Annabelle
I tried to make the best out of a bad situation. What else could I do? There was no way Phoenix or I would have ever left those children to fend for themselves. I just hoped their parents saw it that way, too. I wasn’t sure how I would have reacted to finding strangers hunkered down with Nathan when he was younger.
Over the course of the afternoon, I learned that the little girl was named Charlie and she was five and a half years old. Her little brother was Austin and he was six months old.
Charlie cried for quite a while when she saw the state of their house, but she finally calmed down when I assured her that we wouldn’t leave her and Austin alone. It took some time, but she eventually warmed up to Phoenix, too.
We spent the afternoon and well into the evening playing outside. Phoenix even brought some food out of the storm shelter and made a picnic for us. I tended to the baby, who was surprisingly calm and content, especially given the fact that he was being cared for by strangers.
When the sun started to set, we went into the storm shelter to get settled down for the night. It was much larger than I expected, about the size of a shipping container. It had all the necessary items to keep us comfortable for far longer than three days. There was even a small bathroom!
“Annabelle,” Charlie asked as she tugged on my shirt, “will you tuck me in after I brush my teeth?”
I smiled down at her. “Of course I will. Do you need help brushing your teeth?”
She shook her head. “No, ma’am, I’m a big girl.”
Once Charlie was tucked in and Austin was down for the night, I hoped, I took a seat on the small sofa beside Phoenix. “You’re awfully quiet.”
“Just wondering how this is going to play out. Don’t you think their parents should have been here by now?” he asked.
Yes, I did think that, if they were able. “They might be hurt or maybe the roads are blocked or maybe they got stranded like we did,” I suggested.
He gave me a pointed look. “Both of them? Likely not. Besides, wouldn’t you fight tooth and nail to get back to your kids?”
I slowly nodded my head. “Yes, I would, but we don’t know what happened and we don’t have any way of knowing. Don’t forget, they probably assume the kids are with their babysitter. There’s no use in getting worked up over speculation.”
I stood and extended my hand. “Come on, let’s try to get some sleep.”
***
Something startled me from my sleep. When I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, Phoenix was already on his feet heading toward the door. I heard the door rattle and a frantic male voice shout, “Charlie! It’s Daddy!! Open the door, honey!”
I sighed with relief. At least one parent was alive and well. It had taken me a long time to fall asleep because I couldn’t stop worrying about the children’s parents.
Phoenix slowly opened the door. The man on the other side morphed from frantic to furious in a nanosecond. “Who the fuck are you and where are my children?”
Phoenix held his hands up and took a few steps back. “Just calm down, man. Your kids are right through there and they’re fine.”
The man stormed down the stairs and marched right past Phoenix and I. He was visibly relieved at the sight of his sleeping children, but he was no less furious. He whirled around. “Again, who the fuck are you?”
Phoenix remained calm, or he appeared to remain calm on the outside. I knew him though, and judging by his stance and the tick in his jaw, he was ready for an attack. “My name is Phoenix Black and this is Annabelle Burnett,” he gestured to me. “We were stranded after the storm and your place was the first home we came upon. We were just looking for a way to call for help when we found the children in the storm shelter.”
The man fumed. “So you just invited yourself in here, WITH MY KIDS?”
Charlie’s soft voice filled the room, “Daddy? Why are you yelling at my friends?”
“They’re not your friends, Charlie.”
Charlie walked closer to her father. “Yes, they are, Daddy. They helped me and Austin. If they weren’t here, we would’ve been all alone. I didn’t let them in right away. I talked to them through the door first. Ms. Annabelle is a mommy and Mommy always told me to go to another mommy if I needed help. So that’s what I did.” She crossed her arms and leveled him with a look that dared him to say her actions were wrong. Before he could speak, she continued, “Mr. Phoenix even stayed outside and waited for me to bring Austin out. Then, he went to get the talkie radio. I was scared of him at first, but that was silly. He’s a really nice man, Daddy. He’s tried to call for help a lot of times, but they just keep telling him they’ll get here when they can since no one is hurt.”
The man blinked several times before scooping his daughter into his arms. He turned to face us. “That true?”
Phoenix nodded. “Yes. I tried several times to get someone to either come out here or try to get in touch with either one of their parents. I didn’t have any luck with that. The responders told us to stay with the children until help arrived. We wouldn’t have left them alone in the first place, but you might want to speak to the appropriate officials about advising random strangers to watch after someone else’s kids.”
The man sighed. “Thank you for looking after them. I apologize for my initial reaction.”
“No apologies necessary. You had every right to react that way to finding strangers hunkered down with your children. You’ve got a very smart little girl right there,” Phoenix said and grinned at Charlie.
The man smiled. “Don’t I know it. Oh, forgive me, it’s been quite a day.” He extended his hand to Phoenix. “I’m Curtis Smith.”
After shaking hands with Phoenix, Curtis turned to me and did the same. “I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but under the circumstances…”
“I completely understand,” I said. “If I may, is your wife okay? Charlie said she was out running errands when the tornado hit.”
He put Charlie down and instructed her to go back to bed. “She’s in the hospital. The building she was in collapsed and she was trapped in the rubble. She’ll be okay though. Other than a mild concussion, it’s mainly just bumps and bruises, but she’s three months pregnant, so they wanted to keep her overnight to monitor the baby.”
I fidgeted with my hands before asking, “Charlie mentioned the babysitter, Judy, went back to the house after getting them to the shelter. Any word on her?”
Curtis grimaced. “She was found about a quarter mile from here. She’s alive, but unconscious and in critical condition. As soon as I heard she was brought in with no sign of the children, I got here as fast as I could.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said softly.
After a brief pause, Curtis clapped his hands. “Well, is there something I can do to help you two? You said you were stranded after the storm?”
Phoenix filled him in on our tornado experience. “I just need to find somewhere to rent something I can haul my bike back home with.”
“You’re not going to have any luck around here, but I can drive you a few towns over to get something.”
“Thanks, man. I’d greatly appreciate that,” Phoenix replied.
“We can head out now if Annabelle doesn’t mind staying with the kids.”
“I’d be happy to,” I told them. I wasn’t sure of the time, but I figured the kids would sleep for a while longer.
Four hours later, Phoenix and Curtis returned, Phoenix driving a rented box truck. Curtis helped him get the bike loaded into the truck and we said our goodbyes. Charlie was quite upset about our departure, but I promised to call in a day or two to check in with her and her family. We offered to stay and help Curtis, but he said there would be nothing to do for several days. With a final hug goodbye, Phoenix and I climbed into the truck and continued on our journey back to Croftridge.