Ignoring me completely, Max walked to the shelves and lit some candles. I laid my head back down and closed my eyes.
My eyes shot open. I wouldn’t say I was alarmed or even excited. Intrigued, would be more apropos, by the light touch of skin against my good hand. Adela’s beautiful golden brown eyes stared down at mine. She sat close to me, reaching over my chest to take a peek at the burns on the back of my hand and fingers. Her hair brushed lightly across my face. I inhaled the faint sweet scent of strawberries that managed to seep though the mixture of smoke and dust and I wanted to reach out and run my fingers through the soft dark curls, something I’d dreamed of doing most of my life.
She lifted the edge of one of the strips of sheet and looked at the burns on my leg. “Those burns don’t seem as bad as the ones on your hand.” Her eyebrows lowered and her little nose wrinkled. She caught me staring at her and appeared to force a smile, I guess to hide the concern I figured she had when she studied my charred skin, more proof of the sensitivity to others she possessed. We pulled my shoe and sock off and she frowned. “I don’t think there is much we can do for the swelling in your ankle. We don’t have any ice, but we went to Cooper Murdock’s place up the hill. He gave us a first aid kit.” She bent down and picked up a blue box. A large red cross graced the top. “It has a book in it about what to do for burns and sprains. I’ll take a look and see what it says.”
“Adela, believe me, you’ve already done exactly what that book is going to tell you. Is there any gauze in that kit?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, take the gauze and cut some strips the same way you did with the sheet. Soak them with water and replace the sheet strips with the clean gauze. Is there a tube of antibiotic ointment of some sort in there?”
“Um … yeah.” She held up a small tube to show me.
“Good. You can spread some of that on too.”
“Okay.” She sat down on the floor and crossed her legs, positioning the kit in front of her. She pulled out the roll of gauze, and using the little scissors that someone was smart enough to put in the kit, cut out one small strip and held it up to me. “Is this a good size?”
I nodded and closed my eyes as stabbing needles shot through the nerve endings in my hand making me grunt in agony.
Adela rose to her knees and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. The pain is really getting to me.”
Max made some sort of squawking noise on the other side of the room and I figured he was doing something to make fun of me. Max hadn’t changed much over the years, except instead of being just an idiot, now he was an immature idiot.
“Maybe these new wet strips will help.”
One by one, she removed the old pieces of sheet from my hand and fingers. She squeezed some of the ointment over the burns and I had to commend her gentleness. She never tried to spread the stuff, just let it sit there, careful not to touch the blisters. When Adela finished applying the antibiotic, she placed cool, clean strips of gauze over the area. She did the same to the small burn on my leg. The moisture helped alleviate some of the torture but without some heavy-duty pain meds, I would continue to suffer. She also placed a cool piece on my swelling ankle. I flinched at the cold but it felt good.
“Adela.” My voice sounded hoarse. “How were Cooper and his family?”
“Cooper is okay, but … he lost his wife and baby girl during the quake. She was only a few days old.”
“Oh, that’s … that’s awful. I … well, I’m sorry to hear that. Cooper’s a good guy. Where is he now?”
“He stayed at his place. Most of his house was still standing. The quake destroyed the back of the house where his wife and baby were. She was giving the baby a bath.” Adela glanced away, wiped at the tear on her cheek, and sniffled. “Cooper gave us another gallon of water and said he wanted to stay there and bury his family, then he’s going to head out and scout around for other survivors.
“Oh, and he had a radio and we listened to it.”
With my eyes closed, I listened to Adela’s sweet voice relay every detail she’d heard on the radio as she placed more wet strips over my burns.
“Here, I found these in the kit.” I opened my eyes. Adela held a small little white plastic container. “They’re ibuprofen. Not much of a pain killer but they might help a little.” She opened the container and jiggled two into my hand.
“You must be a goddess sent from heaven. Give me two more,” I said before she put the cap back on. The fact she was pleasantly surprised became evident by the way she cocked her head as one side of her lips curved up. The goddess remark was probably a bit too much, but somehow, I wanted her to know how I felt without scaring her off toward Max.
“Two more? Is that safe? My mom …” she closed her eyes for a split second and continued, “my mother told me never to take more than two at a time.”
“Four’s okay for me. I’m bigger than you are. I’m pretty sure I can handle two more.”
Her slightly curved lips turned into a full smile as she dumped two more little red pills into my palm and my heart caught in my throat at the sight of her luscious mouth. Oh, how I wanted to kiss it, sure that the experience would alleviate all my pain.
She placed the cap back on the pill container and handed a cup of water to me. I struggled to sit up and she put her arm around my back to help. I popped the pills in my mouth and drank some water, watching her over the rim of the cup as I sipped. Our eyes held.
“Adela, come over here.” Max’s loud obnoxious voice brought me back to reality and Adela slowly took her arm away from my back and headed over to Max.
“What is it?” she asked, sounding a little annoyed with him and I smiled hoping she was. I laid my head down and stared at the ceiling, listening to their conversation.
~~ Adela ~~
“I found this old radio. My dad must have put it down here.”
“Does it work?”
Max shrugged and turned the power switch to on but nothing happened.
“I think it needs batteries.” He turned the radio over and flipped open the little compartment on the back. The two little AA batteries inside were rusty and corroded. He took them out and grimaced.
“Search around on the shelves for some batteries. Try those little plastic drawers on the shelf. I’ll clean off the contacts,” Max said.
“Here, try this.” I handed him a pencil with an eraser and his beetle-brow suggested he thought I was either crazy or from Mars. If his eyebrows got any closer together, they’d look like one big strip of light brown hair across his forehead.
I shrugged and grabbed the radio from him. “My dad showed me this trick when my brother got hold of his power screw-driver and left it outside. Mildew corroded the contacts. You take the eraser like this and rub the green stuff off the contacts.”
“Well, aren’t you just the little mechanic now.”
I flashed a quick grin and handed him the radio before turning back to search the shelf and the little plastic drawers; there were about twenty of them, five across, and four down inside a black casing. I smiled when my hand landed on top of cold cylinder, realizing it was a flashlight. I picked it up and turned it on. “Hey! Look. We have flashlight.”
“Good. That will help. Shine it over here after you find some batteries.
I opened almost all the drawers until I finally got lucky. “Bingo,” I said, turning to Max, holding two AA batteries between my fingers and pointing the flashlight at them.
I held the flashlight over the radio while Max removed most of the corrosion. After all the rust and gunk were gone, he stuck in the new batteries and turned on the radio. All we managed to get was static.
“I think I’ll need to take this out of here in order to get anything,” he said and climbed the steps toward the door. As soon as he opened the door, the static cleared and a faint male voice echoed down the stairs. Max set the radio down on the steps and turned up the volume, which didn’t help much, before walking back down.
“Can’t hear much down here, can you?”
I shook my head.
“I’ll go back up and turn it off, no sense wasting the batteries. We’ll need to sit up there if we want any news.”
A thumping, loud and powerful, had me stopping in my tracks on my way back to Court.
Chapter 13
~~ Adela ~~
Max stomped his brown ECCO sneakers down the stairs so hard I thought we were having another aftershock.
“What’s for dinner, honey?” Max asked when he reached the bottom step.
Once I realized we weren’t having another earthquake, I stared at him, my eyes feeling as wide as two golf balls from the shock of the “honey” remark. Max ignored me and strolled over to the stacks of cans on the shelf without even looking at me. I felt like an idiot.
“Okay, listen up. We have chunky chicken noodle, clam chowder, beef stew, and cream of potato. Anybody have any preference?”
I looked at Court and he shrugged.
“Whatever you want is fine. But how are we going to heat it?”
“Hmmm … problem there,” Max said and perused the shelves before turning with a smile. “Voila!” In his hands were two cans of liquid heat. “These should do the trick.”
I smiled. “Yay, I hate cold soup and I’m starving. Any crackers to go with it?”
“No, only soup. I don’t think my mom really believed we would ever need to live down here, even temporarily.”
“Well, that’s okay.” Aside from crackers, Max’s mother had thought of just about everything else needed to survive for a few days in the cellar. I even found a stack of Styrofoam bowls, plastic spoons, and paper towels. Max opened the can of chunky chicken noodle with the can opener his mother had remembered to provide and placed the can on top of the small flame.
When he considered it warm enough, Max divided the soup into three equal portions, but burrowed his eyes together and shook his head when he spooned some into the third bowl. “There’s not much in one can, but we’ll need to make do.” He picked up one and sat back to eat. I picked up another and carried it over to Courtland.
“Here’s some soup. Do you feel like eating?”
“Yeah, I can eat.” He started to sit up and I put the bowl down and placed my arms around his chest to help lift him to a sitting position. My face was inches from his neck. He smelled good—a little smoky, but the musk he must have used that morning still lingered on his skin. I didn’t think I was much help, but he managed to sit up. I was amazed at how broad and firm his chest was. I had never had my arms around a male body before, except when hugging my dad, but that was completely different. This made my stomach flutter as though a dozen tiny butterflies suddenly took flight in it and I was no longer as hungry as I had been a few moments before.
I handed Court the bowl and walked back to where Max sat against the wall. I thought about when I was crying and leaning on Max’s chest right after we found my mom’s sweater. I didn’t remember feeling the same butterflies then. I’m sure I’d been too distraught to notice.
Almost as if Max read my thoughts he whispered, “You do like him a little, don’t you?”
I ignored the question. “You know, you could at least be cordial. We’re all in this together. Would it kill you to sit closer? Then maybe we can all talk and figure out what we’re going to do next.”
“No, it wouldn’t kill me. I just didn’t know he was capable of talking yet. I thought he was in too much pain.”
“Stop it, Max. Let’s go sit by him. You know he can’t get up and come over here.”
~~ Courtland ~~
I sat on the blanket with my back against the wall, wishing I were somewhere else, anywhere but in that cellar, listening to Max and Adela argue about me. What did I care if they came over here and ate their soup with me or not? Well, I had to admit it would be wonderful if Adela came and sat with me, but I could do without Max. I could stare at Adela all night long.
I spooned through the soup, barely able to make out what exactly was in the bowl. The single candle lit on my side of the cellar flickering on the floor next to me provided a little light, and for that I was grateful. Taking another spoonful of soup, I glanced up to find the two of them sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of me. I almost laughed and spit soup all over them when I saw them there, quietly slurping their soup not looking at me. No one said a word. They brought over the other two candles too, which helped light up the area a little more.
Since laughing would have hurt a bit too much I said, “So, what’s the plan?”
They looked at each other as if they didn’t know I could speak.
Max shrugged. “I think we should head out as soon as possible to explore the area more. We didn’t check out too much today. It got late, and the wind came up. The earthquake’s done some weird stuff to the air. The temperature outside seems to be about twenty degrees colder than this morning. How soon do you think you can travel?”
I stopped chewing and stared at Max for a few seconds, having a hard time believing he actually uttered something intelligent. This was the most he’d said to me in seven years. I swallowed the last bite of the soup and laid back down, setting the bowl on top of my stomach, holding it there so it wouldn’t fall. “I don’t think it will be as soon as you would like.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’m not going to be leaving here in the next day or two. If you need to go exploring, you can count me out.”
“We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“Agreed. But I’m not ready. You guys should go without me.”
“No.” Adela shouted, and Max and I stared at her. She cleared her throat and added in a much calmer voice, “We can’t go and leave Court here. His leg and hand might get infected or something. He can’t even walk across the room to fix himself something to eat.”
“Um … speaking of walking ... Max, if it doesn’t cramp your style or interfere with your great dislike for me, would you mind giving me a hand outside?”
“Outside? Why, you want to punch me around?”
“As tempting as that sounds, no. I need to take a leak and I don’t think Adela is up for the task.”
Max snickered. “Oh, yeah. I gotta go myself.” He stood and held out his hand to me, but I hesitated. “Come on. I won’t let you drop.” I grabbed him around the wrist and Max helped me up from the floor.
“Wait. Um … I need to go too.” Adela’s entire face turned crimson. She was a delicate angel to be sure.
She leaped up, brushing her hands on her pants, her embarrassment clearly forgotten. A tough soldier as well as an angel.
Max and I stood staring at her blankly.
“Well, I don’t want to go up there alone. I’ll go when you guys go.”
Okay, so she wasn’t much of a tough soldier, but still most definitely an angel.
“Hold on.” She took off toward the bar and tore a sheet from the roll of paper towels.
Max shrugged, snatched up the flashlight before he grabbed my left arm and Adela took the injured side, carefully maneuvering her head under my arm to avoid my hand.
It was slow going, but we made it to the top of the stairs and Max pointed to the left. “Adela you can go over there. Hop-a-long and I will be over here.” He dragged me to the right. It was dark, darker than normal without any city lights from the larger towns below the foothills and I tripped over a rock but surprisingly, Max tightened his hold and kept me from falling.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t get used to it, Reese.”
“You’re truly enjoying this aren’t you?” I said, hopping on one foot, closer to the trees.
“Yes … and no. This part? The part where you can’t even piss by yourself? Yeah. I’m tickled pink, but spending this much time with you is another story.”
We stood side by side and I managed to unbuckle my belt and unzip my jeans one-handed, surprising even myself. The way Adela wrapped my han
d up, I couldn’t move my fingers at all. I didn’t think I’d be able to zip them back up as easily.
“Well, the feeling is mutual. You should go out and do your scouting tomorrow. My ankle is swollen and without ice, I won’t be walking on it anytime soon, Max. I’ll need a couple of days, at least. You can leave me here. Regardless of what Adela says, I can take care of myself.”
As I finished declaring my independence I reached for the zipper on my pants and tugged, but it didn’t budge. I chuckled. Who was I fooling? I couldn’t even zip my own pants back up. “I uh, take part of that back.”
“What part?”
“The part about taking care of myself. Can you give me a hand?”
Max pointed the flashlight at my crotch and rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Dude?”
“I can’t move my fingers. I can’t grasp onto anything with them.”
“Damn, Reese! You better not tell anybody.”
“It’s just a freakin’ zipper and trust me; if I see anyone, this will be the last thing that’s gonna be on my mind.”
Max stepped toward me, grinning.
“If your finger sways in the slightest, I’ll break it as soon as my hand heals. Hear me?”
“Hey, I’m doing you a favor here. And you don’t need to worry about my fingers swayin’. Max took the little metal tab between his thumb and finger, pulled the zipper up while I held the bottom part taut and waited while Max buckled my belt.
“Thanks.” Not one of my finer moments.
I turned, hoping to see Adela close by but the area to the left of the cellar was dark and covered with bushes. “Where’s Adela?”
Chapter 14
~~ Adela ~~
“Adela? Where are you?” Court’s voice croaked out. He sounded worried.
“I’m over here.”
“Are you finished yet?” Max yelled.
“Almost. Hold your horses. It takes me a little longer, you know. I can’t just whip it out like you guys.”
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