The Widow of Saunders Creek (10 page)

“I’ll take a look later.”

He grabbed his fork and then wolfed down two bites as he held my iPhone with his left hand and punched the touchscreen with his thumb. He glanced up at me as he tasted the food, and his eyebrows rose in what I interpreted as an acknowledgment of my culinary achievement. That was enough for me.

“Mom,” he said into the phone. “Are you keeping an eye on the weather? Good. I’m at Granny’s with Corrie.”

I smiled inside. Would this house ever be mine in the family’s eyes? Probably not. Even Jarrod had always referred to it as Granny’s house. “When we move into Granny’s house,” he’d say. “Granny’s house needs a new roof.” Always Granny’s. Honestly, it didn’t bother me. What bothered me was the thought that they begrudged me the home. I thought back to my encounter with Aunt Trudy at the bridge, and my heart lifted once again. Even if no one else believed I belonged here, she did, and so did Eli.

“Yeah,” Eli was saying. “I just checked the weather on Corrie’s
computer.” He paused. “She doesn’t have a TV, and she had the radio on the wrong station.” He glanced at me and smiled, but I could see worry clouding his eyes. “Should I come over?” he asked. Alarm seized me. He was thinking of leaving me alone in the path of a tornado?

“I haven’t checked the cellar here since we started working. There’s been a lot of other work, but I’ll take a look.”

Cellar? I didn’t know I even had one.

“No, Ma,” he said. “I didn’t know I was talking funny.” He cast a glance my direction.

I blushed and winced. I left him talking and went into the living room to retrieve Kitty, who was curled up on a chair. He didn’t seem at all happy to be picked up, but after a few seconds of coaxing, he relaxed and let me hold him.

Eli was saying good-bye when I got back to the kitchen. “Do you need to go to her?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Aunt Liz is there.”

“Oh, Jarrod’s mom?” Of course he meant Jarrod’s mom. How many Aunt Lizzes could there possibly be in one family?

Of course, there were three Joans and half a dozen Billys, named after the granddad they all called Pop, but I’d never heard of more than one Liz, so I had to assume.

Eli swallowed the last of his omelet and nodded. “Yeah. She doesn’t have a basement or cellar, so she always heads to Mom’s in bad weather. Mae and her kids are there too, and I imagine she dragged Uncle Fred. They’re all hunkering down in the basement with a game of Yahtzee and the TV and radio dialed to the right stations.”

I almost felt bad about the relief rushing through me when I realized
that Eli wouldn’t be leaving me until it was all over. But I had to admit I kind of liked the idea that he’d called to check on his mom.

Eli stood and then grabbed the table, as though the room had started to spin. I jumped up and took hold of his arm. “Okay?”

“Just a little dizzy. I got up too fast.”

“You need to go back to the living room and lie down.”

He shook his head, staring at me with his eyebrows up. “Have you forgotten we’re in the path of a tornado?”

“No, but have you forgotten you have a broken nose?” I knew better than to discount this one, considering how nervous Eli seemed, but I also knew he was injured and that his nose could start a gullywasher of its own any second if he didn’t get his head back.

But clearly, Eli wasn’t inclined to tempt fate. “I’ll be fine. Just stood up too fast.” As if to demonstrate his point, Eli let go of the table and stepped toward the doorway. “I need a flashlight. Do you have one?”

I nodded. “In the Jeep. I’ll be right back.” I thrust Kitty into his arms. “Hold him for me, please.”

I ran out to the Jeep and back and was breathing hard when I got back inside. I handed it over, and he relinquished the cat. “Where’s the cellar?” I asked. “I didn’t know I had one.”

“It’s right outside the back door.”

“Really?” Surprised, I followed him through the hallway to the mud room and onto the back porch.

“What did you think this was?” he asked, pointing to a wooden door lying almost flat on the ground.

I shrugged. “I never noticed. I haven’t really been here much, you know.”

The rain had let up to almost a sprinkle, and I was beginning to wonder if our worry was much ado about nothing. I knew for certain I wouldn’t be going underground if I didn’t have to. A nice finished basement with a family room was one thing, but a cellar was not nearly so people friendly.

Thunder crashed, and Kitty sprang from my grasp, scratching my skin as he went. “Kitty!” I called after him and started to follow, but Eli grasped my wrist. “You’re not going after that cat in this.”

“This? It’s barely sprinkling.” The wind had come to a full stop. “It’s not even blowing anymore.”

“Ever heard of the calm before the storm? Look at how green the sky is. It’s getting ready to hit.” He yanked open the cellar door. “Here, take the flashlight and climb down.”

I hung back. “You first.”

“No. You first. I have to close the door.” He pointed to the west. “Look!” The sky opened up and poured as I noticed the dark cloud headed toward us. I grabbed the flashlight and hurried down the steps.

Eli got inside and closed the door just as hail began to pelt the earth.

The cellar was everything I remembered from childhood. The air smelled musty and felt damp and cool. Cobwebs lined the ceiling until Corrie insisted I knock them all down. We had been in the cellar for an hour, and the tornado still hadn’t passed. I figured it must have switched directions, but I hated to leave the shelter until I knew for sure. It was going on nine o’clock, and after my early start today, not to mention my broken nose, my head ached. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and sleep.

I glanced at Corrie. “Did you bring your phone?”

She shook her head. “I’d have grabbed it if I’d known we were going to be stuck down here.”

“Well, what did you think was going to happen when I asked for a flashlight and started toward the cellar?” I shook my head. It felt like a tornado had touched down on my face.

“I don’t know.” Her legs were stretched out in front of her on the floor, her back resting against the concrete wall. “Why do you want my phone?”

“I wanted to check the weather. I think the brunt of the storm turned before it got this far, or we would have heard it go over.”

She breathed out her relief but shook her head.

I stood up in the cramped space and then made my way to the steps.

“What are you doing?” Corrie asked. I could hear the fear in her voice, and I hated to be the cause of any more emotional upset for her, but we had no choice.

“I’m going to open the door and take a look outside.”

“Do you think we should wait a few more minutes?”

For a woman who hadn’t even wanted to come to the cellar in the first place, she was pretty storm-spooked all of a sudden. Besides, I didn’t think a few minutes would make a difference. I hadn’t heard the wind or hail in quite some time, so I was pretty sure the threat was over. “Come on,” I said, holding out my hand. “Let’s be brave.”

Her face relaxed and a smile surprised me. She slid her small hand into mine, and I felt like a million bucks. Aunt Trudy’s smoke-husky voice came back to me.
“She’s not for you.”

Well, what did she know? Something was happening to me that had everything to do with this girl, and whether Aunt Trudy approved or not, I wanted to know exactly what it was.

I held Corrie’s hand while we walked across the cold concrete to the stairs. I felt her hang back as I started to ascend. Loosening my grip, I allowed her hand to slip out of mine. “I’ll go first. Shine the light so I can unlock the door.”

“Be careful.”

I nodded, hurrying up the steps. I opened the door and saw that my feeling was confirmed. “It’s fine,” I called down.

Relief covered her face, and she walked up the steps. As I climbed out of the cellar, I saw that we’d sustained more of an impact than I’d imagined. The new roof might need a few shingles replaced, and a couple of small trees were uprooted. The clothesline was down.

“Well, it definitely could have been worse.” I turned at the sound of Corrie’s shaky voice. “You think that’s it?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s all passed by now.”

She smiled at me. “Then you should have no objection to me taking you to the emergency room to see about that nose.”

“I’ll go tomorrow,” I said. “I promise.”

She was shaking her head before I finished the sentence. “I won’t feel right unless I get you there. You told me earlier that if it wasn’t storming I could drive you to the hospital. Now it isn’t.”

My head ached, and now that the threat had passed, my whole face felt like it had connected with a door.

“Okay,” I said. “Fine.”

Fifteen minutes later, we were in her Jeep Wrangler, inching our way down the steep hill from the house. I looked at her askance and rolled my eyes. “If you think you can go any slower, we could probably get there by morning.”

Keeping her eyes on the road, she lifted her chin. “Better to go slow and get there later than go faster than I can handle on this road and end up flipping the Jeep. I might break a lot more than your pretty little nose.”

“You think my nose is pretty? I’m flattered.”

“I think it
was
pretty until I opened a door on it.” She shook her head. “Too bad, too. I happen to think that nose is just about your best feature. It was Jarrod’s too.”

I might have thought she was flirting with me, but the breath she released seemed weighted, not light and teasing like a girl joking about a man’s broken nose. I figured she was thinking about Jarrod now, so I
respected her silence while we drove. Her phone rang. She glanced at me. “Will you answer it? I’m not wearing the earbuds.”

I grabbed it from the cup holder and glanced at the caller ID. “It’s my mom. She must have just dialed me back because I used your phone earlier.”

I answered the phone. “Mom? Everything okay over there?”

“We’re fine,” she said. “I’m checking on you and Corrie.”

“She had minor damage, but all in all, not bad.”

“That’s a relief. Eli, the weatherman says another one is coming.”

“Another what, Ma?”

“A tornado. What do you think?”

“Another tornado?”

Corrie frowned and glanced at me. “What is she talking about?”

My mom must have been listening to the TV, because she’d checked out of the conversation. “Yes, they’re showing the radar right now on KY3. Are you still in the cellar?”

“No, actually, we’re headed to the hospital.”

She gasped. “What do you mean? I thought you two were fine.”

“I banged up my nose before the storm. I think it’s broken. Corrie’s driving me to the hospital.”

“Wait. I think you best get back inside.” She paused. “Here’s what the meteorologist is saying. There were two storms. One that turned north and fizzled out and another right behind it that popped up out of nowhere. It’s headed our way. Just southwest of Saunders Creek. Where are you, Eli?” My mother wasn’t given to panic, but the rise in her voice sounded like just that. “I don’t care what’s broken. You need to get yourself to shelter.”

Corrie reached over and tapped my arm. “What’s wrong?”

“Another tornado.” I was kicking myself inwardly for not checking the weather report before leaving the house.

“Should we turn around?” she asked, her tone tight and a little higher pitched than normal.

The radio emergency broadcast system blared into the Jeep. “All right, folks,” the announcer said. “Weather spotters west of Highway 65 around the town of Saunders Creek are reporting a tornado on the ground traveling east and north around fifty miles per hour. If you’re in the path of this storm, take shelter immediately.”

“Ma,” I said. “You might have just saved our bacon. We need to go.”

Corrie slammed on the brakes at the end of the long driveway. “Turn around or don’t turn around?”

We could turn left and go to my mother’s. But I dismissed that. I knew they were all in the basement, and I didn’t want her to have to come up the steps to open the door for me.

“Turn right. We’ll go to my place.”

“Your place?” Corrie made a sharp turn, gunning the gas pedal in her panic. The Jeep fishtailed, then she righted it and started down the gravel road. “Where is it?”

“Just a couple of miles,” I said. “It’s quicker than trying to get back up your road and into your cellar.”

“Okay, you’ll have to direct me,” she said, her foot getting heavier on the accelerator. I was starting to get scared she was going to kill us before the tornado got the chance.

The floodlights came on around the house as soon as we pulled
into the driveway, and we jumped out. The wind had picked up considerably, and the rain hurt when it hit.

“Ow! That’s hail.” Corrie slammed her door and ran around to the front of the Jeep. I grabbed her hand and ran with her to the house.

Lightning zigzagged from a black sky to a dark earth and lit an eerie path through the field beyond my house. Hail was unrelenting. I unlocked the door and shoved her inside. Outside, I heard the telltale roar of a mean, crazy storm, and I yanked Corrie by the arm and pulled her down the hallway.