“Well, darlin’, you don’t look a bit better,” Anna Rose told her. “I don’t imagine the tornado cares about our appearance. It just wants to grab us up, twirl us around like rag dolls, and throw us back down up in Kansas.”
Taryn didn’t even think about her looks when she slammed the trailer door shut and looked up to see Clinton carrying Zoe down the steps.
“The sirens woke me up,” he yelled over what sounded like a freight train moving toward them.
Taryn met him halfway up the steps and took the baby from him. “I can see it traveling this way, so we need to hurry.”
Together, they ran through the back door of the shop. Clinton took a moment to close and lock it and then followed her down into the basement. Not even slamming that door shut canceled out the noise of the storm.
“Everyone all right?” he asked.
“I hate basements,” Jorja answered, “but we’re fine. I saw a huge piece of wood twirling in the air about the time I opened the back door.”
A twin-size bed was against the wall on one side of the room, and two rocking chairs were over on the far end. In the corner, at the end of the bed, was an old safe that Irene and Ruby had used years ago. Nowadays, they tallied up the money in the cash register daily and took it to the bank on their way home each evening. Taryn had spent time in this little room, as had her cousins, when she was a child because Nana Irene and Ruby were both terrified of storms.
Her hands trembled, but she hugged the baby up close to her chest and sat down in a rocking chair. Just thinking about what could have happened if something had fallen from the sky before they could get inside made her chest tighten. If anything had hit the baby, they wouldn’t have even been able to get her to the hospital or a doctor until the storm passed.
“There’s nothing like getting woken up by a tornado siren not a block away from the house,” Anna Rose said and covered a yawn with the back of her hand.
“Welcome to Texas—but then, we’re all Texans by birth and raising, I guess,” Clinton said and took the rocking chair next to Taryn. “Atleast it’ll pass through in a little while. It’s not like those hurricanes that hit the coastal towns. They take up squatter’s rights and stick around a long time.”
Jorja sat down on the twin bed. “Or the earthquakes in California that rattle your teeth. I’ve said it before, but I’m declaring it again: I hate storms. I prayed the whole way across the parking lot that it would go around us, but that’s not right, either. If it doesn’t tear Shamrock up, then it’ll get someone else. So praying that we are saved to the death or injury of others isn’t what we should be asking for.”
Clinton set the rocking chair in motion. “I saw a sign in a store window that said ‘Don’t Tell God How Big Your Storm Is. Tell the Storm How Big Your God Is.’”
“Amen,” Jorja agreed. “But I didn’t take you for a religious man.”
“I’m notchurchreligious, but I do believe in a higher power. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be alive today,” Clinton said. “Some of the guys I served with would turn from being nonbelievers when bad things happened to good people.”
“Are you thinking of Rebecca?” Taryn asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “I hope that she finally gets to a place where she can see the good that could come of all the things she has had to endure.”
Anna Rose plopped down on the other end of the bed, but she still hugged Goldie close to her chest. She scanned the walls and the ceiling before she leaned back. “I’m as afraid of scorpions as Jorja is storms, and I’ve seen a couple down here through the years.”
“Seems to be safe right now.” Taryn set the rocker in motion with her foot. “Do y’all realize that we’ve been coming down here during storm season since we were Zoe’s age?”
“That’s right. Nana Irene put the bed down here so we could sleep through the storms,” Anna Rose said. “I remember all three of us curled up right here while we waited for the storm to pass.”
Jorja pointed toward the old safe. “She always kept a scented candle on the top of that thing to keep the place smelling nice.”
“Well, I’m just glad we’ve got a shelter like this to protect us. If the storm comes right through this area, the upstairs apartment and the trailer might be hit hard,” Clinton said. “So, when we get out of this place, we could have a mess to clean up. Irene and Ruby will be devastated if they lose the shop to a tornado.”
“But we’ll all still be alive. Buildings can be rebuilt and trailers replaced.” Taryn had been through more than one storm in her life—both natural and mental—and survived all of them, but this one felt more ominous than the ones before now. Could it be a sign that there were too many storms to weather in Shamrock for her to survive them?
It’s because there’s a baby in the mix,her grandmother’s voice whispered in her head.When you have responsibilities beyond yourself, life changes.
But Zoe isn’t mine,Taryn argued with the voice.
Tell your heart that,Irene shot back at her.
“You look like you’re fighting a battle in your mind,” Clinton said. “Your expression keeps changing.”
“I am. With my grandmother,” Taryn answered without hesitation. “I hope she and Ruby made it to the cellar out behind Nana Irene’s house without any problems.”
Anna Rose finally let Goldie loose, and the cat turned around three times on the pillow, lay down, and put her paw over her eyes. “If the trailer is flattened and the shop is torn all to pieces, Goldie and I are going over to Nana Irene’s house for breakfast. I’m starving.”
“What if her place is gone?” Jorja asked. “Or worse yet, what if all our vehicles have been blown into the next county?”
