Lunatic Revenge (8 page)

“Hey, Uncle Pat, Nikki is having a slumber party at her house Saturday night. She invited me and two other girlfriends. Her Mom and Dad will be there and it’s a no-boys party. Can I go?”

“Sure you can go. I like Nikki.”

“Oh thanks, Uncle Pat. I’ve never been to a slumber party before. I’m so excited.”

Pat paused, then leaned back and stared. “Never?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because no one ever asked me,” she said, and then realized he was looking at her. “What? Is there cheese on my shirt?”

“I can’t help but wonder what else you’ve missed because of our way of life. I can’t decide if I feel guilty or sad or a little of both.”

Tara frowned. “You don’t apologize ever for how we’ve lived, okay? You are my world, Uncle Pat. You are the only person who’s ever had my back.”

The salt shaker lifted off the table and then salted Tara’s lap.

“Oh! Hey! Okay, Millicent! Okay! I didn’t mean to leave you and Henry out, but obviously you’re less of a
concrete
reality in my life, okay?”

Just a reminder to you from Henry and me.

“I get it,” Tara said, and brushed the salt off her jeans onto the floor. “Now I’m gonna have to sweep the kitchen again,” she muttered.

Pat looked a little anxious. He had finally come to accept the two spirits who were part of their lives, but it was still disconcerting to be reminded in a conversational manner.

“At any rate,” Tara continued. “I consider myself blessed to have all of you.”

Henry popped up behind Uncle Pat and waved at Tara. She grinned.

Pat grinned back until he realized she was looking above his head, not at him. “Is one of them behind me?” he whispered.

Tara laughed out loud. “Whispering doesn’t work, Uncle Pat. They’re not deaf, and he’s right behind you.”

“He? Oh, you mean the guy
 . . .
Henry?”

Tara giggled. “Yeah, the guy.”

Pat had enough of discussing spirits and shoveled another bite of macaroni and cheese into his mouth and chewed.

“This is really good,” he said, and kept on eating, as if ignoring their existence would make them disappear.

Tara hid a smile, and like Pat, finished the meal in relative silence. It wasn’t until she got up to carry the dirty dishes to the sink that she realized the wind was getting stronger, peppering the raindrops against the window like bullets. All of a sudden she realized it wasn’t raindrops. It was hail.

“Hey, Uncle Pat, turn on the television will you? It’s beginning to hail.”

Pat frowned as he hurried into the living room, while she began washing dishes.

It’s a bad wind.

Tara paused, her hands in the dishwater. Millicent’s voice sounded anxious.

“As in a storm?”

Yes.

“Is it a tornado?”

Yes.

Tara’s heart skipped. “OMG. Is it going to hit our house?”

Not this one, but many others.

Tara bolted, drying her hands on her pants as she ran. “Uncle Pat! We need to take cover. It’s a tornado and it’s going to hit Stillwater.”

Pat jumped up, wild-eyed and still holding the remote. “But the weatherman hasn’t said—”

“Millicent said different. The hall, Uncle Pat. We need to get in the hall. It’s the only interior structure without windows.”

Tornado sirens began going off all over Stillwater as Pat dropped the remote. In the background, they could hear the television programming being interrupted by a tornado warning. Tara hit the floor and pressed herself up against the wall as close as she could get while her uncle Pat threw himself on top of her. Within seconds the wind had turned into a whine strong enough to rattle the windows in the house.

“I’m scared, Uncle Pat.”

Pat wrapped his arms around her. “I’m right here, baby girl. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Tara closed her eyes.

You’re safe.

What about my friends?

Millicent didn’t answer, which made things worse all over again.

The whine escalated. Tara could hear limbs breaking and car alarms going off. She was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering.

All of a sudden the whine turned into a whistling roar and the power went out. There was the sound of breaking glass as her uncle shifted his entire body weight on top of her while the storm ripped through town like a runaway train, pulling roofs off of houses, leveling others in its path, destroying lives and neighborhoods without prejudice.

Tara didn’t know she was screaming until Uncle Pat pulled her to her feet and gave her a quick shake.

“Honey, it’s passed over us. It didn’t hit us. We’re okay.”

Tara took a deep shuddering breath. “But it did hit. It hit the town. Bad. I don’t know why, but I need to call Nikki. Where’s a flashlight? I’ve got to find my phone.”

The house was momentarily lit from flashes of lightning as she ran into the kitchen, then into the living room, frantically searching in the dark. Outside, she could hear a different sort of siren as police and rescue workers were dispatched. Finally, she found her phone between cushions on the sofa. Her hands were shaking as she called Nikki’s cell. The call rang and rang and just when Tara thought it was going to voicemail she heard Nikki’s voice.

“Tara! Are you alright?”

“Yes, are you? Is your family okay?”

Nikki started to cry. “We’re all home but Rachelle. She was at her friend’s house and no one is answering.”

All of a sudden Tara felt like she was choking. “She’s choking, Nikki! Wherever she is, she’s choking!”

Nikki gasped. “She has asthma! You didn’t know that, did you?”

“No, but you need to take her meds and find her. Find her fast.”

The line went dead.

Tara dropped the phone in her pocket and looked up as her uncle came through the living room with a flashlight. “Something bad is happening to Nikki’s younger sister. I told them she’s choking, but I couldn’t see where she was.”

Pat put his arms around her. “You did your job to warn them. They’ll do their job and find her. I’m going outside to look around.”

He must not go out.

Tara grabbed his arm. “Wait. Millicent said not to go out.”

Pat frowned. “But I—”

Live power line in your yard.

“OMG! Uncle Pat, she says there’s a live power line down in our yard.”

Pat raced to the doorway and shined his flashlight out into the yard. Even in the rain, he could see the broken wire sparking as the wind blew it about.

“I’ll call the city
 . . .
and tell Millicent I said thank you.”

“Seriously, Uncle Pat. I keep telling you, they can hear you.”

He’s welcome.

“She said you’re welcome,” Tara muttered, then jumped when her phone began to ring. She looked at Caller ID and wanted to cry all over again.

It was Flynn.

“Hello.”

“Moon girl! I’ve never been so glad to hear a voice in my life. Are you all okay? We’ve been watching the weather from my uncle’s house in Ardmore. Did that twister hit town?”

Tara started to cry all over again. “Yes. Our house is still in one piece but there are sirens all over town. Nikki’s sister, Rachelle wasn’t home and she’s in trouble. I just don’t know for sure what kind. They’re looking for her. There’s a hot power line down in our yard so we can’t get out, and I don’t know how bad the neighborhood was hit.”

“Thank God, you and your uncle are all right. Mom says to tell you she said prayers.”

Tara swiped at the tears on her face. “Tell your mother they worked.”

“Tara
 . . .
hey—”

The call began skipping. “Flynn! I can’t hear you. I’m losing—”

And just like that, the call was lost. “Dang it,” Tara muttered.

“Who was that?”

“Flynn. He was calling to check on us. He said his mom was saying prayers for us here.”

“I gave the city dispatch the skinny on the hot wire. They said the far north side of town was the hardest hit. They’ll be out when they can.”

She nodded, then wrapped her arms around his waist, buried her face against his chest, and started crying all over again.

“I know, honey, I know. This is a scary situation all around. We have a tree down in the back yard and big limbs down in front, and there’s a broken window in the utility room. I think there’s a small piece of plywood in the bottom of the utility closet that might be big enough to nail over that window until we can get the glass replaced. Wanna come hold it up while I nail it?”

She nodded.

“That’s my girl. Come on, Tara. Whatever’s happening, we’ll do what we always do. We’ll get through it together.”

The next hour passed in a blur. They got the plywood nailed over the broken window, then the broken glass swept up and water mopped up from the floor where the rain had blown in. As they moved back through the darkened rooms to the front of the house, an ambulance drove past with the lights on disco and the siren squalling in intermittent rhythm. Police cars were going up and down the streets with searchlights flashing on the houses they passed, looking for people in need of immediate help.

Pat went outside on their porch with his flashlight and shouted down a neighbor who was about to come check on them.

“Stop! Stop! Hot wire down!” he yelled, waving his flashlight toward the sparking line.

The man saw the hot wire just in time and backed off before checking in at another house.

From what Pat could see, the houses on both sides of the street appeared to be standing, but they would need daylight to see the true impact.

Tara came out with his coat and made him put it on, then went back inside out of the cold. She kept waiting to hear from Nikki, yet was afraid of what she’d hear. Millicent and Henry were suspiciously absent, which wasn’t all that unusual. When the atmosphere was disturbed, they seemed to have more problems moving back and forth between dimensions.

About two hours later, a utility vehicle pulled up in front of their house. Another hour later, the hot wire was no longer an issue, and the wires had been restrung from the pole to their house. At least they were ready to receive power once the city got it back up again. As soon as their house was secure, Pat left to help with a search and rescue team, leaving Tara on her own.

She was sitting on the sofa and praying for daylight when her cell phone suddenly rang. When she saw Caller ID, she was almost afraid to answer.

“Nikki?”

Nikki’s voice was shaking. “You saved my sister’s life tonight. I don’t know what to say to you, other than I love you so much.”

Tears welled all over again. “You found her.”

“Yes. The house where she was staying was hit. They were in their cellar, in the back yard. Debris from the house fell on the cellar door and they couldn’t get out. She started having an asthma attack and her meds had gone up with the storm. If Daddy hadn’t gotten there when he did with her meds and an extra inhaler and helped their neighbors pull the debris off the door, Rachelle wouldn’t have made it. There are no words to thank you enough.”