can a frustrated single mom and failed big city journalist save her family and salvage her career by returning to a town run by a gang of bungling thugs?


“The Resurrection of Puerto Cielo” is a novella published in serial form, 43 posts.




36


During the night, as rain poured into the overflowing reservoir, cracks appeared at the top of Puerto Cielo’s earthen dam. As pressure built, rivulets of escaping water became jets streaming out and down the dam’s face.

Within hours, more cracks appeared, the escaping water now a muddy curtain running down the hillside, tumbling over the white water spillway into the Rio Serpente.

At 4 a.m., the dam failed. With a final sigh, the earthen top caved in and unleashed a thundering torrent.

No one heard the roar of the cataclysm raging towards Puerto Cielo.

***

Saturday morning would usually find Main Street crowded with people going to market. Not today. As the Bernie brothers looked out from their bench, things were strangely quiet.

In spite of the night’s burning billboard, the rally disaster had been a gut punch to the town’s hopes for change.

Sipping coffee at their veranda table at Mama G’s, Espy and Carmen looked out at City Park. Trashed signs, trampled plants, fallen tree limbs, garbage everywhere, the park was a desolate battlefield of dashed dreams. The only good news was that the rain had stopped and sunlight now highlighted the carnage.

The two friends looked at each other. They were pondering the same question. The election was tomorrow.

What next?

Sheriff Eddie looked out from the steps of City Hall. The sun’s warmth felt good after day’s of rain. He watched the ladies in black cross Main Street and step up into Mama G’s.

He took a deep breath. Please God, he thought, may nothing like yesterday ever happen again.

Then he chuckled. The mystery of Juan’s lost pigs had been solved. The police radio was mercifully silent now after hours of reports that hungry hogs had been grubbing through garbage in Puerto Cielo’s alleys. By now, Juan had collected most of his stray herd.

Eddie smiled, savoring the memory of bashing the two thugs heads together. Yes, they’d turned the pigs loose on the rally, but he’d deal with that later.

Right now, he just wanted a quiet cup of coffee with Gina.

Snugging his battered hat, Eddie stepped into the street with a wave to the ever watchful Bernies. Three hands waved back.

Having made their own prayers to Mother Mary, a girl pushing another girl in a wheelchair emerged through the church’s huge front doors.

Squinting into the dazzling sunlight, they gaped at the debris in the park.

“Oh my God!” gasped Maria, “Did yesterday really happen?”

Slowly shaking her head, Manny replied, “Yes, it really happened,” and began easing the wheelchair down the church’s entry steps.

Nearby, market shopkeepers were beginning to roll up shutters and open for business. Lazy appeared in a doorway with a large sausage in his mouth. The butcher’s wife had been in a generous mood. His three legged buddy limped alongside and the pair crossed to the park searching for a spot of sunshine where they could enjoy breakfast.

***

When asked later, no one could describe the noise.

All anyone could say was there was a sudden sound they’d never heard before. A deep  rumble. A whoosh. A series of explosive cracks and groans.

But before the sound could be sorted out, a wall of water crashed, smashed, and thundered down Main Street.

Riding their bikes up the hill, Gabe and Dante saw it coming. They froze, then survival instincts kicked in and they dove into a shop doorway, gaping in amazement  as the wild, muddy flood surged past.

“Help! Help me!”

The boys looked out at the raging water. Arms waving in desperation, someone was being swept towards them.

“Help me!”

They recognized Julio.

Dante took Gabe’s hand, commanding, “Hold on,” and the boys waded through knee deep water to the edge of the sidewalk.

“Now,” Dante directed as Julio’s thrashing figure rushed towards them, “wrap your other arm around this post and hang on with everything you’ve got.”

Gabe watched Dante step into the torrent, struggling to keep his balance as the brown deluge bashed into his body.

“Help me…” Julio’s head disappeared.

Suddenly Gabe’s arms were yanked from their sockets. He groaned but hung on as Dante’s hand stretched under the water and came out grasping the wrist of the drowning bully.

Gabe groaned as the full weight of the boys was pulled downriver, threatening to rip him apart. But he held on, and Dante and Julio were knocked against the sidewalk. Coughing and sputtering, they crawled into the shallow water. Wondering if his arms would ever be the same, Gabe collapsed.

Exhausted, the trio huddled together on the sidewalk as muddy water swirled around them.

Across from the church, in the center of Main Street, the girl pushing her friend in a wheelchair suddenly stopped and stared in disbelief. Manny and Maria froze as the wall of mad water charged at them.

In Mama G’s, seeing disaster descending on her daughter, Espy jumped from her table screaming. The frantic mother dashed outside, plunging into the flood.

Then she saw him. The dripping bulk of Sheriff Eddie rose from the raging river. He had a limp girl under each arm. Fighting to stay upright, the big man inched his way across the flood, his face a twisted mask of concentration as water roiled and slammed against him.

Finally, Espy and Carmen pulled the sheriff to the sidewalk. They hugged the two shaking, sputtering girls close.

Just before battered Barbara floated by, Gina hauled Eddie from the water.

He reached up and patted the top of his head.

He frowned, “I lost my hat.”

Gina gently kissed his wet curls, “Time for a new one.”

Swept up in the flood, Lazy and Arnold found themselves swimming. Foundering with his cast, Arnold climbed on Lazy’s back. The pair thumped into the gazebo and scrambled up the stairs. After a good shake, they settled in the sun and, starting at opposite ends, bit into the breakfast sausage, mindless of the chaos cascading past them.

Looking out from the Star office alongside Sam, Lucy described what was happening.

Main Street was a parade of floating debris. Carts, potted plants, furniture bobbing past. Then the Bernie brothers’ bench drifted by. The old boys, much more nimble than they looked, had seen danger rushing at them and light footed into the 3 B’s doorway, barely getting their boots wet as the flood spilled over the sidewalk.

Lucy laughed.

“What is it!” Sam asked.

Then he heard it, the squeal of an unhappy hog. One of Juan’s finest was not pleased to find itself pig paddling down Main Street.

***