Page 62 of Into the Tempest

They stopped and sagged with relief when they saw him. It was a couple, a man and woman, and they began to walk up. Jeff glanced back at us, nodded, and taking Casey’s hand, walked to the end of the yard.

“Oh my god, we were so worried,” the woman said. “We saw your roof go. You were up here?”

Jeff was still staring at his house. Or what was left of it. “Ah, yeah,” he said. He looked back to us and nodded again. “Yeah... the girls... Lucky we weren’t home by the looks of it.”

They walked back toward their house just as Doreen came out. She was helping Arty walk. He was holding the cat carrier, and he looked okay. Suri went to meet them.

Shane and Lindsey were over by their van; he had his hands on his head. They’d be needing a tow truck for sure.

And now the sun was out.

It was hard to get your head around. Like the cyclone hadn’t happened.

But we’d made it through.

The office was useless—no power, no antennas, no satellites—but it had held strong and protected us.

I put my hand to Tully’s chest. “You okay?”

He nodded woodenly. “Yeah. But I need to go... I need to check on my folks, my family.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

I hoped... I just hoped with everything that I was, that they were all okay.

“Let’s go,” I said. “The Jeep looks okay. You grab your stuff. I’ll go tell Doreen.”

He tried to swallow. “Okay.”

I gave his arm a squeeze before ducking down the steps and slip-sliding across the muddy yard. “Doreen,” I called out. She came out onto the veranda. “Is everyone okay?”

Doreen nodded. “He’s a bit shaken up. Jean and Michael are okay. Arty’s got some water damage to his livin’ room, missin’ a window or two, but he’ll be fine.”

“Good, that’s good. Tully and I need to leave. He needs to find his family. Jeff and the girls have gone to check his place. It doesn’t look too good.”

Doreen came over and collected me in a horrifying bear hug. “You did good today.” Then she dropped me back to the ground and whacked my shoulder. “I’ll lock the office. Clean-up can wait till tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Sounds good. First thing.”

She glanced back to the Jeep where Tully was throwing his bag in and carrying the box with the bird in it, and gave me a solemn nod. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

God, same.

I didn’t know what else to say. “Hope your house is okay.”

I walked back across the street, seeing more people out now, and went into the yard.

Shane met me at the gate. “Are you leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Can we get a lift?”

I nodded. “Sure.”

Tully wouldn’t be happy, but this was not the time for pettiness.

Tully climbed in and turned the key, and sure enough, the trusty old Jeep started. “She hasn’t let me down yet,” he said, patting the steering wheel.

---