“I can see why.”
She breathed out a laugh. “Consider the ear bragging rights. Not many people can say they’ve taken a trip in a tornado and lived to tell about it.”
“I don’t think they’ll be impressed by a chipped ear.”
“If you’re wishing for a gnarly scar, you’ll have one,” she said, pointing to my shoulder.
I looked down at the white bandage and tape on my shoulder and then behind me toward the door. “If she’s not here in fifteen minutes, I’m going back out to look for her.”
“I can’t get your discharge papers ready in—”
“Fifteen minutes,” I said.
She was unimpressed with my demand. “Listen, princess, if you haven’t noticed, I’m busy. She’ll be here. We’ve got another storm coming in anyway, and—”
I stiffened. “What? When?”
She shrugged, looking to the mounted television in the waiting room. People of all ages—all soaked with rainwater, filthy, and scared—stood, wrapped in hospital-issued wool blankets. They began to crowd around the screen. A meteorologist was standing in front of a radar moving a few inches at a time. A large red blob surrounded by yellows and greens crept up to Emporia’s city limits, and then it started over, stuck in a loop.
“It’s going to swallow us up and spit us out,” Brandi said.
My eyebrows pulled in as the panic swelled in my chest. “She’s still out there. I don’t even know where to look.”
“Shepley,” Brandi said, grabbing my chin and forcing me to face her, “stay put. If she comes back here and finds out you’ve left, what do you think she’s going to do?” When I didn’t answer, she let go of my chin, disgusted. “Do the same thing you would. Go looking for you. This is the safest place for her, and if you stay here, she’ll find her way back.”
I gripped the edge of the stretcher, squeezing the plastic-covered cushion in my fist, while Brandi carefully slid a scrub top over my head. She helped me slip my arms through, patiently waiting, while I struggled with lifting my left shoulder.
“I can get you a hospital gown instead,” she said.
“No. No gowns,” I said. Grunting, I maneuvered my arm through the sleeve.
“You can’t even get dressed, but you’re going to go look for her?”
“I can’t just sit here, safe and warm, while America’s out there somewhere,” I said. “She probably has no clue she’s about to get hit again with more weather.”
“Shepley, listen to me. We’re still under a tornado warning.”
“It’s impossible to get hit twice in the same night.”
“Actually, it’s not,” she said. “It’s rare, but it happens.”
I climbed off the stretcher, my breath catching when the torn muscle in my arm moved.
“Fine. If you’re gonna insist on being ridiculous, you have to sign an AMA.”
“Sign a what?”
“AMA—Against Medical Advice.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Chief said, holding up his hands. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I breathed out through my nose, frustrated. “Another storm is coming in. She’s not back yet.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you to head out into the rain.”
“What if it were your wife, Chief? What if your daughters were out there? Would you go?”
Tornado sirens filled the air. They were much louder this time, the eerie drone sounding like it was just outside the doors. Everyone looked around, and then the panic began.
I started for the door.
But Chief stood in front of me. “You can’t go out there, Shepley! It’s not safe!”
Holding my left arm to my middle, I shouldered past him and then pushed my way through the crowded waiting room to the doors. The sky had opened up again, pouring down rain on the parking lot. With horror and disbelief on their faces, people were running across the cement to the emergency room.
I looked up for signs of a funnel cloud. I had no car and no idea where she was. I’d been afraid plenty of times in my life, but none of them had ever come close to this. Keeping the ones you love safe wasn’t a question, but I couldn’t save her.
I turned around, grabbing Chief’s shirt with my fist, his badge digging into my palm. “Help me,” I said, shaking with fear and frustration.
Screams erupted, and power flashes sparked in the distance.
“Everyone, get in the hallways!” Chief said, yanking me back to my stretcher.
I fought him, but even though he was twice my age, with the use of both of his arms, he easily overpowered me.
“Get! Your Ass! Down!” he growled, struggling to push me toward the floor.
Brandi put a young boy in my lap and held on to three more children, hunkering down next to me.
The young boy didn’t cry, but he shook uncontrollably. I blinked and looked around, seeing the terror-filled faces of everyone around us. Most of them had already suffered through one devastating tornado.
“I want my dad,” the young boy in my lap whimpered.
I hugged him to my side, trying to shield as much of his body as I could. “It’s going to be okay. What’s your name?”
“I want my dad,” he said again, on the edge of panic.
“My name is Shep. I’m alone, too. You think you could hang out here with me until this is over?”
He looked up at me with big russet eyes. “Jack.”
“Your name is Jack?” I asked.
He nodded.
“That’s my dad’s name,” I said with a small smile.
Jack mirrored my expression, and then his grin slowly vanished. “It’s my dad’s name, too.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
“We were in the bathtub. My mom … my baby sister. It got real loud. My dad held on to me tight. Real tight. When it was over, he wasn’t holding me anymore. Our couch was upside down, and I was under it. I don’t know where he is. I don’t know where any of them are.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll know to look for you here.”
Something slammed into a pane window and shattered the glass. Frightened cries barely registered over the sirens and blustering wind.
Jack buried his head into my chest, and I gently squeezed him with my good arm, holding my left against my middle.
“Where’s your family?” Jack asked, his eyes clenched.
“Not here,” I said, peeking over my shoulder at the broken window.
America
“How much farther?” I asked.
“Two miles less than the last time you asked,” Reyes grumbled.
Reyes was driving fast but not fast enough. Just knowing that Shepley was at the hospital, hurt, made me feel like I could jump out of the car and run faster than what we were going. We had exited off the turnpike to a road with a narrow stretch of houses that had somehow been missed by the tornado.
I’d rolled down the window, and I was resting my chin on my hand, letting the air blow against my face. I closed my eyes, imagining the look on Shepley’s face when I walked through the door.
“Landers said he was pretty beat up. You should prepare yourself for that,” Reyes said.
“He’s okay. That’s all I care about.”
“Just don’t want you to be upset.”