149. Bone-shaking
149
BONE-SHAKING
Daire
Sunday mornings used to be about sleeping in but now we were parents, that was a thing of the past. Other than Anthony, the Sunshine Manor adults all had kids. Nate and I were the last pair to join the group.
When Benate cried at six, Nate got up and after changing her diaper, brought her to me in bed to be fed. While she suckled, I closed my eyes and almost dozed off.
“Daire.”
“Mmmm.”
“Switch to the other side.”
“Oh right.” My eyes closed again after I settled our little girl and as that warm, peaceful feeling approached where I teetered on the edge of sleep, the bed moved. Or I thought it did. Maybe I was dreaming. I opened one eye. Nate was in the shower.
Perhaps I imagined it.
No!
Whatever it was, it had unsettled my bear.
“Nate? Did the earth just move?”
My mate stuck his head out of the bathroom, water sliding over his sculpted chest. “Babe, if you want sex just ask.”
“No. The bed shook.”
He smirked. “Want me to check in case something’s lurking under there?”
My mate wasn’t taking this seriously and I began to think I’d imagined it. But as I blew him a kiss and told him to finish his shower, the bed didn’t shake, the entire building did. Not enough to knock Nate off his feet which would have been terrifying but the swaying reminded me of being on a boat before I found my sea legs. And the rattling that accompanied the movement was worse than the actual shuddering.
Clutching the baby to my chest, I leaped up and grabbed a pillow as Nate, still naked, flung himself through the bathroom door and wobbled over to me and Benate. We crawled under the bed, sliding our daughter in front of us and lay huddled under the mattress as glass shattered. With each smash, I cringed and placed an arm around the baby, who was still asleep, until the shaking stopped.
My phone had fallen on the floor and my mate reached out and scrolled through the earthquake alerts. He had insisted we both sign up to get the messages and had done it for me on my phone. At the time, I didn’t see the point because our area wasn’t on a major fault line and I couldn’t remember ever being in an earthquake.
But that was before Benate was born. Hard to believe I’d been so blasé about natural disasters and now, being a father, I was thankful my mate had the foresight to be prepared and informed.
“Wouldn’t it be better to send an alert before the earthquake?” I asked as I brushed hair off the baby’s face.
“There was one,” Nate said as he scrolled through the messages. "But you were dozing and I was in the shower and didn’t hear them.”
The phone beeped again with an all clear, but neither Nate nor I moved. I was terrified we’d crawl out and the phone would ding again. But Martin’s shouting and a clattering of feet down the stairs, told us they were leaving the building. There were yells in the distance which sounded like Micah. It was then I remembered Anthony, who was on the top floor of the manor.
“Take the baby and go outside. I’ll check that everyone’s safe and if there’s any damage to the buildings.” We’d heard windows smashing and we wouldn’t be able to live here until they were replaced. But if the structure was damaged, that was much more serious and a long term issue.
With Nate hugging our little one, and me with a pillow shielding her from any falling debris, we made our way through broken glass. I was so concerned about getting our daughter outside, I barely glanced at the paintings that had toppled from the walls, the smashed plates and the potted plants that had been upended.
Once Nate and Benate had left the building, I turned my attention to my upstairs neighbors. Neil was already outside with Siyala and Charlie, while Martin and Toby were running up and down bringing out bedding and diapers.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“All the windows are smashed,” Toby yelled over his shoulder.
“Forget the stuff.” I grabbed Martin’s arm and noted the streak of blood on his cheek. “We can always buy more but I don’t want you and Toby injured.”
“Please listen to him, Martin,” Neil pleaded.
The fox shifter agreed and he picked up Charlie who was in his stroller while Neil held the baby .
Archer’s shout had me look up as he and Micah charged along the sidewalk with their kids. From a distance, I could see their windows were broken but the ones in the manor, which stood between the two houses, were untouched.
Anthony appeared holding Dyani by one hand, Ivor had the other. Ryder had a phone to his ear and appeared to be checking on damage to his office. “We were lucky,” Ivor noted as he pointed to Sunshine Manor. “But your houses… not so much.”
“We can’t go back inside until we know they’re safe.” I dialed a building surveyor friend and when I managed to get through the earliest he could do an assessment was the following week, which wasn’t surprising after an earthquake. From what we’d seen online, the damage in town was minor. Buildings weren’t toppled but trees had been uprooted and there was broken glass everywhere.
When I explained we had three houses, and therefore the fee he could charge would be considerable, he agreed to fit us in the next day.
“Everyone, we'll have to spend tonight at the lake house.”
“Sunshine Manor seems to be okay,” Anthony said as he studied the three houses.
Ivor piped up. “I don’t want to go back in until I know it’s safe.”
“Agreed,” I nodded.
That night wasn’t the usual fun-filled shifting experience at the lake. Every so often someone would think of something they needed which was at home. But we were together, with a roof over our heads and no one was hurt.
But the next day we received news we hadn’t been expecting. As well as broken windows, both the houses on either side of the manor had structural damage. There were cracks in the walls and ceilings and we were advised not to move back in yet.
Ryder, Ivor, and Dyani, along with Anthony, decided they were going home to the manor. “Are the rest of you going to stay here and commute back to town?” Ryder asked.
“We could,” Martin said, “but I need to go into the office every day.”
“More bad news guys.” My parents had scheduled minor work to be done on the lake house, starting in a few days. One bathroom was being ripped up and both the inside and outside were due to be painted.
Micah and I were in the editing stage of our latest project so we could do that anywhere, as could Archer. But with workmen traipsing through the lake house, along with the dust, noise, and the smell of fresh paint, it wasn’t conducive to working and wasn’t great for the kids.
Neil’s equipment was in 2A and with Anthony living in 3A, and Martin at work during the day, he decided to move back into 2B which he still rented along with 2A. “The five of us can live in 2A and 2B for the next few weeks until our place next door is fixed.”
“What do you say, Nate?” I asked. “Wanna move back into our old 3B?” I’d need to be close by while the repairs were done .
“Why not? It’s only the three of us. Benate won’t mind. And it might be fun and bring back memories.”
“While we should be close by because both our houses sustained damage and we’ll have a lot of decisions to make, we have nowhere to live,” Archer noted. Their first house, one street away from the manor had also been damaged. This was the second time since they’d owned it that it was unlivable. “But we can stay in two of the motel rooms,” Micah suggested.
Micah and I had already purchased our next motel and while it was ugly and outdated, it was livable.
“While I hate that your houses were damaged, I was kinda hoping we’d all be together again in the manor,” Ryder noted. “First time in ages.”
“It might be a squeeze but Anthony, how would you feel about sleeping in our spare bedroom slash office and allowing Micah and Archer and the kids to have your place? On a temporary basis.” That was Ivor.
Anthony nodded enthusiastically. After discovering the existence of shifters, he really felt part of the manor family and he would probably have agreed to sleeping on the roof. “No problem. It’s such beautiful weather, I could always sleep on the roof.”
I had to hide my smile.
“What do you think, Archer?” Micah asked. When they’d lived in 2B for a while before they moved into their current house, it had been a tight squeeze.
“Elune could have sleepovers with Dyani,” Ivor suggested. That had the two little girls jumping up and down and hugging one another.
“Sure,” Archer agreed.
Everyone cheered.