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By Root 945 0

TV shots from the air made it look like some kind of regatta—the Mall as water festival, like something out of Ming China. Many people were out on makeshift craft that did not look at all seaworthy. Police boats on patrol were even beginning to ask people who were not doing rescue work to leave, one report said, though clearly they were not having much of an impact. The situation was still so new that the law had not yet fully asserted itself. Motorboats zipped about, leaving beige wakes behind. Rowers rowed, paddlers paddled, kayakers kayaked, swimmers swam; some people were even out in the blue foot-pedaled boats that had once been confined to the Tidal Basin, pedaling around the Mall in majestic ministeamboat style.

Although these images from the Mall dominated the media, some channels carried other news from around the region. Hospitals were filled. The two days of the storm had killed many people, no one knew how many; and there had been many rescues as well. In the first part of the third morning, the TV helicopters often interrupted their overviews to pluck people from rooftops. Rescues by boat were occurring all through Southwest district and up the Anacostia Basin. Reagan Airport remained drowned, and there was no passable bridge over the Potomac all the way upstream to Harpers Ferry. The Great Falls of the Potomac were no more than a huge turbulence in a nearly unbroken, gorge-topping flow. The President had evacuated to Camp David, and now he declared all of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware a federal disaster area; the District of Columbia, in his words, “worse than that.”

Charlie’s phone chirped and he snatched it to him. “Anna?”

“Charlie! Where are you!”

“I’m still at the office! Are you home?”

“Oh good yes! I’m here with the boys, we never left. We’ve got the Khembalis here with us too, you got my e-mails?”

“Yes, I wrote back.”

“Oh that’s right. They got caught at the zoo. I’ve been trying to get you on the phone this whole time!”

“Me you too, except when I fell asleep. I was so glad to get your e-mails.”

“Yeah that was good. I’m so glad you’re okay. This is crazy! Is your building completely flooded?”

“No no, not at all. So how are the boys?”

“Oh they’re fine. They’re loving it. It’s all I can do to keep them inside.”

“Keep them inside.”

“Yes yes. So your building isn’t flooded? Isn’t the Mall flooded?”

“Yes it is, no doubt about that, but not the building here, not too badly anyway. They’re keeping the doors shut, and trying to seal them at the bottoms. It’s not working great, but it isn’t dangerous. It’s just a matter of staying upstairs.”

“Your generators are working?”

“Yes.”

“I hear a lot of them are flooded.”

“Yeah I can see how that would happen. No one was expecting this.”

“No. Generators in basements, it’s stupid I suppose.”

“That’s where ours is.”

“I know. But it’s on that table, and it’s working.”

“What about food, how are we set there?” Charlie tried to imagine their cupboards.

“Well, we’ve got a bit. You know. It’s not great. It will get to be a problem soon if we can’t get more. I figure we might have a few weeks’ worth in a pinch.”

“Well, that should be fine. I mean, they’ll have to get things going again by then.”

“I suppose. We need water service too.”

“Will the floodwaters drain away very fast?”

“I don’t know, how should I know?”

“Well, I don’t know—you’re a scientist.”

“Please.”

They listened to each other breathe.

“I sure am glad to be talking to you,” Charlie said. “I hated being out of touch like that.”

“Me too.”

“There are boats all around us now,” Charlie said. “I’ll try to get a ride home as soon as I can. Once I get ferried to land, I can walk home.”

“Not necessarily. The Taft Bridge over Rock Creek is gone. You’d only be able to cross on the Mass. Ave. bridge, from what I can see on the news.”

“Yeah, I saw Rock Creek flooding, that was amazing.”

“I know. The zoo and everything. Drepung says most of the animals will be recovered, but I wonder about that.” Anna would be nearly as upset by the deaths of the zoo’s animals as she would be by people.