Bearly In Love

by Terri Reid

  Olga nodded. “No harm done, Miss Lorraine,” she said. “What can I do for you?”

  What can you do for me? she thought. You can stop Henry from panting around Stacy Gage. That’s what you can do for me.

  “Well, actually, I was looking for Henry. Is he home?” she asked.

  “No, he left about ten minutes ago,” Olga replied. “He always leaves at seven-thirty to make it to work on time.”

  Stalling for time, Lorraine cast her eyes into the foyer beyond Olga, trying to come up with another reason for her visit when she spied the dry cleaning still bundled in plastic and hanging in the open, foyer closet. “Well, I just received a call from the dry cleaners,” she lied. “And they said they inadvertently put some of our things in with your order. I was going to ask Henry if I could come in to check and see if you have any of our clothes.”

  Olga shook her head slightly, trying not to show her impatience, and stepped away from the door. “You can look through it if you’d like,” she said. “I have to get back to the kitchen.”

  Lorraine stepped in and waved. “Oh, don’t let me stop you doing your…whatever,” she said. “I’ll just look and let myself out.”

  She watched as the older woman left the foyer, and then Lorraine walked over to the collection of clothes hung over the rod. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” she muttered as she noisily slid one hanger after another across the rod.

  In the middle of the collection was a short-sleeve, khaki, button-down, oxford shirt with Henry’s name embroidered over the front pocket and the emblem of Adventureland on the sleeve. She picked up the shirt and looked it over, a wicked smile coming over her face.

  “Yes,” she said, her smiled widening. “Yes, I know exactly what I’m going to do.”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Henry’s truck had just passed the road sign that indicated the entrance to Adventureland was just a mile ahead when Stacy turned to him. “Are you working at the concessionary today?” she asked hopefully.

  After deciding overnight that he was spending far too much time with Stacy, considering their circumstances, he shook his head. “No, I can’t,” he said, surprised at how sorry he was that he wasn’t going to be spending the day with her. “I have some things I have to take care of in some other areas of Adventureland.”

  “Oh,” she replied, disappointed. “Well, I’m sure there’s a lot going on all over the park. I’m grateful you could spend the time you could at the concessionary. You really got a lot accomplished there.”

  He shook his head and then glanced over at her. “No, you got a lot accomplished there,” he said earnestly. “You’re changing the whole area for the better. You should be really proud of the changes you’re making.”

  Shrugging, she met his eyes for a moment and then quickly glanced away. “Well, if you hadn’t taken the ideas to the owner, nothing would have happened,” she said. “So, really, I think we both should be proud.”

  A slow smile spread across Henry’s face and he nodded. “Okay, that’s a deal,” he said. “We’ll both be proud.”

  She smiled in return. “So, what exciting things will you be doing today?” she asked.

  “I thought I’d test the emergency warning systems,” he said, automatically voicing one of the thoughts he had been contemplating. “Since tomorrow is the anniversary…”

  He clapped his mouth shut, but the words were out there, hanging between them.

  “I’m sorry…” he began.

  “I know,” she said at the same time. “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the tornado that killed my parents.” She took a deep breath and sent him a shaky smile. “You don’t need to worry about reminding me. It’s not something I’m likely to forget.”

  Feeling his stomach twist, he reached over and took her hand. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Her smile brightened. “Yes, I’m okay,” she said. “It happened more than ten years ago, and while I’m sad they’re gone, I don’t dwell on it. I know they’re in a better place, and they’re watching over Grandma and me.”

  He squeezed her hand quickly and then released it. “But I bet you wish it never happened,” he said thoughtfully. “I bet you wish the storm door had held and everyone had been safe.”

  “Well, of course I do,” she said. “But that’s not how it happened, so I had to move on and live the kind of life they would have wanted me to live.”

  She glanced over at him. His jaw was tight, and he was staring straight ahead as he drove. She pondered if she could tell him what was really on her mind. That after losing her parents, her next greatest heartache from that day was losing his friendship. That was the one area of grief she hadn’t been able to get over, mostly because she didn’t understand why he had walked away from her. Was it that she reminded him of that awful day, and he didn’t want to face it again? Was it because he blamed her in some way? She had questioned the whole situation for years and never could come up with a satisfactory answer.

  “Henry?” she asked tentatively.

  He took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said, his eyes still on the road.

  “I was just wondering, you know, about that day,” she began.

  The ringing of Henry’s cell phone interrupted her sentence. He sent her a smile of apology as he pressed the button on the car to engage the caller and breathed a silent sigh of relief that he didn’t have to answer Stacy’s question about that day.

  “Hello,” he stated.

  “Hi Henry, it’s Lorraine.”

  Stacy’s stomach twisted.

  “Lorraine, I’m on my way to work,” Henry replied impatiently.

  “I know,” she said playfully. “I just didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to you this morning.”

  After years of having Lorraine rush out of her house and wave to him as he drove away, Henry didn’t think anything about the comment. “Well, you can say goodbye to me tomorrow morning,” he replied.

  “I’ll be sure I do,” she said, her voice slightly breathy.

  “Goodbye, Lorraine,” he replied impatiently.

  “Goodbye, Henry,” she whispered.

  Stacy looked out the side window as they turned into the Adventureland drive. Were they still an item? Even though Henry said he wasn’t engaged to Lorraine, it sounded like their relationship was a lot more intimate than she had understood.

  “Um, that was nice of her to take the trouble to call you,” she ventured.

  He shook his head. “I guess,” he replied, still worried about the beginning of Stacy’s last question. “Do you mind if I just drop you off at the locker rooms? I really want to get a jump on the day.”

  “No, that’s not a problem at all,” Stacy said, surprised at his abrupt change of subject. Was there something he was hiding about his relationship with Lorraine?

  He drove the truck over to the building and pulled up next to the door. “Well, have a great day,” he said. “I’ll pick you up here at five.”

  Grabbing her purse and backpack, she nodded. “Okay, you have a great one, too,” she said, letting herself out of the truck. “See you later.”

  After closing the door, Henry pulled away quickly and headed towards the main office building, Stacy watching him with a confused look on her face. What’s wrong with Henry? she wondered. Is he uncomfortable letting me know about his relationship with Lorraine? Whatever is going on, he sure seems to be trying to hide something from me.

  With a soft sigh, she turned and entered the locker room. She had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Stacy walked up to the concessionary after she’d finished giving George his morning treat. She noticed that Ed and Reuben didn’t have all of their equipment unpacked yet. “Late morning?” she asked them.

  Ed stepped away from the truck with a large, canvas tarp in his hands and shook his head. “No, it looks like we might get a storm today. We’re on batten-down-the-hatches duty,” he replied. “So before we got going on the r
est of the park, we wanted to make sure everything here was covered up nice and tight.”

  “Are they expecting a big storm?” she asked, glancing up into the bright blue sky.

  “Yeah, well you know weather forecasters,” he said. “They’re the only people in the world that can be wrong more than fifty percent of the time and still keep their jobs.”

  Reuben chortled. “Good one, Ed.”

  “Is it safe for me to work inside?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah, we got plywood covering any openings and all the materials have been protected, too,” he said. “You still got your electric and plumbing, so you should be good to go. But you won’t be getting any visitors today. I thinking they’re going to be shutting down the tram for safety inspections today.”

  Stacy hefted her backpack in a more comfortable position over her shoulder. “Actually, that’s great,” she admitted. “I brought a laptop and a bunch of ideas for marketing the new wildlife reserve, and I really wanted to spend a quiet day creating some brochures and flyers.”

  “Well, that’s great then,” Ed said. “‘Cause you ain’t gonna be bothered by no one.”

  She smiled and walked to the building. “Well, good luck with your battening,” she said. “Try to stay dry.”

  “Yeah, keep your radio on,” Reuben reminded her. “Just in case.”

  She nodded. “Will do.”

  Punching in the code, she unlocked the door and stepped inside. The space was now nearly empty with only the counter tucked into the corner. Most of the lighting had been removed. The display cases had been stored so they could work on the floors, and there were two areas of outside wall that had been cut away. They were now covered with plywood while the special order doors were being built.

  Pulling a stool over to the counter, Stacy unpacked her laptop and set it up. She plugged it in, happy to see it charging, and then pulled out the ideas she had come up with the night before. Climbing up onto the stool, she opened up a word processing program and started typing away. As she finally completed the first page of copy, she was startled by the wail of the emergency sirens echoing through the air.

  The windows were covered, so she couldn’t see outside, but she thought she would have been able to hear rain against the roof of the building. Jumping down from the stool, she ran to the door and pulled it open. The sky was bright blue and dotted with white, fluffy clouds. She stepped away from the building quickly to look out over the horizon and saw nothing but blue sky in that direction, too. Suddenly, she remembered that Henry had mentioned he was going to be testing the emergency system throughout the day.

  “Good one, Stace,” she murmured, taking an unsteady breath. “Nothing like being a little paranoid, is there?”

  She went back into the building, closed the door and settled back to work on her plans. After working on the copy for the brochure and invitation for several hours, she sat up and stretched. Her brain was tired. She decided she really needed to clear her mind and work on something else. Digging into her backpack, she pulled out her lunch. She opened the plastic bag that held her sandwich and broke it into small, bite-sized pieces as she ate.

  She looked over at the radio she had set in the charger when the first siren had gone off. The charging light had turned from red to green, so she knew the unit was ready for any emergency. Since that was the only way she would receive any kind of communication, she wanted to be sure it was working. The weather sirens had gone off a number of times that morning. The first few times, she jumped a little, but by the fourth test she was able to work right through it.

  Pulling out an apple, she took a bite and then pulled a small, drawing pad in front of her. She wanted to start working on a basic logo idea with a theme that she could incorporate throughout the website, the brochures and even the invitations to the fundraising gala. That was one of the strongest things emphasized in her marketing class, creating a brand so the product, whatever it might be, was easily recognizable.

  Taking another bite of apple from one hand and holding her pencil in the other, she tried to envision the best image to represent the wildlife reserve. She started doodling on the pad, first a pine tree, then an eagle and finally a chipmunk. But none of them seemed to represent the idea behind the wildlife reserve. She cradled her chin in her hands and sighed. This was harder than she initially thought. She glanced over to the side of the counter where remnants of her lunch sat in a pile and saw the extra plastic bag from her backpack that had held George’s apple. She grinned. George! Of course, he was the perfect image for the reserve.

  Putting the half-finished apple down on the counter, she pulled the pad closer and started doing a number of small sketches of a cartoon version of George. Pleased with the visual, she hurried to the back storage room and pulled out the printer/scanner. Plugging it in, she connected it to her computer and scanned the sketches, saving them as images on her computer. Once scanned, she went back to her word processing program and started to manipulate the image in the various documents she had created.

  She heard the emergency sirens wail once again and barely noticed because she was so involved with the work she was doing, but the sound of rain hitting the roof of the building gave her pause. She sat up and looked at the radio. It was still charged and working. If there was something wrong, she would have received a call. Shrugging, she bent down and went back to work.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Henry ran from the main building towards the locker room in the pouring rain. Ed and Reuben had just pulled their truck into the parking spot next to the building. Henry had been thinking about Stacy all day, but he didn’t want to seem too anxious about her. He just wanted to be sure she was safe.

  “Did you get everyone off the rides?” Henry asked.

  “Yeah,” Ed said. “We’ve got everyone hunkered down in the storm shelters. I think we’ve got about fifteen minutes before it gets really ugly here.”

  Looking off in the distance to the huge, black, storm system heading their way, he nodded. “Well, you two should head to the shelter now,” he ordered. “I’ve got all the corporate employees down in the shelter under the main building. Um, how is Stacy doing?”

  “Stacy?” Ed asked.

  “Yes, Stacy Gage. You know, the young woman from the Bear Concessionary,” Henry replied. “She should be with the other employees.”

  “I didn’t see her,” Reuben said. “Did someone call her?”

  Henry felt the panic rising in his chest. “We sent out a general radio signal to everyone,” he said. “She knows she should immediately respond to the signal.”

  Ed scratched the side of his head. “You know, that radio line could have been disconnected when we were redoing the wiring yesterday,” he said. “I don’t know if we connected it back together.”

  Fear crept into Henry’s voice. “Well, she’d see it wasn’t working, right?” Henry asked. “There would be a way for her to tell that we couldn’t contact her.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Ed continued, eyes wide. “The power’s working out there, so the charge light would be green. She’d think the radio was fine, unless she tried calling out.”

  “Yeah, but don’t worry,” Rueben said. “She would have heard the emergency sirens.”

  Ed shook his head. “Those sirens have been going off all day,” he said. “And she doesn’t have any windows to look out. She’s pretty much a sitting duck out there.”

  Henry’s mouth went dry at the thought of Stacy sitting out there all alone with a tornado heading their way in just a few minutes. “You two get to the shelter,” he yelled as the rain started coming down even harder. “I’ll drive down and get Stacy.”

  Henry ran to his pickup, his heart in his throat. He pulled open the door, started the truck and shoved it into gear. In a flurry of gravel and rain, he floored the accelerator and sped down the narrow road to the wildlife reserve area.

  Rain swept sideways across the drive, leaves and small branches flying onto his windshi
eld while trees whipped back and forth in the wind. The tall, chain-link fence on either side of the road was shaking as the wind used it like a giant grater, ripping the leaves from nearby branches rammed through it.

  Henry turned on the emergency radio next to him on the passenger seat to listen to the weather reports from the local station. After the static had cleared, he heard the familiar, yet ominous alert signals of the emergency weather forecast system. A tornado warning had been issued for his county. The forecasters had spotted a funnel cloud just west of Adventureland, and it was headed his way.

  He tried to look to the west, but the trees of the reserve blocked his view. The tornado could be upon him, and there was no way to know.

  He never even thought about turning back. All he could think about was Stacy and the memory of the day her parents died. He remembered holding on to her when the storm door gave way and watching the shock on her face as she watched her parents fight for their lives. She had tried to pull away from him, tried to help them, but he wouldn’t let her go. He had known that if he released her, she would be sucked up, too. She had sobbed in his arms as they waited for emergency personnel, never speaking, just crying quietly as they searched for her parents. He remembered the complete look of loss on her face. The look he had put there. He never wanted to see that look on her face again.

  The rain increased, and even with his windshield wipers going at top speed, he could barely see a few feet in front of the truck. Suddenly, there was a loud crack next to the road and a bright flash of light. Henry’s heart leapt as a huge tree next to the road shivered and started to fall towards him. He swerved the truck and accelerated, just missing the main impact of the tree, but several of the limbs hit the side of the truck and knocked it sideways towards the ditch. There was already a deep canal of dark, rushing water streaming through the ditch. He knew if the truck slid into it, he would be pulled back to the river in the center of the park. Henry swerved again, mud and gravel spiraling into the air as he maneuvered to keep the truck on the road. Missing the canal by only inches, he slid back on the road and stomped on the accelerator just as the wind increased and larger limbs started to soar across the sky in front of him.