31/365 Flood Girl

“Baby, we gotta go!”I hug her. I grab the bucket by the handle and we run out to the truck laughing.

30/365 Flood Girl

“She gave me this. Then she disappeared all melty.”

Madison drops the emerald on top of the bucket of pearls.

29/365 Flood Girl

“Madison, where did she go?” I focus on her face. "Where did the girl go, baby?"

28/365 Flood Girl

She holds out her hand. She's holding an emerald.

27/365 Flood Girl

Then Madison comes running in.

“Told you, Mama, she's gone. But look.”

26/365 Flood Girl

“Jenny, we gotta go!” I hear Brad's voice calling from the front door. “It's a full six inches on the highway.” But I can't stop scooping pearls into the bucket.

25/365 Flood Girl

I reach my hand into them, like I'm going to find her. I pull the bucket out from under the sink, start stuffing pearls into it without thinking about any of it.

24/365 Flood Girl

All empty. Except the bottom of the shower, in the slime and hair, no girl, but where she'd been is a mound of pearls.

23/365 flood girl

“She's gone away, floated down and away,” Madison says, almost singing the words.

I ignore her and head back in to the trailer. “Hey,” I open the bathroom door.

22/365 Flood Girl

I turn to Mom. “What about that girl in my shower? Did Don find someone to come for her? Or?”

“I think so, the National Guard?” Mom is gazing out at the shimmery water, only half listening to me. It's too much.

21/365 Flood Girl

Mom nods. Time to give in. We pack up the trucks in a rush. I lift Madison into the passenger seat, feeling the first tugs of what might be labor. No. Not yet.

20/365 Flood Girl

“We gotta get out of here,” I say to Mom. “There's Brad now,” I point as the truck splashes through the rising water.

19/365 Flood Girl

We follow Don out onto the front porch and he tries to get cell signal. I listen to his end of the call, so tired, just wanting to lie down. I watch as the water crosses Route 7, lapping onto the asphalt.

18/365 Flood Girl

“No, just tramp,” Don shakes his head. “I'll see if I can get the Guard to pick her up, take her someplace.”

17/365 Flood Girl

Madison pushes past me and goes right over. “Mermaid,” she whispers, petting the girl's hair while I watch, horrified.

16/365 Flood Girl

“I found her in the floodwater,” Don explains. “She was bobbing up and down, drowning, but the water weren't deep. I jumped outta the boat, I mean, she was drowning, but it was only about neck-deep. Wasn't nothing to her, but it took something to get her in the boat, she was slippery.”

15/365 Flood Girl

“What the hell is going on?” I finally ask.

14/365 Flood Girl

Dave sets the girl down on the floor of the shower. Her body crumples in a pile, but she looks up at us like she wants something, like Madison on Christmas. She opens and closes her mouth, gasping, and then Dave turns the water on.

13/365 Flood Girl

"They're like a goat's eyes,” Mom is backing away. “That's, she's not human. Don!”

“She's just waterlogged, Lila, she's fine.”

12/365 Flood Girl

“Oh God, look at her eyes!”

I run in. The girl's covered in green slime, her bony body all angles, and Mom's right. Her eyes are a light green, and they're wrong.

11/365 Flood Girl

The whole trailer stinks like dirty water. The girl's long hair is greenish-yellow. They rush into my bathroom.

“Gah, her skin, it's so slimy,” Dave says. Then Mom screams.

10/365 Flood girl

“We have to get her to a hospital!” Mom shrieks.

“How, by helicopter? Get her into the bathroom.”

9/365 Flood Girl

A naked girl. I drop the string cheese and pull Madison close. The girl's not moving, her body all limp in Don's arms.

8/365 Flood Girl

The screen door opens and there's Mom and Dave, Don, and a naked girl.

7/365 FLood Girl

Then Mom's out in the water too, and Uncle Dave. I almost open the door, but no. “Mo-om,” Madison whines at me. She's hungry. I need to pack up her toys and stuff. I open the fridge and pull out a string cheese for her. Baby's kicking. I take out another for me.

6/365 Flood Girl

Don from across town is wading in that nasty water, pulling a boat. Brilliant.

5/365

“Hey! Oh!” comes the shouts. I stand inside the trailer, too pregnant to be filling sandbags. Madison clings to my leg as I look out the screen door.

4/365 Flood Girl

We need to admit it's over, pack up the trucks and head down the road to higher ground.

3/365 Flood Girl

I watch Mom stand out there with her brother Dave, staring out across Route 7 into the water, across "Lake Olive Branch". That's what Brad called it this morning while we split the rest of the coffee.

2/365 Flood Girl

All there's left to do now is wait for the water to destroy it all.

1/365 Flood Girl

The river topped the levee yesterday.