“Good. Check on you later. Stay safe.”
“Hey, you too.”
They both put their vehicles in gear. Jared stopped and looked at Tom soberly. “Are we good?”
Were they? Was Tom willing to let things go to let a friend give him sound advice?
Tom looked away and back at his best friend. Tom nodded. “We’re good. Later, dude.”
Jared smiled and drove away.
“Yes Mom, I’m fine. We’re under a tropical storm warning.” Sarah closed the door behind her. Between them, she and Lucy had locked all the new storm shutters Jared had insisted upon installing before she ever moved in. The power was out when she arrived, so they gathered Oliver, his dog food and bowls, and any perishables to take with them to the shelter.
“Shouldn’t you be at the shelter? Oh, Sarah, please don’t take any chances.”
“Mom, I have my emergency kit with me, and we’re getting in the car to head to the church right now. I need to get off the phone in case Jared calls.”
“All right. Keep me updated as best you can.”
“Don’t worry, I will. I love you, Mom.”
Her mother ended the call on her end, and Sarah checked her “missed calls” in case she hadn’t heard the electronic notification for all the wind. Nothing. She didn’t want to worry her mother, but now she was worried, herself, about Jared.
“He should have called by now.”
“Maybe there are too many calls to get through. Or maybe cell service is out?” Lucy was trying to keep herself and Sarah calm.
Sarah tried his cell. Nothing. Straight to voicemail. She frowned into the phone.
“Let’s pray, Sarah. It’s the best thing we can do.”
Sarah nodded. “God, I know you said many times in the Bible not to fear, but I’m getting a little freaked out. Can You please, please take care of Jared for me?”
“And us,” Lucy added.
She squeezed Lucy’s hand. “Thanks. If we have to have a first hurricane experience, I’m glad we’re together.”
“Me, too.” Lucy seemed to shrink into the bucket seat of Sarah’s car.
She put her car in gear and headed out of the driveway. She didn’t speak as she drove. The wind and the sudden bursts of rain made driving a bit dicey, but safety was at the makeshift shelter at the church, not a house right on the beach.
Calvary Church’s nominating committee had approached her about helping out with the Disaster Preparedness Committee, and she’d said yes. Her background as a teacher and her proximity to the church was a plus. Having come from Tornado Alley, disaster relief looked much different from here. At home, in Kentucky, tornado activity could pop up in the middle of a thunderstorm, leaving devastation in its wake with less than an hour’s warning.
Tropical storms and hurricanes had more notice but could, and probably would, impact an entire region. Collecting food and supplies, making sure there was a safe, hurricane-resistant building to shelter in, and keeping the people there calm was the tip of the iceberg, she had learned. They partnered with the Red Cross and other organizations to provide a place for people to come who couldn’t leave the area. Calvary Church was one such location. It would serve the Murrells Inlet area and the area south of Litchfield Beach. Across the river, Georgetown had a shelter, and there was a church a few miles inland from Pawley’s Island that served their area.
Sarah handed Lucy her phone. “Try Jared’s number again.”
“Nothing.” Stuck in traffic, all they could do was pray. Call on God. “What about Tom? Maybe he will know something.”
She scrolled through the contacts on Sarah’s phone, found his number, and pressed “call.” On the fourth ring, right before voicemail, his voice came through. She put it on speaker.
“Sarah? Where are you?”
“It’s Lucy, on Sarah’s phone. We’re stuck in traffic on the way to the shelter at church. How is it?”
“It’s getting bad. I took Mom and Charly to the church. They’re fine.” She heard him pull the phone away from his face and yell instructions into the wind. “Did the open house get closed down?”
“As far as I know. Litchfield Plantation’s did. Have you heard from Jared? He was going to check on the new house and then head to Sarah’s house, but he never arrived.”
Her voice was starting to quiver with the gusty wind buffeting her car.
“He was headed toward the new house, but he promised he would head straight to the shelter after that. He probably got stuck in traffic like you.”
“Sarah can’t get him on the phone, Tom, and she’s getting pretty scared. If you are in that area, would you check on him? She wants to make sure he’s okay.”
As Sarah listened, the sick feeling in her stomach was getting worse.
Tom’s phone started cutting out. They could barely hear him but did catch, “check on him” before it went dead.
Sitting there, stalled in traffic consisting of locals trying to get home and nervous tourists trying to get out of town, Sarah’s tears started, and she let them flow. These tears were between her, Lucy, and God, and she knew they would both understand.
Jared arrived at the new house about the time the outer edge of the tropical storm hit.
Shaking his head in frustration, he decided to pull into the garage and try to wait it out until it slacked off a bit. He looked at his phone and read “no service” up at the top where he should have Wi-Fi and several bars of service. This house had every state-of-the-art tech item that it could hold. But could it hold up to hurricane force winds?
“I guess I’ll find out.”
He went into the house and confirmed the storm shutters had been closed before the agents closed it up after the open house. Good job. It was a beautiful house. In other circumstances, he would have wandered from room to room admiring the craftsmanship and design that had gone into the building of a dream house.
Today, he was preoccupied. Had Sarah and Lucy made it to the shelter, or were they still waiting for him at her house? He hoped not. Both their houses were right on the beach, as was this one. Great for nice days. Bad for storm surges.
A weather alert on his phone cut through the wild, screaming wind outside. “Tropical storm warning with the potential to be upgraded to a hurricane warning as the winds escalate. Stay tuned for weather alerts.”
“Why can I get that on my phone and no signal to call?” He shook his head and looked up in prayer. “Am I getting selfish? I know You can calm the storm and tell the sea to lie still. Right now all I want is for Sarah to be safe.”
The sky darkened both from the storm and the time of day. By dark the wind was still howling, and the surge was coming in.
When they arrived at the church, there were already several people from the community there, taking shelter. Lucy was glad to have something to do. The wind screaming outside was unnerving.
“Okay, Lucy, I’m in charge of keeping the little ones occupied, so, since you’re here, we’ll transition them between games, songs, and crayon and paper activities, with a craft thrown in. We can tag team. While one keeps the kids occupied, the other will put together another activity.”
“Look at you, all organized and everything. I thought that was my thing.” Lucy grinned. She couldn’t keep from wondering where Tom was. As a county detective, he was on duty. She had to keep busy or her nerves would get the best of her. As it was, her stomach was tied in so many knots the thought of eating anything made her feel sick.
“We’ve gathered old Vacation Bible School materials in tubs for emergencies and summer day-camp activities, and they sure do come in handy in times like this.”
Lucy was impressed. Sarah was doing an excellent job hiding her concern for Jared. She checked her phone every few minutes but had a smile for the children and their parents. The last thing anyone wanted was for a child to be traumatized by a storm, so when she could see them getting scared, they would stop, pray, and play a noisy game that helped to shut out the howling wind
. It helped the grownups too.
She knew Tom had a reason to be absent, but where was Jared? He should be here.
Chapter Fifteen
As night closed in and the screaming wind abated, the children began sorting themselves out amongst their parents and their cots or air mattresses. It was getting quieter. Everyone was wondering what had happened to their property. Some of the people there were vacationers in rental homes and condos.
Lucy, Sarah, and Charlotte—Charly to everyone except her mother—had stacks of blankets and bottled water in their arms. They went to different people, focusing on the elderly, to make sure they were warm enough. When they finished, they ended up with Charly and Tom’s mother, Mary Ann, in the corner of the fellowship hall.
“Are you doing okay, Mrs. Livingston?” Lucy had grown to love this woman.
“I’m fine. I can’t see how many people are here, but it’s a full house, isn’t it? Are you all right? You sound worried.”
Her lack of vision had no effect on her intuition. “Sarah hasn’t heard from Jared since this started.”
“Tom, either. They’re big boys, and they’ve gone through this before.”
“I know. But we haven’t.” Lucy chuckled quietly. “I guess Sarah will have to get used to this, living on the coast.”
“You never really get used to it. We’re fortunate it doesn’t happen every year, and the good outweighs the bad most of the time.”
“Except for the humidity and mosquitoes.” Charly had plopped down on a mattress next to her mother. “Other than that, it’s pretty near perfect, don’t you think?”
Sarah sank into an adjoining air mattress.
“Definitely. And it’s home now.” Sarah smiled at the teen.
Mary Ann put out her hands. “Let’s pray for our boys, shall we? Our Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise Your Name. We thank You for the safety of these people here and in other places. We pray safety for those outside these walls. And, if we’re honest, and You know our innermost thoughts, we pray a little harder for mercy and care for our boys, Tom and Jared. Keep them safe, Lord, in the palm of Your hand. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”
“Thank you.” Lucy and Sarah wiped the tears from their faces.
Sarah straightened her back in the dim light. “I believe and trust God for their safety. He’s got this.”
Lucy sniffed loudly, and chuckled. “Of course He does.” She wanted to believe it. Right now, she wanted to see Tom, make sure this maddening man that had her turned upside down and inside out was safe.
When the winds began to calm down to a roar instead of a scream, Jared fell asleep in the dark house. He had survived the storm.
When he woke, it was still dim in the shuttered house, the house quiet. He could hear sirens in the distance, but the house was standing. When he had finally fallen asleep the night before, the wind was screaming all around. He opened the shutters to survey the damage. There was debris all over the patio, but the wall of glass doors was intact. The pergola, however, was in pieces, leaning on the side of the house. Two of the new palm trees that had been planted a few weeks ago were on the ground. He calculated how much it would cost to replace them. Since they were not native to the area, losing one tree was losing money on a property.
He walked out the front door to inspect the damage on that side. No movement in the neighborhood. He assumed everyone had either evacuated or was still asleep. The wind was still gusty. Still dangerous to the trees and structures on the rain-and-storm-surge-soaked land that was more sand than dirt or rock. You had to dig deep to build a house on the beach. Fortunately, they had.
Jared smiled, remembering a verse from Matthew. But those who hear my instructions and ignore them are foolish, like a man who builds his house on sand. For when the rains and floods come, and storm winds beat against his house, it will fall with a mighty crash. Seeing the damage to other properties, his smile faded. He had to get out of here so he could help. It had been foolish of him to not go straight to Sarah’s house or to the shelter.
The large palm still stood in front of the house, but it was leaning. That would have to come down or be re-planted, and soon. He went back through the front door after seeing the drive was where he could get out, if he were careful. He locked up and manually opened the garage door.
He backed out of the garage. Out of habit, he stopped and looked down both sides of the street. As he looked up the street, his main thought was to get to the church and check on Sarah. What if the roads were closed? He hadn’t thought of that. He sat there a minute, thinking.
As he swung his head around to look down the other end of the street, the last thing he thought of was Sarah, and the last thing he saw was the large palm tree coming down on the sunroof of his SUV.
Chapter Sixteen
Power was out. Landlines and cell towers were out. The only communication was satellite radio and emergency communication devices.
When the sun came up the day after Tropical Storm Rosa, which had at moments pushed at the level-one hurricane scale, it was all any of them could do not to run out of the church and look at the devastation. They were instructed to stay inside until emergency services reached them. The men began opening the storm shutters, which gave them a glimpse of the church yard and the highway beyond the parking lot.
The lot was littered with debris, and the cars were there, but it looked as if a giant hand had been playing with them. No longer in straight rows, they were staggered, and there would be damage from the vehicles bumping one another. At least the storm surge hadn’t reached this area.
Sarah wondered about Pilot Oaks. Prudie Matthews and Alma Ruth McGinty had come to the church as soon as it opened. She was glad to not have to worry about these ladies. They were too special to her. Prudie had taken over the kitchen first thing. The food was good, and she kept it coming.
Through all of this, one person remained on her mind. Jared. Where was he? Had Tom been able to find him? And was Tom okay? She knew Mary Ann was worried, but she never let on. Lucy had been very quiet all night.
When the door to the family life center opened, she didn’t look up, thinking it was one of the men working on the shutters. Tom’s voice broke through the chaos. Finally. She immediately handed the toddler she held to Charly and went straight to him.
“Tom! Have you heard from Jared?”
Tom had a grim look on his face that did nothing to alleviate her fear. He had been through a hurricane, on duty. He did nothing more than squeeze his mother’s hand and kiss her cheek before he came directly to her.
“Sarah, there’s been an accident.”
Lucy came up and put an arm around Sarah.
“Jared.” Her knees weakened, and her hands begin to shake. “Is he okay?”
“He’s alive.”
Lucy held on to her, and Tom grabbed her arms before she could fall. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and made her knees stop shaking. This wasn’t the time.
“Where is he?”
“The ambulance took him to Georgetown General. They should be getting there about now. He’s unconscious.”
“I need to go. Now.”
“I’ll take you. Let me give instructions to the leadership here, and then we can go. Power’s still out all over the county and beyond. The storm surge did a lot of damage, and a lot of these people will be here for a few days, I’m afraid.”
Lucy spoke up. “Go. Take care of it. I’ll keep the kids occupied.”
Tom nodded at her in approval. He knelt by his mother and sister, assuring them he was fine, and updating them on Jared. He found the Red Cross sergeant overseeing the shelter and gave him an update on what was going on outside the walls of the church.
Sarah was trying her best to keep a “stiff upper lip,” but at the look on Charly’s face, she almost broke down. “Charly, I need you to help Lucy with the kids. I’ve got to go to Jared.” A stray tear worked its way down her cheek. “I have to.”
“I know. Take care of
my brother, will you?”
“Tom? He’s fine.” Sarah was confused.
“No, Jared. He’s like another big brother to me.” She went into Sarah’s arms and sobbed for a moment before pulling away and drying her eyes. “I’ll be okay. It’s just scary, isn’t it?”
Sarah smiled through her tears. “It is. But we know Who is in control. We have to remember that.” She squeezed the teen with another hug and nodded at her in approval. “You’ve got this.”
Charly grinned. “I’ve got this.”
Lucy, overseeing a paper-and-pencil activity with the children, paid attention to Tom as he interacted with his mother. She missed her parents. What must it be like to have a parent that needed you so much? She never knew her dad to “need” her, except in the way parents like to have their children near them. She always wanted to be more involved in his life than he would let her.
Had she been spoiled? Yes. Her dad made sure she never wanted for anything. He was the fun, snuggly dad. The dad that didn’t scold. A pointed look from him was scold enough. But she was used to getting her own way.
Tom? She wasn’t sure. He certainly looked after his mother and sister. An irritating thought came to her, unbidden. He had convinced himself, with his family to care for, that he didn’t have time to have a relationship.
“Lucy, I told Sarah I would help. What do you need?” Charly had walked up and surprised her in her reverie.
“You startled me, Charly. Okay, if you would, set up those table-top easels over there and get the watercolors and paper out. We’ll have them paint one another’s portrait.” For an idea off the top of her head, she didn’t think it was too bad.
“Awesome! I love art, and watercolors are my favorite.”
“Great. You can be in charge of that one while I check on something, if that’s all right with you?”
Charly laughed and pulled her long hair back into a ponytail. “No problemo. I’ll see that the rug rats paint one another on the paper, not on each other.”
Carolina Mercy (A Southern Breeze Series Book 2) Page 9
