“Nothing, baby doll. You heard the fireman. They’re going to carry us out in a minute. You don’t have any shoes on, and there’s lots of glass and stuff that could cut your feet.” The high pitch of her voice wavered.
As if on cue, four more emergency workers came through the walk-out basement door and gave instructions to the girls. They seemed shy and nervous around the strong men, Jessica reassuring them everything was okay. But was it? The turmoil in her heart pitched.
When they were finally outside, Jessica didn’t recognize her street. Petrified, she inhaled the strong scent of pine and noticed the tops of the shredded trees along a perfectly defined path. Squinting in the daylight, she gasped at the sight of her once beautiful home damaged beyond belief, two huge Georgia pine trees crisscrossing the middle of her house. Across the street, Tim’s luxury car was a mangled mess of metal, t-boned against her neighbor’s oak tree. A path of mass destruction cut through the neighborhood, haphazardly hopping over one house, destroying another. Jilly started to cry, and Jennifer looked around in confusion. A pallet had been set up on the street near several ambulances, and the fireman set the girls down, handing Jo-Jo off to Jessica.
“Jessica! Oh my god! Are you alright?” Elizabeth came out of nowhere and rushed toward her. She was wearing a robe and slippers. “I saw your house, and I couldn’t believe it! I told them you were inside. Is everyone okay?”
Jessica couldn’t talk, the fear catching in her throat.
“What? Tell me, honey.”
Just then a little girl’s voice cut through the air. “Mama?Mama!”
Jessica turned and could see Julia in the arms of one of the firemen who had first come into the basement. She looked like a little doll against his huge body cloaked in a yellow fireman jacket—a beautiful, blonde, baby-faced doll.
“Julia!”
Relief rushed to her heart as she quickly handed Jo-Jo off to Elizabeth. Picking up the skirt of her dress, she ran to the edge of the safety zone. The relief that flooded through her was instant. Tim and Julia were okay. Everything was going to be okay! When the fireman set her daughter down, she flung her little body into her mother’s arms.
“Oh, sweetie! You’re okay! Thank god you’re okay!”
She peppered the little girl’s face and cheeks with kisses before pulling her tightly to her chest. Her prayers had been answered. Julia wrapped her bare legs around her waist and clung tightly to her neck as she hoisted her up. Elizabeth had a huge smile on her face as she approached with the rest of the girls, surrounding her in a group hug.
Jennifer and Jill clung to Jessica’s golden dress, and Elizabeth bounced Jo-Jo in her arms as if trying to get their little minds off the confusion of the destruction. The celebration was short-lived. The fireman who had brought Julia out of the rubble seemed to be waiting for her, the look on his face full of apprehension. A feeling of unease washed back over her.
“Ma’am, may I have a word with you?”
“Sure.” With Julia on her hip, she stepped away from their little group.
The officer held his helmet and ran the back of his hand across his neck. “Your daughter…” He paused and touched Julia’s leg gently. “Your daughter was cocooned under your boyfriend in the rubble.”
Jessica had been so focused on her daughter Julia, she had assumed Tim would appear shortly, probably distracted by filling the team in on what had happened.
“Cocooned? What do you mean? Where’s Tim? I thought he was right behind you….”
“He’s sleeping,” Julia mumbled. Her eyes were downcast as she fingered the beading on the bodice of her mother’s yellow dress.
“What?” Jessica stared into her daughter’s face, her heart free-falling into her gut.
“We’re getting him out, ma’am. He’s alive, but I’m afraid he’s unconscious. We believe a tree struck the back of his head. He didn’t have time to get out of the way.” The rescuer hesitated and placed his palm lovingly on Julia’s back. “Tim saved your daughter’s life.”
Jessica stared back at the man whose news rocked her to the core before she was distracted by a commotion of sorts coming out of her decimated home. Several men were carefully carrying out a man on a gurney, his neck and head stabilized in some kind of brace.
Tim.
All of the air left her body and she gasped. “No. Oh, god, please.No!”
Thrusting Julia into the fireman’s arms, she rushed toward Tim. Her whole world went into slow motion as her hands twitched to touch him—to feel his warmth—to know his heart was still pumping life through his veins.
One of the rescue team tried to hold her back from him. In hysterics, she flailed and begged, pushing past him in a swoosh of yellow material, her blonde hair flying as she came up to the gurney, her fingers gripping the metal sides. Tim was unresponsive, his head covered in dark, thick stains, his lips slightly parted. The tux shirt he wore was tattered and splattered with blood. He was unrecognizable, his sunken cheeks pale and gaunt. Gripping his limp hand, she kissed it several times, begging him not to leave her—begging him to hold on to life. Her fingertips trembled, tracing his full lips that had kissed her just hours before, a steady stream of hot tears splashing onto what was left of his shirt.
One of the men had to physically pull her off and held her as she watched them load Tim into the back of an ambulance. The sound of the metal doors slamming, shut her down and she collapsed to the ground in a yellow pile of heartbreak.
Everything wasnotokay. Everything had changed in an instant.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The light was blinding. The roar of the crowd, white noise in his ears. His breathing was intentional—in and out, in and out. He stood on the fifty-yard line scanning the faceless people in the stands, not exactly sure what he was looking for, palming the familiar leather football in his hands. The green Astro-turf was perfectly lined with the chalk-white lines of scrimmage, large numbers indicating how many yards he had to go. The team,histeam was nowhere to be found. Alone in the spotlights, he shifted his weight to where his feet were planted shoulder-width apart and slapped the ball with his other hand, ready for the play. Ready for the sound of the whistle to begin. Ready.
