Kisses to Remember (12 page)

“But it was nice of you to set an example for Kam. I appreciate it.”

“Least I can do to repay you.” He leaned against the counter beside her.

What was the most he could do?

Holden undressed in the guestroom and hopped into the shower in the adjacent bathroom. As the hot water ran down his back, he studied the pale green tiles lining the wall in front of him. To his right, a tan shower curtain with leaves on it rippled in the breeze created by the overhead fan.

You remembered beer.
That had to count for something. Details like that added up to create a life, right? His life. Remembering one stupid tidbit could unlock the other important things that were lost to him. He had to believe that.

He soaped up his body, careful not to be too rough around the stitches on his arm. The temptation to scrape them right off to relieve the itching was almost overwhelming, but he managed to lather and rinse without incident. Working around the stitches on his head, he shampooed his hair with…something green.

“No Tears Ectoplasm, Kiwi Scented,” he read off the bottle shaped like a creepy green alien. Right. Kam had prepared the guest bathroom for him and had even shared his extra-terrestrial shampoo. A nice thought even if it made him feel slightly slimed. At least it smelled nice. Who knew ectoplasm had a fragrance like kiwis?

He finished his shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. Back in the guestroom, he stood in front of the closet and surveyed the clothes in there. Mostly jeans and cargo pants hung from the long bar spanning the closet. A few neatly folded piles of T-shirts sat on shelves along with some cotton shorts. Work boots lined the floor. Four business suits and several dress shirts were tucked toward the far left of the closet.

Weird to be wearing clothes left behind by an inmate.
But he didn’t have a choice. Not right now anyway. Maybe tomorrow he could get Johanna to take him somewhere to buy some clothes. He had his wallet, which had money and a credit card in it. He assumed the card was all paid up and that a few purchases wouldn’t put him in debt. It’d be real convenient if he could remember that shit, but no, he remembered beer instead.

Rolling his eyes, he selected a green T-shirt and a pair of gray cotton shorts. It was only 8:30, but that bed was calling his name now, and he might actually be able to sleep. He crawled onto the bed with the little strength he still had. As soon as his head hit the pillow, a horrible siren blared outside.

Groaning, he pulled himself out of bed and opened the door. Johanna was standing in the hallway with her hand fisted as if ready to knock.

“Tornado siren,” she said to his unasked question. She didn’t look particularly worried for a person who had used the word
tornado
. “Basement. Now. This way.”

Kam flew by with a sleeping bag and a flashlight, which he shined directly into Holden’s eyes. The beam cut into his brain like a laser, and he held his hands up to block the light.

“Kam, that doesn’t help poor Holden’s headache.” Johanna grabbed the flashlight and pointed the beam to the door across from the guestroom. “Get downstairs.” She ushered the boy to the steps, and Miles scratched his way down the stairs behind him.

“Does this happen often here?” Holden asked, still in awe of Johanna’s calm in the midst of that ear-splitting siren. Maybe it was only ear-splitting to his sensitive head.

“More than I’d like it to,” Johanna said. “But this is Nebraska.” She shrugged. “There’s food and other supplies down there and a couch. You were probably just settling down, huh?”

“Yeah.” Holden let her edge him toward the basement stairs as she had done with Kam. She was still wearing her jeans and rose T-shirt. No shoes now and her hair was corralled into a loose ponytail through the back opening of a black baseball cap. She looked angelic though that siren suggested they were in Hell.

“Sorry, but Mother Nature does as she pleases and on her own schedule. It should be quick, and either we’ll have a house to come back up to or we’ll be living in the basement for a while.” She gave him a little nudge to the steps.

As Holden grabbed the railing, hail beat on the roof. It started out as a soft pitter-patter, but in a matter of seconds, grew to a sound much like falling bricks would create. Wind rattled the vents on the roof, and Holden glanced back into the guestroom where rain pelted the windows, and the tall grasses in Johanna’s field snapped around like whips.

“Go ahead,” Johanna said. “I’m going to see what’s keeping Ted.”

“Wait.” Holden didn’t like the fear in his voice. Had he ever been in a tornado? If he lived in Texas, he could have been.
Shit, why can’t you remember?

“It’ll be okay.” Johanna patted his arm. “Kam’s down there.”

“And I know what to do!” Kam called up from the bottom of the stairs. “C’mon, Holden. I’ve got M&Ms down here.”

“M&Ms?” Holden looked at Johanna.

“Apocalyptic food. We took a vote a few years back and decided if we were the only humans left after a disaster, we wanted to live on M&Ms.”

“But M&Ms don’t have nutritional value,” Holden said.

“No, but when they run out,” Johanna shined the flashlight under her chin casting her face in spooky shadows, “we eat each other.” Laughing, she went down the hall in search of Ted.

Holden wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure he liked Johanna even more.

He reached the bottom step and was impressed by the basement. Finished with burgundy carpeting and knotty pine-paneled walls, the space was clean and cozy. A leather sectional couch took up most of the one room area while a TV hung on the far wall with a video game system sitting on a low table below it. Kam was sprawled on the floor sifting through games with Miles beside him.

Holden wandered deeper into the room and peeked into an open closet beside a small bathroom. Pulling a string, he turned on a single bulb light to illuminate supply shelves stocked with canned goods, water bottles, toiletries, and yes, M&Ms in all varieties.

Tucked away in this basement, the tornado siren seemed farther away and less of a concern to Holden. That settled him some, but he wished Johanna and Ted would make an appearance soon. He didn’t know what to do during a tornado.

Or did he?

“Dammit.”

“Mom doesn’t like words like that,” Kam said.

Holden whirled around, forgetting the boy was still in the room. “Right. Sorry. I’m just—”

“Scared?” Kam turned the TV on. “I used to get scared too, but Pep said there’s no sense in being scared of a tornado because you can’t fight one anyway. You just have to be willing to wait her out and rebuild afterwards.”

“Makes sense. Have you been in many tornadoes?” Holden eased onto the couch. Its leather was smooth against the backs of his legs, and the cushions cradled his body. How could a person be worried about anything sitting on this couch? He rested his throbbing head against the cushions behind him.

“I’ve been in four tornadoes that actually touched down on our land. None of them have destroyed any of our stuff. We’ve been lucky.”

This kid couldn’t be the age Johanna said he was. Nine turning ten next week? He sounded more like a fifty year old with ages of living under his belt and wisdom in his head.

The TV screen flickered to life as Kam put in a game. “The Obstacle Course is my favorite. Want to play?”

The fast-moving graphics jumping around the screen made Holden’s body scream,
NO WAY!
“Umm, not this time around, Kam.” He closed his eyes to keep from hurling.

“Your head still hurt?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll keep the volume low.”

“Thanks.” Add courteous to the list of Kam’s good qualities. Holden didn’t know the kid well, but he was shaping up to be incredible. Like his mother.

****

“Ted?” Johanna’s voice couldn’t compete with the tornado sirens. She stepped into the barn, and several cows mooed in response to her presence, but no Ted. She checked the small workshop at the back of the barn, but he wasn’t in there either or the tractor shed adjacent to the barn. “Where the hell are you, Ted?”

She left the tractor shed and glanced toward Ted’s cabin. Hail pegged her head and shoulders, and she pulled her cap on more securely, shielding her face with the cap’s bill. She ran to the back porch of the farmhouse and pulled out her cell phone. Wind howled as she dialed Ted’s number.

“Hello?”

“What are you doing? Get over here!” Johanna yelled over the cacophony of hail, wind, and sirens.

“I’m putting out some buckets. There are a couple of roof leaks I’ve been meaning to fix. Haven’t gotten to them yet and now water’s pouring in.”

Johanna clicked her phone off and grabbed a few tin pails from the porch. Using one as a helmet, she darted toward Ted’s cabin, which was a bit of a journey. Most of the time she respected Ted’s need to have his own space, but it only took a night like tonight to wish he lived in the farmhouse instead.

When she burst through the cabin door, huffing and puffing, and still holding the pail on her head, Ted whooped in laughter.

“Great hat, sweetheart.”

“Shut it. Here are a few more pails. Position them and let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a salute, took the pails, and disappeared into his living room.

Johanna peered out the cabin’s small kitchen window. No funnel clouds touching down. Yet. They hadn’t had any major tornado damage since Alex had been in jail. Small stuff like torn roof shingles, downed trees, but nothing catastrophic. She had to believe someone was looking out for them still.

“C’mon, Ted!” She wanted to be in her basement with Kam. And Holden. Damn, he was adorable, all big-eyed and a little frightened by the sirens. Poor guy didn’t need a tornado on top of everything else he’d been through recently.

Ted appeared in his raincoat. Johanna wished she’d slipped on her own before leaving the farmhouse, but she hadn’t thought the search for Ted would take her clear across the property.

Lifting her pail back onto her head, she opened the front door and ran for it. Ted was right behind her, until a gust of wind uprooted a nearby tree. Johanna dodged the flailing branches, but Ted’s shout of pain made her turn around. The fallen tree had him pinned to the ground. She tried to move the tree, but it was too heavy for one person to move.

“My legs,” Ted shouted. “Get it off my legs!”

Johanna tried again to move the tree while Ted’s groans sounded and the weather beat her up. She used a loose branch like a lever and lifted the tree slightly, but couldn’t lift and pull Ted out at the same time.

“Can you get out from under it?” she asked over the whipping wind.

“No, if I lift onto my elbows, my back hurts. I think my leg’s broken too.” Ted grimaced as mud splattered around him.

After digging in her pocket, Johanna pulled out her cell phone again and dialed the farmhouse.

“Hello?”

“Kam, put Holden on the phone?”

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

“I need to speak to Holden for a second, honey. Put him on.” Johanna kept her voice calm despite the panic welling up in her stomach. The sky above them was roiling with greenish-black clouds now. A funnel could be born at any moment. She already felt a change in pressure.

“Johanna?” Holden’s voice calmed her. She wasn’t alone. She could get help.

“Ted’s stuck. I need help getting him inside. Can you come out here?”

“On my way.”

“Tell Kam to stay put.”

She hung up and pushed down on the branch lever to keep the weight of the tree off Ted. “Holden’s coming. He’ll pull you out. We’ll get you inside.”

“I’m a pain in the ass, aren’t I?” Ted’s teeth showed as he fought off the pain.

“Always.”

Ted coughed then pulled the hood of his raincoat over his face to keep the rain out. The hail had stopped, but the wind was picking up. Johanna did not like that green hue in the sky.

She looked toward the farmhouse as Holden leaped off the porch. Despite her worry over Ted, she took a moment to watch Holden. He ran toward them with some serious speed, and she wondered if he was a runner. Clearly, he was in good shape even with a concussion, bruised ribs, and a slashed forearm. The muscles in his legs were well toned, and Johanna stared at them even after he had stopped in front of her.

“Did you call 911?” he asked.

Duh.
“Not yet. I was only thinking of getting him…” Her words trailed off as she stared beyond Holden. Beyond the farmhouse and barn. Beyond the field leading out to the main road. She let go of the branch lever, and Ted groaned.

“Johanna?” Holden grabbed her shoulders, then turned around to see what she was looking at.

In the too close distance, a black funnel struggled to take shape. It pierced through the clouds several times, testing the sky, building its form, swirling into a natural beast. There was a moment when Johanna thought it would dissipate, not have enough energy to truly become a menace. The funnel lost its outline, and she exhaled.

On the next breath, however, the twister arrowed to the ground as a fully formed monster and tore up the earth on its way toward them.