I’m running out of breath now and I start to climb into the water, and the water is roaring and this rain washes out all the roads sometimes and it’s too strong and I almost lose my balance like Jacob done but I get out and I start running along the bank downriver. The low cottonwood branches are sliding across my face and cutting me up but I pay them no mind and I run down the river and I look for Jacob but I ain’t see him, and I call out for him but he don’t call out for me back and I run for what seemed like forever and I fall down over a log and land on my knees in the mud.

I roll over and lay down and cry and look to the river and there he is. Caught on a log in the river and his clothes are wet and his hair is flowing in the water like seaweed and I stumble to him, splashing along the bank of the river. I reach him and I call out but Jacob ain’t calling back and he’s so heavy, and his head is under the water, and I can only reach his leg and I pull as hard as I know how to, and he comes free and I pull him in and his head is still under water and I grab his arm now and wrench him from that water and onto the muddy weed choked bank. His head isn’t under the water no more and Jacob should talk now, but he ain’t, and Jacob should tell me it was a joke now and we can both laugh, but he ain’t.

I shake him and he ain’t come to and I put my hand on his chest but I can't feel nothing going on in there and I gently slap his face but he don’t move, and I slap his face harder and I don’t know what to do. Not at all. I sit for long and long next to Jacob and the rain falls around me and it’s getting darker and darker and Daddy and Momma are going to be worried if we ain’t at the house if they come back early, and Jacob is so heavy and I ain’t able to take him with me. I ain’t able to move him home. I yank hard on his arms and he slides through the mud a little, but his pant leg gets caught on a root and my arms is shaking, and they ain’t working hard enough anymore. Then I see myself from above and I’m not in myself and they’s a buzzing sound coming from inside my head and I black out like falling asleep.

Daddy and Momma is coming through the door and I’m on the couch in the dark, sitting upright. They look at me funny for I’m covered in mud and I ain’t sure how I came to be here. I hold out my hand and look at it confused like it ain’t mine and Daddy is lighting a candle and says he and Momma done forgot to bring his wallet. Ain’t that just the goddamndest thing you ever heard? How they supposed to get anything in town without a wallet? Momma is bustling around, looking in drawers for it and they notice I ain’t said hello and they’s both looking at me now.

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Daddy says, “and don’t think I ain’t seen that wood pile when we came in, I done told Jacob them wood pieces need to be made smaller elsewise they ain’t going to fit in the woodstove right. And how he expecting to graduate if he can’t even remember wood chopping 101?” Daddy's hands are on his hips. “Where that Jacob at?” I ain’t say nothing, just looking down at my hands. Momma stops what she’s doing and is listening now. Daddy is calling out for Jacob and Momma is looking at me now and she says, “where’s Jacob, Gabe?” I say I ain’t remember and they both get closer and they’s asking how I don’t remember, and when I seen him last, and their voices are running together so I can’t understand what they’re saying and I shout, “I don’t remember! I don’t remember!” And they is taken aback, but is now sensing something is dead wrong here. Daddy starts shaking me and yelling incoherent, and something comes loose in my mind and it’s a bright flash and Jacob is at the river. I done left Jacob at the river.

Momma and Daddy tear out of there and I sit and see Jacob and me done missed a spot on the table when we were cleaning earlier. There’s a small soup puddle congealed with a film on the top. There’s a fly climbing lazily over it and we’re going to need to clean that up before Momma or Daddy see it as they won’t give us no reward for doing our chores all the way.

After a good long while I hear Momma outside wailing and they’s coming closer and I look out the window and Daddy has a package in his arms, and they come closer, and the package is Jacob and they found him. They bring him inside and Daddy lays him on the floor and listens at his chest like I done before. He sits him up and pounds on his chest and Momma is rocking back and forth on the floor and wailing, and Jacob is white as anything and his lips are blue and his hair is wet.

Daddy pushes on his chest and slaps Jacob and screams in his face “Spit it out!” He slaps Jacob some more and pounds on his chest and sits him up again and pounds on his back and Jacob is coughing now. Jacob is alive and coughing now. Big globs of mud and leaves and water come out of him like he drank up the entire river and Momma runs to him and holds him.

Daddy flings off his river wet hands and says “Jesus fukkin’ Christ” in a shaky voice and commences to sitting down at the dinner table, starts cleaning up that soup puddle with the side of his shaking hand and Momma is rocking Jacob on the floor. They cover Jacob with the big green wool blanket Daddy always says come from Australia and they put him on his bed and he ain’t said nothin’ yet. I expect he ain’t have much to talk about.