CHAPTER TEN HURRICANE
CHAPTER
TEN
Hurricane
When Benny dropped Gloria off at her house, her mother and father were already looking for her, worrying at the door.
‘You shouldn’t get back on the road,’ her mother told Benny. ‘Stay here and we’ll make a bed for you on the couch. They say it’s coming in quick.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Meyers, but I don’t have far to go. I’ll be home in no time, and I want to make sure everything is shut tight.’
‘Good man. Batten down the hatches.’ Mr Meyers gave a lame salute.
Benny hurried to his car and drove to Levittown.
The wind had already started kicking up dust and shimmying the trees.
At home, Benny turned on the radio for the latest update while he closed and locked the windows and brought in the flowerpot on his doorstep that Ed and Alice had given him, and the barbecue he kept out back.
Authorities have expressed concern over residents in the floodplain who may be unaware that the hurricane has changed course or that they might be in danger, the radio man said. Residents in the floodplain are strongly advised to evacuate. All others are urged to stay indoors.
Benny’s stomach dropped. Cora and Lee at Turner Creek were about as much in the floodplain as anyone could be, with no television or radio to tell them the hurricane was headed to Mangrove Bay.
He picked up his telephone to call Green’s Whiskey, hoping one of them might hear the late-night ringing from the lean-to next door.
‘One moment, please,’ the operator said, in a toneless drone.
She came back to him a few seconds later. ‘I’m sorry, sir, I can’t get through.’
‘You mean they’re not answering?’
‘No, sir. The connection’s broken. That can happen if a branch falls on the line. A technician will have to be called out to take a look.’
Benny heard the crack of thunder followed by a distant stuttering flash of light. Then the rain started in a steady patter. A minute later, it drummed down in a blanket of noise. Most likely Cora and Lee didn’t know what was about to hit them.
‘Damn it.’ He grabbed his keys and raced to his car, driving as fast as he dared. The wind swept over the slick pavement pushing into the side of his car, threatening to nudge him off the road.
He knew it was a bad idea to be out in this, but he didn’t have a better one, so he kept driving, fighting to see through the sideways rain. The wind threw leaves and debris against his windshield, which his wipers pushed away.
When he got down by Turner Creek, the road already lay hidden under the rising water. His wheel hit a deep pothole that he struggled to drive out of.
He rolled down his window, searching for the Green’s Whiskey sign. There was nothing. When he started thinking he’d missed it and gone too far, he saw his sister, crouched on the ground and soaked to the bone.
He leaped from the car and ran to her. ‘What happened?’
Cora grabbed his arms and heaved herself up with so much force it made him nearly stumble. ‘Lee,’ she shouted. ‘They took Lee.’
With her weight on Benny, she limped to the car. ‘Go. That way. Go. Drive.’ She was nearly hysterical.
Benny did as she told him, shooting questions at her.
She gave only part answers, but he eventually got the general picture.
He sped up the road and felt the car slipping under him.
They wove through the streets searching, with the thunder and lightning getting louder and brighter overhead as the storm inched closer. They needed to get inside.
‘There!’ Cora cried, pointing to a white truck on a lonely road. It had slipped off the street and tipped into a ditch, its back wheel lifted clear off the ground. Next to the wheel, on the back bumper, Lee lay tied to the truck. Benny swallowed bile.
When they drove closer, he saw that the men who’d tied him had scattered to find shelter.
The second he brought the car to a stop, Cora sprang out.
She collapsed as soon as she put her feet on the ground but heaved herself back up and took a few steps.
When she fell again, she crawled to Lee, screaming his name.
Benny ran to his trunk and found his fishing knives, then rushed over to Lee, where Cora clawed at the rope tying his arms. He pushed her aside to slice through it, then gathered Lee up and carried him to the car.
The army had trained him to focus on what needed to be done, block out the carnage and keep going.
So, Benny registered the battered face, the swollen hands and bloody, shredded legs, but he kept his mind on moving forward.
He settled Lee in the back with Cora and got behind the wheel.
Hospital was the command he gave himself, and his sleek black Pontiac flew through the streets, skidding and sliding, nearly off the road, dodging fallen branches and fighting the wind.
At one point the car fishtailed and hit a lamppost. He heard the crunch of metal on metal but, even more worrying, Lee didn’t make a sound.
He gunned his engine, lurching forward, squinting to see through the sheets of rain, speeding through stop signs and red lights, confident that no one else was crazy enough to be driving in this.
It still took far too long to get there.
He abandoned the car in front of the hospital doors and carried Lee inside, barking orders like a sergeant.
Lee’s blood soaked through Benny’s wet shirt, smelling of rotting roses and rust. In the commotion, a dark-skinned nurse took him for someone important and left a woman cradling her arm to rush over.
After that, it all happened quickly: someone rolled out a gurney, two more helped him lay Lee on it, then wheeled him away while someone else ran alongside shining a light in Lee’s eyes and shouting instructions.
Benny turned to Cora in time to see her collapse to the floor with bloody footprints trailing behind her.