Phoenix
I knew the moment she noticed the storm behind us. I felt her whole body tense. Then, she was busting my eardrum screaming at me about it. I noticed a change in the atmosphere a good 20 minutes before she did. I didn’t tell her because there was no reason to alert her if it turned out to be nothing. Once I realized it was going to be something, it was just a matter of when she noticed.
At first, I wasn’t concerned in the slightest about it. I’d ridden through many storms over the years. It wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but the weather was a fickle bitch and sometimes your ass got rained on.
As the miles passed with no sign of civilization, my concern grew exponentially. The wind was getting stronger by the minute. I glanced in my mirror to check the storm’s progression and there was no mistaking what was behind us. The textbook definition of a funnel cloud was rotating in the distance.
“Annabelle, get on your phone and see if you can find somewhere nearby for us to pull off and take shelter,” I ordered.
I felt her shifting around behind me. I kept going while I waited for her to find something. Her shaky voice came through the speaker, “I don’t see anything, Phoenix. There’s nothing around here. What are we going to do?”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I scanned the area for anything we could use for shelter. “Annabelle, I’m going to keep moving as long as I can. Start looking for anything we can use for shelter, and I mean anything. We don’t have a lot of time to find something.”
We’d made it another mile or so when the wind rocked the bike. She screamed, I grunted, and by the Grace of God we stayed upright.
Fuck. This.
We had to get off the road and off the bike or we were going to end up dead.
I was slowing down, preparing to tell her we couldn’t go any farther when I saw it. Just up ahead, there was a creek that appeared to flow under the road. I sped up, trying my damnedest to get us there.
When we got close enough, I took the bike off the road and drove us right into the culvert. I tapped Annabelle’s leg. “Come on, doll face, we need to get off the bike.”
I took her hand and pulled her to the middle of the culvert with me. I left my bike just inside the opening we entered, hoping it might shield us from flying debris and prevent the culvert from turning into a wind tunnel. We clung to each other and pressed ourselves as far against the side of the culvert as we could. “I’m scared, Nix,” she whimpered. Nix. She was the one and only person to ever call me Nix and I loved it.
I ran my hand over her hair, trying to comfort her as best I could. “I know, doll face. It’ll be over soon.” She started crying and tried to pull me even closer. I pressed soft kisses to her forehead and cheeks all the while murmuring words of comfort to her, which did not seem to help her in the slightest. So, I gave my next tactic a try. Distraction.
“Do you remember when we went to the party Badger threw when his parents were out of town?” I asked.
“Who?”
I chuckled. “Sorry. Aaron Marshall. He’s my VP and goes by Badger now.”
“Oh! How could I possibly forget that night? It was horrible!”
I laughed. “It wasn’t horrible. It was fucking hilarious. It is still the funniest damn thing I have ever experienced firsthand. I love telling that story. You want to hear my version of it?” She nodded against my chest.
The wind was howling through the culvert, rain and hail falling from the sky, accompanied by cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning, as I retold one of my favorite memories with her. “We had been at Badger’s parents’ place for a few hours and I’d had too much to drink to drive us home. Instead of staying there for the night, you wanted to drive us home in my truck. We pulled up to a stop sign and just before you pressed the gas pedal, this ball of fur and teeth comes flying at us and slams into the windshield. You started screaming while trying to roll up the windows, close the sliding rear window, and lock the doors at the same time. Then, you started yelling at me because I wasn’t helping you and we were ‘under attack.’ That was about the time you noticed the ball of fur at the bottom of the windshield. Screaming like a banshee, again, you hit the windshield wipers to fling it off.”
I had to pause there to get my laughter under control so I could continue. “You panicked and turned the wipers on, thinking it would knock the thing off the truck. But, you didn’t know the thing was stuck. So, when the wipers came on, bat wings shot out of the furball, moving at an arc in front of us. You were screaming and it was screeching with each pass of the wipers. Eek! Eek! Eek! I thought I was going to piss myself.”
She huffed. “I wanted to hit you. I thought it was one of those dinosaur creatures from that movie. You know, the little one everybody thought was cute until it came at them teeth first. Whatever it was, I just wanted to get it away from me as fast as possible. How was I to know it was stuck in the windshield wipers?”
She slapped her hand against my chest. “Then, you wouldn’t help me get it out!”
“Of course I wouldn’t. The damn thing was still alive. Plus, bats are usually very precise. The fact that it dive-bombed my truck meant something was wrong. It probably had rabies. But, even though I wouldn’t get rid of it, I did provide you with a way to get it out of the wipers, didn’t I?”
She slapped her hand against my chest. “Giving me $20 to pay the crackhead at the gas station to pluck it out of the wipers with your jumper cables doesn’t count, Phoenix Black!”
Tears were running down my face from laughing. That story never got old. “It most certainly does count. He took care of the bat, we went home, and all was well...except you refused to drive at night after that for a long time. Wait a minute. Are you laughing?”
She pushed her face under my arm to hide it from me, but I could feel her body shaking. I pushed her back so I could see her. She was always beautiful, but when she laughed, she was like nothing I had ever seen before.
“Okay. You win. It is a funny story.”
I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to kiss her and I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t. I cupped the back of her neck and pulled her lips to mine. The kiss started off slow and gentle, but soon became hungry and full of need.
A loud crash broke us apart. Wide-eyed and panting, Annabelle cautiously asked, “What was that?”
My jaw clenched as I looked over her shoulder and stared at the space where my bike used to be. “I’m guessing it was my bike.”
She whirled around to see for herself. “Fucking fuck! What are we going to do?”
“Calm down, doll face. When it’s safe, we’ll go find my bike and see if it’s still drivable. If it is, we’ll ride to the closest town and get a room for the night. I’ll look over the bike and hopefully we can be on our way in the morning. If it’s not drivable, we’ll call for a tow truck. We’ll still get a room for the night and I’ll see about renting a cage and trailer to haul it back home,” I explained.
We stayed put for 10 more minutes or so before we ventured out of the culvert to survey the damage. We found the tangled mess of metal that used to be my bike about 100 yards from the culvert.
“I don’t think that’s drivable,” Annabelle observed. If that was my actual bike, my baby, I would have been losing my shit right then, but luckily it wasn’t. I kept a few bikes at the clubhouse as loaners when needed. I opted to take one that would provide a more comfortable ride across the country, especially if I found her and convinced her to come back with me.
I sighed. “Let’s see about getting a tow truck to come get us.”
After discovering that neither one of our cell phones had service, we grabbed what we could from the bike and started walking. I didn’t have a clue how far we would have to walk before we found people or cell phone reception.
It was hot as hell, we had no food and very little water. I was good to go for a while, but I was worried Annabelle wouldn’t be able to keep up and push forward. As if on cue, Annabelle said, “Phoenix, I need to stop for just a minute.”
I whirled around, ready to tell her she couldn’t start whining this early in our trek, to find her bent down, digging through her backpack. “Aha!” she exclaimed, pulling something out of her bag. She promptly removed her jeans and slid on a tiny pair of cutoff shorts. Then, she stripped her top half down to a tank top, crammed everything into her bag, and smiled brightly. “Much better. Continue on.” She looked sexy as fuck wearing her riding boots with that outfit. Yeah, she would be wearing that for me again when I had time to show her my appreciation.
We continued on for several miles, checking our phones every now and then for service. Finally, after almost three hours of walking, we saw a house in the distance. Hopefully, the occupants would have some means of communication.
When we were closer to the house, we saw that only the front half of the house was intact. The back was completely obliterated, as was a barn and another structure that was no longer identifiable. I told Annabelle to stay back while I walked closer. The house could collapse at any second and I didn't want her anywhere near it.
“Hello!” I called out. “Anyone there?”
Silence.
“Hello!” I called again.
“Phoenix, look!” Annabelle yelled, pointing at something. “I think that's a door to a storm shelter.”
I walked over to where she was pointing and, sure enough, there was a door in the ground. I assumed it led to a storm shelter, but after discovering the numerous hidden rooms and tunnels on the farm property, it could be a door to anything.
Annabelle reached for the handle and I immediately grabbed her wrist. “Don’t!” I barked sternly. “If anyone is in there, they’re likely not expecting company. You might open that door to find yourself face-to-face with the business end of a shotgun.”
She huffed but stepped back. I gave the door three sharp knocks and called out, “Hello? Anyone there?”
Moments later, a very young sounding voice answered, “Who’s there?”
“My name is Phoenix and I’m here with Annabelle. We’ve been stranded due to the storm and we’re looking for somewhere we could call for help. This is the first place we’ve come upon.”
Several beats passed before the child spoke again. “Um...we’re not supposed to open the door unless it’s Mommy or Daddy or Judy.”
Annabelle brought her hand to her mouth and took a step forward. “Are you in there by yourself, sweetheart?”
“No, ma’am. My brother is in here, too. Judy put us in here and went back to the house. You can knock on the door and ask to use the phone. And ask her if we can come out now. Please.”
“Who is Judy?” Annabelle asked.
“Our babysitter. Daddy’s at work and Mommy had appointments today.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. Things didn’t sound promising where Judy was concerned. She was probably somewhere in the house, which was on the verge of collapsing.
“Phoenix,” Annabelle whispered, “we have to go look for her. She might be hurt.”
“She might be, but she could just as well be dead. That house isn’t stable and neither one of us is going in there.” She opened her mouth to argue, but I held up my hand to stop her. Turning my attention to the door, I asked, “Do you have a phone or something in there to call for emergencies?”
“Yes, sir. There’s a radio talkie thing my daddy used during a storm one time. I don’t know how to work it though.”
“Does your brother know how to use it?”
The little girl giggled. “No, he’s just a baby.”
My eyes widened. I turned my head to see that Annabelle’s eyes mirrored mine. “They can’t stay in there by themselves,” Annabelle whispered. I knew that, but the little girl was right to not open the door to strangers.
Annabelle cleared her throat and spoke softly to the door, “Sweetheart, I know your parents told you not to open the door to strangers and they are right about that, but this is a very special situation. Did your Mommy and Daddy ever tell you what to do if there was an emergency and they weren’t with you?”
The little girl answered immediately, “Yes ma’am. Mommy told me if I ever got lost or needed help and she wasn’t there to find a lady that looked like a mommy and ask her to help me.”
Annabelle smiled. “Your mommy is very smart. That’s exactly what I told my son to do. So, since I’m a mommy and you need help, will you open the door so I can help you?”
The girl was silent, apparently thinking over Annabelle’s offer. Surprising us both, the little girl came back with, “How do I know you’re a mommy?”
Annabelle laughed again. “Well, I suppose you don’t, but let me see if I can prove it.” She took in a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “First, I have three children. Their names are Ember, Coal, and Nathan. Ember and Coal are twins. Now, I’m going to tell you some things that only mommies do. When our child is in trouble, we call them by their whole name. We count to three, sometimes five, when our child is about to get into trouble. We won’t let you ruin your dinner with cookies and sweets. We make you clean your room when you don’t want to. We make you feel better when you’re sick and we love you more than anything in the world. Does that sound about right?”
The door to the storm shelter slowly started to open as the little girl struggled to push it open. I quickly grabbed the handle and opened it the rest of the way. The little girl popped her head out and said, “If you know all that, you must really be a mommy.” She was a beautiful child, maybe five or six years old, with wild blonde hair and big brown eyes.
Annabelle smiled. “I am, sweetheart. Now, can you show me where that radio talkie thing is? I bet Phoenix here knows how to work it.”
The girl’s eyes darted to me, full of trepidation. I was a big man and there was no way to hide it. Grown men found my size intimidating; I was likely nothing short of a monster to a frightened young child. I squatted down hoping to seem less intimidating to her. “Why don’t you go get your little brother and bring him out here with Annabelle? Then, I’ll go down and see about the radio. That way you haven’t broken any of your parents’ rules.”
She thought that over for a minute and then nodded her head resolutely. “I’ll be right back.” She returned with arms wrapped tightly around the middle of a squirming baby boy. It looked like she was squeezing the hell out of him and he wasn’t the least bit happy about it.
Annabelle reached out to help her with the baby. “Does he have a diaper bag down there or anything like that?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll go get it,” she said as she eyed me.
“I’ll stay right here,” I promised.
She returned, struggling to carry the big bag up the stairs. I reached my hand out slowly. “I can take the bag for you, dear.”
She exhaled in relief. “Thank you, mister.”
Once Annabelle had the kids settled on a blanket, I entered the storm shelter in search of what I guessed was a CB radio. I found it sitting on a shelf along the back wall. It had been a long time since I had used a CB, but I figured it couldn’t be too difficult to use. I turned the radio on and began scanning through the channels. It didn’t take long to find one filled with voices reporting damage from the tornado. I listened for a few minutes before speaking. I told them about mine and Annabelle’s situation as well as the situation we discovered at the farmhouse. The response I received was not at all what I had hoped for.
I left the storm shelter to find Annabelle trying to soothe the little girl who was sobbing. “What happened?” I asked quietly.
Annabelle grimaced. “She saw the house.” I glanced up and had a very clear view of the destroyed half of the house. I didn’t know what to do. I was a stranger to the little girl and she had seemed somewhat scared of me earlier. I wanted to comfort her, but wasn’t sure that I should. Annabelle interrupted my internal battle with her question, “Did you have any luck with the radio?”
“If you mean, did I get it to work? Yes, I did. Is help on the way? Eventually.”
“Eventually? What exactly does that mean?”
I sighed. “It means that the storm did a lot of damage in the surrounding area. Emergency crews are working their way through it all, but it could take them up to 72 hours to get to us. Since there is no one here with injuries, we aren’t a priority.”
“What about the children?” she asked.
“I explained that and I was told that we should stay with the kids until their parents or help arrived.”
She looked at me with disbelief in her eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Sorry, doll face,” I shrugged. “Looks like we’re staying here for a bit.”