Dawson opened the door to the cabin and shook the rain out of his hair.
"C'mon in, Joey. I'll get a fire started and you see if you can find us something to wear while our clothes dry out."
Joey trudged into the other room of the cabin, muttering under her breath. She returned wrapped in a blanket and threw one at Dawson.
"Here." She shuffled closer to the fireplace where Dawson had started a small fire.
"Geez, Dawson, didn't you check the weather report before you planned this little excursion?"
"Joey, how was I supposed to know that 'slight chance of rain' meant 'better put Noah on your speed dial'?"
"I would've thought those big, black clouds would have clued you in. Ouch!"
"What's wrong?" Dawson turned to look at her as he wrapped his own blanket around his shoulders.
"Just that between the wind and the rain, my hair is a mess. Look at me. I'll never be able to get this straightened out. I'll probably have to shave my head and start over." Her long, brown hair was indeed a mess. It hung in thick, wet straggles that dripped onto the blanket around her shoulders.
Dawson laughed. "C'mon, Joey, it's not that bad. I'll see if I can find something to get the tangles out with." He went into the bathroom. As he searched through the cabinets for a hairbrush or a comb or something, he idly noticed Joey's jeans and t-shirt hanging over the shower curtain rod. That reminded him that he needed to get out of his own wet clothes.
When he came out of the bathroom, wrapped in his blanket, Joey was sitting in front of the fire, hands wrapped around a steaming mug. "I brought you a comb," he said. He held it up with his free hand.
"Thanks," Joey replied. "Do you want some?" she asked holding out her mug. "It's chicken soup." Dawson took the mug from her, sat down and took a few sips. The heat of the soup went a long way towards warming him up. Joey took the comb he'd set on the floor between them and started working on her hair. He noticed she was having a hard time. It took two hands to handle her wet hair, but when she removed the hand holding the blanket closed around her, it started to slip, and she would have to grab it and quickly pull it back into place.
As he watched his best friend wrestle with her hair, he began to feel guilty. It was his fault, after all, that they'd got caught in the rain. And it had been his idea to take a pre-Back to School camping trip. He set the mug down on the floor and moved to sit behind Joey. "Let me do that," he said.
Joey handed him the comb cautiously. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Trust me." He took the comb from her and began to carefully comb the wet tangles out of her hair.
"Isn't that how I got here in the first place?" Joey closed her eyes as Dawson worked on her hair. He was being very careful not to pull too hard. It felt good.
*I don't know where he learned to do this. I'm kinda afraid to ask.*
"I remember my mom used to do this for me when I was little."
Dawson stopped. He didn't want Joey to start thinking about her mom now. It hurt her so much to miss her and not have her around. And when Joey hurt, so did he.
Joey turned a little bit. "You didn't have to stop. I'll be okay." She reached out to touch Dawson's hand. "I will be okay," she repeated.
"I know. I just feel bad. This whole trip was supposed to be fun. Our last weekend before we had to go back to the grind."
Joey laughed. "Yeah, our last weekend of freedom before we have to deal with jock quarterback idiots and teachers who think that writing a twelve-page essay on how cotton influenced the Civil War is a great way to spend a Friday night." Joey paused. "Dawson, why did you invite just me?"
"I didn't. Pacey wanted to hang around town. He's been going out with that new girl, Teresa. And Jen..."
"Yeah, THAT would have awkward. But wait a minute, Teresa? I've seen her in the Icehouse. Isn't she a senior? Did Pacey decide to drop the age requirement for his dates?"
"Joey..." Dawson sighed. "All I know is he's been spending a lot of time this summer at her house."
He yawned. "Listen, can we continue this in the morning? I'm beat. I'm going to bed." He walked into the bedroom. Joey followed him in just in time to see him drop his blanket on the foot of the bed and climb in. Lucky for her sanity, he was still wearing his boxers. He turned down the other side of the blanket and patted the bed. "C'mon, Joey, it's late. We need to get some sleep." He yawned again.
Joey stood frozen looking at the bed. "Joey, what is it? We've slept in the same bed lots of times. It's no big deal. We even handled it when we went to see your dad, remember? I'm sorry, okay? I planned for us to use the sleeping bags in the car to sleep in the living room. I didn't know this would happen..."
"It's not that, Dawson." Joey interrupted. "It's just that the rest of my clothes are still in the car."
"So? Sleep in what you have on. I am."
"That's just it, Dawson." She looked down at the blanket wrapped around herself. "All I'm wearing IS the blanket."
Dawson swallowed. Hard. "What was I supposed to do? Freeze? I was soaked. I forgot my jacket in the car, remember?"
"Joey, take my shirt from the bathroom. It should be pretty dry by now. You can sleep in that. We'll just get the rest of the stuff in the morning." He watched as Joey went into the bathroom to change. He laid back on the bed.
*It's gonna be a long night.*
The next morning when they woke up, the rain had not stopped. Dawson slogged back to the car to get their things. Joey had been listening to the radio while he was gone and met him at the door with a towel.
"Thanks," he said as he took the towel and dried off his hair. "I think we'd better wait for the rain to stop. I don't want to get stuck in the mud somewhere down the road."
Joey sat down in one of the chairs in the living room. "We're gonna be here a while anyway, Dawson. The news report on the radio said the rain washed out parts of the highway between here and Capeside. And I checked, the phone is out too." She sighed and brushed her hair away from her face. "So what do we do now?"
"Give it until tonight, I guess."
"And then what Dawson? It's only Friday. Nobody's going to even worry about where we are until we don't show up on Sunday like we told everybody."
"God, Joey, I don't know. We'll figure it out, okay? It can't rain for three days straight, can it?"

It almost did. The rain finally stopped late Saturday. By then, Joey and Dawson had a bad case of cabin fever and were about ready to kill each other. The tension between them got so bad, you could have played their nerves like a guitar. When they noticed that they couldn't hear the rain anymore, they literally jumped to pack up their stuff and head for the car.
Their luck held out and they made it to the car, which wasn't stuck in the mud, and drove to the highway. About fifty miles out of Capeside, the road was blocked by a highway patrol car parked across the road, lights flashing. They slowed down and, finally, stopped. Dawson rolled down the window as the officer approached the window.
"Sorry, folks, the road's closed." He looked inside.
"Isn't the weather a little rough for you kids to be out for a drive?"
Joey made a noise like she was getting ready to make a smart remark back, but Dawson interrupted before she could make things worse. "Actually, we went out camping and we're trying to get home to Capeside. Are there any other roads we can try?"
The officer thought for a moment. "Nope. This one's the only one I know of in halfway decent shape. Capeside, you said?" Dawson nodded. "Well, hell, that's only about fifty miles down, isn't it? If y'all don't mind waiting, my replacement is supposed to be here in about an hour, y'all can follow me till we get there. I've got to back up to HQ, anyway."
"Thank you," Dawson replied. He turned to Joey. "See, I told you everything would work out."
"Whatever, Dawson. At this point, I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed."
The car was silent while they waited for the other highway patrol officer to show up. After about an hour, he did. He and the first officer exchanged some words and then he got into his car and motioned for Dawson to start following him. Dawson started the car and looked over at Joey. She had fallen asleep sometime while they were waiting, so he didn't wake her until they got closer to Capeside.
As Dawson drove behind the patrol car, he was able to see what damage the storm had done while they were gone. Several trees had been blown over, the ground at their bases having been washed away until the roots had nothing to hold on to. The rain had also caused parts of the road to collapse as it took away the earth that supported the asphalt. But when they got to the bridge over the creek that ran between their houses, Dawson had to wake Joey up.
"Joey," he said quickly. "You won't believe this. Wake up!"
She opened her eyes slowly. Then, as what she saw made it through to her brain, she sat up and looked out her window. "Ohmigod!" The creek was swollen to three times its size and the water that roared under the bridge was a dark, muddy brown. Branches from trees and other debris rushed past them faster than they's ever seen.
"Joey, you'll never be able to paddle home in this. I'll drop you off."
"Thanks, Dawson." Joey replied, never taking her eyes off the river that the creek had become.
Dawson pulled up outside Joey's house and she jumped out, grabbing her bag. Dawson leaned out the window as she ran up to the porch. "I'll call you tomorrow night. In case you need a ride Monday."
"Okay," she waved as he pulled away. She opened the door to see a very worried Bessie sitting on the sofa holding Alexander.
"Joey, why didn't you call?"
Joey walked in and dropped her bag on the floor. "I couldn't. The storm knocked out the phone in the cabin and we didn't pass any place where we could stop and call from on our way back. We barely made it back tonight as it is Have you seen how bad it is out there?" She started walking towards her room.
Bessie followed her. "Look, I'm sorry if I jumped on you when you walked in. I was worried about you. The news reports said there were flash floods out where you were camping and then I didn't hear from you...."
"Look, Bessie, I appreciate the sisterly concern, but right now, I just want to get some sleep. I have to go to school Monday." She went into her room. Bessie followed her, juggling Alexander between arms.
"Joey, there's no school Monday. A couple of classrooms got flooded and they're holding off until they can clean up. You won't have to go back for at least a week."
"Good, wake me in time for a shower," Joey mumbled from her pillow.

Meanwhile, at the Leery home...

Dawson climbed into bed after undergoing pretty much the same greeting. He had just started to fall asleep when he heard someone coming up the ladder.
"Joey, hasn't this weekend been long enough?" he groaned.
"Sorry, bro, wrong friend,"
Dawson sat up and turned on the light. "Pacey?" He looked at his alarm clock. "It's three A.M. Another bad night at the Witter homestead?"
Pacey sat on the foot of Dawson's bed. "That, and Teresa said she doesn't want to see me anymore."
"I thought you two were getting along great."
"We were. Let's just say her ex is back in the picture and I'm not real thrilled with the circumstances."

Note: I'm planning on this being a series, based loosely on the weekly topics.
Comments can be addressed to me at brande@tea-house.com
Flames will be used to light my barbecue.

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