“Casey?”
A beam of light bounced through the foyer. I peeled myself off the wallpaper. “Here.”
Ryan pushed the door closed and clomped through the foyer. “You good?”
I raised my hand to shield my eyes and nodded. I couldn’t see him behind the beam of blinding light, but I knew he could see me. He turned the flashlight toward the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s go have a look.”
He turned and swept the light back toward the foyer. I followed his broad shoulders, not wanting to admit that his presence made me feel better. I was a grown woman. Why would I be afraid of the dark and a few weird noises?
Still. Maybe I should get a dog. For protection.
The idea brought immediate comfort, and I tucked it away to examine later. We traipsed through the house and rounded the corner into the kitchen. Ryan paused.
“What?” I moved to look around his dripping wet body. “What’s wrong?”
Ryan rubbed the back of his neck and pointed the flashlight beam through the kitchen and into the dining room.
My heart sank. A tree had torn a hole through the roof, letting in spitting rain. The trembling branches of an uninvited oak had smashed Ida’s dining table. I put my hand to my lips.
Ryan’s arm draped over my shoulders and pulled me close, but I hardly noticed the attempt at comfort. Rain poured through the hole in the wall, shimmering off the leaves and pooling on the hardwood.
What was I going to do now?
Ryan took charge, and in a few moments we’d gathered every towel in Ida’s house. I pushed a green one across the floor, mopping up rainwater. “It keeps coming inside.”
Ryan dropped a stack next to me. “You keep at it. I’ll go get a tarp.”
I kept myself focused on one section of floor at a time and tried not to look at the gaping hole in the wall. Ida’s words repeated in my head with each pass I made with the towel.
One thing at a time.
I hated when things were out of control. It made me feel like a kid again, stuck on the current of other people’s whims. Of course in this case, it had been God Himself who’d sent my little sailboat tumbling.
The front door opened and closed a few moments later. Ryan’s boots squished across the floor I’d just dried. I kept my focus on mopping up the water at the base of the china cabinet. Thank goodness Ida’s grandmother’s china hadn’t been lost. The table I could replace.
A sudden roar vibrated through the room, and I fell backward. What the—?
Ryan revved a chainsaw. I covered my ears and scrambled out of the way. The least he could have done was warn me. I ducked through the doorway and watched him from the cover of the kitchen.
He pushed branches aside and sent water droplets spraying all over the floor. With each sweep of the saw, tangled limbs shuddered and dropped to the hardwood. Finally, Ryan turned off the loud machine.
“There. Now we can get these pushed out and the hole covered.” He jerked his chin toward the front entry. “I left a tarp by the door.”
I scrambled to the front of the house and scooped up the heavy blue plastic. It wouldn’t keep out intruders, but at least it would help with the water.
We finally pushed all the limbs into the yard and cleared the area. The rain slowed to a trickle, glistening off the jagged edges of what had once been the baseboards.
This was awful.
Ryan’s arm eased around my shoulders. “It’s okay. We got the limbs out. We’ll get the wall covered to protect the house, and we’ll deal with the rest in the morning.”
I nodded numbly.
The rest would be more than I could handle.
11
Aftermath
Morning light revealed more of what I didn’t want to see. Ryan had tried. I had to give him credit for that. The large tarp we’d tacked to the wall blocked my view of Ida’s yard. We’d spent most of the night hammering the tarp to the wall, clearing the broken table and chairs into a pile in the corner, and drying up the rest of the water on the floor.
Today, I’d need to wash nearly every towel Ida owned. I’d left them in a sodden heap in the laundry room.
Ida’s beautiful dining room was ruined. The entire corner was missing. The tree had taken out a chunk of the roof, nearly all of the wall, and a portion of the floor. At least it had hit here and had taken out only one story instead of two.
I stood frozen in indecision. Who should I call first?
The house was still in probate. Who paid for repairs? Would the house need foundation work? What about insurance? Surely Ida had insurance. Could I file a claim on her behalf? More questions for the lawyer.
Towels. For now, I could wash towels. But what was I going to do about the gaping hole in the wall, the water damage, the smashed furniture, and—
I took a deep breath. Ida’s voice returned, calming my nerves. One thing at a time.
After shoving the first load of soggy towels into the washer, I tugged on my sneakers. Better go outside and see what I was dealing with. I plodded down the front porch steps and headed to the side of the house opposite from Ryan’s. The soggy ground squished underneath my feet, creating a little sucking sound each time I took a step.
Tree limbs littered the yard and street, evidence that the storm hadn’t visited its fury only on Ida’s house. Birds twittered in the budding morning sunshine and bounced along the ground to pluck up worms. Early morning dew and leftover rainwater clung to the grass and dampened my shoes. I rounded the side of the house.
The tree, a massive oak that had shaded this entire side of the yard, lay prone across the grass. A giant mud glob churned up the earth at one end. The winds had ripped the oak clean out of the ground. Its roots hadn’t been strong enough to hold it.
“I thought I’d find you out here.” Ryan rounded the side of the house.
“Looks pretty bad.”
He rubbed yesterday’s stubble on his chin. “Got the AC, too.”
My heart sank. No AC in a Mississippi summer? Not good. Besides, a new one would cost, what? Seven grand? “Roof damage, water damage, and an AC unit. Anything else?”
Ryan rocked back on his heels, oblivious to my bite of sarcasm. “Won’t know until I get in there.”
Wind shifted through the leaves and sprayed water droplets in the air. I rubbed my hands down my arms.
“Get in there?” I eyed him. Did he plan on cutting the entire tree himself?
“We’ll get some guys from the church out here.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m headed up there now. We’ll see what kind of damage we have around town, then get everyone organized.”
I swallowed, not sure what to say. I wasn’t used to other people handling my problems. Part of me wanted to protest and say I could take care of it myself, but the more logical portion realized I had no idea how to handle something like this.
“Uh, thanks.”
Ryan nodded and trotted off, leaving me to stare at the damage. How hot would it get in there? I would probably have to leave the windows open to circulate a breeze. But that didn’t seem safe, at least it wasn’t where I came from.
“Hello there!” Nancy rounded the side of the house.
I gestured toward the tree. “I don’t think we’ll be doing any baking today.”
She patted my arm. “No, I didn’t reckon we would. I have some cinnamon rolls in the oven. Why don’t you come over, and we’ll have hot rolls and coffee while the men figure out what to do about the tree?”