The Legend of Butterfield Farm

Chapter Ten

THE RIVER’S CURRENT was very swift. By the time Holly and Gordongot to its bank, Henna was already quite a ways downstream.

Gordon kicked off his shoes. “You stay right here.”

He was about to jump into the swirling waters to swim to Henna’s rescue, but Holly held him back. “No,” she said. “The water’s too deep, too dangerous. Besides, Henna’s a better swimmer than we are. She’ll get herself to the bank where we can help her out.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Get your shoes on, we can’t just wait here.”

Holly and Gordon ran along the bank. They had a lot of ground to cover.

Meanwhile, the river continued to have its way with Henna. She slapped the water with her arms and struggled to kick her legs, but the log would not allow it. It took everything she had just to catch a breath. She had taken many a swimming lesson before this, but none of them had ever covered what to do when stuck in a log in a raging river. Still, she found ways to keep her head up and out of the water much of the time. She even managed to flip herself over onto her back, and after coughing and spitting out what seemed like half the river, she was finally able to catch her breath.

She tried to do the backstroke, which she was very good at in a swimming pool. Here, however, in the rough waters of the river with her legs trapped in the log, she wasn’t making much progress. And she could see the forest up ahead—and that the waterway was carrying her right into its darkness.

“Help!” she cried out. “Help me!”

“Oh my,” someone said nearby.

Henna looked around to see who had said it, but her log skirt blocked any view of the far bank, and she was still paddling backwards, so she couldn’t see the near bank.  Whoever it was, though, she sure hoped they could swim. “Help me!” she called out again. “Please help me!”

Just then, a strong gust of wind flung some water into her eyes, which prevented her from seeing who her rescuer was. Yes, someone had grabbed hold of her and pulled her out of the water. And now she was in the arms of her savior, her guardian angel. “Thank you, thank you,” she said while rubbing the water out of her eyes.

 “Thank you, thank you,” her rescuer said.

“No, thank you,” Henna said as she blinked like crazy, trying to see who pulled her to safety.

“No, thank you,” her angel said.

“Are you mocking me?”

“Mocking, mocking,” was the response.

Finally, Henna was able to see that her mocking angel did in fact have wings.  That, however, was the only similarity it had to the angels in her books, or to the ones in paintings and movies and such. Henna’s angel was a gigantic, big-eyed dragonfly. It had grabbed her with all six of its arms—or were they legs? Well, whatever they were, it was using them to hold onto her; and now the two of them were high up in the air and flying away.

Henna looked down and saw Gordon and Holly getting smaller and smaller. They were running along the red riverbank. They had no reason to think Henna was flying above them in the clutches of a gargantuan, big-eyed bug, so they were only looking for her in the river.

Holly stopped at a break in the foliage and yelled, “Henna! We’re coming for you.”

“Hey, guys!” Henna yelled back. “I’m up here.”

They obviously could not hear her. They were still looking for her in the rough waters of the river.

“I’m up here!” Henna called out again, but they did not hear her. She was getting farther away from them with each passing moment.

“Up here,” the dragonfly repeated.

“Can you talk?” Henna asked. “Or do you just mock?”

“Mock,” it answered.

It seemed like maybe it understood her a little bit, so Henna tried to make a friend, hoping to convince it to let go of her before she got too far away from Holly and Gordon.

“I’m Henna. What’s your name?”

“Mock. Mock,” it said.

“Well, Mock Mock, could you please let me down? I am very grateful that you saved me, but I’d like to get back to my sister and cousin now. Okay?”

“Okay,” it said, but it kept on flying. 

By this time, the dragonfly had flown into the forest, or rather over the forest, and Henna had lost sight of Holly and Gordon.      

Where was it taking her? What was in store for her when she got there? She needed a plan to get free and she needed one now. That’s when she thought of her camera and took it out of her backpack. She aimed it and said, “Mock Mock, say cheese.” When the flash went off just inches from its big eyes, the dragonfly let go of her.

“All right!” Henna said, thrilled to be free. 

Her excitement quickly faded, though, because her plan had one major flaw. Sure, the giant dragonfly was no longer taking her to who knew where, to do who knew what with her. But now she was in a free fall. And she would soon be getting up close and personal with the forest floor.