WORTHY, Part 1 Read Online Free Page B

didn’t think I could simply wade across. The current looked far too strong.
    “Hello?” I called, cupping my hands around my mouth. “Hello?”
    I tilted my head again, cupping my hands to my ear this time to help capture any other sound, but there was nothing.
    Maybe I’d only been imagining things, a small voice inside of me suggested. But it was the same voice that was urging me away from the dangerous creek, begging me to turn back and spend the rest of the afternoon baking or cleaning the house or doing anything else than this risky business.
    I hated that voice, the one that didn’t want me to have adventures.
    I darted upstream, estimating myself to be at a place in the creek that was normally shallow and studded with rocks. Today, after the sudden downpour of rain, it was a mess of whitewater. Could I withstand it?
    Picking up a fallen branch, I pushed it into the water’s flow, holding it tightly. There. The water was perhaps a foot and a half deep. I could surely do that, couldn’t I?
    Using the branch to feel out my next steps and help steady myself, I forged out into the flood. I moved as fast as I could without getting out of control, the water gushing over the edges of my boots and soaking my feet inside. It was unpleasant and weighed my steps down, but I had to keep moving. I could do this.
    When I scrambled up the muddy bank on the other side of the creek, I felt a breathless exhilaration. I never took risks like that. I was a cautious and careful planner, and my foray into the unknown—and the danger—surprised me.
    “Hello!” I called again, starting to move back down the creek bank toward the voice I’d heard earlier. “Hello! I’m coming for you. Hello!”
    I bit my lip. Maybe that was a weird thing to say to someone in trouble. “I’m coming for you” reminded me of some hokey horror movie.
    “I’m coming to help you!” I amended. “Hello?”
    Then, I saw something on the ground. The closer I got, the more I realized that it was a someone, not a something. Hurrying despite the treacherous ground underfoot, I fell to my knees beside a man with a badly bleeding head wound.
    “Can you hear me?” I asked, shaking his shoulder and putting my hand up against his neck. His pulse thumped beneath my palm, making me sigh with relief, but he didn’t react. I really didn’t like the look of that gash on his head, just at his hairline.
    I only hesitated a minute more before dragging him upright and pushing up with my legs, effectively hoisting him onto my back. He was too close to the creek, and who knew how much farther it would rise before the storm passed? Besides, he obviously needed medical attention.
    “You’re going to be all right,” I said. I couldn’t tell if the assurance was more for me or for the man draped over my shoulders. He was heavy, but I was strong. I could do this. I had to do this. There wasn’t another option. This man needed my help, and there wasn’t anything I could do but offer it.
    Walking back to the shallows I’d forded to get across the creek in the first place, my knees shook. I wouldn’t be able to use a branch to help me across this time. I needed both my hands to hold the man in place. I didn’t want to even consider the consequences of failing—of failing yet another person in my life. Failure wasn’t even an option.
    “Hold on,” I said, and stepped into the water. I gave my complete focus to making sure that each of my steps was steady and secure before shuffling my other foot along to follow the first. Gradually, I made my way across the roiling water and to the opposite shore.
    From there, it was just a test of endurance. I had spent the last five years basically doing hard manual labor. I’d hauled lumber to the roof of the cottage, tilled the soil in the garden with nothing but a hoe and a spade, and lifted all manner of bags of feed and other heavy things. All I had to concentrate on doing was putting one foot in front of the other.
    I