Chapter 1 #2
Tate could hear the principal praying, and then one teacher found a battery-powered fluorescent lantern with an AM/FM radio and turned it on.
With that light, they found two other flashlights in the basement.
Mr. Wyeth tried to get a station on the radio for a weather update, but either they were too far underground, or the storm was too strong to get a signal.
Finding the flashlights put light back into their world, and the screaming stopped, but one small detail had changed. Miss Ellen noticed that Tate Bandy was now sitting beside Briar Lowe, holding her hand.
At least she’s not crying anymore, Miss Ellen thought, and sat down on the cellar floor to say her own silent prayer. All she knew was that they were alive right now because of a child who’d been born with a gift.
After the roar began to fade, then came the silence, and it was almost as frightening as the storm.
Mr. Wyeth unlocked the lower door, but when he opened it, all he saw were the stairs going up and nothing above his head but sky.
The clouds were racing, rain was still falling as he climbed up, sidestepping debris.
When he reached the top, he stepped out onto the concrete floor and moaned.
“Sweet lord. It’s gone. It’s all gone.” He took a slow, shuddering breath and then went back down, removing debris from the steps and tossing it aside as he went. Once he was back in the basement, he made an announcement.
“Boys and girls, the storm is over, but it’s still raining.
It’s best we stay down here for the time being.
Everything is gone. The church. The school.
Our cars.” He wiped a shaky hand across his face.
“Your parents will surely be coming soon to check on you, but you are safer down here until they arrive.”
Miss Ellen stood. “Everything?”
“Everything,” he said.
Ellen turned and looked straight at Tate Bandy. He was just a little boy with black hair and the darkest brown eyes with tiny flecks of gold, like dust from the sun. When he laughed, they sparkled. His eyes were shiny right now, but he wasn’t laughing. They were filled with tears.
Delores Caldwell, one of the other teachers, came up behind her. “Ellen! Are your students okay?”
“Briar has a cut on her knee, but it’s minor. Lord, lord, Delores! Tate Bandy saved us all,” Ellen said.
“He’s a strange boy,” Delores said.
Ellen frowned. “No, he’s blessed. Maybe you’d rather be dead?”
Delores shrugged. “Still…you know how Pastor Wells feels about—”
Ellen lowered her voice to a whisper. “Pastor Wells wasn’t here, was he? What would you have had him do? Pray that storm away? We wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation if it wasn’t for that little boy.”
Delores knew she was right, but then one of her students called her name and she quickly turned and walked away.
* * *
Abel Bandy was at work when the storm began building. When the sky turned dark and the wind began rolling trash cans all over the streets, his boss, Curly Gibson, shut down the station, and everyone headed for their homes to take shelter.
Lilith was at home alone and bordering on hysteria. Abel was at work and Tate was at school, and she didn’t know who to worry about first.
All of a sudden, the front door flew open, and Abel came running into the house. “Get to the shelter!” he shouted.
“What about Tate?” Lilith wailed.
“We have to trust that the teachers will get them to safety,” he said, and grabbed her by the hand and ran to the aboveground shelter in their utility room.
By now, the wind was howling over their heads, and the moment they were inside and locked in, Lilith felt for the flashlight they kept on the bench. Once she found it, she was trembling so hard she couldn’t find the switch to turn it on.
“Let me, darlin’,” Abel said, turned on the light, and then pulled her down onto the bench beside him, wrapped his arms around her, and held her close.
The roar was horrifying, and they were wondering if they’d even have a house left when it was over.
When the storm finally passed, they came out of the shelter on the run.
Clearly, the funnel had lifted before it came through town.
There was obvious wind damage, but houses were still standing.
Their biggest worry was their boy, and from the line of cars already heading up the mountain, they weren’t the only ones.
Every parent in the surrounding area who had a child in school was in a panic. Some parents were headed to the public school on the east edge of Star Ridge to get to their children, while others were headed up the mountain to the Holy Water school.
Some of the fathers had the foresight to take chainsaws, because the chances of downed trees blocking the road were high.
The school was a mile up from town, and to their growing dismay, the higher up they went, the more destruction they saw.
Several times they had to stop and clear away downed trees before they could proceed.
Shock followed when they began looking for the roof of the church to gauge how much farther they had to go and there were no rooftops in sight. It only took a few moments for them to realize they were nearing their destination, but every building was gone.
Parents froze, then mothers began bailing out of their cars and trucks and running, leaving their men behind to continue clearing the road.
Unable to wait another second, Abel pulled their car off into some trees, and he and Lilith got out, joining other parents who were running up the mountain on foot.
One woman who was far ahead of the others suddenly stopped. Nearly blinded by the rain, she kept swiping her eyes as if unable to believe what she was seeing, and then they heard her scream and saw her drop to her knees.
“It’s gone! It’s all gone! Nobody is here!” she wailed.
People started crying and shouting the names of their children, and then all of a sudden, Mr. Wyeth appeared as if from the bowels of earth, standing in the downpour, waving his arms.
“We’re safe! We’re in the basement!” he shouted, and the horde of parents began running toward him. He shouted back down to the teachers. “Bring up the children!”
Only this time, there was no running, no pushing or shoving. Just an orderly procession of children coming up from below, desperately searching for the faces of their parents in the crowd.
Roger and Mariah Lowe were pushing their way through the crowd, shouting Briar’s name, and then they saw her, and then the steady flow of blood on her leg washing away in the rain. She was limping, and the little Bandy boy was holding her hand.
They began screaming her name. “Briar! Briar! We’re here!”
Abel and Lilith Bandy were standing at the edge of the crowd, watching for Tate, when they saw him coming out holding Briar Lowe’s hand. Her knee was bleeding, but Tate was steadying her with every step she took.
“There he is, with Briar!” Lilith said.
Because Briar was the only student who got hurt, Miss Ellen was right behind them to talk to the parents. Tate was their hero, and she intended to let them know.
The Lowes and the Bandys reached their children at the same time. The rain was beginning to abate, but by now, they were all soaked to the skin.
Miss Ellen’s pretty blond curls were plastered to her head, but she was calm as she began to explain the conditions of two of her students.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lowe, Briar has a cut on her knee. She fell while we were running to the basement. I carried her the rest of the way down, but I believe the cut is deep enough for a stitch or two, so I suggest you get her to the doctor. Tate has been her best friend. He sat with her when she was crying and afraid and held her hand. He has been my good helper today.”
And then Miss Ellen shifted her focus to the Bandy family and laid her hand on Tate’s head.
“Your son saved our lives today. We would have all blown away if he had not warned us. The lunchroom was loud and noisy, and from the window of the lunchroom, the sky was clear. We did not know what was coming at us from behind until Tate came running toward me. I saw fear on his face, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said a storm was coming and we had to go to the shelter. I looked out the window and saw nothing worrisome and didn’t believe him.
But he kept insisting, and there was so much fear in his voice it was impossible to ignore.
It was only after he began screaming in absolute horror, demanding we had to go, that the lunchroom went quiet.
It was in that silence that we finally heard the roar.
It was those last precious seconds that gave us the time we needed to get everyone to safety.
Mr. and Mrs. Bandy, your son has been blessed with a very special gift.
It has been my honor to be his teacher, but the school is gone, and the students will all be in the public school in town now.
I just wanted you to know that none of us would be here, if it had not been for him. ”
Then she knelt down beside Tate and hugged him. “Thank you, Tate. Never stop being you,” she said, then hugged Briar. “I loved being your teacher, and I’m sorry you fell in the rush.”
“You picked me up and carried me,” Briar said. “And Tate held my hand in the cellar when I cried. Tate is my best friend.”
“Miss Ellen, thank you for taking care of our children,” Abel said, and picked Tate up in his arms.
“We are so grateful,” Lilith added.
“We would not be standing here had it not been for your son’s warning,” Miss Ellen said.
Tate was silent, but he was leaning into his daddy’s strength and presence. He still didn’t know if he was in trouble with his daddy, and Briar’s parents were looking at him as if he’d done something wrong.
Mariah Lowe shifted her glare from Tate to the teacher. “What did you mean, when you said he saw the danger coming? That he warned you? Like a vision? He has visions?”