Gone with the Wind

That was when the funny feeling I'd had got worse. It turned out that my kids were at the school and the principal suggested that I come and pick them up before the storm arrived. I told him that I was on my way.

I figured that Lisa was out shopping somewhere and had no idea of what was going on. I'd been married to her for ten years, so I knew her like a book. Lisa made schedules and decided what she wanted to do in advance. Once she'd scheduled something, like a shopping trip or to paint the garage, something as minor as weather wasn't going to dissuade her. She probably had no idea that the storm was coming. That was probably why she'd taken the kids to school. I loved her but sometimes I just couldn't figure her out.

I was, however, looking forward to seeing her. I'd been away from home for two days but it felt like much more. I guess when you love someone as much as I love Lisa; any time away from them is too long.

I turned on the radio as I drove. The first voice I heard coming out of the speakers was a guy who was screaming so loudly that it sounded as if his head would explode. I started laughing. It was Mike Valente screaming about MSU football as usual. And while he screamed at the top of his lungs, as if he was debating the fate of the world, his on air partner Terry Foster, played both calming influence and Devil's advocate at the same time. The juxtaposition of Valente's East Coast bred histrionics and Foster's urban and urbane cool made them a very unique and successful radio duo. I never missed their show when I was in town.

Besides sports they delved into other areas like local politics and men's issues. But before I got into the show enough to find out what was wrong with MSU, Valente was interrupted mid-rant for an update from the national weather service. The storm was going to be far worse than I'd thought.

It took me a lot longer than I expected to reach the school. By the time I drove into the school's parking lot the winds were blowing trees down. I didn't trust the parking lot so I pulled around to the rear of the building, put my jeep in four wheel drive and parked right in the lee of the building itself. The Jeep was close enough to the building that I was almost scraping the paint. I figured the kids and I would just all get in on the driver's side.

But by parking that close, the building offered shelter from both the winds and falling trees. I got out and ran around to the front doors. Just as the winds whipped higher and the lighting started to flash, I pounded on the door.

One of the custodians let me in. The principal came running out as we closed the door.

"Hey," he said. "You'd probably be better off waiting the storm out here with us. All of the kids and the teachers who haven't left yet are in the auditorium. It's the safest place. It's in the center of the building so we have walls around us on all sides and no windows. If things get really bad and the building's walls are breached there's that area under the stage that would put us underground with another added level of safety. We'll be fine there until the storm blows over."

I thanked him and followed him into the auditorium. Once there I looked around the room and saw several familiar faces from Parent/Teacher conferences and school events. Then I saw the two faces I'd been looking for. Kyle came running over to me and hugged me around my legs. A few moments later, Wendy who was slightly older at almost eight and therefore needed to act cool, reached me, followed by those adorable twin girls she always hung out with.

"Dad, I'm bored," she said. "Where's your iPad?"

"Outside in the Jeep," I said.

"Can you get it?" she smiled.

"Nope," I said. "I can't believe you'd send me out into the storm just to get you my iPad. We're in the path of a dangerous storm and possible a tornado, Honey."

"But you're like Super dad," she smiled, wrapping me around her little finger. And to be truthful she had me considering it.

"Here," I said grudgingly. I handed her my iPhone. "It's got all the same games and apps. The screen is just smaller. Let me know if your mom calls." She and the two twins took off for a corner of the room where they could play games. Once they'd found something to erase their boredom, bothering to talk to the rest of us was no longer important.

The principal had, of course, been correct. The auditorium was a great place to ride the storm out. The most severe part of the storm had only lasted for about forty minutes. Inside the auditorium, there was so much concrete and steel between us and the building's outer shell that we didn't even hear the winds or anything else.

When we emerged from the auditorium after about an hour, the landscape outside had totally changed. The large wooden playground structure had been blown to bits. There were several damaged cars in the parking lot, including two that had been crushed by falling light poles. There was an uprooted tree that blocked the road in front of the school too.

"Well Mr. Peterson," I said, shaking his hand. "It's been fun. I assume that you're going to do a damage assessment. After that if you need any help putting things right, give me a call. I'm sure most of the parents would pitch in to help too. But for now I'm going to get the kids home."

"I've already thought of something you could do to help," he said.

"Name it," I said.

"Your daughter's two best friends are here too," he began. He lowered his voice then so no one would hear him. "Their parents are about to divorce. Their mom threw their father out of the house. We don't have a bus driver available to run them home so if you could...?"

"No problem," I said. "I've taken Wendy to their house a couple of times. I've never really met the parents but I remember my wife getting into a shouting match at the PTA with their father. It's sad to see any family torn apart by...whatever it was."

"Is your car okay?" he asked.

"Let me go outside and check before we move the kids," I said.

I quickly ran around to the back of the building and except for being covered by a few tree branches and a coating of mud my jeep was unscathed. I started it up left it in four wheel drive and pulled it away from the building. I drove back over the curb and around in front of the building. I saw an opening in the fence near the play-scape that I could get out of, and by doing so avoid the tree blocking the road in front of the school.

I went inside the building and grabbed the kids. They oohed and aahed at lots of things on the way to the twins' house. There were uprooted trees, crushed cars and demolished buildings all along the route. I tried Lisa's cell phone and it went straight to voicemail.

The twins' neighborhood, like ours, was far enough from the city that it hadn't been hit very hard. There were a couple of branches blown down but no major damage.

Before I even turned off the motor, the twins along with my daughter, Wendy, went bounding up to the house. The door opened up and a woman ran out and scooped the twins into a three-way hug. She was very attractive. She didn't have my wife's boobs but she made up for in other ways.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Thomas," she said. "I thought that I'd probably have to take a cab over to the school and bring them back. That would have cost a fortune."

"It's Dave," I said extending my hand. "And your house was on the way. Tell your husband that he can borrow..." I stopped in mid-sentence and shook my head.

"Sorry," I said. "I didn't think."

"It's not your fault that my husband is a serial asshole," she smiled. "What were you going to loan him?"

"Well if you call a tree service to cut that split branch down and to cut up the ones that have already fallen they'll charge you and arm and a leg. And the split branch is kind of hanging over your house so your insurance company will want it cut down. I was going to say that he could borrow my chainsaw and do it himself. It would save a lot of money," I said.

"So could I borrow your chainsaw?" she asked, smiling.

"Uhm, sure," I said. "I'll bring it by tomorrow."

"And I'll come over and play," interjected Wendy. "And you can make us lunch," she said to the twins' mom. "Of all of my friends' mothers, you make the best lunches ever."

On the drive home, I called Lisa a couple of more times and got no answer. I drove home and except for our new lawn furniture being blown all over the yard our house was undamaged. Two of the chairs that came with the umbrella table were bent so badly that they'd need to be replaced, but they were no big loss. I'd just go to Home Depot and replace them.

I got the kids inside the house and started making them a snack when the phone rang. By the end of the phone call I was white as a sheet. I ran next door and got the old lady who lived there to come over and watch the kids for me.

The woman on the phone had been from the hospital. Lisa had been out in the storm and seemed to be suffering from some kind of shock.

I drove to the hospital as quickly as I could. Avoiding obstacles and damaged road surfaces made the trip take far longer than I'd have expected.

I was shown to a room where Lisa sat in a chair. Her hair was disheveled and her make-up was smeared and runny but she seemed fine otherwise.

"She wouldn't let us examine her," said a nurse. As soon as Lisa saw me she jumped up and leaped into my arms.

"She was really lucky," said the nurse. "From the way I heard it, a power pole went down right in front of her. There were live wires all around her vehicle. A guy from one of the buildings nearby got her out of the truck and into a small storage building where they waited out the storm with a group of other people. Right after he got her out of her truck, a tree fell on the truck and crushed it. Then he got her to the shelter. If he hadn't gotten her out of that truck, she'd be dead."

"Wow," I said. "I'm really grateful to this guy, whoever he is." I noticed that Lisa stiffened in my arms then.

"Dave, I want to go home," she said. "I'm so glad you're here. You came home early from your trip for me?"

"I came home as soon as I heard there was a dangerous storm," I said.

"Oh shit!" she said. "The kids!"

"I stopped off and picked them up and took them home," I said, looking at her. "The school called me almost as soon as I got off the plane. They said they'd tried calling you several times. I actually sat the storm out inside of their school." Something was starting to bother me about this whole situation.

I filled out some paperwork for the hospital, despite the fact that they hadn't done anything for Lisa. I was sure that they'd figure out a way to charge me for things they hadn't even done. We were probably being billed for breathing their air and standing on their floor.

Lisa seemed to be fine though so I wasn't overly concerned.

As I got her into the Jeep and we started the drive home, our conversation did nothing to make me feel better about the situation.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" I asked.

"I left..." she stopped suddenly. "I left my phone in my truck. I was shopping at first and I left it in the truck while I looked for...Oh shit! I bought us a lot of organic fruit. It was all in the truck. My purse is in the truck too."

"Honey, don't worry about it," I said. "You've been through a lot. I'll take you home and you can watch the kids. I'll go back to where the truck is and see if I can get your purse and your phone if they haven't been destroyed."

"You're too good to me, Dave," she said. "That's why I love you so much."

"I thought you loved me because I'm going to have to let you drive my Jeep until we replace your car," I laughed. "I'll try to get an insurance investigator to meet me at the truck. I'll even fill out the claims and paperwork. We'll start looking for another truck for you online tonight. Or do you want a car this time?"

"I was happy with my truck," she laughed. "You wouldn't believe how many cars were getting stuck or couldn't make through the water as it rose. Your Mustang would have been useless, Dave."

"You're high," I smirked. "My Mustang is so fast that I wouldn't have gotten caught in the storm. As soon as I found out about the weather I'd have driven to a different state."

When we got home I helped Lisa upstairs and into our room. I called the insurance company and they told me to meet one of their local claims guys at the truck. I was glad I'd called, because the woman I spoke to told me that if I'd waited until the next day, It might've been days before I could schedule an appointment. The cops might've moved the truck by then and it would be a lot more difficult to prove that the damage had happened the way Lisa and the witnesses claimed.

I started a tub of warm soapy bath water for her as she began to undress. She threw her tennis shoes away, they'd been ruined. She'd been wearing some of those footies under them and they went into the trash as well.

As she pulled off her skirt I noticed that she quickly pulled it back up. She hadn't pulled it up quickly enough though.

"Lisa, where are your panties?" I asked.

"When I fell in the water they got soaked," she said. "I took them off because my skirt was long enough to cover everything and they were really uncomfortable. I was more worried about whether I was going to live or die than I was about modesty."

I noticed then that she didn't look me in the eye. I knew Lisa well enough to know that she was probably lying.

I turned and left the room. "I'm going to the truck," I said grabbing my keys off of the desk.

"Dave can't you do that tomorrow?" she asked. "I've been through hell. I need to have you here with me."

"I won't be gone for very long," I said. "And I need to be there when the insurance guy gets there."

I drove slowly across town to the place where Lisa and the report from the hospital had claimed she'd been picked up.

I had to look around for a while before I found her truck. It was awful. My heart started beating faster as I looked at the mass of twisted and crumpled metal, plastic and rubber that had once been my wife's vehicle. The tree had landed cross-wise on top of it. The whole truck was bent in the middle. The entire passenger compartment behind the driver's seat had been flattened. Strangely enough, I was able to pry the driver's side door open. As I started looking through the wreckage I heard the sound of a gun cocking behind me.

"Get out of the vehicle with your hands up," said a voice. "I can't believe the nerve of you bastards. How can you live with yourself...looting after an accident is the lowest...?"

"Officer, I think you've made a mistake," I said.

He grabbed the purse I fished out of the truck from my hand and went through it. He found Lisa's wallet and looked at her ID.

"The license that you're holding belongs to Lisa Thomas," I said. "But the truck doesn't belong to her. If you look at the registration for this vehicle, you'll see that it belongs to her husband, David Thomas. If you'll let me, I'll get my wallet out and show you that I'm David Thomas. So I'm not actually looting. This is my truck. I just came down here to find my wife's purse and her phone." He nodded at me and put the gun down.

"Get your wallet out," he said in a much more polite tone.

Then there was a voice behind him. "Is either one of you Dave Thomas?" asked a guy who was just walking up.

"He is," said the officer looking at my license.

"I'm the insurance adjuster, you're schedule to meet with," said the new guy. The cop handed me back my license and just walked off. He didn't offer an apology or anything else. I had to call him back.

"Officer, can I have my wife's purse back? It doesn't go with your outfit," I said. He nodded and handed me the purse and then walked away.

I spent the next few minutes explaining to the insurance agent everything I knew about the accident and how it had happened. The insurance guy was trying to tell me that if Lisa had simply abandoned the truck in the roadway, that the insurance company wasn't liable for the damages. I assured him that she'd been driving the truck until the power lines and the fallen pole forced her to leave the vehicle. He wrote it up but he wasn't too happy about it.

I looked through the truck and found Lisa's phone and a few other items belonging to her and our kids. I put them in the Jeep and was about to leave when I saw a guy standing in front of a small storage shed.

He was a younger guy and was telling some other guys about going through the storm in that shed. Even though it was concrete you could tell that it had been through hell. They were all looking at something on his cell phone and were giving him money.

I joined the group but saw only a video that looked like the person holding the camera had been walking out of that shed.

He looked up at me and smiled. "Want to see something?" he asked.

"What?" I nodded.

"Just a video I shot during the storm," he smirked.

"Why are those guys paying you money to watch it?" I asked.

"Samples up to a certain point are free," he said. "If you want to watch the rest of it you have two options. You can watch it once on my phone for 5 bucks or for fifty I email you the file and you can watch it forever."

"What is there about a storm that's worth fifty bucks?" I asked.

"Watch the free sample," he said. I shrugged my shoulders and looked at his phone. He pressed a couple of icons and the video started. At first all I saw was a scene from inside of the storage shelter. He showed some guys playing cards. As the video panned across the shed I could see a man and woman in corner together and I got pissed. They were clearly hugging each other and the woman was definitely Lisa. As I watched the man tried to back up and Lisa pulled him back against her. His hands dropped to her ass and I was grinding my teeth so hard I thought they'd break.

He pulled up her skirt and had his hands on her panty covered ass. The next thing I knew he'd pulled his pants down and she'd pulled her panties down and dropped them in the corner. The guy stopped the video then.

"Five or fifty," he asked me, smiling. I looked around to see if the cop was still in the area and he wasn't. I punched the kid in the mouth as hard as I could. He dropped the phone and I picked it up.

"Look guy," he said. "I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to make a buck."

"What else happens on the video and how did you get it," I asked.

"We came in here to get away from the storm," he said. "The woman was the last one to come in. She was in here with all of the guys. Steve saw her out in the storm and called her to come in there with us. They knew each other because their kids go to the same school or something. I knew Steve already because we both work for the company that stores equipment in here. He used to be a big shot at some other company but he lost his job and he's working for the landscaping company with me. That's why we had the keys."

"Anyway, we were waiting the storm out and the guys were playing cards. I was just playing with my phone and when I saw Steve and the woman I started recording it. He fucked her. And then the other guys did too. All of them fucked her and she let them. I didn't because, I'm engaged and I really love my fiancé and I was also scared of getting a disease. What kind of woman goes around fucking strangers? She has to be a really nasty whore. Steve even fucked her in her ass. He was really into her. He must've fucked her at least three or four times and..."

"Does your video show all of that?" I asked. He nodded.

"How much did you pay for this phone?" I asked him.

"Two hundred dollars, plus a two year contract with AT&T," he said. I reached into my pocket. I didn't normally carry much cash but I'd been out of town and I learned a long time ago to carry at least some cash with me when I'm on the road.