Eloise

Eloise von Fixin de Hoolie would not leave the river. She was waiting for her man to return, the father of her six daughters. He'd been swept down the river four years ago, and had never made it back. His name was Hans Sneebum, and Eloise loved him very much, but she wouldn't marry him. She didn't want to lose her family name.
“I told him that if any of our children were boys, they could have his last name. How was I to know that I'd only have girls. And so many of them!” With each year of his absence, Eloise turned more in on herself, like an Advent calendar in reverse. Small windows closing, hiding small treasures. “If only I'd given him one child with his name, then he'd have something to come back for.” Eloise lamented.
“If he doesn't think we're worth his time, then screw him,” Marylou said. Eloise looked aghast and turned away. “That's an ego thing, names. Who the hell wants to be called Sneebum anyway? How about you, Effluvia, you want to be Effluvia Sneebum?” Effluvia was the youngest daughter, eight years old. She nodded her head, black curls bobbing. “I'd be a Sneebum if Dad would come back,” she said.
“Anyway, we don't know how far down the river he went, he could be anywhere in the future.” That was the thing about the Vertigo River. The further down you went, the farther into the future you found yourself. Likewise, going up the river would bring you back in time, and if you kept going up the river, you'd find yourself surrounded by water, back in the time of the flood. The Port of Pouteau was only half an hour down the river, a few months in the future.  

When Marylou went there, she had to plan ahead, bring a sweater even if it was still summertime, for example. Maybe that was the other reason that Mother wouldn't let them leave, Marylou mused to herself. They were fixed there in time and space, and how else would he ever find them if they left? She didn't hold out much hope for his return. Still, on her next trip down to Pouteau to pick up supplies she'd ask strangers if they'd seen him, a man with dark hair and blue eyes, washed clean away from his own time.