by Tammy Lynn
EJ was shocked to his core. “You heard that? I could have sworn I saw you beside a pond today when I threw a stone in there. You were so sad. I had to say it.”
Kitten smiled. Maybe they were connected more than they even knew. “Did you hear my answer?”
EJ smiled. “I did.”
She looked toward the ceiling in her room, then out at the full moon bathing the pasture with light. Hearing Shilo in the corral whinny, she came back to him on the phone. “Just remember, EJ, I do and I always will.”
EJ caught his breath. He still couldn’t understand how they could even consider this love with only one meeting, and one glorious night of lovemaking and he asked her that.
“How couldn’t we EJ? We were brought together by history, met by fate, and who knows what our destiny together is?”
EJ closed his eyes and saw her in his mind’s eye. Just wanting to touch her once more, knowing she was forbidden to him, made him even more sad. “I have to go, Kitten, but do me a favor?”
“What?” She looked at the clouds racing in front of the moon that she could see through her window.
He spoke softly and made his voice even deeper. “Say my name.”
Kitten shivered and spoke softly to him, “EJ.”
The name slid off his spine and into his heart, through his veins, and his whole being vibrated with desire. “Ahh, my Kitten.” And then he was gone.
Chapter Four Do not be sad. There will be a time when you’ll see him again. That soft southern accent filtered through Kitten’s sleep, causing her to wake up. She looked over at her clock and found she had only been asleep for a little over an hour. Pitch black outside and she could hear the rumbles of thunder in the distance. Getting up, she went down the stairs and turned on the computer to pull up the weather site she used. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were being broadcast over her area along with Tornado Warnings. She could see the large area of severe weather, and noting the storm track, looked like it would hit directly over her. Kitten started screaming for Lissa, who came running out of the back room.
“What is it?” Lissa looked over at the computer as Kitten started shouting orders.
“Get dressed. We got heavy weather heading our way, we need to get outside and help get the horses out of the stables. Now! Make sure you get the others up. Tell Alice, Martha, Celeste, Tina, and Shannon they need to get up, dressed, and outside now.”
They both ran in different directions to get dressed for what was probably going to be a long night ahead of them. Kitten was dressed in what her mama would call “shameless clothes.” She had on her torn jeans and long tee shirt, that had paint stains and stains that wouldn’t come out from the sunflower oil when she tried to help a couple of times. Running out of the house, she spied Avery, the gardener, getting into the old battered Jeep.
Looking at her he shouted, “I’m heading out to the shed where we keep the extra gasoline for the generators. We might need some.”
Kitten nodded. Lissa caught up with Kitten when they got to the stables where Randall was already unlocking the doors. The others were heading to the barns to make sure the doors were shut tightly and locked. Kitten went to Shilo’s and led him out. At that moment a huge arc of lightening streaked across the sky illuminating the whole plantation as far as the eye could see. Thunder started clapping all around them and Kitten knew this was getting dangerous and they needed to get into shelter.
Before she could say anything a figure caught her attention. Her long hair slapped around her face, making her think that the strands had something to do with the figure, but she was wrong. Kitten’s long hair that had been whipping around her head, suddenly went straight down her back, the wind became deadly calm and sirens could be heard piercing the air. Kitten looked at the figure on horseback. He was holding a sword above his head pointing in the direction of the cellar.
“Randall, Lissa, let’s go for cover.” Kitten started running, looked back to make sure they were coming, and saw the figure go off into the grove of maple, oak, and weeping willows. The three made it down the cellar when they heard the roaring come closer and closer. All Kitten could think of was for Avery to find shelter immediately, along with the other women who knew where the other 3 shelters were. The roaring increased, and the cellar doors started lifting up, the locks straining to keep the doors tightly closed. Kitten, Lissa, and Randall clung to each other as they listened to what sounded like the bowels of Hell over top of them, then all was quiet.
Kitten looked over at Randall. “Don’t, Miss Kitten. Give it a few more minutes. Let me go out first.”
Kitten’s tearstained face shone in the pale light of the lantern Lissa had lit. “I can’t Randall. I need to see this for myself. Please, Dear Lord, let Avery be okay, let the house and barns still be standing.” Kitten unlocked the doors, closed her eyes as she walked out and stood in horror.
The backside of the house that had been Lissa’s quarters were gone. The front half of the house, including the bedrooms upstairs, the living quarters, the dining and entrance way, not to mention the study were all there, but her kitchen was flattened. The kitchen had always looked like an addition, being by itself when everything else was built up. Looking over at the stables, her pride and joy that she had helped to build, they were decimated. She fell to her knees in tears at the devastation she saw. Jumping up when she heard the Jeep come down through the pasture, she waited until Avery got out and, at the look on his face, knew the damage was bad.
Slamming the Jeep into Drive she flew around the timbers that were broken like toothpicks to get to the front acreage. The beautiful sunflowers that lined the long drive were gone. Twisted stalks, the white fence that had been lining the drive was in tatters. The only part that was standing was by the front porch up to about a hundred feet out. Everything else was gone. Even the cultivator that Randall had put out by the large barn to be picked up tomorrow for service was gone. Then she saw the barn with all the machinery was demolished as well. Aside from the cultivator and fluffer, everything else was there.
“Miss Victoria, how am I going to do it now? What am I going to do? How am I going to rebuild?” The sweet southern accent that had woken her up came in her mind. “The same way that we first started. We rebuild.” “I can’t do it on my own.”
Kitten spoke out loud and was answered by the three people who were always there. “We’ll help.” Kitten knew she had to make one more call. Hopefully her study was intact. “I’ll be right back.” Kitten took off at a dead run for the house. Running through the foyer, the living room, and then going into the study, she saw that only a couple of windows were broken, but her files were still on the desk. Picking up one folder, she ran her finger across the letterhead and dialed a number, hoping someone picked up.
“H’lo” A deep male voice answered the phone, but instead of the rush of desire, all she got was intense relief.
“EJ? I need your help. I need you to come and get Shilo as soon as you can get here.”
EJ woke up instantly to her voice, laced in fear and tears. “What’s wrong, Kitten? What happened?” Candra woke up beside him when he jerked upright in bed. She couldn’t believe the nerve of the woman to call her home. EJ put the phone on speaker and Candra heard the fear as Kitten told of the damage to her plantation, the stables, and how she wanted Shilo to be safe and since EJ had raised him, Kitten trusted him to come back and get him.
“I’m sorry to call. I’m sorry to wake you and your wife, but I need Shilo safe. Can you get him?” EJ looked at his wife who had tears in her eyes at the pain in the other woman’s voice.
Candra nodded her head and mouthed, “Go.”
“I’ll be there in under twenty hours Kitten. What else do you need?” Candra and EJ heard the teary laugh, and then the sobering truth.
“I lost the sunflowers, some of the machinery, the horse stables, the machinery stable, and some of the house.”
“What about The General’s room?” EJ hated to ask that question in
front of his wife, but he had to know.
“I’m in there now. This is the only room where not one window is broken, nothing disturbed. EJ I’m in way over my head here. There’s only us nine here, and the twenty-five men will have so much to do in the fields, the clean up, they can’t help us here. We’ll never be able to make Her what She was.”
In saying Her, EJ knew she was talking about the plantation. “Kitten, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything, you hear me? I’ll take care of everything.” He hung up the phone knowing that he might be promising her something he could never finish, but he would have to try.
“EJ?” He looked at Candra with a question in his own eyes. “Ship Shilo home. Tell Miss Kitten I’ll take care of him. She doesn’t need to be worrying about him in the face of everything she has been through. I’m not a complete shrew. I know you have feelings for her, the same as has been passed down in history, and I’m not completely sure why or how and I don’t want to know. I’m not sending you there for an affair EJ. I’m letting you go there to help out someone who desperately needs it and who would probably do the same for us. Don’t make me find out I was wrong.”
EJ kissed Candra, knowing in his heart of hearts that she was jealous, but he couldn’t tell Kitten no.
Kitten stood over a thousand miles away in The General’s room knowing that tonight was divine intervention. She had Miss Victoria’s voice in her ear and Josh Chamberlain’s spirit told them to go to the cellar. Either way, people would have died tonight. Running her fingers over the brass knobs on the bedpost an inner peace came over her.
She locked The General’s door and went downstairs to find everyone sitting on the porch defeated. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay. We have help on the way.”
Lissa looked at Miss Kitten and laughed. “Going to be okay? I have nothing left, Randall has nothing left. You and Avery are the only ones who have everything. The other girls don‘t have anything either.”
Kitten went over to Lissa and looked at her dead in the eyes. “You still have your life. You could’ve been killed tonight.”
Avery looked at Kitten and asked, “Who did you call and how?”
Kitten laughed and said, “It’s amazing how everyone forgets I have a cell phone. I have someone coming to get Shilo and take him back to Maine until everything is fixed here, and it will be, and the other horses can be boarded at Doc’s.”
Randall looked at Kitten with fire in his eyes and demanded an answer. “Shilo’s going to Maine? Why won’t he be boarded at Doc’s too?”
Kitten looked over and shook her head. “He’s going home for a while. Back to Chamberlain Farms. Back to his history too.”
Kitten’s phone rang and she excused herself to take the call. “Kitten? I’m on the way. We’ll have everything we will ever need to fix Her back up. I have my Dad coming down to bring Shilo home.” Kitten hadn’t even looked for the horses, but there was no way they were getting off her land.
“Are you there?” EJ was worried because he hadn’t heard anything out of her.
Kitten shook herself for a second. “Just promise me that She’ll be like she was before.”
EJ smiled into the phone. I can’t promise you She’ll be like She was, but I can guarantee She’ll be something to behold, just like her owner.” EJ disconnected the call and looked toward the Heavens for answers.
Miss Kitten and Lissa walked over to where the barns had held the machinery for the fields. On further inspection they found the machinery, in what must be a complete miracle, intact. Reaching over to pick up a scicle from the ground Kitten saw what looked like a hand. Pushing aside the door that lay overtop of it, Kitten discovered Martha laying on the ground, not moving. Kitten screamed for Avery and Randall and started yelling for the other women that should have been in the cellars on the other side of the barn. No answer from anyone. Lissa joined in on the search while Avery and Randall carefully brushed off Martha’s body and, knowing there was no hope for her, lifted her up and took her over by the house.
More screams of “NO” filled the air as they ran back again. Alice, Tina, Celeste, and Shannon huddled together by the cellar door, their hands all intertwined on the handle as if trying to pull it up. A piece of roof had hit them before they could get in. Lissa was unnaturally silent, but it was Kitten who screamed and screamed.
Her high pitched wail almost masking the ring of her phone in her jeans pocket. Lissa pulled it out and answered it. “Hello?” Avery and Randall was trying to get Kitten off the bodies to no avail. EJ heard the screams on the other end and wondered what was going on and who was screaming, so he asked. “This is Lissa, the housekeeper. Miss Kitten just found the other five women dead outside the cellar. They couldn’t get in.”
“Oh, dear God in Heaven. Is that her screaming?” EJ’s heart broke at the anguished screams that came from Kitten.
“How do I make her stop?” Lissa couldn’t take the screams anymore.
EJ thought about it and slapping didn’t really do anything, so he said the first thing he could think of. “Tell her EJ’s on the phone.”
Lissa knelt down to where Kitten was bent over the ladies, as if protecting them from prying eyes. “Miss Kitten? Miss Kitten? Mister EJ is on the phone.”
Kitten stopped the screaming, but not the crying as she sat up and took the phone. “What?” Her usual gentle manner was gone. These women were her family. They had been with her since the day she was born, and also with her mama.
“It’s EJ, Kitten. I heard about the women. I’m sorry that happened. I know this is extremely hard for you, but you need to calm down, take a couple of deep breaths and let Randall and Avery take over right now. How are the rest of the men?”
“The rest of the men? I don’t know.” Kitten had calmed down a little, even though a sob or two came through the phone line every now and then. “Randall, Avery? Take the women by the house and cover them up. Then I want you two in the Jeep over to the men’s apartments. Make sure each and every one of them are accounted for. Phone me as soon as you know anything. Do you understand?” Randall and Avery both looked at this woman. This one they didn’t know, but they could understand. “Do you understand?” Kitten demanded the answer. Both men nodded their head and went on with what they had to do.
“Kitten? Kitten?” EJ said her name over and over into the phone when he heard her barking orders at the men. “Kitten, answer me.”
“I’m here.” Kitten had walked over to the barn that had held the hay, the sunflower seeds, gardening tools, feed for the animals, and all she could see for acres and acres was destruction. “I’m ruined EJ. There’s no hope. When your Dad picks up Shilo, go back home with him. It would be best.”
EJ couldn’t believe what he was hearing from this vibrant woman. She was giving up. In everything he had read about her ancestors, they weren’t quitters. “Baby, listen to me. When the tobacco plantation was burned twice for harboring Yankee soldiers, Miss Victoria rebuilt each and every time. When the wheat fields were destroyed and then flooded out, Miss Lily overcame against all odds and flourished. When the drought came and the hay wouldn’t grow, the sunflowers died and smallpox broke out killing all but 7 people, Miss Alysia went out herself and made sure the plantation didn’t go under. The Miss Kitten I think I know about wouldn’t let a tornado get to her. I understand about the people that have died. Kitten, just hold on until I get there, okay? We’ll figure this out together.”
The phone disconnected before Kitten could agree. Kitten then remembered her mama. Dialing the nursing home, she hoped for the best. “Hello?” Kitten breathed a sigh a relief at her mama’s voice. “Mama? It’s Kitten. I need to tell you something, and it’s not good news. You might want to get Dee, your nurse, in there.”
Miss Alysia didn’t like the tone of her daughter’s voice. Tears, sorrow, pain, regret, and a lot of hurt and anger. “Baby sweetheart, what’s wrong? Did it have something to do with the storm that came through here?”
/> At the simple question, Kitten lost it again and sobbed.
“Kitten? Now you answer me, what happened? Are you okay?” Miss Alysia was getting really worried and she buzzed for Dee to come to her room. “Kitten?”
Kitten held back the sob and spoke softly, “Mama, only Lissa is left of the women. The barn, the stables, the feeding barn, the sunflowers, and some of the house is all gone. It’s gone mama. It’s gone.” Kitten was sobbing again when she heard Miss Alysia ask, “How are you? Are you hurt?” Kitten shook her head as though Miss Alysia could see her. “No. My heart is broken. The horses are starting to wander back. Shilo just came through the corral, well, what’s left of it. I called EJ to have him take Shilo back to Chamberlain Farms.” Kitten took a deep breath and let it back out, long and shaky.
“Baby sweetheart, come and get me. I want to come home and help. And don’t tell me no because I’m not in bad shape. I don’t have Alzheimer’s, I’m in good health, except for some arthritis, come and get me.”
Kitten couldn’t believe it. Miss Alysia wanted to come back here. After what she read on the last page of her diary, she wouldn’t think Miss Alysia would ever want to step foot in the home again, and she hadn’t for over twelve years.
“Are you thinking of the journal, the last page? Do you want me to recite it? “I know Tara will never be the same. I hear him walking the halls at night. I feel him all around me. He watched over me, and whether he’s dead or alive, I don’t know, but I know he lives in me. If I’m in this place he will forever be in my thoughts and I will certainly go crazy. I need to leave Tara and I hope that my baby sweetheart will find the love that three generations before have, but I also hope she doesn’t have the pain of losing what was never hers. I will forever miss these acres of color, the swing where I can let my thoughts drift me away to another time and place, and seeing in my mind’s eye the love that should have never left me every time I go by the General’s room. Because every time I pass that door a wave of desire rushes over me and all I want to do is cry in pain.” Does that about say everything?”