Hurricane Season

by BJ Phillips

  “I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about that. Well, the interstates didn’t seem to be overly clogged with cars going north today. According to the news, I-75 and I-95 were pretty busy for a while yesterday but that was because the Keys were under a mandatory evacuation.”

  “I heard on the news while I was driving that Marco Island, Sanibel and Captiva, and Fort Myers Beach are now under mandatory evacuation as well. That means Greg’s out of there. It’s the usual. Still, I feel bad for them,” Shawn said.

  “Well, at this point whoever had to get out is already out. No one should be out driving around at this point. It’s too late to worry about anything now, just let it happen.”

  It was going to be a long night, and Shawn wondered why hurricanes always seemed to pass through in the dark like they were trying to sneak in. After supper, they watched out the open front door, since the windows all had the shutters latched down. The branches at the tops of trees were waving around to music only they could hear. The sky had become a bit greyer, but it was hard to tell at that point. Grey was grey. Rain was coming down pretty hard, but these were still just the outer rain bands, and it was going to get actually dark soon.

  Just then, the power flickered, then came back on again, and Carrie extinguished the hurricane lamps. With nothing else to do, they watched movies in between looking out the front door and checking the Weather Channel to see what was happening. Shawn checked the charge on all her electronics, including their cell phones, ready for when the power went back off again.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  SHAWN PLOPPED DOWN ON the sofa after handing Carrie a bottle of Pepsi. “Anything new while I was out of the room?”

  “They’re now estimating landfall will be just after midnight, but at this point, who knows.”

  “Yeah, it’s definitely going to be a long night. Hey, remember going through hurricanes when you were a kid? The air would get so humid that it felt like you’d leave a wake in the air like a boat through water.” Shawn shook her head slowly. “That was so nasty. But that’s just the way it was. At least nowadays we have battery-powered fans for during the storm, and generators for afterward.”

  “Yes, I do remember. It was awful after the hurricane when there was no air conditioning and you’d just sit or lie there in the sweltering heat, fanning yourself with whatever you could grab. Whoever invented battery-powered fans should get a medal. Back then my dad would remind us again and again that’s what it was like for everyone who lived here before there was air conditioning. He’d talk about that the whole time the power was off, trying to make us feel like pioneers, when all we wanted was to sit in front of a fan, and dry out a bit.”

  “Yeah, us, too.” Shawn went back to typing something on her laptop.

  “I’m going to be nosey, and ask you what you’re working on.” Carrie leaned to look over Shawn’s shoulder.

  “I decided to keep a hurricane diary.” She turned the laptop around for Carrie to see. “Could be useful for something I write someday.”

  “I guess everything that happens to you could be useful someday, huh? Do you think of every experience as something that might be in a story?”

  “Well, sort of. I guess that’s just the way my brain works. Never know when you might need to call up some memory to get through part of a story. I’m thinking about putting my next book here in Florida, and a hurricane could happen to them, too.”

  “Good idea. Just remember that they need to stock up before the storm and they must have a hurricane kit in their house way before it happens. Or maybe you’d rather have your characters do dumb stuff like having a hurricane party and try to figure out how to deal with their stupidity later. I guess that would make a better story, wouldn’t it?”

  “That’s an idea. If this thing hadn’t caught me off guard, I’d have been readier. Is that a word? Anyway, I do own some supplies, and we can get into them if we need to afterward.”

  “And I’ve got a generator and you don’t.” Carrie teased her.

  “And you have a generator and I don’t,” Shawn grinned back at her. “Yet. So I’m after you for your generator now, not just your luscious kissing?” Shawn teased back and leaned over and lightly kissed Carrie, then grinned some more.

  “Could be. Never know. By the way, did you notice how everywhere you went yesterday, once you got closer, the last thing people said to each other was ‘stay safe’?”

  “Now that you mention it, yes, I did. Even when I stopped at McDonalds north of here.”

  “I think I noticed it more after Charley came through. It was so awful, it made an impression. Maybe it made people think about hurricanes differently. It’s almost like when something like this happens everyone becomes related like cousins. The clerk at the grocery store or at the gas station, or wherever you talk to someone here, the last thing they say to you is ‘stay safe’. Funny, I don’t particularly remember that from being a kid here, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway.”

  “I keep thinking I can hear the rain letting up, but when I go over to the door to look out, I don’t see anything different. Must be just the wind gusts off and on. I’d just like to get this over with. I hate the waiting part.”

  “Well…” Carrie ran her hand up Shawn’s arm. “Maybe we could find something to do while we wait, besides eating, that is.”

  “Hmm…not a bad idea.” Shawn made an elaborate play of closing her laptop, slowly. “What do you have in mind?” She reached for Carrie, but Carrie jumped up and took off toward the bedroom, laughing.

  “Come take a nap with me!”

  Shawn followed Carrie into the bedroom, visions of ‘napping’ making her ache. Oh, yeah, let’s nap. She found Carrie sitting in the middle of the bed, grinning. Shawn stopped at the foot of the bed, trying to look serious.

  “So you want to nap?” Shawn tried to control her grin. “I guess that could be arranged.” She walked slowly around the foot of the white iron bed, then flopped down on one side of the bed without taking her eyes off Carrie. She held out her arms to Carrie, who snuggled into Shawn’s shoulder.

  Shawn sighed deeply. “How nappish are you?”

  Carrie ran her hand lazily down Shawn’s middle, from her chest through the middle of her breasts, and down her stomach, stopping just above where her legs met. “Oh, I don’t know.” She produced a large fake yawn. “How tired are you?”

  Instead of answering, Shawn softly kissed Carrie’s forehead, then pulled Carrie closer. She reached to cup Carrie’s face, bringing her lips to hers for a long, lingering kiss.

  Carrie sighed. “It’s a good thing you’re such a good kisser,” she whispered against Shawn’s lips.

  “Why’s that?” Shawn asked, in between kisses.

  “I’d have given up on you a long time ago,” she murmured. “But, my God, you are a good kisser. Like knees buckling good.”

  “Oh yeah?” Shawn smiled into still another kiss without missing a beat.

  “Oh…yeah…”

  Shawn pulled Carrie over on top of her as she deepened the kiss, their tongues playing together as they both moaned in response. Shawn pulled away and pushed Carrie into a seated position upon her hips as she pulled Carrie’s tank top off over her head, revealing Carrie’s bare breasts.

  “Oh, God, Carrie…” Shawn moaned as she caressed the silky skin. Carrie leaned forward, giving Shawn’s mouth full access to her. As Shawn’s tongue toyed with Carrie’s nipples and her hands continued fondling the rest of Carrie’s breasts, Carrie’s breathing quickened and her hips began moving against Shawn’s.

  Shawn wrapped her arms around Carrie and rolled them both over so Carrie was on her back. She began kissing her way down Carrie’s chest and stomach while unbuttoning and removing Carrie’s shorts, then her panties. Her lips found their way to that delicate skin inside Carrie’s thigh, kissing and running her tongue up her leg, causing Carrie to moan even louder.

  As Shawn’s mouth met Carrie’s center, Carrie whimpered in an
ticipation. Carrie moved against her and as Shawn’s tongue tasted her for the first time, she moaned Shawn’s name. Minutes later, when Carrie reached her peak, Shawn felt her shudder in pleasure. She kissed her way back up Carrie’s body, and pulled her over into her arms to hold her close.

  She felt Carrie’s body relax against her side, Carrie’s head settled onto Shawn’s shoulder perfectly, and her arm came to rest across Shawn’s stomach. Carrie sighed faintly and snuggled in even closer, fitting perfectly in the curve of Shawn’s arm around her. She heard Carrie’s breathing begin to slow as she fell asleep.

  Shawn knew at that moment. She was absolutely sure that Carrie was the one. Not a shred of a doubt remained. She’d always be the one. She was the one she’d wanted all her life. The one that her heart had anticipated but hadn’t found until now. She just knew. Kelly was right. She just knew.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  SHAWN WOKE UP WITH Carrie still draped across her. She hated to move her, but she really wanted to go check on the weather conditions outside. It was totally dark. She turned on the television for the weather update. They were saying that half of Cape Coral had been evacuated, all the low-lying parts, anyway. Once the storm started, conditions had deteriorated quickly. Everyone needed to be where they were going to be for the duration. She looked back toward the still-sleeping Carrie and knew she was right where she wanted to be. She called Kelly to see how she was doing.

  “I’m good,” Kelly said. “I’m not in any kind of water flow area or near the river, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be just fine. It’s kind of boring, though.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m having flashbacks to my childhood, except that my parents kept us busy doing stuff to divert our attention from what was happening.”

  “Me, too. Growing up here, they just happen. Remember that one year when my family was living in a trailer? That was interesting. Dad had those special tie-downs, I remember that. One hurricane in that thing, though, was enough. It actually rocked some. Mom made a game of it, having us ‘camp out’ on the floor. We didn’t feel it as much there.”

  “I remember that year. I think that was the year my dad first put me in charge of the hurricane map. You remember those?”

  “I sure do. They had them in the newspaper and you could chart where the hurricane was on it in longitude and latitude.”

  “Right. It wasn’t like you couldn’t see it on TV anyway, but Dad thought I should do it, too. It was my job during the storm to know where it was at all times. Another way to teach me about maps and to keep me from getting scared at the same time.”

  “WINK TV had a story on just a while ago about people having hurricane parties. Do you believe people still do stupid stuff like that? Some people in Fort Myers Beach that are supposed to be evacuated are refusing to leave and having parties instead. They said they thought it wouldn’t be as bad as the forecasters are saying, and they were just going to stay up all night and party.”

  “Wow, I hope they’re right. It’d be awful if those people were hurt badly or worse because they didn’t leave.”

  “True. Something could happen at the last minute and it could turn, but it’s not looking likely that it will. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I hate the waiting part. Did I mention that already?”

  “Me, too. Are you planning to stay up all night or sleep through it?”

  “Oh, I imagine I’ll stay up pretty much all night,” Kelly said. “Figure I can sleep tomorrow after it’s over. I’ll probably doze off and on, but curiosity will get the best of me and I’ll check the weather every hour or so. What about you?”

  “We took a little nap earlier…don’t laugh, we actually did. Carrie’s still asleep. I’ll probably stay up the rest of the night and do what you’re doing. If the power goes off, we’ve got loads of battery-powered things here, tons of batteries, and can get the weather on a little television or on the radio. We’ll be fine.”

  “Well, stay safe, then. Talk to you later.”

  “Stay safe yourself.” Shawn smiled as she repeated the local hurricane mantra. She picked up the remote and clicked on the Weather Channel again, with the sound on low.

  Grace had been upgraded to a category two hurricane, getting stronger and even more organized. That wasn’t good, but still they’d be all right. She opened her laptop and began another entry in her hurricane diary. She could hear the palm trees outside rustling in the stiff breeze. Come on, Grace. Get a move on. Let’s get this over with.

  Just after midnight, Shawn woke from hearing Carrie moving around in the kitchen. She could tell it was raining hard from the sound on the metal roof of the front porch. The whole house had a metal roof, but the porch wasn’t insulated, making the sound much louder there. She got up and looked out the front door, where she saw the wind had kicked up and was blowing much harder.

  They were still getting cable, so they still had television. Forecasters were saying that the eye of the storm was going to pass just to their south, coming ashore near the Everglades. Good for us, she thought, but bad for those poor people down there. Everything down there was even more low-lying than Fort Myers, which was barely above sea level. The winds around the eye were now at one hundred fifteen miles per hour, and what she saw outside was still the outer bands of rain with this huge storm. Grace was finally there.

  Shawn opened her laptop, and then plugged it in again to make sure it was fully charged. She wrote: I’m very tired and may go back to sleep in a while, in spite of my intention to stay up all night. It feels funny to sleep in my clothes, but I feel the need to be dressed. I guess that’s a throwback to my childhood. We always slept in our clothes during hurricanes. They never knew what might happen, and it was better to be dressed.

  The people on local television are doing a great job of keeping us informed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two local networks getting together like this. Channel 2 and Channel 7, ABC and NBC, are working together and staying on all night becoming our own local weather channel. The weather Doppler is showing the big stuff in this huge storm has nearly arrived. Nothing to do here but wait. Wait, wait, and wait. Did I mention I hate waiting?

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  BY TWO THIRTY MONDAY morning the weather people told them they’d had nearly an inch of rain so far. The power was still on, thank goodness. Looking out the front door, Shawn saw the trees moving around quite a bit, but not alarmingly so. The rain was steady but not heavy. The Doppler image on television showed the eye of the storm was very large, which meant it should be interesting to see what happened when it finally waded ashore.

  Shawn realized she was really hungry. She had been ignoring her stomach for some time, but there was no reason to be abusive to it. Since Carrie was dozing on the sofa next to her, Shawn moved slowly so she wouldn’t wake her and barefooted into the kitchen to scrounge for a snack. Ah, a ham sandwich, that’s what she wanted. She got out the ham, lettuce, tomato, and mustard along with the sourdough bread she had developed a taste for in San Francisco. Nice to see Carrie liked it, too.

  As she made her sandwich, she could hear the weather guys on television say that sometime in the next four hours the area would probably lose power for a while. Once again, they were warning people about using a generator inside a building or just outside of a window because of the fumes. She shook her head, wondering how many people were stupid enough to do that, and realized there were always reports after a storm of deaths due to that very thing. Sad to think people would do things intentionally that could kill them, even after all the warnings. But, sadly, some always did.

  “Hey, how about making two of those,” Carrie said as she padded around the corner into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes.

  Shawn reached to put her arms around Carrie and pulled her close for a little kiss. “Hey, I thought you were sleeping.”

  Carrie snuggled in. “I was, but I woke up hungry and you weren’t there, so I figured you were in here for food, too.”

  “I
woke up hungry. What is it about these storms that make you eat more?” She laughed. “I’ll make you one. Go sit back down, sweetie, and I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Carrie grinned with sleepy eyes, and headed to the comfort of the sofa while Shawn finished their snack. Outside, the rain was sheeting down. Because it was coming from the south and the house faced north, the front porch was still mostly dry so far. They could hear the rain hammering on the house roof now, as well as the porch roof and the shutters on the windows around the house. The eye wall of the storm was nearly at landfall to the south.

  After handing Carrie her sandwich, Shawn munched on hers as she headed to the door to look outside yet again. “Have you seen this? We haven’t hit the worst of it yet, but those poor trees out by the road are really swishing around. Can’t see much, but you can sure hear them.”

  “You know, those trees have been there for what seems like forever. They even went through Charlie. Don’t worry.” Carrie nodded toward the television. “While you were in the kitchen, they said we’ll experience the heaviest winds in the next few hours as Grace comes ashore. They’re still saying near Everglades City. Ever been there?”

  Shawn came back to sit on the sofa and put her arm around Carrie, who snuggled up next to her. She knew Carrie was trying to distract her from the storm. “Just when I was a kid. Seems like we went down there once for airboat rides. I don’t remember much about it except for how loud that boat ride was. I seem to remember it being a ways south of Naples.”

  “Yes, a bit, about twenty miles or so. I was only there once a long time ago. I drove down with a friend whose dad was pastor of a church there. It was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, really, but kind of a neat place. Old Florida, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, it was summer when we visited and the mosquitoes just about ate us alive. You had to go out after dusk when the mosquitoes seemed to go to sleep or something. During the day it was just awful.” She rubbed her arms, remembering. “I can’t imagine those people bearing the brunt of that storm. It’s totally flat. Just barely dry land.”