Chapter 8 #2
Abel gave Briar a quick hug. “Bless you honey, but why didn’t you drive the truck to the hospital?”
Briar’s voice was shaky with emotion. “Before Tate passed out, he told me the streets would likely be full of debris, and then the EMT told me the same thing. The roads weren’t clear.
There were broken tree limbs all over the streets, and some downed power lines in other places, so I ran.
I made it to ER as they were about to remove the glass. I was with him, but I didn’t watch.”
“You’re both amazing,” Abel said. “Tate risked his life for you, because that’s how much you matter to him, and you saved his life, because that’s how much he matters to you. We’re proud of the both of you.”
Briar caught the look in Tate’s eyes—full of unspoken promises.
“What about your parents?” Lilith asked. “Were you able to get through to them?”
The smile slid off Briar’s face, and the tone of her voice went flat.
“I called Dad. He was on his way to Savannah to try and talk my mother into coming home. However, after our phone call, he turned around and started back. I have no idea when he’ll get here, but he knows where I am.
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to clean up the blood in your house.
Most of it is on the floor of the storm shelter, but wherever Tate was walking, he was leaving a trail of it. ”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lilith said. “What matters is that you both are safe.”
Briar glanced at the tray of snacks on the tray table by Tate’s bed. It was a different selection, and she didn’t want to talk about her home life anymore. She pointed at the tray. “Sweet or salty?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, and suffered the soft laughter at his expense as Abel chose a brownie and a small bag of corn chips for Tate, opened both packages for him, opened a water bottle, then moved the tray table so he could reach it.
“Briar, honey, you must be hungry too. Help yourself. Abel and I had food in the car on the drive home,” Lilith said.
Briar took a brownie and a bottle of water, then sat back down on the floor to eat, leaving Tate and his parents some visiting space.
The first bite that went in Tate’s mouth was accompanied by a sigh.
“Good stuff,” he said, and took a sip from the water bottle.
“Hey, Dad, the power has been off at the house since early afternoon. You and Mom should go home and start up the generator so you don’t lose the food in the freezer.
I’m okay. Doctor Joe is going to send me home tomorrow. ”
“Briar can come home with us, if she wants,” Abel said. “She’ll have a place to sleep besides the floor.”
Briar looked up. “Thank you, but no. I made a promise. I won’t leave him alone.”
Abel blinked, then took a deep breath and glanced at Lilith. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and walked out of the room.
Lilith sat down and began talking about the music shows they’d seen at the casino, and got a little teasing from Tate when she admitted she’d won fifty dollars from the slots.
About ten minutes later, the door to the room opened again, and an orderly walked in with a folding cot. Abel was right behind him carrying a blanket and a pillow.
“Tate, if we’re leaving your girl behind, she’s, by God, not sleeping on the floor,” he said.
Briar was moved to tears and kept blinking them away as the orderly left the room. “Mr. and Mrs. Bandy…you and Tate have shown me more love and consideration than my parents ever did. Thank you very much.”
Abel hugged her. “Aw, you’re sure welcome, honey. Now both of you try to get some rest. Tate, call home on the landline tomorrow when you’re ready to be picked up. I’ll come get the both of you.”
After one last goodbye, Abel and Lilith drove home. Once Abel got the generator going and they had power again, they carried in their luggage, then began cleaning up blood. It was a frightening sight to see how much blood Tate actually lost.
As Lilith was mopping the shelter, she found a screwdriver on the floor beneath a bench and held it up. “Abel, even this is bloody. I wonder what Briar was doing with it?”
Abel studied it a minute, and then it dawned. “I’ll be damned. The tourniquet. She used it to tighten the tourniquet. Slip it under, then twist. That girl sure is something,” he said, and took it to the sink in the utility room to clean.
When they finally laid down to sleep, the central air was cooling the house.
The refrigerator and freezer were humming too.
Tomorrow was assessment day. The windows needed to be checked for cracks, the roof checked for missing shingles, and a thorough search done for whatever other damage the winds might have caused.
It was obvious their house had not been in the direct path, or it would not still be standing.
* * *
As soon as Tate’s parents were gone, he patted the side of his bed. “Drop the guardrail and come sit by me. We need to talk.”
She tossed her food wrappers in the trash, lowered the rail, and sat beside his uninjured leg. When Tate held out his hand, she clasped it and sighed. He would always be her North Star.
“Are you afraid to go home?” he asked.
She blinked. “You mean, am I physically afraid of my parents?”
He nodded.
She sighed. “They have never physically abused me, and I’m not afraid of them. But I don’t have the bond with them that you do with your parents.”
“And that’s because of me,” Tate said.
Briar’s eyes flashed. “No! It’s because of them, judging people who are different, shunning others out of hate and prejudice, being cruel to the point of violence toward your mother.
I will live with that memory for the rest of my life.
And this stunt my mother pulled by locking me out of the basement was the last straw.
I won’t let hate be the reason I leave them.
It’s their fault I have no reason to stay. ”
He kissed the back of her hand, then held it against his heart. “When I am well, will you make love with me?”
“You already know the answer to that,” she said, and leaned toward him.