Home Alone

by Lisa Church

  Twisting her watch around, she saw that it was close 5:30 a.m. She marveled at the fact she had slept so well. Perhaps the fear of the evening had exhausted her. Whatever it was, it worked on her brother, too. He was still snoring away when she got up to look out the window.

  When she reached the window, she let out a gasp at what she saw. Everything around her had changed. The entire property had been affected by the forceful winds and driving rain. The tree house they admired when they moved into their home was gone, shattered in wood pieces all over the yard. Shingles and siding from the family’s house lay everywhere, like puzzle pieces waiting to be returned to just the right place. Trees were down, limbs scattered about like twigs in a forest. She gasped when she saw the swing set and wooden jungle gym in a heap against an aged tree. As hard as that wind was blowing last night, she had no idea that it could do so much damage.

  “Alec, get up,” she said, now over at her brother’s side. The kitten was still on his lap, though it was now stretched out in a lounging position. It rolled over slightly at the sound of her voice but didn’t open its eyes.

  Alec, usually a difficult one to wake up, had his eyes open with the first sound of his name.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Are Mom and Dad home?”

  Winnie felt disappointed at having to tell him ‘no.’ But the news that the storm was over was something to be happy about.

  “Not yet,” she said softly, giving the kitten a pat. “But I think we’ve got the next best thing. The storm has stopped.”

  Alec sat up to listen more intently. Winnie could see the joy spreading over his face.

  “I still hear rain,” he said with skepticism. “Are you sure it’s over?”

  Winnie couldn’t be positive, but she saw blue in the sky and knew this had to be more than a simple layover between cloudbursts.

  “I think it’s safe,” she whispered, picking the kitten up gently. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

  Alec stretched his legs out then swung them down over the edge of the loveseat. He stretched first one arm and then the other, carefully taking the kitten from his sister’s hands. It took him a few seconds to get moving, but when he got himself awake enough to follow instructions he quickly followed his sister to the window.

  “Look,” she said, pulling back the curtain as far as it would go.

  Alec simply stared at the outside world, his gaze going from one side of the yard to the other. He was, as Winnie had been, speechless at the sight.

  “I guess we should consider ourselves pretty lucky,” the young girl said, still amazed at the damage before them. “I’m surprised our house is still standing.”

  Alec nodded in agreement, still taking in the mess the fierce storm had created. The sight of their swing set lodged up against the tree probably hit him the hardest. He had spent many hours since their arrival in Florida on those swings. Whenever he started to get homesick for his friends in the north, he simply sat on the swing and thought about them. Somehow the gentle motion of the swinging, and the joyous thoughts he had of his old buddies, would make him feel better. The tears were stinging his eyes as he studied the sight.

  Winnie noticed his upset and quickly tried to make what he was seeing seem not so bad.

  “We can buy a new swing set, Alec,” she said, touching her brother’s shoulder. “And the new one will probably be even better.”

  Alec tried to smile, but somehow the images before him kept him from doing so. His arms wrapped around the kitten, hugging the little creature to his chest. The calming effect of a pet had been a blessing for the boy over the past several hours.

  “Looks like the rain has stopped,” Winnie said, trying to change the subject but also stating a fact that was wonderful news. “Do you want to go outside and look around?”

  Alec looked at his sister with hesitation. “Are you sure it would be okay?”

  “We won’t go far,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “The wind has died down, and as long as we are careful, I think we’ll be fine.”

  “Let me get my shoes on,” Alec yelled, taking off for the next room. Winnie left as well, trying to remember where she’d left her own sneakers. She was so excited at the prospect of getting out of the house for a while that she could scarcely keep from screaming.

  “I’m ready!” Alec called, racing into the kitchen, the kitten still in his hands.

  “You have to listen to me while we’re out there,” Winnie warned as they opened the door they had strained so hard to shut last night. “We could get hurt if we’re not careful.”

  “Okay, okay,” Alec said, allowing a little gruffness to seep into his voice. Winnie hadn’t heard this tone the entire time they had been together. Alec had been on his best behavior since their adventure began. She smiled to think how worried she had been when they had planned their first time home alone. Everything she had worried about seemed so trivial and silly now that they lived through a hurricane together on their own. The thought of being concerned Alec would put a lizard on her shoulder, or argue with her over a TV show, almost made her laugh out loud. Her brother had shown her a side of himself she would never have thought existed two days ago. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad brother after all.

  Winnie watched as her brother led the way down the sidewalk to the back yard. She was sure he would want to see the swings first, but that point in the yard would also give them a good look at everything around them.

  “I can’t believe this!” he exclaimed when they reached the equipment. “The power of that wind…”

  Winnie knew what he meant. There were no words to describe what was before them. She checked out the swing set and mangled jungle gym that they had been so excited at seeing when they arrived at their new home. As sad as it was, though, to see it like this, Winnie still felt so lucky that their home wasn’t a mangled mess as well.

  She stood back to take in the damage the wind had done to their house. There were many shingles missing, and the shutters were either gone or dangling from their hinges. Branches from trees were everywhere, and items like lawn chairs and garden ornaments were nowhere to be seen.

  “Hey,” Alec said, looking in the opposite direction as Winnie. “Where’s the shed?”

  Winnie turned her head in the direction of where the wooden shed used to sit. There was nothing — not a board, not a door, not a speck of the contents that it once housed.

  “Wow…” Winnie breathed, having a hard time taking in what she was seeing. “Where did everything go?”

  Alec simply shrugged, as amazed as his sister at what he saw. They began to walk toward the empty area, looking around them for all the things that had once been stored there.

  “I can’t imagine…”

  “Sh!” Alec interrupted. “What was that?”

  “What?” Winnie asked, stopping to listen.

  “I heard something. Listen.” Alec cupped his hand around the back of his ear, straining to prove he’d indeed heard a sound.

  Winnie listened as well. It was only a few seconds before the sound her brother had heard startled them both.

  “That sounded like a person!” Alec whispered, frozen in his tracks. “Did you hear it?”

  Winnie nodded, waiting to hear it again.

  “Help!”

  At the sound of the weak voice, both children turned to face one another, shaking with fear.

  “It is a person!” Alec said. “But where is it coming from?”

  Winnie put her finger to her mouth to hush her brother. She needed silence to tell where the person was.

  Alec and Winnie both turned to where the voice was coming from.

  “What should we do?” Winnie asked, but her brother was already on his way to the person in need.

  Winnie hesitated for a second but decided she better rush to catch up to her brother. When she got to where he was, she found him standing over a body… a body that was motionless, half-buried in mud, and still holdi
ng a flashlight.

  Chapter Nine

  “Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?” Winnie’s words were loud in the stillness of the morning.

  “Is he…?” Alec couldn’t bring himself to say the rest of his sentence.

  “Dead? No.” Winnie leaned down to take a closer look at the man. He appeared to be middle-aged. He had a neatly trimmed beard, a deep tan, and a big purple bump on his forehead. He was dressed all in orange, the top layer being a rain poncho with a red cross centered in the front.

  “He probably was out trying to help people last night and got caught up in the storm,” Winnie said, trying to explain to Alec what the man was doing here.

  “Do you think he’s going to be alright?” Alec asked, looking wide-eyed at his sister. He had never been around anyone before that was unconscious.

  “I think he needs some help,” Winnie answered. “More help than we can give him.”

  Still kneeling beside the man, Winnie noticed a radio strapped to the man’s waist with a belt. She gently moved it around and unhooked the strap that secured it.

  “What’s that?” Alec asked, watching his sister’s every move.

  “It looks like the radio he used for his job,” she answered. “If I can get it to work, we can ask for help.”

  They noticed a faint hissing sound when Winnie picked it up. After examining it for a minute, Winnie gave one of the buttons a push, speaking into it as she did so.

  She let go of the button and waited, hoping someone would reply. When she got no answer, she tried it again.

  “Can someone please help us? Anyone out there?”

  “This is Station 15. Go ahead.” The voice at the other end caused Alec to jump with excitement.

  “Hi, this is Winnie Frazier. I need some help.”

  “Yes, Ms. Frazier. What is your emergency?”

  Winnie took a deep breath then prepared to tell the man on the other end all about how she and her brother were stranded at home all alone. She had a million questions to ask him about the roads and her parents and well, about everything going on. But then she realized the most important thing right now was the safety of this man.

  “My brother and I found a man lying in our back yard. He is wearing an orange rain suit with a red cross on the front. I think he must be a rescue worker?”

  Winnie heard the man on the other end breathe a sigh of relief then call out ‘We’ve found him!’ to others in the background. She could hear a wave of cheers from the speaker of the radio.

  “Miss. You have found Chet. Chet Williams. He is a rescue worker that was sent out to check on some kids. Is he okay? Is he hurt?”

  Winnie felt a pang of guilt at the news. She felt sure she and Alec were the two that he was coming to check on. And now he was hurt. This made her even more desperate in her attempt to get him help.

  “He looks like he has a pretty nasty bump on his head,” Winnie said. “He was calling out for help a few minutes ago, but it looks like he’s passed out now.”

  The man on the other end asked Winnie a few more questions then directed her on what to do to help Mr. Williams until other rescue workers arrived. She sent Alec to the house for a couple of blankets while she continued talking to the emergency worker she had on the line.

  Within fifteen minutes, an ambulance arrived. Winnie had never been so happy to see any vehicle in her whole life. Two men jumped out of the front and raced to the man Winnie had tried her best to make comfortable.

  “Good work, Miss,” the one gentleman said as he knelt beside Mr. Williams. “You two probably saved this man’s life.”

  Winnie stepped back to give the men room to work. Once they got started working on the man, he came around to their calls.

  Winnie and Alec watched as the trio of men shared their joys at being together. It was obvious Mr. Williams meant a lot to them. The two workers radioed the worried crowd back at the station while he managed to tell them a little bit about how he hit his head. Winnie tried to listen, but the shame she felt at being his reason for the rescue attempt made her walk away.

  Within twenty minutes, Mr. Williams was up and sitting in the back of the ambulance. The driver came to talk to children.

  “How is he?” Alec asked upon his arrival.

  “He’s going to be just fine, thanks to you two kids,” the man said with a smile. “If you wouldn’t have found him, I don’t know if he would have made it. We’re expecting more rain later, and this water here could possibly overflow its bank. Chet might not have made it.”

  Winnie shivered at the thought of the poor man lying there helpless in the mud. One part of her felt wonderful knowing she and Alec had found him in time. The other part still felt bad at why he was here in the first place.

  “What was he doing out here?” Alec asked the question Winnie was afraid to.

  “Two parents at the shelter in town were worried about their kids they left home alone. Chet was coming out this way anyway to check on an older woman up the road. I guess he had some boat problems, and he was stopping here for help. He said his boat capsized over there.”

  “Hey, that must have been what I saw bobbing up and down at the beginning of the storm yesterday,” Alec interjected.

  “Probably so,” the man went on. “I guess it took Chet quite awhile to get out of the water in all this rain. He managed somehow, though, and then tried to come up here for help. He said he was almost to the house when a strong wind gust came. He felt something hit him. He radioed for help, but before we got all the information, he passed out cold. He’s been lying there, in and out of alertness ever since, poor guy.”

  Winnie listened to the story with interest. She wanted to stay quiet but couldn’t do it any longer.

  “Are we the two kids he was trying to check on?” she asked, the guilt obvious in her voice.

  “Yes, but don’t you go worrying yourself over that. He had to come out here anyway. Why, that poor woman up the road needed his help. Once he took care of her, this was on his way back to the station. He didn’t even know this was your house. He said he had lost his way in the darkness, and the boat just happened to capsize here. He was over there in the ambulance, worried sick about the two kids he was to check on. You can’t imagine how thrilled he was to know it was you two, and you are safe and sound.”

  Winnie felt the relief sweep through her body.

  “So rather than feel bad over this, you ought to be feeling pretty proud about now,” the man said, looking from one child to the other.

  “And our parents?” Alec asked, jumping ahead to the obvious question. “They are okay?”

  “They are great,” he said, “except for worrying about you. I just radioed them and told them the road is safe. They are on their way home now.”

  Alec and Winnie jumped up and down, delighted with the news. The last hour had brought so many emotions, Winnie felt like she was on a roller coaster. Fear, guilt, and worry were now replaced with pure joy. She was grateful for this last feeling and hoped it would stick around for a while.

  It was only another fifteen minutes before Winnie spied her dad’s car pulling into the driveway. Her mother’s door was open before her dad even got the vehicle stopped. The children ran to their parents, arms wide open, tears streaming down all their faces.

  “You poor, poor things,” Winnie’s mother said over and over. “Let me look at you. Are you all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Alec said, acting like it was nothing. “Look what we got!”

  Winnie laughed that after the horrendous night they’d been through, her brother still gave the kitten top billing.

  “You’d never believe what we went through to save this little baby,” Alec said, hugging it to his chest. “We named her Lucky. Can we keep her?”

  Mrs. Frazier was too overwhelmed to speak. She nodded a quick ‘yes’ to her son then moved in closer to Winnie.

  “My big, responsible girl,” she said, giving her another hug. “I had no idea what I was getting you into. You
must be furious with us for leaving you two out here like this.”

  Winnie laughed through her tears.

  “We knew you were trying to get home to us, Mom. We just did our best on our own. I just tried to pretend you were here and do what you would have done.”

  “You’re a wise girl,” Winnie’s mother said. “I can’t wait to hear all about your adventure. I am just so proud of you two for handling all this. I’m sure you were scared out of your wits!”

  Winnie looked over at Alec. “We had our moments,” she said honestly. “But I think we managed pretty well.”

  “I say you did better than that,” her mom clarified. “When we realized the roads were closed and we couldn’t get home, I was frantic. But your father kept telling me you two would be fine. I was skeptical, but I see now he was right.”

  Winnie looked at her father and smiled. Just knowing the confidence he had in them made her feel warm all over.

  “Why, you even took the sheets down from the clothesline,” Mrs. Frazier said with surprise, looking at the empty line.

  Winnie looked to Alec with a suspicious grin. “The flying ghosts?” she asked. Alec nodded his head, remembering the visions they saw flying past the window the previous night.

  “Ghosts?” she asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Alec answered with a bit of a giggle. “And we’ll fill you in on the monster in the basement later, too.”

  Winnie smiled remembering the pile of objects barricading the basement door. When they had come outside early that morning, she had noticed the basement window banging in the gentle breeze. She was sure that was the noise of Alec’s monster.

  “I can’t wait to hear all about your experience,” Mrs. Frazier said, putting her arms around her children. “Let me see, so far I know you’ve saved a man’s life, rescued a kitten, and survived a pretty incredible wind storm… almost a hurricane, in fact. I think you two have passed the test. You have earned the privilege of being able to stay on your own while Dad and I go on errands from now on. I think if you handled these past fourteen hours, you can handle just about anything.”