--Part VII--
The human body is an amazing machine of self-preservation. When the vocal cords detect the presence of water or other liquid they sometimes will constrict causing a partial blocking of breathing in which, in the case of near drowning, the situation can last just long enough to block any water from entering the lungs and enable a person to survive for a few seconds under water even if it is unexpected. The condition, laryngospasm, is exactly what happened to Marilyn in the few seconds she was in the creek. Scared, wet and confused, she pulled herself up the other bank and sat down and cried. The clandestine creek had swollen in recent rains that also enabled a growth spurt in the tall grass which made the rivulet almost invisible to Marilyn as she had run out of the barn. Her realization of it failed to make her feel any better, though, and now her situation was dire indeed.
Her mother did not know what kind of dire situation her daughter was in but she now knew that she was missing. After Officer Blunt had taken Ike to the jail, he called Marilyn's mother and told her what he knew of the situation. He assured her that Marilyn would be home soon and that everything would be fine and he was pretty sure that he was not lying to the woman but mainly wanted to make her feel better by saying it. Nobody knew where she was or if she was okay or not but how do you say that to a mother? To be honest, he had not had time to think about Marilyn since the Ike incident. His day since that event had been gorged with interviews of town folk, phone calls, paperwork and other investigation as well as visits to the medical examiner, the chief of police and the mayor. Blunt's first murder investigation was wearing him out but he knew that Marilyn's mother would be anxious to hear about her.
In the meantime, Teddy was quite excited about this new aspect of the adventure. Neither he nor Marilyn knew how to get to the other one without walking what seemed like miles down the creek until it was shallow enough for her to walk across it to him. She did what she had to do to get to him and then fell down next to him exhausted and buried her face in the fur of his neck and let all of her weariness and frustration wet his collar. He sensed her agony and sat still next to his friend until she finally relaxed and lay down next to him. Pretty soon both were asleep in the grass.
