“Or his daughter’s babysitter,” she finishes. “I’m stuck in this weird limbo. I’m not sure he’ll ever see me as anything other than what he’s already made up his mind I am.”
“I’m sorry, Nat.”
“No reason to be sorry.” She blows out a breath. “Someday either I’ll give up or he’ll see who I really am. Anyway, enough about me. Let’s get up on the mountain. Nothing will happen if we sit here all day.”
“We’re going to take Danny’s Jeep since I’m not sure my little car can make it over the debris that might be in our way. He has mine.” I chuckle as we walk over to where he’s parked.
“Ohmigod,” she laughs. “I’m imagining his knees up to his chest.”
“Sounds about right.” I roll my eyes. “He insisted, though, so here we are.” Hitching myself up into the driver’s seat is a task. It’s always so easy when he opens the passenger door for me and then helps me in.
Natalie struggles too, grunting as she heaves herself up. “How do they make it look so effortless?”
“I have no idea. Maybe we need to work on our upper body strength.”
Putting it in reverse, we make our way out of Bradford and head up the side of the mountain. Although I’ve seen what was done to our small town, I’m totally unprepared for what awaits us. The devastation is mind-blowing.
The road is still there, but several burnt-out cars are along the edges. Engulfed where they’d stopped.
My heart hurts. I hope the people who were inside got out.
“It’s weird,” Natalie’s voice is quiet. “Some of the trees still have leaves. How do they still have leaves?”
“Nature doesn’t discriminate. It decides what it wants to take and then it just does,” I whisper as we come up to where Mountainside once sat. It’s now a burned out shell of its former self. A handful of residents are helping with the cleanup efforts.
“Hey, Hayden,” Mac, the owner, greets us as we get out of the Jeep.
“Hey, we figured y’all could use some help with cleanup.”
“We’d appreciate it.” He looks out over what lets his family eat. “It’ll be a few weeks before we get a check from the insurance company, but we need to start rebuilding as soon as possible.”
“We’ll help you.” I put an arm around his waist. “I’ve been coming here since I was in high school. I refuse to let you not be here anymore.”
He wipes under his eyes. “It’s because of people like you that we’ll be able to reopen again.”
“I brought some bags and masks.”
“Thank you.” He puts his arms around me, hugging tight. “Your being here means a lot.”
“Danny’ll be here as soon as he can. We’ll recover,” I whisper.
“Bradford isn’t going anywhere,” he whispers back, but I don’t miss the tears in his voice.
We’ll be back, but we’ll never be the same.