Authors: Rolonda Watts
Destiny Lingers (26 page)
D
espite the lift in my mood, the furious rain refuses to let up. It continues to beat down relentlessly on the beach house, as the strong ocean winds from the south continue to blow. There appears to be no end in sight to the storm. As the tide rises and the tumultuous sea creeps dangerously closer to the steps of my home, the weather reports I see through occasional static on the TV are dismal. Hurricane Belinda is steadfast in her determined trek across the Atlantic, heading straight toward us right here on Topsail Island. Still, most are hoping that at the last minute, she might show mercy and change her direction.
Despite the evacuation order, crashing waves and whopping winds, I refuse to leave. While I admit that the thought of riding out the storm is both exciting and adventurous to the journalist in me, I am also staying put because I feel I have nowhere else to go. I don’t want to go to my parents’ house. I surely don’t want to go back to New York to Garrett. This is the only place I want to be, at whatever cost. I will stay right here in Tranquility, close to Chase, determined to ride out the storms of life and sea.
The phone rings again, and I pick up.
“Hello?”
“Girl, you better getcho happy ass off that island!” It’s Kat. I must admit I’m relieved to hear her voice.
“Are you okay?” Hope is also on the line. Her voice brings comfort too.
“Hey, y’all!” I can’t hide the happiness in my voice. “I’m okay, just under a lot of water, that’s all. But I’ll be okay.”
“Girl, your mother called us, talking about you refusing to evacuate the island. What’s all this about?” Kat demands.
“Oh, girl, it was just for precautionary measures,” I reassure her. “I’m going to stay right here until it passes.”
“But why, Dee?” Hope asks, genuinely concerned. “If they say it’s so dangerous, then why in the world would you stay down there all by yourself?”
“Because I don’t want to go anywhere else, Hope. There’s nowhere else to go anyway. You know how much I love this place. The hurricane’ll probably pass anyway. They always do.”
Kat is not having it. “Girl, get your ass off that island. Go to a shelter, get a hotel room, do whatever you got to do, but get your ass off that island!”
“She’s right, Dee,” Hope adds.
“I’ll think about it,” I say, knowing I already did.
Meanwhile, the storm is steadily growing worse. The rain spews horizontally. The horrendous wind shakes the house. The ocean licks my front stairs. I wonder where my Chase is and if he is okay out there on patrol in these fierce and dangerous elements. I know he is thinking about me and praying for me too. I feel his energy inside me.
“You seen that police chief?” Kat asks, as if she just read my mind.
“Yes,” I answer. “And a lot has happened since I last talked to you guys.”
“
Yes?”
Their interest is piqued.
“Well, we spent a whole day together. He showed me his new house, which is actually an old house we used to play in as kids. He refurbished an old boat and named it
On Assign
ment
!”
“I wonder why,” Kat muses.
“We talked a lot about the past—our lives, our feelings, and our regrets.”
“
And?”
Hope and Kat are both clearly hungry for information.
“
And
he says he wants a second chance.”
I hear them both gasp on the other end of the phone.
“As well he should!” Kat bursts, as does another huge rain cloud. “
A second chance?
Nothing wrong with that. Hell, if we all got a second chance, I bet most of us would snatch it right up.”
“What do you mean, a second chance?” Hope asks. “He wants a second chance at what?”
“He said … he said … he wants me in his life.”
“
What?”
the girls cry out in unison.
“Y’all must think you’re going to die down there,” Kat snaps.
“I know, you think it’s too much too soon. I know. But I do love him. I really do.”
“Girl, listen to me.” Kat sounds intense. “You and I both have been through a lot of heartbreaks—sadly, by them fools we married. If there is ever a time for happiness, Dee, it’s now. That man can’t help it if he loves you. If you hadn’t gone back down there after all these years, he might have married Missy and lived a long, unhappy, and very boring life. But you came back down there, and he started rethinking things. Let him rethink! He’s just lucky your ass got back down there before he took any wedding vows, and you’re about to get out of yours. I call that the perfect storm for love.”
“So what are you guys going to do?” Hope asks.
“I don’t know,” I say truthfully. “I’m a little overwhelmed and confused right now.”
“Confused? Oh, no, you’re not,” Kat insists. “You may be many things, girlfriend, but ‘confused’ is not one of them. Not when it comes to how you feel about this policeman and how much he obviously feels about you. Girl, if there wasn’t some kind of true love in there, you would have forgotten about Chase’s ass long time ago.”
“What about Missy?” Hope asks.
“Well, he’s not completely broken off all ties with her yet, but I have a strong feeling he will.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Okay, in your heart, Dee, what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just too scared to enter another relationship right now. I don’t know what to do yet.”
“Yes, you do,” Kat insists. “You have another chance right in the palm of your hands, Destiny, and you are a fool if you don’t at least explore your options here. Take it slow, but definitely explore your options. Live up to your name, girl! You have loved that man all of your life. You better wake up. Life is too short, and this is not a dress rehearsal.”
“Yeah, Dee, you deserve to be happy,” Hope interjects. “But first, just promise us—”
The line suddenly goes dead. The lights flicker. The house quakes. The wind, rain, thunder, and lightning continue their chaotic dance. It is the first time I feel cut off from the rest of the world. I am anxious. I tap the telephone receiver, hoping in vain that the line will come back. I push the zero button on the phone again and again, thinking that an operator might suddenly appear. But I am cut off from all communication—from everyone, even Chase.
Be careful what you wish
for.
The static has picked up on the television, but I can still hear the news reports through the crackle—most residents have long evacuated the island. The newsman speaks of about a dozen or so “stubborn stragglers,” and I realize that I am one of them, as the ocean steadily licks the steps of my beach house.
There is suddenly a loud banging at the front door. I nearly jump out of my skin.
I look out of the window, and I see a police wagon and Chase’s big red truck parked outside my house in the pouring rain. Relieved, I race to the front door and swing it open. There stands Chase, rain pouring off the brim of his hat.
“Chase!” I want to run into his arms.
“Destiny, are you all right? Why haven’t you boarded up your windows?”
“I … dunno.” I feel so stupid. I never even thought about the damn windows.
“Well, before you get a house full of broken glass and water, we’d better get those boards up. Where are they?”
“Down in the storage room, I guess. I’ve never been through a hurricane before.”
“Even more of a reason why you should evacuate, Destiny!” Chase’s harsh police chief tone catches me off guard. He seems exasperated. “Look, we’re dealing with a very short window of time here. I can’t force you to leave the island, but I sure wish you would.”
“I’m not going, Chase,” I say. “I want to stay.”
Chase takes a deep breath and then expels a long sigh. “Okay, but you got to get those boards up. My men, here, can help you.” Chase motions to the police van, and about six big guys in rain gear eagerly jump out, ready for work.
I don’t like the look on Chase’s face—he tries to remain professional and calm, but I know that in his heart, he is truly concerned about me, as stubborn as I am. Chase’s men scramble in the pouring rain to board up the windows of my home.
“Thank you, Chase. I appreciate everything you and your guys have done. I’ll ride it out. You’ll see—it’ll be okay.”
“We’ll see,” Chase says with a worried look. “Well, we’ve got to drop by some other homes. Things are pretty crazy right now. You stay inside and away from the windows. The phone lines are down, so I’ll check back in on you later. Be careful, Dee.”
“I will, Chase. You be careful out there too,” I say as we lock eyes. He is the only peace in the midst of this raging storm.
Chase and his crew pull out of the driveway to continue their rescue mission. I go back into the house and play the waiting game, waiting for this hurricane weather to end. The windows are boarded shut. The light comes from the television that drones on and on about Big Belinda. The weatherman reports that she remains unyielding, continuing to inch her sadistic way closer and more directly toward our helpless little island. I cuddle myself underneath Aunt Joy’s patchwork throw and pray that this storm too shall pass.
N
ight has fallen. There is no light anywhere on the island. It sounds as if my tiny beach house is being attacked by wild, hungry, howling demons.
I am suddenly frightened and all alone.
I have never heard a house moan and creak and bang about so. I can actually feel the house sway and rock in the violent force of the reported one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds. The ocean, now swirling beneath the house, continues to surge over the dunes that were once my home’s sole protection from the powerful sea. Tranquility stands tall upon stilts dug deep into the sand, as it has for fifty years and three generations of my family. Now, Tranquility must once again withstand the surging sea.
I can hear the planks of my bottom steps clacking and whining as the wood warps, contorts, and shrinks to make way for the force and constant flow of the raging water. I peer through the slats in the boards on the windows and in the moonlight, I can see that the ocean has completely surrounded my house. Every time I look, it has risen higher. Fluffy puffs of sea foam churned out of the pounding sea litter the entire area, flying in the wind and rain and moonlight, as if it’s snowing outside. I see rooftops, cars, big rafts of wood, and old tires zooming by in the swift currents—a sign of the destruction of homes, boats, and possibly lives also tortured by Hurricane Belinda’s deadly storm.
The house continues to moan, croak, rattle, and shake. I hear the mighty ocean waves creeping higher around my house. I have no idea what to do. I realize that as the water is rising, the chances of my escaping the house—much less the island—are now impossible. I feel as if I’m shipwrecked at sea in my own home. Trapped. Thank God for those stilts. I may have a chance.
The thunder claps so loudly this time that it scares me to tears. This has not turned out to be the exciting adventure I had once imagined that had my adrenaline surging like the raging sea. As bad as Garrett is, he’s at least not life-threatening.
Mother Ocean is angry, unforgiving, disturbed. So I do as I did when my own mother was in a ferocious mood—I remain quiet and pray. I pray that she will let me live.
I scramble around the house in a desperate search for flashlights and batteries but soon realize that they are probably in the storage room downstairs, which is now submerged in rushing ocean water. I am so afraid that I feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. What was I thinking when I made the decision to stay? Has my life gotten so far off track that I don’t think it’s worth saving any longer?
Suddenly, there’s a loud bang on the right front side of the house, as if something heavy plowed into it through the crashing waves. The house squeaks and sways, and I am terrified because I can hear the water further rising around the house, as if it’s after me. I run into the bathroom. I slam the door shut, as if there’s some mysterious safety waiting here. I am heaving sobs. I can’t see through my tears or the darkness. I fear I will drown in my own home. How could I have come this far, only to die?
And if I die, I will never forgive myself, because I would have never gotten that chance at a second chance to see what might have happened—what might have been between Chase and me. He will never hear me say the words “I love you,” which right now I would give my life to say.
The house rocks and shakes and sways. What do I do? Where is my Chase? Is he even thinking about me, or is he comforting Missy through this storm right now? Dear God, what have I done?
The thunder roars and sheets of wind and rain blanket the windows. Full of fear, I climb into the bathtub and close the shower curtain. I ball up into a fetal position and pretend that I am crying into Aunt Joy’s lap, and she is gently rubbing my hair, just the way she always did whenever I felt alone and afraid and heard scary sounds in the night.
Aunt Joy and I, together in my bathtub, drift off into a stormy sea of darkness.