Double Tears
Chapter 144
“Tornadoes are so unpredictable that you never know what’s going to happen. From the distance they are an amazing piece of nature. Up close they are deadly.”
—Jessica Madden, Chasing the Storm
EM CALLED ABOUT EIGHT Sunday night to let us all know she’d arrived safely. I spent a few minutes reminding her again how much I loved her and looked forward to her being home for good in just fourteen weeks. And yes, that I’d bring Pey and maybe Beca out with me the week before she finished to take a ride in her big rig.
It felt good to have the performance out of the way and look forward to the release on YouTube in two weeks. The string quartet had gelled into an entity of its own and was working on a new piece for just the four of them. They got good comments after the Easter performance. And, of course, we still had the spring preview concert coming up in ten days, so rehearsals were continuing.
“We’re getting them done on May Day,” Rachel said excitedly. “Joan found a good artist and we’re going to drive up to Chicago on Friday. When we get back Sunday, we’ll be marked for life.”
“I feel like I’m actually getting married,” Livy said. “When we get back, we want a honeymoon with all our partners.”
“I can’t believe you’re going to do it!” I said. “And before you go into service. Where is Donna putting hers? It’s really hard to believe she agreed to do it.”
“She said something about it being hidden and someone was going to need a map before he goes on a treasure hunt for it,” Rachel said. I groaned. Find a tattoo on Donna’s perfect skin? A treasure hunt? Too much!
“Donna is more a part of our pod than any of us imagined she would ever be,” Beca said. “I admit that when we first started talking about um… seducing her… she was a kind of teacher/student fantasy. ‘Please, Ms. Levy, isn’t there anything I can do to raise my grade?’ But when she took the step to change schools so she wasn’t our teacher any longer, the shit got real. I can’t begin to tell you how many nights I spent just cradled in her arms last summer when you were all traveling.”
“Um… I feel the same way,” Cindy ventured. We all shut up and looked at her. Cindy was always quiet but even more so when conversations turned intimate. “I never had her as a teacher, so I don’t have the same kind of fantasies you all had. Well, maybe a little. But Donna held me in the tent in Kentucky when I felt bad about not being with everyone else in your tent. She always welcomes me to her bed when we stay out at the farm and sometimes, we just lie there talking late at night and holding hands. She’s sweet.”
“You know none of us are going to rush you, Cindy,” Rachel said softly. “You are always welcome to cuddle with any of us. We love you.”
“When I get my tattoo,” Cindy announced to our stunned ears, “it’s going to be right below my belly button. I’ll ask Joan to draw a music character for me.”
Things had been a little crazy the past week with getting ready for Easter and having Em and Joan home. We all tried to spend as much time together as possible but one-on-one time had been limited. Monday night, Rachel took me home with her. We studied and had dinner with her family. About nine, we went to her room downstairs and made love, just taking our time to reconnect all the pieces of our lives.
“I probably shouldn’t delay my service so long,” she sighed as I moved inside her. We lay on our sides, a position that didn’t offer either deep penetration or rapid movement. But we were joined together and when I’m buried in Rachel’s little red thatch, I can take all the time in the world. It wasn’t so much the orgasm we were looking forward to, though we knew that would come. It was just being connected and feeling like this was where we belonged forever.
“She has a reason to hurry,” I said. “You don’t.”
“Only to get it over with. But I really do want to be here for Cindy’s sixteenth birthday before I leave. And to see and hold Emily before I go, so I know there is the other side of service. I wish I knew more about where I’ll be stationed and what I’ll be doing.”
“They really capitalize on fear of the unknown,” I said. “Everyone is afraid so they can be heroes to help us poor kids along and be our saviors.”
“That sounds like the old man talking,” Rachel giggled. “Exactly how old is the cock that’s in my love garden?”
“Old enough to know better and too young to care,” I laughed. I put my hand on her butt and pulled her closer to me, sinking a little deeper. “I’m the young man who wants eighty more years loving you.”
“I give you my whole life, Jacob. Love me.”
There was a severe storm watch for the afternoon predicted. It was hard to believe on my run in the morning. This was a spring day that just called out for a long run. Nanette and Livy dropped off after three miles and went to get ready for work and school. There was such a beautiful balmy breeze that I continued on for another three miles. I got home with just enough time to shower and dress before school. I looked at my guitar when I was mostly dressed and just had to sit and pick a little tune on it. The day was too glorious to do less than start it with music.
“Jacob! You’ll be late for school!” Mom called. Sometimes, school was just in the way of the important things in life. I sighed and lay my guitar on the bed. I headed for the kitchen with my school pack and snatched a piece of toast off Pey’s plate.
“J!” she whined.
“Want a ride to school?” I asked to mollify her. “The J Express leaves in two minutes.”
“Yeah!” Pey rushed to the bathroom to wash her hands.
“You are going to be late,” Mom said.
“It’s a beautiful day, Mom. Everyone is going to be late. I’ll bet the buses are even late today. They’ll forgive a little tardiness.”
“I’m ready,” Pey announced.
“Hey! If the weather stays like this, we should take the quadcopter out for a spin when I get home from rehearsal. What say?”
“Yeah!” Pey and I headed off to school. The elementary school was a little out of the way for me, but we rolled down the windows in the truck and turned up the music.
Rehearsal wasn’t quite the breeze I was expecting. LeBlanc had attended our performance at the church and was in the practice room with us tapping his baton for an hour. He made the strings count their entrance three times because he said our start was ragged. Then he made Cindy and me do the same thing for our entrance. He had a score and had marked seven errors where someone had hit a wrong note. Thankfully, only two of them were mine.
I put my practice guitar in the music locker with Jack’s double bass and headed for my truck.
What a change in the weather! I just looked up at the sky and watched two banks of clouds coming from opposite directions. I’d never seen anything like it and just stood by my truck watching as the two fronts collided and a twirling funnel descended from the impact. Sirens started going off everywhere. It’s weird that until a funnel cloud is spotted, you are in a ‘watch’ state. Once one appears, you are in a ‘warning.’ That’s when the sirens sound and you are supposed to take immediate shelter. Another wind whipped in from behind me and brought rain and hail. I jumped in the truck and started out. Pey was home waiting for me and she was dreadfully afraid of thunderstorms. Lightning and a crack of thunder nearby got me headed out of the parking lot.
It was only three miles home, but the rain came down so hard at one point that I couldn’t see where I was going. I had to stop and wait until it let up enough that my wipers could clear a sightline. I struggled on toward home, mindful of the high winds, even though the tornado I’d sighted was a good five miles away toward the river.
There are a lot of big trees in our neighborhood. It was built in the early fifties so even the ‘new’ trees were sixty or seventy years old. A big branch had fallen across the street and brought down the powerlines with it. I had to stop the truck and try to figure out where was safe to pass. I didn’t dare touch the limb and I couldn’t drive around it. I assessed the situation and grabbed my gloves from the pocket in the door. Emily had impressed upon me the importance of having rubber gloves in the car in case I needed to work on the engine. I pulled them on and slid my seat back as far as it would go. Then I opened the door, avoiding touching the frame or any metal I could avoid. I looked at where the water was running down the street and figured I could make the jump.
In the back of my mind, V1 was yammering about safety and how I should never have left the school. If I’d run back inside instead of getting in my truck, I’d be safe and dry in the tornado shelter. Yeah, yeah. Too late now. I crouched down and jumped away from the truck with all my might. I landed about ten feet away and was relieved there were no sparks flying. I just kept moving toward the far sidewalk and then turned up the street at a run.
The high winds and rain had broken for the time being, the storm having already ripped through this area. That’s the thing about a tornado. You don’t have to actually be in its path to be damaged by it. The weather system surrounding it can wreak just as much havoc as the funnel itself. I dodged around more tree limbs, garbage bins that had blown from their shelters, lawn furniture, and another area where the powerlines were dragging on the ground. I just kept running.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the front of our house. I just needed to get in where I could reassure Pey.
When I opened the front door, I was met with a wall of rubble. Through a gap in the ceiling, I could see the remains of the giant oak that shaded our house. It looked like it had split in half and the part that fell hit the center of our house.
“Pey! Peyton! Where are you?” I listened as I made my way closer to the rubble. It creaked as I put a hand on what used to be a rafter. “Peyton! Where are you?”
“Help!” came a weak response.
“Pey, where are you?”
“Closet. Can’t move. Help, J!”
“I’m on my way. Hang in there, baby sister. I’ll get you out.” I thumbed my cell phone and hit 911. “I’m Jacob Hopkins, 5301 Elder Street. A limb came down in the storm on our house. My sister is trapped under it and I think she’s injured. Please send help!”
“J. I’m scared! Help me!”
I ignored the instructions some operator was shouting at me and tried to find a way to my sister. V1 was blathering about waiting for help and it being too dangerous. I should exercise caution. I could be caught in the rubble, too. Stay back. Don’t try to squeeze through there. Remember what happened the last time you were buried.
Shut up! I screamed in my head. My baby sister needs me! I won’t let her go!
When the old man kept yammering, I took a deep breath, imagined what I looked like at eighty, put a figurative gun to my head and pulled the trigger. I didn’t need an old man trying to restrain me. I needed to squeeze through this gap and make my way to my sister. I needed to act like a teen, not an old man.
“I’m coming, Pey. I’ll get to you soon. I just have to get around this stuff. Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get you.” When I reached what had to have been her room, I had to lie down on the floor and wiggle through a tight space. The old man might have been dead to me, but the pressure of the collapsed roof against my back still brought tears to my eyes as I crawled forward. It was easy to get disoriented as I wiggled left and right toward what I thought was where her closet was. “Talk to me, Pey. I need to hear your voice.”
“It hurts, J. I can’t move.” I focused on her voice and wiggled into an open space where the wall had exploded outward.
“I’m here, Pey. Help is on the way. I have you, baby.” In the open space I held up the phone and could see in its dim light where the tree had landed squarely across the closet. the trunk was still a few feet above Pey, but the mass of rafters and ceiling joists, insulation and tile, clothing and shelves, were pressing down against her. Only her head and shoulders were sticking out. One hand reached toward me and I took it in mine.
“Get me out, J! I’m scared.”
“I can’t move things, honey. The rescue people are on their way. They’ll move the tree limb and then we can get out. I’m here with you, baby. I won’t let go. I’ll never let go, Peyton. Your brother is here with you. I won’t let go.”
I became aware of the chatter on my still-open line to 911 asking for an update on my condition.
“It’s a huge limb that cut through the house. It’s pressing parts of the roof and ceiling down on my sister. They’ll have to move the limb in order to get to us. My sister is hurt. Please hurry.”
“Utility crews are removing a limb blocking the road. Rescue workers are moving in to assist you. Please stay calm. If you can get out, you should do so now.”
“Leave my sister? I don’t think so. She needs me and I won’t let her go.”
I left the phone open but ignored the yammering as I focused on Pey.
“We don’t have a house anymore, J,” she whispered.
“It’s okay. We have each other. Mom and Dad will be here soon. Maybe we’ll go live with Nanette for a while. Or Donna. The house will get rebuilt and we’ll have brand new rooms. Just think, you can decorate any way you want to. It will be a room all your own.”
“Will I need a wheelchair?” she asked. “I can’t feel my legs.”
“That will just be temporary,” I said. “In six months, you’ll be running cross country with me. I promise.”
“I’m cold.” I immediately pulled off the light jacket I was wearing and covered her shoulders. I wiggled closer to her to try to share my body heat. The rain had started again and water ran down the rafters. I sheltered her with my body I just kept talking about how the rescue was going and that I could hear the sirens and see shadows moving above us. I heard a chainsaw start up, grinding against the wet wood.
“And then we’ll go out to see Em and ride in her big rig,” I whispered hoarsely. My phone had long-since run out of battery. It looked like it had gotten dark outside.
“I’m sleepy, J. Hold me, please.”
“I have you, baby. I love you and I won’t let go.” Holding her was an effort. I got down as close as I could to her and just got my arm over her shoulder while I held her hand. “I’ll never let go.”
“It’s just a dream, J. A nightmare. When we wake up it will all be over. We’ll go to school and you’ll play music. Just a dream.”
“Just a dream,” I said as she drifted off to sleep. I closed my eyes, cradling my little sister. Something fell from the sky and hit me in the head. I was out.
“Where am I?” I gasped when I came to. I was in a bed. A dream? Really. “Where’s Peyton?” I screamed and struggled to sit up.
Dad was standing beside my bed and reached to take my hand. Wait! A hospital? I checked to see if I was in casts. What was reality? I looked into my father’s eyes and saw the pain etched there.
“Dad? No, Dad. Tell me. Where is she? Where’s my baby sister?”
“She didn’t make it, son. The doctors don’t think they could have saved her even if they’d gotten to her right away. There was a lot of internal hemorrhaging. She probably didn’t last more than fifteen minutes. You were trapped there for hours.”
“No. That’s not possible. I found her. I held her in my arms. I held her hand and we talked for hours while we waited for help. Dad! I didn’t let go! I held her thread in my hand and wouldn’t let go. She told me we were dreaming and she was very sleepy. Then, something hit me.”
“A piece of the limb they were cutting broke loose and fell through the hole. You’ve been unconscious for about three hours.”
“It can’t be. My sister isn’t supposed to die.” I needed to get her back. Retrieve her and help her get better. Panic was setting in. “What year is it? What date?” I cried. Had I been transported to another world and timeline?
“Son, it’s April 7, 2021. You were only out a few hours. It’s just past midnight.”
“This can’t be. It can’t fucking be! She’s not supposed to die!” I was screaming and a nurse came into the room. She adjusted something on a drip bag attached to my arm.
“It’s the same sedative we gave your wife, Mr. Hopkins,” she said. “They’re in shock. It will improve by morning.”
I looked at my dad as consciousness flowed away from me. I’d never seen him with tears on his face.
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