Home Tears

He stared in the direction Julia had gone, then leaned his shoulder against the doorframe. “Your Aunt Kathryn. She’s going to be gone soon.”

She looked down. “I know.”

He straightened back up. “I don’t know if you meant it, but go and see her. Do it for Julia.”

“I’m going to.”

She’d go to say good-bye. This time, she could.

The room was dark except for the light flooding in from under the door. A small makeshift bed was left open for her. Jonah wasn’t there, but she curled underneath the blanket, and when she woke—he still wasn’t beside her.

She found him in a back room, standing, watching the river through a window.

“What time is it?”

Jonah glanced to her, lifting his arm up. She moved underneath, resting her head against his chest. His chest vibrated as he said, “It’s seven.”

Dani felt wiped with two hours of sleep inside of her. Jonah got none. He held a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. “How are you?”

“Better.” She relaxed against him. “I told Jake that I’d visit Kathryn. Is the nursing home okay?”

“They’re safe. The nursing home is on high ground. They should withstand double what the water is outside.”

“It’s still high out there?”

“It’ll go down later today. Most of the town is okay. Some of it’s underwater, but the town’s square and the north edge are fine. Did you want a boat ride in? I have errands to run anyway.”

“Let me go to the bathroom. Got any toothpaste around here?”

“Yeah, there’s a staff bathroom. I should’ve shown you last night. You didn’t need to use the regular bathroom everyone else does. We’ve got toiletries and the like for nights when we stay up sometimes.”

“Are there a lot of those nights?”

“You’d be surprised.” Holding her hand, he led her down a small hallway, opening a door at the end. “Drownings and rescues—one of us always has to be here and on duty. We pack this place up, just in case.” Flipping the lights on, there was a shower. A pile of towels was stacked up on a counter. Jonah knocked on a cupboard door. “You can rummage through here. We keep some extra clothes. You might find something your size.”

He stepped back as she went inside. His hand trailed over the small of her back. “I’ll be up front when you’re done.”

She was cleaning up, but then she stopped. She looked at herself.

Her hair had grown. It seemed a little lighter than her dark brown color. It had sun streaks in it now. It was past her shoulders, and she touched it, running her fingers through it. She lost weight before coming home. She gained a few pounds, enough so she wasn’t gaunt anymore. She touched her cheek now. She looked almost healthy. There was a glow to her skin.

After the stress from last night, Dani would’ve assumed she would’ve looked battered and beat down. She didn’t.

Her eyes were—she touched the corner of her eye. The emptiness was almost gone. The loneliness. The haunted look she had when she first looked at herself in Mae’s cabin. She didn’t look dead anymore.

Her eyes were dark, but there was a little light in them now.

Coming home did this to her. Her home.

Dani smiled, seeing how there was no downward curve at the ends, like it used to do. She would smile, but it would look sad at the same time. That was gone. She touched there, too. Her smile was actually a smile.

Her chest lifted.

She looked alive.

Hearing voices, she finished cleaning, then went off to find Jonah. He was waiting where he said he woud be, and he handed over a small phone. “I nabbed this from the back room. My line is programmed in under star 2. Trenton is star 3, and Hawk is star 4. They both volunteer with me, so this is what we use to communicate sometimes. Keep it hidden. I want to make sure you have it.”

She frowned, but tucked it away. He held her hand, leading her back to the door. He said that like someone would try to take it from her, but she stopped thinking about it when she climbed aboard a smaller boat than what they rode in a few hours ago. Soon, Jonah was steering them toward the town’s square.

It was another surreal moment. This was her home, and half of it was destroyed. That was what water did. It washed away memories and keepsakes, leaving stains and rot behind. This had happened to her, but now it happened to everyone else, too. This hadn’t been across the world. It was right here, right where she was, where her family was.

A deep sadness filled her, but there was another emotion. She was content. She was with Jonah. She was on top of the water. She was surviving.

Dani caught sight of the road that led to Mae’s Grill. “Jonah, what about Mae? Can I go see her?”

“She’s not there. They were all taken to the town center. Most of the town should be there, and later, people will be allowed to return to their homes to grab keepsakes and stuff like that.”

“What do you mean, allowed?”

Jonah fell silent and hunched down on his driver’s seat. “There’ll be an announcement made this afternoon.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” She gazed around. “The water’s high, but a lot of people have houses that might not have even been touched by the flooding. Why wouldn’t they go back to their homes? What’s going on, Jonah?”

“I don’t want to say anything, just in case. Not yet. I’m hoping I’m wrong.”