My mom walked into the kitchen and called out, “Anyone for some melting ice cream? I have two cartons full.” We made our way to the kitchen, illuminated by the lantern and sat down to eat ice cream at 6:45 in the morning.
As the sun came up, Harvey dragged the mattress by himself back to the guest room, and we each went to our respective rooms to rest. Sleep eluded me, and I followed my parents downstairs about twenty minutes later as I caught them passing my room.
“We’re going to take a drive around,” my dad whispered.
“I’m coming too,” I said and ran back to my room to put on clothes. I threw on my jeans and a pair of sneakers.
Downstairs, Harvey and his mom also looked ready to join us.
“I guess there’s no sleeping right now,” I said.
“I want to see my house,” Mrs. Garrett said.
We walked out onto the lawn, following the brick path, and surveying the surrounding damage. Our other neighbor’s car had a branch through the back window. Thankfully, the shutters had saved our house windows from any damage, and our cars were in the garage. Our roof looked much like our front neighbor’s, with the shingles all but gone. Two houses down we noticed a piece of the roof had caved in at the front. Debris lay everywhere. Trees had fallen all over the place.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to make it anywhere, Dad,” I said.
“We’ll go as far as we can,” he said, and we piled into the car. The scenes were devastating. Besides the trees knocked over, power lines down, and side streets flooded, houses had roofs caved in. A section of the town could not be crossed into because of the debris. From far away it looked as if that part of town had been demolished. My guess was that a tornado had spawned from the hurricane. Emergency personnel hacked away at fallen trees, trying to get through to the battered section of town.
“Let me out,” Harvey said.
“What?” my mom said.
“Stop the car so I can help,” Harvey repeated. I was shocked and impressed by him. My dad stopped the car, and Harvey jumped out.
“I’ll find my way to your house later,” he said, tapping on the roof of the car before he took off towards the firefighters. There were other men there not in uniform.
“I do hope he stays safe,” said his mother nonchalantly while I sat in awe of him. My dad kept driving, and I looked back, observing as he and another man picked up a large branch that had been sawed off of a fallen tree.
“That’s so incredible of him,” I said.
“Yes, it is,” my mother agreed.
“Harvey was always volunteering for something or other when he was younger,” his mother noted. Hmm. I guess I didn’t know him as well as I thought. My dad stayed silent, and I hoped he wasn’t too frustrated that his health didn’t allow him to help out.
“Thanks for taking us out, Dad. I don’t think we could have braved this water and mess without you,” I said. We continued on toward the east part of town, taking side roads when trees or emergency crews blocked off the main road. More and more side streets at lower elevations were flooded several feet. As we neared Mrs. Garrett’s neighborhood, my fears that her house would be completely underwater grew. The level of accumulated water on the roads was getting much higher, and in the distance we could see several houses halfway beneath the surface. My father stopped driving when we noticed the two cars in front of us making U-turns.
“I’m sorry Julie, but it looks like we can’t get in there,” my dad said, making a U-turn himself.
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Garret said, “It’s all flooded, I’m sure it is. This is horrible.” Her lower lip trembled, and I put my hand on her arm in a small gesture of comfort. My dad took a different way through town, but we saw the same destruction. When he passed by the shopping center near our house, many of the same white planks we had found in our yard littered the ground.
“They’re from the supermarket,” I said pointing at the planks.
“I cannot believe they made it all the way to our house!” my mom exclaimed. Neither could I.
“That’s incredible,” my dad said. We continued on back to the house and went inside, my dad staying outside to inspect the rest of our house and yard.
I was exhausted. Having stayed up all night, we were beyond tired, but I was the only one that went to bed. Mrs. Garrett and my mother stayed up talking in the living room. I lay in bed, relishing in the fact that Harvey stayed behind to help those people. I wished I could help too, but I’d be more of a hindrance than anything. I fell asleep dreaming of a knight in shining armor.
Waking up in a daze, I reached for my flashlight. A light at the rim of the window indicated it was still daytime, but with those damned shutters my view was completely obstructed. I was pretty sure a noise had woken me up. I crept out of my room and saw that my parent’s door was closed. They must have been sleeping.
I tiptoed downstairs and winced when the floorboards creaked. If there was an intruder, they’d have heard me for sure. From the bottom of the stairs, I saw Mrs. Garrett’s door closed. I inched towards the kitchen, flashlight off and above my head to strike whoever was in there when a light turned on in the kitchen. Harvey was sitting there, lantern on, and wrapping a paper towel around his hand.
“I thought you were a burglar,” I whispered in an accusing tone.
“And so you came in to greet me?” he asked, also speaking low.
“No, I was going to hit you with the flashlight,” I said, showing him the one in my hand. He raised an eyebrow.
