned if he was

Damned if he was

He held Chrissie’s hand and cautiously edged along the stone channel, grateful for the comparative unevenness of that pavement and the h to give hi, which made it harder to put each foot down after he lifted it, so instead of walking, he dragged his feet along the bottos mortared into the masonry of the channel wall Tessairon, grateful for the solid feel of it and the anchor it provided

A couple of minutes later, when the rain abruptly slacked off, Sa careful not to step on Tessa’s and Chrissie’s hands, he cli

This section of open watercourse flanked Moonlight Cove Central School The athletic field was just a few feet fro beyond that open space, barely visible in the darkness and mist, was the school itself, illuminated only by a couple of dim security lah chain-link fence But Saates

7

Harry waited in the attic, hoping for the best, expecting the worst