by Angela White
They found me in the same position an hour later, their worry over me vanishing in favor of the tales of destruction that were slowly coming from our town. None of it surprised me. I had already witnessed it, live, through Angie’s gift. I tried to act shocked, agreeing that the apples had gotten to me, but inside, I was a wreck. I needed to get home.
“Your mother is coming!” Scot blared as they dragged me to my shaky feet. “She said to have you ready.”
They took me to the house and helped me pack, both boys so eager because they were hoping Mary would allow them to go back with her for a week of helping the town.
I thought there was an excellent chance they would get it. Mary adored being there to get gratitude for her resources.
“It’s a total loss!” one of the younger girls groaned in morbid delight. “The news said it was an F2.”
I followed my bags out to the porch, knowing my mother would want to know that she’d kept me waiting and stopped any last minute enjoyment I may have had here. I didn’t mind. I wanted to see Angie and I was busy searching for a way to make that happen without my hawk-like parent finding out.
It felt like fate was with me when my mother arrived. She shoved me toward the car, along with Rodney and Scot, but she told Douglas to drive us all to town to help with the cleanup. She needed to sit down and have a drink first.
I was on my way home, without my mother, mere minutes later. It was one of the few times that I ever felt lucky.
“She wants you boys at the restaurant,” Douglas informed Scot and Rodney. He glanced at me in the mirror. “She wants you at the house to protect it from looting.”
I was happy with that. I could sneak off for an hour and no one would know. “Are you going back for her soon?” I forced out, hoping he wouldn’t tell her that I’d asked.
The hard man sighed unhappily. “Yes.”
I didn’t stare in shock like my cousins were doing, but I guess I should have. Later, when they told my mother, both boys made sure to include that I hadn’t defended her honor. It didn’t matter to me. I’d always thought Douglas was my mother’s happy little gremlin and I was reveling in the delight that he wasn’t.
When the car stopped in front of the Brady home, I made myself exit and walk to the front door casually. The tornado hadn’t come in this direction. Everything still looked the same to me–uninviting and too elegant to belong to our family.
I heard the vehicle make it to the end of the street and then the engine faded into the distant wails of sirens. I immediately ran toward the cornfield.
I didn’t notice my mother’s car stopping at the corner. All I wanted at that moment was to find Angie.
Angie
I ran straight into his arms, not caring that we were both dripping sweat from the fresh humidity that had come after the storm. We hadn’t seen each other in thirteen months and my soul screamed for him.
I’d felt Marc getting closer and knew he would go to our club site first. I’d been hiding here since escaping the destruction at the restaurant. Patty had ushered me through the rear door when it was over and I’d gone gratefully as the paramedics tried to reach the man that I’d helped.
Marc’s arms slid around my shoulders, and his head rested against mine. Magic flew over us that the witch warned could be seen. I didn’t care. We stood there for a long time, not speaking, just feeling. For me, it was the first time that I’d ever felt safe and I immediately craved that sensation.
Marc had to be feeling the same things because he tightened his arms and gave a heavy sigh laced with a deep relief. Knowing that he’d heard my panicked calls, that he cared enough to risk us being seen, eased all the panic that I had been feeling during our time apart. He still cared!
Marc reluctantly let go of me and I did what I had to. I locked my little arms around his waist and refused to let him move away yet.
Marc chuckled, hugging me again. “Okay, baby.”
Inside my heart, that one term of endearment sank into the walls and spread a warmth that I knew right then I’d do anything to keep alive. I needed him so much!
Marc patted my arm, and moved out of my grasp. “You okay now?”
I nodded. I was. My Brady was here.
“I have to go back to the house for a while. I’ll try to come later.”
Pain again, brought me back to our reality. He couldn’t stay.
I nodded, holding in those stupid tears.
I watched him as he jogged away, heart breaking all over. These stolen moments were as hard to endure, as they were wonderful.
Knowing I had to be seen to give us an alibi, I went home, listening to the wails of the ambulances that were being sent in from other towns. Ours was already busy.
When I entered the trailer, I found my mom on the couch, fighting to get her shoes tied. I picked out the glassy stare and the smell of liquor in the air from her breath. She needed coffee.
Instead of rushing to get it or helping her, I slid towards my room. I needed some alone time or I might just run to Marc’s house and ruin everything.
“Where you going?” Frona shouted, words slurring into an insult before she spoke one.
“Nasty brat,” she muttered, going back to her drunken attempts.
I shut my door and listened to her grumble. I couldn’t make out the exact words, though I could have read them in her mind if I wanted to. I often wondered exactly why she hated me, but until I was old enough to understand, it was just confusing. And scary. Wasn’t a mom supposed to protect you? Why even have a kid if you were going to hate it?
“Stay in there until your daddy comes home!” Frona shouted.
I didn’t respond, other than to mentally shout that I don’t have a dad. If I did, maybe my life would be better.
Instead, I have you and Georgie. Some luck, huh?
I thought about crying a little, but I wasn’t feeling that way now. My Brady had come to make sure that I was okay! He cared and I had the proof of it. My happiness filled the room like foreign matter.
Marc
“Oh, are you in trouble!”
Rodney and Scot were standing on the porch. The car was in the driveway.
“He’s calling your mother!”
I ignored the deliriously happy teenagers in favor of following Douglas. He was still dialing when I entered the room and I rushed over to plug the cradle with my finger, ending the call.
“Let’s make a deal.”
Douglas was mostly harmless, other than being mother’s spy. He was tall, thin, bitter, and very beholden to her–the way she liked it. But I knew one of his weaknesses.
“I have the entire collection. I also know where to get videos.”
He knew what I meant when he heard the word video. A few years ago, I caught him with a dirty film in the guesthouse when he thought we were in town. I hadn’t told on him and I was hoping that had earned me some credit that I could use here.
“No,” Douglas slowly denied, gaze darting toward the porch where Rodney and Scot were still being jerks. “They know you went somewhere. I have to tell her.”
“I wanted to see the damage. I was gone for five minutes.”
The driver wasn’t convinced that’s where I’d been and it had been more like fifteen minutes, but I could tell that he didn’t want to get me in trouble. “Tell her hard work should sort me out. She’ll love it.”
Douglas sighed in defeat. “Two videos and you go out there and tell them.”
“They’ll never keep the secret. Just tell her I went to look. I’ll handle the rest.”
“So you really were…viewing the damage?”
I thought of how worried I’d been for Angie. “Yes. I had to see if I lost anything dear to me.”
Understanding fell into the driver’s aging face and he motioned toward the door, raising his voice. “I’m telling her! Get out.”
I fled to the porch, properly chastened for trying to prevent him from telling on me. I quickly launched into a description of the nei
ghbor’s missing roof to prove to the boys where I’d gone. I knew it would get back to my mother and verify her spy’s story. The roof being missing was easy. I’d witnessed it with Angie’s terror as it blew over the restaurant. I didn’t tell them about the utility box smashing through the widow and almost killing Angie and my mother. That was information I wasn’t supposed to have and I was careful with my words. I hoped Angie would be, too. My mother would be on high alert right now because of all the attention on her, expecting her usual help to right the town whenever something went wrong. They hated her in the peaceful times, but in a crisis, Mary Brady was pure power.
Angie
I waited for my mom to leave the trailer before I was out the door again. I couldn’t stay inside that tin can where my life was being crushed. My mom wouldn’t remember telling me to stay anyway. She never remembered anything when she got that drunk. It was one of the reasons Georgie had begun to bring home pills. She took them, but drinking was where she always fell when life got hard.
The damage to the town was supposedly only bad along the path of the tornado. According to the news reports starting to take place, live, the twister was on the ground for ten minutes and injured 20 people. I was glad the man I’d helped would survive. Patty had heard the paramedics say he would make it. The tornado was so rare that news crews were already swarming over the damaged areas with their cameras to capture the tragedy for the rest of the world to view. I didn’t see it as a tragedy. In fact, other than actually being terrified while it hit, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Then I returned to town and saw for myself.
When I left the restaurant, I had been panicked and fleeing for a safe space. I hadn’t noticed the devastation, but now, as I stood at the end of town where the small buses had come for as long as I could remember, I couldn’t identify the exact place where the little benches had sat. Roofs were gone and chunks of plaster littered the ground, along with personal items like coats and purses. There were long drag marks carved into the stone and dirt from where the tornado had been on the ground, and glass was everywhere, except in the windows. Mailboxes and garbage cans were bent into new shapes and wrapped around telephone poles that now leaned south on both sides of the street. The power here had been off since the tornado hit and the setting sun had people in a panic to get lights up for search and rescue teams. Main Street had taken the worst hit and I wondered how these people would survive. Mary wouldn’t give them more time to pay…would she?
An ambulance went by, rolling over timbers that I thought were from the laundry service across the street. The sign was gone, as was half the front wall, and the man who owned it was standing outside, staring in horror and disbelief at the damage. I could feel him thinking this was it. There was no money to pay Mother Brady and do the repairs. I began to hate her a little more.
The object of my dislike appeared at the end of the street, flanked by two policemen. She had one of their bullhorns. Other people noticed her as well and everyone stopped to listen to whatever demand she was about to make. None of us were expecting good words or encouragement. I ducked out of sight as she came down the street.
“All payments are suspended for those in the damage zones. Two months! Fix your shops, tend to your families. If you need more time, bring me the proof and we’ll talk.”
I gaped, openmouthed. I wasn’t alone and that was the reason it took so long for the cheer to start. When it came, it sounded across the town and filled the air with the first good vibes since the tornado had come. Because of Mary Brady.
I left. She would be here all day, being thanked and snooping in everyone’s business. I would be spotted and that wouldn’t do after anything she may have sensed during the chaos at the restaurant. I needed to stay out of her line of sight for a while.
Besides, I had to get to the cornfield in case Marc was able to make it.
Marc
I couldn’t make it. My mother had believed the driver, but my punishment wasn’t the hard labor in town that I might have been able to sneak away from for a short time. She wanted our yard mowed early and then for me to help the police identify people who lived in town. Thanks to looters already coming in to take advantage of the situation, I would be with a policeman all afternoon and most of the evening. I didn’t have any way to let Angie know.
I spent the day trying to catch a glimpse of her in the people who came and went from the only road open to the town right now. Tall trees and part of a house were blocking the other two roads. It was a long, hot shift where I didn’t see Angie or any of the destruction that I honestly did want to view. It wasn’t every day that a tornado took out the main street of your town. All the other kids would have great stories.
“You know these people?” the officer asked me for about the three hundredth time.
I scanned the trio and nodded. “She lives near me.”
The officer waved the jeep through and moved on to the next car in the short line. The sun was setting and then this road would be closed to all traffic until dawn, unless they had been given a pass. The officer had only given out one of those to a man from town who was headed to the hospital to be with his wife. She caught a window in the face. I had shuddered at the blood on the man, the panic that covered him. That was how I’d expected to find Angie, so I understood how the man was feeling to find out that his heart had been hurt.
“That’s your ride,” the officer stated, motioning to a set of headlights coming from town. “Thanks for all your help, young man.”
He held out a hand, which I shook while hoping Rodney and Scot were watching enviously. “No problem. Let me know if you need me again tomorrow.”
“We’ll have the volunteers here by morning, thanks.” The cop studied me thoughtfully. “Have you thought about being a policeman, son? You’d probably be good at it.”
I chuckled. “I have. Sorry, though. I chose something else.”
I could tell he wanted to ask what, but my mother had Douglas stop by us with her window down that so she could give orders.
I climbed into the passenger seat, as directed. It was the only empty spot and I was happy to discover that Rodney and Scot were green with jealousy because I’d gotten such an important responsibility. It drove my pride and I rolled down the window, letting some of the precious air conditioning escape. “Thanks again.”
The officer saluted me as we pulled away.
I don’t know if he had guessed my choice, or if he just wanted to make me seem important in front of my family, but that action sent a rush of heat into my stomach that made my balls swell. Yes. That’s what I needed, what I wanted from my future–Angie and the Marines. It would be perfect.
Chapter Eleven
Like a Bad Penny
October to December
Marc
The day after the tornado, my mother accidentally let me escape by sending me to help around the town. After I cleared her too-short list of people to assist, I took off for the cornfield, unable to wait any longer to be with Angie. My recklessness that afternoon almost saw me in the hospital and our fragile game of hide-n-seek exposed to the world.
As I cleared the row of corn, I heard someone yell, but it was already too late for me to avoid the problem. The corn parted to reveal the farmer’s huge dog. Rage flickered as he spotted me and darted forward against his master’s calls.
Panic coated my limbs as I scrambled to reverse direction. I darted for the biggest tree by our chosen area, hoping Angie was already high in it. Ticker could jump farther than I could.
As I came around the last curve of corn, I tripped and hit the ground hard.
Dazed, I could hear the big dog catching up to me, snarling as it pounded through the tightly packed rows.
Angie’s scream told me he was close and then pain flared in my leg and the world shifted into a slow motion blur that flipped my stomach.
I looked over to find Angie standing at the trunk of the cherry tree with her hands out toward the dog. Brilliant w
hite light flowed from her fingertips and her ebony hair splayed back in fiery ringlets from an invisible wind that I could almost hear. It sounded like an engine.
Ticker let go of me and stared at Angie with a mournful expression that implied she’d called him a bad dog.
I was stunned as the huge animal padded into the corn and returned to his master with my blood dripping from his muzzle.
My haze cleared a little and I saw Angie’s hair fall onto her shoulders and her breathing become normal. Then, she was just my girl again.
I glanced back down to find that I had tripped over a piece of wire. My ankle was really going to hurt tomorrow. I could see blood through my jeans.
Angie stared at me, but she didn’t speak. I think she was worried about my reaction, but all I could feel was gratitude. Ticker was humongous. If he had been able to get a better hold on me, not only would I have been hurt worse, but my mother would have learned about our clubhouse. All of our secrets would have been exposed next. No, I wasn’t mad.
Angela read that and was happy. She was used to keep secrets and not freaking out over the smallest thing, plus, she had used her magic in front of me and I was reacting as if that were normal. She was fine now, but I wasn’t after that display. She could cause trouble. She was great to have around, but we would have to be more careful.
I told her that gently, putting weight on my leg as I stood up. Pain flared heavily. I also said, “I may need to go put some ice on this.”
As I started to walk away, Angie slid her arm around my waist to help, shoving that new body against me. The innocent contact was enough to fire me up despite the pain and I carefully dislodged her sweaty arm. “Why don’t you keep working and I’ll try to come back?”
