“Please be careful out there!” Angelica called.
Espy waved her hand over her head to indicate she’d heard, and she took off in the direction she’d seen Javi drive, hoping he was still within walking distance.
Javi shouldn’t have been surprisedto see Esperanza running toward him through the dusk. She’d changed out of her shorts into jeans, and tied her curls back from her face with a scarf. She clapped her work gloves together as she approached.
“Put me to work, Deputy.”
He turned toward the house they stood in front of, the roof partially collapsed, the doorway cut off by a fallen branch. Two men were running chainsaws to get through the tree to the door.
“I guess help drag the branches they cut over there?” He indicated the far corner of the front yard. “Start piling? We heard shouting from inside, don’t know if anyone is hurt yet. The sooner we get through, the better.”
She nodded and approached the fallen tree. He scanned the street to see the neighbors milling about, shellshocked, inspecting their neighborhood in the dim light of early evening. Some had brought out flashlights and were shining them on the houses, looking for damage. He strode down the street halfway, trying to see if any other houses were obstructed like this one, any other house that didn’t have its occupants out in front looking for damage.
“Everyone okay? Anyone hurt? There’s a shelter at the school, if you need to get inside. Austin will be there, too, if you have any injuries for him to look at.”
Once he felt like everyone had gotten his message, he returned to the Grayson house and helped Espy drag cut pieces of tree to the edge of the yard.
Once the path was cleared and the Grayson family was out, Javi headed back to the SUV, waited until Espy climbed in the other side without an invitation, and headed to the next street.
Espy didn’t talk much as they checked every neighborhood, passed the word about the shelter, grimaced at the destruction all around them.
Not until they were heading out on one of the ranch roads to check on the Conover place did she speak.
“I feel so bad for all these people,” she said. “I love to see tornados, but for the most part, they’re out in the middle of nowhere, just do some damage to some fields, or maybe some outbuildings, occasionally a farmhouse. It’s hard to see the damage it does to so many homes.”
Javi grunted. “The hardest part is that these people are barely holding on as it is. There’s not a lot of job opportunities within driving distance, so they’re limited by what they can do for a living.”
“I hope they have insurance.”
“If they don’t, they have people around who will help hem. That’s the best part of living in a small town. You can turn to your neighbor for help, and they can turn to you.”
“We haven’t checked your neighborhood yet,” she said softly.
“We will, after we check on the Conovers. I think they’re probably safe because they live in a kind of canyon, but I want to make sure. They have two little ones, and Beck’s mom lives on the same property. I tried to call but couldn’t get through.” Beck would have his hands full if they had damage.
“The towers are probably overloaded,” she said. “That’s happened before.”
“If they’re not damaged.”
She nodded.
He could sense her tension matching his as he turned onto the ranch road, and his increased as they drove over the road where the bus had washed off those years ago. The county had repaired it so that would never happen again, raised the road and added drainage tunnels beneath it. Closing the barn door after the horse was out, he’d heard some in town say. Yes, only after three lives were lost did they change the dangerous route.
Javi didn’t see any lights coming from Beck’s house. His heart started pounding, and he parked in front of Beck’s, pulled out his flashlight and headed to the door.
The door opened and Beck shone out a flashlight of his own, turned it from Javi’s face to Esperanza’s.
“Everybody okay in here?” Javi asked. “I tried to call but…”
“We’re all safe,” Beck said. “Brought my mom over when we got the alert, then the power went out so we don’t know what’s going on. Did it touch down?”
“It did, hit the trailer park, some of the neighborhoods on the north side of town. Didn’t make it to the town square.” Javi nodded at Lacey, who joined her husband at the door, one of her twins in her arms.
“Is anyone hurt? Your mom?” Lacey asked, passing the toddler over to her husband.
Lacey was a home health nurse, and they probably could use her help in town. No one had been seriously injured so far, that he knew of, but she might be able to help Austin with the people who were.
“Mom is safe. Austin got her and the whole trailer park out in time, and they sheltered in his place, and now they’re using the gym.” He looked from Lacey to Beck. “It has power, at least.”
