Storm Season (2 page)

Jasper had seen one of the big storms once, when the outer walls of the community shelter he’d taken refuge in had proven unable to withstand the force of the wind. He’d been one of the last to leave the big upper room for the safer underground chambers, and as he’d left, he’d looked over his shoulder and seen part of the wall ripped away. The night had been spent huddling in terror, and he’d left the coast the following dry season, moving inland where the storms lost a little of their strength and the truly dangerous season was shorter. If the boy had actually been caught in one of the violent storms, even this far inland, Jasper could very well understand his fear.

He joined the boy on the bed, putting himself between his guest and the door. “I wish you could tell me about it.”

The boy rolled over and grabbed Jasper’s arm and suddenly Jasper’s mind was filled with images of astounding clarity.

A small cave, little more than a nook in the hillside, filling slowly with water from a nearby stream that had long since overflowed its banks. Tree branches and dead animals clogging the entrance and then being savagely ripped away, taking some of the rock with them. Huge, painful drops of water blowing all the way to the back of the cave and lashing unprotected skin until it bled. A lightning strike nearby destroying the illusion of safety.

The images kept flashing, one after another, each worse than the one before. Jasper struggled, trying to break free, but the boy didn’t let go until he’d shown Jasper everything. Then, just as suddenly as they’d begun, the images stopped, leaving Jasper trembling and fighting for breath.

“Is that…?” He couldn’t finish the sentence, but the boy knew what he was trying to say and nodded. “No wonder you’re afraid.”

The boy curled up tighter and hugged the pillow to his chest. Jasper pushed past his own fear and laid a hand on his shoulder. No images flooded his mind, and he let out a sigh of relief. “We’re safe here. The room is secure and this is a mild storm. We could be out in the bedroom for this.” There would be worse to come, though, and they both knew it.

W
HILE
the boy still slept, Jasper slipped out of the room so he could check the animals and assure the boy the storms were indeed over, at least until late afternoon when the rains were sure to start again. There were, of course, ways to tell from inside the safe room, but Jasper doubted the boy would believe them, not until their accuracy had been proven.

The horses were as happy to get outside as Jasper, though he noticed they didn’t stray quite as far from the barn as they usually did. The unexpectedly early storm had unnerved them, and even the bright sunshine couldn’t drive away all their uneasiness.

Nor did it drive away all of Jasper’s, though for quite different reasons.

He hadn’t even known the boy―no, the young man―for a full day and already he’d begun thinking and planning for a future that included him. It was ridiculous, really. Jasper didn’t even know the other man’s name and he was planning on buying double supplies to make it through the wet season. It had made sense in the dark when the wind and rain had been lashing at the house, but now in the bright sunshine and with stout walls between Jasper and the boy, it seemed off.

Not wrong, just weird. He wasn’t considering discarding the idea, but it struck him how naturally it had come to him, how comfortable he’d been with it.

W
HEN
Jasper went back inside, he was surprised to see his guest had ventured out of the safe room. He sat on the windowsill of Jasper’s bedroom, his hands and nose pressed against the thick glass. His eyes darted everywhere, from the water slowly trickling off the house to the horses in the field to the woods lying beyond and finally to the western sky. It was there he paused, his eyes narrowed and focused instead of wide with wonder.

Jasper didn’t need words to know what he was thinking. “It won’t storm again until evening. It’s too early in the season for the daytime storms.” It was too early in the season for even a relatively mild storm like they’d had the previous night as well, but he wasn’t going to point that out.

The boy jumped, looked at Jasper for a long moment, and nodded, but his gaze returned to the west, his eyes alert for every nuance of color and wisp of cloud.

The sky was blue in all directions and wouldn’t darken for several hours yet, but that was something the boy would learn on his own given time. When he’d first moved here, Jasper had spent days with his face pressed against the same window, watching the sky darken and the clouds thicken until it was no longer safe to stay close to the thick glass. Now he could tell at a glance how likely and close a storm was, but those hours had given him the knowledge.

The boy had the right idea, though his efforts would not be worthwhile until afternoon.

Jasper’s stomach growled and the boy looked over again, his eyes widening as though surprised Jasper was still present. He probably was; the look on his face had shown an intensity that blocked awareness of everything but what he focused on. It was definitely time to pull him away or he’d be there all day.

“Would you like breakfast?”

The boy’s stomach growled, echoing Jasper’s own, and he nodded, though his eyes flickered back to the window.

Jasper held out his hand. “Come on. After we eat, we can go into town and buy some supplies. I haven’t stocked for winter yet, and I wasn’t planning on having a visitor, so there’s not much left.”

It was uncertain how much the boy―no, the
man
, Jasper had to keep reminding himself―understood, but he took Jasper’s hand and let himself be led to the kitchen. He ate with such enthusiasm that Jasper wondered when he’d last eaten… and if he had enough in his account to cover all the food he was certain to need.

H
ALFWAY
to town, Jasper risked a glance at his companion. “What’s your name? Can you tell me? I need to call you something. People are going to wonder who you are and why I’m buying so much more than usual.” He shook his head both at the sentiment and the way he was rambling to fill the silence. “I may not go into town very often, but it’s not a big place, and they all know me.”

The boy peeled his gaze from the truck window and peered at Jasper over the knee he’d drawn up to his chest. He was obviously uncomfortable in the moving vehicle, but since the storms had started, Jasper hadn’t dared take the horses. Brightam’s Ford was a half-day’s journey on horseback and Jasper didn’t trust they would make it back before the rain began to fall.

Slowly, the boy―man―reached out and placed his hand on Jasper’s arm. Jasper felt the almost familiar tingle under his skin and then―

Tobias.

“Is that your name? Tobias?”

The young man―
Tobias
―nodded and when Jasper next risked a glance he saw a quizzical, expectant expression on Tobias’s face. It took him a moment and Tobias’s fingers twitched toward his arm again, but then Jasper realized what his companion wanted to know. He felt like a complete idiot for not realizing it earlier.

“I’m Jasper.”

A grateful smile blossomed on Tobias’s face and Jasper almost drove off the road looking at it.

B
RIGHTAM
’
S
F
ORD
was a small town by the coastal standards Jasper had grown up with, but it was a typical size for the inland areas. Despite the relative safety of the continent’s interior, people still flocked to the coast with its bustling metropolises and access to shipping lanes. The sea was an additional danger in the wet season, but when the storms ended, it would be covered with boats shipping goods and people from one town to the next. There were trains to take goods and people inland, and a car could potentially make the journey, but neither was as easy or as accessible as the large boats that trawled up and down the coastlines nine to ten months of the year.

The coast was the place to be if you wanted money or power.

When he moved inland after the incident at the shelter, Jasper found a peace he hadn’t realized he was missing. Here he had space and land. The inhabitants of Brightam’s Ford provided all the social contact and worldly goods he needed and the solitude was ideal for creating his art and writing, which he shipped back to a friend on the coast to be sold. He’d taken odd jobs to get by back when he’d lived in Crittendon, but out here the money that came back from John was more than enough to support him and the animals.

At least, it had been until he’d found Tobias huddled by his barn. What that would do to his accounts remained to be seen.

Jasper parked the car in the lot in the town center. Tobias was out before the engine was off, but he froze, wide-eyed as he stared at the buildings. Here it was mostly shops, but there was one inn to service the occasional traveler and the railway station could be seen just over the hill. To Jasper, it was small, but Tobias was looking at it as though he’d never seen so many buildings clustered in one place.

“Come on.” Jasper gently tugged on Tobias’s sleeve, steering him toward the grocer’s. “Let’s get what we need and then if there’s time, I’ll show you around.”

Tobias’s eyes grew even wider, but he followed Jasper into the shop and gamely pushed the cart as Jasper filled it. They got bottled water, canned goods, and dried meat to tide them over during the lean storm season, and they even picked up some fresh fruit for a treat. Tobias added a few things to the cart as well, a few raw vegetables and―to Jasper’s immense surprise―a few sugary treats.

When they went to check out, Jasper realized he had not come up with a story to explain Tobias’s presence… or his silence.

Braden, the store’s proprietor, greeted Jasper with a warm smile as he tallied up the items. “Who’s your friend?”

“Someone I used to know back on the coast. The son of an old colleague. He wanted to come inland, and I said he could stay with me for a bit to see how he liked it.”

“Ah.” Braden paused in his calculating and looked critically at Tobias. “He seems a bit….”

“Astounded?” Jasper carried on with his spur of the moment tale. “He’s never been away from the coast before. It’s a lot emptier out here. He doesn’t know what to think of all this open space.”

“They never do.” Braden chuckled and shook his head. “I remember when you came out here, you thought it was so far from your ranch to town. Now I bet ya don’t think anything of the trip, or wouldn’t if he weren’t with ya.”

“It’s not quite driving down the road yet, but it’s not as exhilarating as it used to be either.”

“Didn’t think so. You’re becomin’ a regular ’round here, Mr. Borland.” He finished putting the food in to Jasper’s canvas sacks and swiped the card that accessed his accounts. “Yer friend gonna come over and say hello?”

“Doubtful. He’s shy, painfully so.”

Braden handed over the slip for Jasper to sign. “He’ll fit in ’round here, then, but he’ll have t’ say a couple things to people. Not much, you know, but he can’t spend the rest of his life staring out that window there.”

“He’ll come around.”

“Good.” The slip of paper with Jasper’s signature disappeared into the cash register. “You stay safe this wet, ya hear?”

“You too.”

Jasper took the bags from the counter. Tobias stepped forward, grabbed half with a smile at Braden, and then stepped outside without waiting for Jasper. He was leaning against the car, the bags at his feet, when Jasper found him.

“Do you want to look around some or just get lunch and head home?” They theoretically had time to sightsee and still get home before the storms hit, but Jasper was relieved when Tobias shook his head and climbed into the car. The meaning was clear enough.

Jasper opened the driver’s side door and peered in. “We should at least eat. It will take us a couple of hours to drive back. There’s a nice café up the street, and the inn serves decent food, or―” He paused when the terrified expression on Tobias’s face registered. Eating anywhere was clearly out of the question.

They had to eat, though. “How about I go get sandwiches and we eat in the car?”

Tobias slowly nodded and Jasper set off toward the café, wondering if he’d ever learn the secrets hidden by Tobias’s silence.

T
HE
first raindrops hit the windshield when they were still three miles from Jasper’s house. The large, heavy drops fell quickly, reducing visibility to almost nothing and coating the road with a thin layer of water. The car skidded and slid as Jasper pulled to the side.

This would be a fast afternoon storm, one that would go as quickly as it had come, and Jasper had no intention of driving any farther until it had passed. They were safe enough in the car as the truly intense storms wouldn’t come until evening, but the pavement was too wet and visibility too low to drive even the familiar roads around the ranch.

There was no sense in risking their lives to save half an hour.