by Curry, Edna
“Did you get your tetanus shot? The medical office is open down the street. We hooked up a generator for them.”
“I don’t need one,” Tami said. “I checked my records last night.”
Joe joked, “At least the mailman didn’t bring me any bills today.”
“I hear our mail was delivered to Sparville. You can pick it up there, if you want it,” Cal told him, grinning.
“No thanks, this way I can pretend I didn’t get them.”
“They’re bringing in a mobile home to use for a temporary post office. We’ll get mail again soon,” Cal told him.
“They brought in some kerosene heaters today,” Joe said. “So I guess I’ll stay here in my house tonight. That’ll save me the long drive from my sister’s. She’s already got three extra little kids staying with her while their parents do clean-up.”
“Well, I’d better get down to the church for the town meeting,” Cal said.
“Town meeting?” Tami’s reporter’s antenna went on alert. She grabbed her bag and followed him down to the basement of the nearby church. A group of reporters and local businessmen had already gathered and immediately quieted as Cal strode in. Everyone obviously expected him to take charge and she couldn’t help admiring the effortless way he did.
“Sorry to have to use the church for this,” he began. “But as most of you know, both our city hall and the fire station were destroyed. Our emergency equipment, including the generators, radios and cell phones are either buried in the rubble or have been carried away by the tornado. Luckily the guardsmen have brought in replacement equipment to help us out. Their help is greatly appreciated by everyone in town, I assure you.”
Tami turned on her tape recorder for some quotes and listened. Cal tried his best to encourage them and keep up their confidence in their future.
“Will you rebuild?” Tami asked.
"Definitely," Cal insisted. “We stick together, here. Neighbors help each other.”
“Huh,” a man muttered. “If the school closes, there’s nothing left of Conley. We’re just too damn small.”
Tami thought of the damage she’d seen at the school. Could they rebuild? Or would they be forced to consolidate with other districts as she knew the State Board of Education had been pushing them to do for ages. Was the man right?
She knew the children were bused in from miles around to the school. Attending various school meetings and their children’s activities at the school also drew the mothers to town. If they sent the children elsewhere, wouldn’t the parents go elsewhere to shop as well?
Lives had been disrupted and many would never be the same again.
“Remember the important thing,” Cal emphasized. “No one here has died, and only a few have been injured. Things can be replaced, people can’t.”
Closing the meeting, Cal got up and walked away, with only a short nod to her in goodbye. Tami watched him go, her throat constricting. He’d turned cold again. Did he still wish she would ‘just stay the hell away,’ as he’d once said?
Chapter 7
Tami shivered against the spring chill. The sun had gone back under a cloud. She hoped it wasn’t going to start raining again.
Hurrying back to her car, she started it and ran the heater, trying to get warm. She remembered she’d left her phone at the lunch area, and went back to claim it.
She drove to Sparville and was happy to find the power restored. She found a café with internet access and ordered hot coffee. She pulled out her laptop and worked on her story for Mr. Edwards, putting in many of the details she’d collected at lunch. How she could possibly do justice to the devastation there? How could she convey to her readers the pain and loss those people were feeling?
Finally, she emailed her story and pictures to her office with only a few minutes to spare. Then she drove on to Mankato for the promised visit with her mother.
At her mother’s neat rambler, Tami rang the bell. The lawn was beginning to green up, showing the first signs of spring. The flower beds had been cleaned, ready for the spring annuals she would soon plant there. Tulips were up several inches and little purple and yellow crocuses were already blooming.
Louise answered almost immediately, looking spiffy in a lavender suit and white blouse which set off her blonde hair beautifully. “Oh, it’s you, Tami,” she said giving her a quick hug and kiss and closing the door after her.
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“Not for an hour or so. My bridge club is coming over about five.”
Tami frowned at the news. “I thought you met in the afternoons.”
“Well, because all of us are widows now, we decided a supper meeting would be nice during the summer. It stays daylight so long in the evenings now, you know. The women don’t like to drive at night in the winter.”
“Oh. Well, I’ve got work to do, so I‘ll stay out of your way.”
Louise frowned at her. “Why are you so dirty? And you’re wearing jeans? My goodness, I thought you’d grown out of that disgusting habit in high school.”
“I told you I’m covering the tornado story, Mom. I can hardly walk around in the mess in Conley in a dress.” Though I was dumb enough to go there in office clothes the first day.
“Humph. I thought you did most of your job on the computer?”
“I do the writing there, but I have to go see what happened and talk to people too, so I have something to write about.”
“Oh. Of course. Sit down. How about some nice hot tea?”
“Tea sounds great. I’m chilled from working outdoors.” Tami sat down and tried to relax. She related some of the day’s events to Louise as they drank their tea.
“It’s all so awful,” her mother sighed. “Those poor people. Our church here made sandwiches to send to the workers this morning.”
“I probably ate one of them for lunch. Be sure to tell the ladies they were very much appreciated.” She thought of the tired faces of the men at lunch. Some of them would work all day, then go home to struggle with their own losses. Like Cal. What was he doing now? He’d looked so tired this morning. She’d bet he’d gotten little sleep last night. She pulled her thoughts back to what her mother was saying.
“We’re so lucky to still have power here.”
“Your phone works, too, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I need to make some calls and my cell phone needs charging. Don’t worry, I’ll use my work phone card. And I need to charge up my laptop so I can write another story and send it in to the office.”
“You use the phone for that?”
“Yes. I have a modem and a wireless hookup on my laptop. But you don’t have internet access, so I’ll need to go downtown to send it to the office.”
Louise sighed. “I don’t understand all these modern gadgets. You just go ahead, dear, with whatever you need to do. I'll entertain my ladies.”
“I can work upstairs. There’s a phone up there.” She drank her tea, and her mind flew back over the day. Was Cal still working on clearing the streets? Or had he gone to Sam’s place to take care of Sam's cows? Were the neighbors helping?
“Did you know Cal Lentz is the mayor of Conley now?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
Louise cast her a suspicious look. “Yes. So what? There are only 800 people there, you know. His mother moved to Arizona after his father died. She’s remarried now.”
“Oh. He said his Aunt Mary is a nurse.”
Louise nodded. “An RN, I heard. She went back to school and got her degree after her kids grew up. She only finished a few years ago. You’ve seen Cal then?” Disapproval dripped from her voice and showed clearly in the expression on her face.
Tami ignored it. “Yes. He was clearing streets in Conley with a tractor, loading debris into trucks to be hauled away.” No point in telling her she’d seen him the week before. Louise wouldn’t like it a bit.
“He’s a widower, now. His wife died in a car accident. I think I told you t
hat, didn’t I?”
“Yes, when it happened.”
Her mother shrugged. “Why he wanted to study agriculture, I’ll never know. Selling farm equipment now, I hear.”
Tami closed her eyes. “Yes, he has his own business now.” At least one of them had made a dream come true.
She thought of Mr. Edwards and her dream of winning one of the newspaper’s annual awards. Fat chance, with big-shot Arlo given the choice assignments. Mr. Edwards thought her assignment to Conley so unimportant he hadn’t even given her a photographer. Even this tornado assignment favored Arlo, because he was covering the damage in a larger town with its historical past and prestigious college. That was sure to interest far more people than her story of little Conley.
Well, she could hardly expect their mostly metro readers to care about a small farming community.
She should be satisfied with earning a good living at what she did. Forget the awards. Maybe she wouldn’t even go to the awards dinner this year. She could miss it like she had the employee’s party the other night. Who needed rubber chicken at banquet dinners anyway? Or a stupid framed piece of paper to hang on a wall?
She wondered if Mr. Edwards had cut much of her story. How many of the pictures she’d sent him last night had he used? “Did you get this morning’s paper?”
“Yes. Your story was on the front of the Out-state News section.” Louise went to the magazine rack and came back with the paper. “Here it is. Nice by-line, dear.”
“Thanks, Mom,” she said, pleased. “I’ll take it up with me and read it. I hear Aunt Cora’s helping out the storm victims by baby-sitting.”
“Baby-sitting?” Louise raised her eyebrows in horror at her sister-in-law’s actions. “Honestly, what will that woman think of next?”
“I think it’s very nice of her. Important, too.” She thought of Bobby’s tear-stained face as he waited for his father. Their home was gone. Probably all his clothes and toys, too. She was very glad Aunt Cora was taking care of him.
Louise looked unconvinced.
“I’d better get busy, now, Mom. I’ll work on the desk in my room.”
“We’re having my chicken salad and fruit. Do you want to eat with us when the ladies get here? There’s still a skirt or two in your closet, I believe.”
Tami cringed. Her mother’s suggestion implied she wasn’t to show herself in jeans and sweatshirt. She couldn’t see herself wasting precious time making small talk. The very idea of wasting hours playing bridge now appalled her. The amount of work needing to be done in Conley was overwhelming. “I’d rather not, if you don’t mind. I still have a lot to do.”
“I’ll leave you a plate in the refrigerator, then.“
“Would you mind if I take it up with me, now? I may just drop over to see how Cora’s doing, after I send my story in.”
Louise shrugged, looking relieved. “Whatever you prefer, dear.”
Going to the guest room, Tami plugged in her cell phone and laptop to recharge them, then dug out her phone credit card and began making calls, getting the latest info from the weather bureau on the storm track and their decisions on its strength.
Then she called the hospitals and checked on the condition of the injured. Her throat constricted when she heard Sam’s condition was still critical. She wondered how Sally was coping and wished she knew how to reach her.
Taking bites between typing sentences, she ate her quick supper as she wrote her story.
She tucked her phone into her purse and headed out again, anxious to leave before the bridge ladies arrived.
On the way back to Conley, she stopped and took some pictures of damaged farms, telling herself she needed to balance her story on the town itself.
Somehow she ended up on the road where Sam and Sally lived. It just happened that way, she assured herself. A mess of tree stumps where the grove used to be and a blue metal silo poked up from the bare land. Their house looked okay, a small brick building and the brick walls of the lower half of his barn were all that was left of what had been a modern, lovely farmstead.
A large broken elm tree lay in the yard where she and Cal had shared so many kisses after their reunion planning session. Where they’d come so close to making love.
Everywhere, the fields were littered with pieces of twisted metal, broken tree limbs, insulation, sheet-rock and boards from the smashed buildings. How in the world would Sam ever get this mess cleaned up in order to plant his crops? Would he even survive to continue farming?
She drove past Cal’s place next. She hadn’t been there since they’d dated in high school. There was almost nothing left of the buildings now. Fallen trees and other debris covered his yard. Why was he helping in town when he had endless work to do at home?
It was after six when she turned into Aunt Cora’s well-kept farmyard. Cora lived a mile north of the storm track and so had been spared any damage. She welcomed Tami with open arms as usual.
Cora bustled around, fixing tea and chatting about all the latest news as she set it in front of Tami on the round oak table. Bobby and Jean, Sally’s three-year-old, were chasing each other around the living room, and Cora stopped to quiet them down and find more games to keep them busy.
“Man, but I miss that idiot box,” she exclaimed. “I know it’s not good for kids to watch too much television, but it sure helps keep them busy and quiet. I’ll be happy when the electricity comes back on. Does your mom have any?”
Tami nodded. “Yes, she said they were lucky and didn’t lose theirs. The power company is working hard. I saw several of their crews today.”
She sipped her tea, watching the children and noting Cal’s son Bobby was now sitting apart from the others, building a tower from odd-shaped wooden pieces.
“I see you have Bobby Lentz today.”
“Yes. You know about Sam and Sally, his regular sitter?”
Tami nodded, winking at Bobby as he looked up and stared at her.
“Sally’s mother is a friend of mine,” Cora said, “and she was taking care of Sally’s girls. But I offered to take them, because she’s been driving the hundred miles each way to be with Sally at the hospital. They lost some trees and out-buildings on their farm, too, and have been busy cleaning up in between trips. So I have their two girls, along with Bobby and another girl Sally usually cares for.”
“Quite a handful. Are you sure you’re up to this, Cora?”
“Certainly,” Cora said tartly. “I’m not over the hill, yet.”
Tami flushed. “I didn’t mean that. But without power, and…”
“I’m just thankful my stove runs on bottled gas, or I wouldn’t even be able to cook for them,” Cora said. She took a curved, decorative comb from her hair, swept a graying lock of hair back and fastened it again, all in one smooth gesture without even looking in a mirror. It was obvious she’d done that many times before.
Cora’s house seemed small now. A crib was set up in a corner of the dining room and a playpen in another corner. The baby in the crib began to cry, and Cora got up. “I’ll get Sara’s bottle,” she said. “Do you want to hold her a minute to keep her quiet while I warm it?”
“Sure,” Tami said, doubtfully. She walked over to the crib and picked up the baby. It was ages since she’d held a little one. Sara’s diaper was wet, and a package of disposable ones lay on the chair beside the crib. Tami sighed and talked soothingly to her while she proceeded a bit awkwardly to change the little girl.
She was struggling to figure out the way the diaper fit when Cal walked in to pick up his son.
With an amused grin, he walked over and watched her a moment, then finished the diapering job for her. “A bit out of practice, eh?”
“I was never in practice,” she shot back.
“No, you weren’t, were you? As I remember, your mom didn’t approve of her little girl doing mundane jobs.” His voice had turned sarcastic again.
She swallowed, sorry to see his friendly smile disappear. She couldn’t think of a thing t
o say. His assessment of her mother’s attitude was the truth, but she hadn’t realized he or others knew about it. But then, what wasn’t common knowledge about people’s lives in a small town? Wasn’t that part of the reason she’d left?
Cal picked Sara up and she rewarded him with a one-toothed grin. He carried her into the living room and greeted Bobby and the other children, then sat down on the sofa with Sara in one arm and Bobby on his knee.
Cora appeared with Sara’s bottle.
“I’ll feed her,” Tami said.
But Cora shook her head and handed the bottle to Cal, as though she knew he wouldn't mind feeding the little girl.
“Cal can feed her. You come give me a hand with supper,” Cora said.
Tami glanced back at him. Was Cal used to feeding Sally’s baby? How much time had he spent at Sam and Sally’s house? He looked so comfortable with the baby. But he’d had practice with his own son. She felt left out and uncomfortable.
She set the table while Cora brought out fresh rolls and a large casserole and salad and set them on the table. She couldn’t tell Cora she’d eaten already at her mother’s. Besides, that was hours ago and she was hungry again.
By the time everything was ready, Cal had finished feeding Sara and she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. Tami tried not to notice how incredibly sexy a muscular six foot man looked with a diaper thrown across his shoulder. A gentle smile crossed his face as he laid Sara in her crib and tucked her in.
The adults were kept busy helping the children fill their plates and butter their rolls.
Eventually the children went to play in the living room and the three of them were alone.
“I saw your article in this morning’s paper,” Cora said. “Very nice, dear.”
“Thank you, Auntie.”
“Did you see it, Cal?” Cora asked, turning to him.
He shook his head, a frown dipping his brows.
“Cal doesn’t approve of my writing about Conley’s problems,” Tami said, trying to keep her hurt feelings out of her voice.
“But, why not? People want to know about such things. Besides, I heard the donations are starting to come into the Red Cross and Salvation Army, as well as to the churches.”
