Home Torn

by Tijan

  beside her.

  She found him standing in a room in the back corner that she hadn’t discovered the night before. Not the night before, it was seven in the morning.

  It was the same morning and Dani felt wiped with four hours of sleep inside of her. Jonah had gotten none and he looked fatigued and alive in that same moment.

  With a steaming cup of coffee in his hand, he looked up and grinned briefly, “Hey.”

  “Morning.” Dani yawned abruptly and stretched lightly.

  “Hey, uh, you got anything to do in town?”

  “Why?”

  “I have to…I’ve got some errands and I was wondering if you’d be up for a boat ride.”

  “Oh, the water hasn’t gone down?”

  “No.” There was a quick flash of dread that crossed his face, but it was gone just as quick.

  “Um…I told Julia that I’d visit Kathryn, is the hospital okay?”

  “Yeah. They’re on pretty high ground so they should withstand double what the water is outside.” Jonah started to pile papers on top of each other.

  “Okay, um…let me go to the bathroom. Got any toothpaste around here?”

  “Yeah, there’s a staff bathroom. I’ll show you. 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,” Jonah said ruefully. “Drownings and rescues—one of us always has to be here, on duty so, we pack this place in case we needed to live here.” He led the way and showed her a small bathroom, complete with a shower and towels. Jonah knocked on a counter door and told her, “You can rummage through here. We keep some extra clothes. We never know who’s going to need them so you might find something your size.”

  “Thanks,” Dani murmured, surprised.

  “Okay. I’ll see you up front when you’re done.” Jonah nodded and walked briskly away, in work-mode.

  Dani wondered what was going on and what errands he needed to run the morning when they were still in flash-flood warnings.

  They climbed aboard another flat runner and Jonah steered the shallow boat towards town’s square.

  Dani caught sight of the road that led to Mae’s Grill and turned around, “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?”

  “Just…” 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 and added, “The water’s high, but a lot of people have houses that might not even been touched by the flooding. Why wouldn’t they go back to their homes? What’s going on, Jonah?”

  “I don’t—I don’t want to say anything if I’m wrong then it’s just a lot of panic that, we don’t need to deal with that.”

  “Right.” Dani stiffened. “Because I’m prone to panicking.”

  “Not talking about you,” Jonah said quietly.

  Dani caught sight of the Dillon’s Boat Supply as they toiled past it. “Bet they’ll make a fortune now.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” Jonah grinned and ran a wary hand over his face.

  “Jonah, what’s going on?”

  He grunted in response.

  “Besides the obvious,” Dani said dryly.

  “It’s nothing. Not really.”

  “Decode that coded message, please.”

  Jonah chuckled briefly as shrugged, “We’ll know if we’re safe if we make it through the night…how about that for ‘decoded’?”

  “So we’re not in the clear.”

  “Not by a long shot.”

  “And let me guess, I’m not to say a word to anyone?” Dani guessed correctly and reflected, ruefully, “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m going to see my aunt, who’ll probably not even talk to me and that’s if she doesn’t kick me out. The cryptic forbidding is safe with me.”

  Jonah looked started and relaxed a little, “Yeah? You’re going to see Kathryn?”

  “Hmm. Yeah…”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “Good luck with whatever you’re doing.” Dani studied him and murmured, “Wish you’d tell me what it was.”

  “It’s…hopefully nothing. Sorry, I’m not trying to not be ‘share-y’ guy. I just…I actually can’t tell you until I’m authorized by the town’s commissioner.”

  “And I’ve gone from sitting in the dark to completely perplexed, but….keep the classified 411. I’ve got a bigger cross to bear ahead…”

  Jonah coughed and supplied, “The dire and doomed visit to the dying Kathryn.”

  “Pretty much.” Dani grinned brightly. “I wouldn’t panic for nothing right now. I’m facing the worst alternative, hands down.”

  “Yeah, Trenton said that you and Julia had a shouting match last night.”

  “He could hear us? Great. I wonder who else did.”

  “He shut the fire doors so you were cut off from the atrium.”

  “Remind me to give him one of Mrs. Rollings’ bread baskets of goodies as a thank you.”

  Jonah twisted complete around. “Mrs. Rollings gave you a goodie basket?”

  “Yeah and, speaking out of context-wise, you’re extremely excited about that.”

  “She makes the best banana bread!”

  “And you’re such a guy right now.”

  “Not to mention her peanut butter cookies.” Jonah groaned, “I gotta get some breakfast.”

  Dani laughed as she looked across the water again. Gracey’s Café had lost the red-umbrella that topped the tables.

  “Look at that.” Dani gestured towards them.

  “That sucks. Gracey loved those red umbrellas.”

  “Looks like she’s got some water inside too, but not too bad.”

  The black and white tiled flooring inside was lightly covered by a foot of water. If someone stood, it would’ve covered their entire foot, but the booths still looked untouched and the café could still be saved if the water didn’t stick around too long.

  “I wonder where the tables went? The outside tables,” Dani mused.

  “The wind,” Jonah said shortly. “It reached some tornado speed last night. We were pretty lucky that we got to headquarters when we did.”

  Dani felt a shiver of gloom sliver down her back.

  Just then, they turned the corner and Dani grinned, “And look, the gas station is still the hook-up for drinks.”

  Two boats of teenagers were drifting around the corner and a bottle flashed as it caught the sun between hands.

  “Don’t they have something better to do?” Jonah answered himself, “No. I would’ve been doing that when we were younger.”

  “You were kinda the rebellious leader type back then.”

  “Yeah, I just wanted to have fun, but some things pissed me off.”

  “Like when you beat up Trenton Galloway.” Talk about another life’s lesson in irony.

  Jonah chuckled, “Yeah, he pissed me off that year. He was going on and on about how he was going to ‘score’ with some chick on prom night and then he was going to ditch the girl for his real date that night. Made me mad.”

  “Reminds me of a typical man.”

  “I don’t know.” Jonah grew pensive. “He reminded me of my father—just ready to use and discard someone. I saw red that night, but Trent turned out to be a good guy.”

  “It was just for show.”

  “No.” Jonah shook his head. “You don’t understand. Some guys can do some pretty cruel stuff. Someone’s gotta speak up and say it’s not right or Trent would’ve done it and some girl might’ve, I don’t know—worst come to worst, she might’ve done something stupid. Best scenario, she would’ve just got her heart broken, but it wasn’t right and I was fed up that night.”

 
; “I was always scared of Hawk.” Dani thought a moment. “I still am scared of Hawk.”

  Jonah laughed and steered the boat behind the Laundromat, “Hawk’s a good guy actually. One-track mind about sex and girls, but he’s pretty decent. He sees through a lot of bullshit.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  Dani glimpsed the Laundromat’s wall and saw a freshly-painted art emblem. “Ah look, the teenagers took the time to add some new graffiti. It’s good, replaced what the rain might’ve washed away.”

  “Jake can bust their asses later.”

  Dani glimpsed the hospital ahead as Jonah cut the engine just as the flat runner drew abreast the ground.

  “Looks like I’m walking,” Dani commented as she hopped out.

  “The town center’s a block down. There shouldn’t be any water around it—”

  “So I can foot it and not shoot up a flare for my boat taxi.” Dani grinned and waved, “Good luck with whatever top-secret meeting you’re having.”

  “I’m not—I am.”

  “I know.” Dani grinned and backtracked up the hill, towards the hospital. “Still rather be doing what you’re doing that what I’m about to do.”

  Jonah’s hoarse chuckle was silenced as he restarted the engine, but she saw his shoulders shaking slightly as he turned back around and headed in the opposite direction. Dani waited and watched as the boat curved around the Laundromat again and disappeared.

  “And if I was going to make a guess…,” Dani muttered to herself. “Town hall it is.”

  She laughed to herself and rolled her eyes, “And I’m talking to myself again.”

  The hospital welcomed her with sliding doors and Dani smelled freshly brewed coffee before her foot cleared one step inside.

  Dani snorted in appreciation as the receptionist looked up and smiled a tired smile.

  Bernice may have retired, but her legend lived on. Her daughter was the new receptionist.

  “Morning, Dani,” Carley greeted warmly.

  “Hi, Carley. I’ve actually been wondering what you’ve been up to, now I know.”

  Carley stood and poured a cup of coffee. She handed it over the counter and said lightly, “No, you haven’t been, but it’s good with me. Married with two kids and I’m working night shifts to make the ends meet.”

  “Broken engagement and in the middle of family strife,” Dani summed up her life.

  Carley laughed, “Sounds like a typical O’Hara.”

  “You know my family well.”

  “I do, actually. Julia comes in a lot in the mornings. I worked the night shift back when Erica…you know…”

  “So you were another shoulder for Julia to cry on.”

  Carley shrugged, “It was okay with me. My sister died of leukemia. I can sympathize.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.”

  “It’s okay. She was in the hospital in Petersburg. Different small town, different small town politics. They had a few fundraisers for her, but Chloe didn’t want a lot of fuss.”

  “How old was she?”

  “Six.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Senior in high school.”

  “I’m sorry, Carley. I remember…is that why you didn’t go to prom?”

  “Something like that,” Carley said dryly. “Something in the name of Trenton Galloway was supposed to take me, but didn’t show.”

  Dani sucked her breath in. Oh.

  “But that’s my sad story; let’s hear about this broken engagement?” Carley requested.

  Dani answered, “Long story short, I don’t think I ever got over Jake until I came back.”

  “It’s hard when the ghost isn’t breathing for the haunting to stop.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind.” Carley flashed a smile. “Are you here to see your aunt?”

  “Yes.” Dani took a deep breath. “And I’m fully aware that she might have you throw me out, so if that happens, I won’t hold it against you.”

  “Yes.” Carley grinned as she stood up and tucked a small cordless phone in her pocket. “I wouldn’t want that; it’s more the drunks who get sent to detox that I’m worried about. You’re small potatoes compared to them, Dani O’Hara.”

  “I’m okay with being small potatoes.” Dani grinned and leaned back as Carley moved into a hallway.

  It didn’t take long before she came back and said shortly, “Kathryn said you could go in, but she’s not sure if she’ll talk to you.”

  “Oh.” And Dani laughed. “It’s better than what I thought.”

  “My mom had my grandma barred from the hospital back when Chloe was a regular customer. Every family’s got their own ways.”

  “My family’s a little unique.”

  “Not really. You’d be surprised at the families that come through the doors. Pieces of work, let me tell you.” And Carley grinned in farewell as Dani took another breath for courage and walked past.

  She heard the background music of call lights blinking and other alarms that sent a visitor’s heart racing, imagining the worst, while the nurses sat calmly and unmoving.

  No one must’ve been dying.

  Dani had the best nurses during her time in our own ‘trauma’ ward, but after she’d been downgraded from observation to transition.

  The only problem, they treated her like she’d been about to break. Dani knew it had been true. She had been close to her ending point, but being treated in that manner—she needed the opposite behavior. She needed to be treated as if she were tough. She’d prevail, and that strength and belief—she would’ve clung to it desperately.

  Yet another moment of ‘aha’ lightbulbs for Dani.

  A slight chuckle graced her face as she stopped in her aunt’s doorway.

  Kathryn lay aged and near death, but her hands were perfectly propped over the folded back sheet and dead center over her body. Her brown curls were brushed, the curl over her shoulders and teased at the small expanse of skin that showed from Kathryn’s pink silk nightie.

  Her aunt was dying in that moment. In fact, Dani’s visit brought some life back to her and even if Kathryn would never admit it, Dani knew that was something her aunt’s unconscious was grateful for.

  “Hello, Aunt Kathryn,” Dani murmured the perfunctory title that had never shortened from familiarity.

  The eyes stayed closed, but the chest paused on a suspended breath.

  Dani stepped inside and took the large, white leather, chair that stood out from the prim and proper sitting chairs. Her chair was the ‘sleeping’ chair and Dani knew that anyone who slept there wasn’t grateful for the comfortable surroundings. Who would be, if they slept next to their kin in a hospital bed?

  “You know…” Dani took the plunge and spoke to the stoic statue. “I was in a hospital not too long ago, but it wasn’t this nice. Well, it wasn’t until I got all sorts of publicity that I didn’t want, then the accommodations got real good, especially when