Chapter 6
Even though the city has officially declared that everyone must evacuate, I notice that The Burger Barn, the small diner on the outskirts of town, has a full parking lot. My mouth waters with the thought of their onion rings, and I figure that leaving half an hour later won’t hurt anything. The storm isn’t even arriving for a couple more days. I call Ella, who I can see answer her phone from my rear view mirror. She must put it on speakerphone because she holds the phone in her hand while also holding the steering wheel. I see her lips move as I hear her talk. “Hello?”
“Wanna get some lunch?”
“What do you mean?”
I put on my blinker and turn into the diner’s parking lot. Ella follows me. “Aren’t we supposed to be evacuating?”
She parks next to me and looks at me in real life while we’re still connected through the phone.
I shrug and give her a grin. “Might as well leave with a full stomach.”
She looks at me like I’m an idiot but then she opens her car door. We enter the diner that smells like coffee and fried food and find one of the only empty booths left. This place is usually pretty laid back and has only a handful of customers at a time, but I guess the approaching storm made everyone hungry.
Overhead, old country music plays through the speakers, and I recognize a song from my childhood that my dad used to always sing while he was washing the dishes. Maybe that’s why I subconsciously wanted to stop here. It’s that old small town homey feeling I get every time I’m here. Everything outside of this place is crazy and frenzied, and I just needed something familiar and comforting.
Our waitress isn’t a waitress, but the owner. “What can I get ya?” Mrs. Holt asks. She’s been in this business her whole life, so she doesn’t need a menu pad like the other waitresses. She’ll remember everything you say.
I order a cheeseburger with onion rings and a Coke, and Ella orders a fried chicken salad. Mrs. Holt nods and then gives us an appraising look. “I’ll get the food out to you quickly and then you scarf it down and get on the road, you hear? There’s a storm coming.”
“Why aren’t you evacuating?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I ain’t never evacuated. You leave your business and someone will loot it.”
“But it’s safer to be somewhere away from the hurricane,” Ella says, her voice all polite like she gets when she’s talking to adults. I almost chuckle because Mrs. Holt is more of a rough old broad herself and doesn’t need to be treated like a fragile old woman.
Mrs. Holt shrugs. “If I die, then it’s just my time to go. But you two are kids. You need to get the hell out of here.”
“Yes ma’am,” I say, giving her a smile. “We will.”
She nods and then ducks into the kitchen to place our order. Ella’s brows furrow as she leans to the side to look behind me. “That’s weird. It’s just a bunch of old people here.”
I turn around and survey the diner, finding the same thing. “I guess they’re all too stubborn to evacuate.”
Ella frowns. “I hope they’ll be okay. Can you get in trouble for refusing to evacuate?”
I shrug because I have no idea. All I know is that if the people in charge say we should evacuate, I plan on leaving. I’m not stupid enough to sit around and wait to get disemboweled by a flying tree branch, or swallowed up in a flood.
Ella reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “I love you,” she says softly.
“I love you more,” I say back, giving her a smile.
There’s a sadness in her eyes that really bothers me. “Baby, everything is going to be fine,” I say.
She sighs. “I’m not worried about the hurricane. I mean, what’s the worst that will happen? We’ve already lost everything we owned.”
“Then what’s wrong?” I ask. Now that I think about it, Ella has had that sadness in her eyes for a while now. It definitely started before there was a hurricane in the Gulf.
Before she can answer, Mrs. Holt appears and drops plates of food in front of us. Ella and I let go of each other’s hand and the serious moment is over.
“Enjoy!” Mrs. Holt says. “And hurry up. It’s on the house.”
“Wow, thank you,” I say. She winks at me and leaves.
When I look back at Ella, she’s pouring dressing over her salad and doesn’t look the least bit interested in telling me what’s wrong. I guess we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it when we’re hanging out at the hotel tonight.
We eat quickly just like we were told to do, and then we fill up with gas at the closest station. There’s a line of a few people waiting at each pump so it takes forever. I’d taken two extra gas cans from the garage, and I fill them both up and put one in Ella’s car.
