Chapter 9
Briar was still asleep on her cot, but Tate had been awake off and on for hours. His whole body hurt from not being able to stretch out, and he couldn’t wait to get home so he could lie flat on his belly to rest.
He wanted to ring for a nurse for more pain meds, but he knew they were changing shifts, which meant whoever would be checking on him today would soon be in to take morning stats. So, there he sat, watching her sleep.
He heard footsteps in the hall, and then the door to his room opened and a nurse and three strangers walked in.
The nurse stopped at the foot of Tate’s bed. “Tate, these people are from a local TV station out of St. Louis. They heard about your heroic rescue and want to interview you. Are you up for that?”
Tate pointed at Briar, who was still asleep on the cot beside his bed. “Either she’s part of it, or it’s not happening.”
The sound of voices woke Briar. She was up in seconds, confused and concerned as she threw back the covers. “What’s going on?”
Tate held out his hand. “News crew out of St. Louis. Wanna be on TV?”
“Lifelong dream,” she muttered, then pointed at all of them. “You have to wait. I need to pee.” Then she sailed past them like she was walking on a runway and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.
Tate grinned.
The cameraman glanced at the sound tech and arched an eyebrow. The girl was a corker. This was going to be a good segment.
The reporter was waiting when Briar emerged. As soon as she parked herself at Tate’s bedside, the nurse gave the crew a quick warning.
“You have fifteen minutes. He’s still weak, and she hasn’t left his side. Briar, it’s your call when he’s had enough, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Briar said.
“Thank you so much,” the reporter said. “I’m Amy Wall, from KSDK in St. Louis. Are you ready?”
“As we’ll ever be,” Briar said.
Then the reporter moved to the other side of Tate’s bed.
“This is Amy Wall, from KSDK in St. Louis. I’m at the bedside of two storm victims from the massive tornado that hit the small mountain town of Star Ridge midday yesterday.
There isn’t a building left that didn’t suffer some degree of damage.
Everyone here is a survivor in one way or another, and none more dramatic than what happened to the couple I’m with today. ”
The camera panned to Tate and Briar as Amy continued.
“We’re keeping this interview brief, because this young man, Tate Bandy, is still healing.
But yesterday, he drove into an oncoming tornado, risking his life to save Briar Lowe, his childhood sweetheart.
I’ve been told that the story begins with Briar, so we’re going to let them tell us their story. Briar?”
Briar glanced at Tate.
“It’s all or nothing,” he said.
Briar nodded, and then began to explain, beginning with being locked out of her basement, and then her near-death experiences with the tree limb blowing in on top of her, and Tate already coming to her house as it was happening.
Then Tate picked up the story about being hit with debris as he’d been trying to get them to safety, then passing out from blood loss.
In spite of all the stories Amy Wall had covered over the years, this one struck a spark, and she knew it was going to be big.
“So, Briar, how scared were you in that shelter with Tate lying injured?” Amy asked.
Briar looked at Tate and then back at Amy and frowned.
“The storm became secondary to the thought of losing Tate. I used my T-shirt to make a tourniquet and slowed down the blood loss to his leg, but I couldn’t do anything about his shoulder.
When he quit talking to me, I thought he was dying.
In that moment, he was what mattered most. When the storm finally passed and I discovered there was no cell service, I was trying not to panic, then I remembered they had a landline in their house, and it still worked.
I used it to call for help. Tate saved my life,” she said.
“And she saved me,” Tate said.
“Such an amazing story of loyalty and love and duty…but I have a question. Tate…how did you know Briar’s life was in danger? How did you know the cellar door was locked?”
“I was born with what my daddy’s people call ‘the knowing.’ I saw it in my head before it began to happen.
I am the sixth generation of men from a single bloodline who were born with the knowing.
It’s always the boy child, and he’s always the firstborn, but no matter how many brothers and sisters in our family are having babies, there’s only ever one per generation born with the gift.
I just happened to be it. In my dad’s generation, it is his brother.
In the generation before, my grandfather, then his father, and generations more before them.
We come from the hills about Sparta, Tennessee.
If you need to put a name to it, some call me psychic, others call it precognition.
All I can tell you is that I ‘saw’ Briar beating on the basement door and crying before it happened.
I ‘saw’ the tree coming in the window on top of her, but I was already driving across town and pulling up to her house when it happened. ”
Amy groaned. This was going in a direction she hadn’t seen coming. “So, you claim to be psychic?” Amy asked.
Briar bristled. She saw the white line around Tate’s mouth and knew he was stressed.
“He just told you and doesn’t ‘claim’ anything.
He just is. And if you do a little research on your own, you’ll find out half the town has availed itself of Tate Bandy’s gift over the past eleven years, while the other half reviles his family for being different.
For the record, when he was in first grade, he saved a whole school full of teachers and children from a tornado, me included.
It was called the Holy Waters Church, and the Holy Waters School was the building nearby.
There were twenty-six students. And one spring day while we were in the lunchroom, Tate ‘saw’ a tornado coming and ran to our teacher to tell her, but nobody believed him, no matter how panicked he was becoming.
I still remember him suddenly screaming out loud when no one would listen.
‘There’s a tornado! We have to run now!’ It was during the ensuing silence that we heard the roar.
We barely made it to the basement. I have a scar on my knee from falling as we ran.
The lights went out while we were down there, and in the dark, Tate found me and sat down beside me and held my hand, and told me not to be scared.
That we were safe. When we came out of that basement, there wasn’t a shred of anything from the church, or the school or the cars in sight.
Just us…twenty-six little kids and their teachers climbing out into a downpour.
He’s been keeping me safe and loving me ever since.
Here in Star Ridge, we know the truth. Today, he has twenty-three stitches in his back and leg and has suffered extreme blood loss to keep me alive, so we’re done here. ”
The cameraman stopped. The sound tech began gathering up his stuff, while Amy Wall stood back, watching, absorbing all she’d seen, and making mental notes to do some more research on Tate Bandy and see if there were any related stories coming out of Tennessee.
Then she stepped up as they were about to leave.
“First of all, thank you for agreeing to this despite your pain and exhaustion. You are both remarkable. I did not intend to insult, and I promise not to belittle anything about what happened. Tate, I am assuming you have no issue with us mentioning your gift?”
“No, ma’am, I have no issue with my truth.
I graduate high school at the end of this coming semester and intend to make my life’s work about the gift I was born with.
People are always coming to me, wanting me to find something they lost. If I can do this, then I am assuming I’m meant to be of use in the world. ”
Amy touched Briar’s shoulder. “You are a treasure,” she said. And then she held out her hand to Tate. “May I shake your hand, young man?”
Tate grasped it, and as he did, the room faded around them and he saw Amy getting out of their van back at the station, and a man in a blue car driving by about to shoot at her. His grip tightened. “Are you being stalked?”
Amy gasped. “Uh…”
“There’s a man in a blue Jeep in the parking lot back at your station. He’s waiting for you, and he has a gun. He will shoot at you when you get out. Call the security at your station. Make sure they’re ready to stop him before it happens.”
And then he turned her loose, eased his head back on the pillow, and closed his eyes.
Amy glanced at Briar to see her reaction, but she was already repositioning the pillow beneath Tate’s neck.
She gathered her things up and followed her crew out of the hospital and back to their van.
It wasn’t until they headed downtown to get more footage that all three looked at each other in disbelief.
“How did he know about your stalker?” the cameraman muttered.
Amy shrugged, but she was already on the phone to her boss.
* * *
Roger Lowe had no knowledge of the film crew that had been there earlier, but when he opened the door to Tate’s room, his heart sank as he took in the scene before him.
Tate was awake and waved him in. “She’s okay. We’ve already endured a TV interview. She’s just exhausted. You need to know that if it wasn’t for her, I would have probably bled to death.”
Briar heard what Tate said before she opened her eyes, then saw her dad standing at the foot of Tate’s bed.
She bolted out of bed and went straight to Tate, her hand on his arm.
“You also need to know that I would have likely been killed last night, had it not been for Tate. This happened to him because of a locked door.”