I whispered.
“Hold her.”
He pulled.
Lucy rose perhaps two inches.
Then the ground cracked again.
I froze.
A clump fell.
I heard it hit water far below.
Far too far.
My heart stopped.
“Mom!”
“I’m here.”
I reached Lucy’s wrist.
Not enough.
I crawled another inch.
Grabbed her forearm with both hands.
Sunny still held the coat.
“Lucy.”
“Look at me.”
She was sobbing.
Her face streaked with mud.
“I’m going to pull.”
“Sunny’s going to pull.”
“Kick your left foot.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Find the edge.”
Sunny shifted.
His front paws slid.
Then caught.
I pulled.
Lucy kicked.
For one second nothing happened.
Then her chest came over the lip.
Sunny stepped backward.
The coat tore with a ripping sound.
I thought he had lost her.
Instead, the fabric remained in his mouth.
The outer shell split but held.
I pulled again.
Lucy rolled onto the grass.
I wrapped both arms around her.
“Move.”
I said.
“Move now.”
We crawled backward.
Sunny stayed between us and the opening until we reached solid ground.
Then he collapsed.
Not dramatically.
His hind legs simply folded.
He lay panting.
I held Lucy against me.
She was shaking so hard her teeth clicked.
“I’m sorry.”
She cried.
“I’m sorry.”
I could barely speak.
“Are you hurt?”
“My knee.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Can you breathe?”
“Yes.”
Sunny tried standing.
He yelped.
I looked at him.
His front right paw was bleeding.
One claw had torn.
His shoulder seemed wrong.
“Sunny.”
I crawled toward him.
He licked my wrist.
Then tried getting up again.
“Stay.”
He ignored me.
He limped to Lucy.
Pressed his head against her chest.
Lucy wrapped her arms around him.
“You saved me.”
She whispered.
That was when I started crying.
Not before.
Before, there was only action.
Now there was room for terror.
Daniel’s truck appeared less than five minutes later.
I had called him without remembering doing it.
He ran from the driveway.
“What happened?”
Then he saw the hole.
The red coat.
The mud.
Sunny limping.
His face lost all color.
We called 911 because we did not know whether Lucy had internal injuries or whether the surrounding ground remained unstable.
The volunteer fire department arrived.
Then paramedics.
Then county emergency management because the opening turned out to be much larger than we understood.
Lucy had scraped her knee and bruised her hip.
Nothing broken.
No concussion.
No serious injury.
Sunny’s damage was worse.
Torn claw.