Page 24 of True Sight (Nat. 20, #4)
CONRAD
Kolbi:
I don’t know if you’ve all seen but we’re supposed to get a really bad storm by the end of the week and throughout the weekend. It’s supposed to flood pretty bad downtown so no one go and do anything stupid.
Malcolm:
Aww what a good den mother you are Kolb
Hank:
I saw that this morning after Bailey said something about it. Are you keeping the office open tomorrow?
Can we please divert all work related talk to individual messages? And aren’t you two currently in the same building right now? Get up and go ask him Hank.
Kolbi:
I’m leaving that decision up to what things look like at the end of the day. If it looks like it’s going to get worse I’ll close the office.
Malcolm:
Maybe we’ll have a storm party at the bar. Hurricanes and Halloween, sounds like a great time to me
Kolbi:
That would constitute as doing something stupid, Malcolm. They’re calling for king tides and heavy flooding. We’re in the peak of hurricane season and while this one isn’t a hurricane, it’s looking like it’s coming in as a tropical storm.
Hank:
Welcome to the Lowcountry in October.
Malcom:
We had a hurricane party here a few years ago, it was fucking wild.
Looks like they’re maybe going to put up roadblocks around downtown in high flooding areas. The mayor is talking like he’s going to shut the city down if it’s as bad as they’re saying it will be.
Hank:
Which means no hurricane party for you, Malcolm.
Kolbi:
If it gets bad, we can all hunker down at mine and Magnolia’s place. I have a generator and a full pantry of supplies in case we lose power or it’s worse than we think.
Malcolm:
Of course you do, you’re practically our mother
Kolbi, would you like to adopt me?
Hank:
Wait, adopt me too! I want to be adopted by Mother Kolbi!
Malcolm:
Wait, hold up, if Hank and Connie are being adopted, so am I!
Kolbi:
You all might be grown ass man children, but I don’t think adopting you idiots is what Magnolia meant when she brought up having kids.
If it gets bad, don’t be idiots and just stay home. Don’t forget, I can see where you all are – don’t be dumb.
I roll my eyes at his message and toss my phone down.
Leave it to Kolbi to mention how he has trackers on all of us for our “safety.” They did come in handy though a few months ago when Malcolm was in trouble.
I sigh and look outside through my living room windows.
It seems like a nice day. A day very similar to yesterday.
But yesterday was nice for more reasons than just the weather.
After Kolbi mentioned the storm that’s heading our way a few days ago, I’ve been tracking it ever since.
Hurricane season generally lasts through the end of November so it isn’t a big surprise that there is one coming our direction.
From what I can see, it has the potential to do some damage if it continues to speed up.
The news is calling for high flooding in the lowest parts of downtown, gale force winds, and several inches of rain.
Looking out the window, I can see the storm clouds rolling in off the waterline through the window.
Annie, who’s under foot like always, perks her head up at me.
“Yeah, we should probably go now,” I sigh before pushing back in my chair. I suit her up quickly and throw my raincoat on in case the skies open up while we’re gone.
As we walk down the street, I can see that several stores have their sandbags out and many of the older homes on the water have closed their shutters.
Police blockades are being put up to block streets that are notorious for flooding and several parking garages have their barricades up for people to park their cars on higher ground for free.
This is how the city always reacts when a storm comes in so seeing it like this doesn’t really shake me.
I’ve lived in Charleston since I was eight years old and have made it through my share of hurricanes and tropical storms. More often than not, the city reacts worse than the storm actually ends up being.
We round the corner and start for home as the sky gets grayer and grayer.
I can see it rolling in off the coast and feel it in the wind as it starts to rip through the city.
Holding my jacket tighter around me, I duck my head against the wind and pick up my pace to get home.
As soon as we hit the lobby of my building, the sky opens up and heavy rain starts to pound against the sidewalk.
“Thank Christ we missed that,” I snort towards my dog who’s looking up at me with a disappointed look on her face having cut her walk short.
I lead us up the elevator and back into my apartment, unleashing her and taking her out of her harness before hanging it up in its usual spot for the rest of the day.
It is only mid-afternoon and typically on Fridays, my friends and I head to Malcolm’s restaurant and hangout for the evening, but looking outside I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I check the radar on my phone and see the growing rainbow of colors just off the shore and spinning towards Charleston before shooting a text off to our group chat to tell the others to be safe.
Heading back to my desk, I take a seat to put my head down to finish my workday.
I have plenty to get done between Henry and other clients I picked up for smaller jobs to where I can’t just wait out the storm on my couch.
As the hours pass, the weather outside only gets worse.
Dark storm clouds roll in along with wall-shaking thunder and lightning.
Unbothered by any of it, I put my headphones on to drown out the noise and keep pushing forward with my projects.
That is, until the lights flicker twice and go out permanently.
I slump down in my chair when my computer goes dark and hope to whatever god there might be that what I had been working on can be recovered.
I had my auto-save on which gives me a little bit of hope but I’m already calculating how I can make up the work over the next few weeks if it’s been lost. When the lights don’t come back on, I let go of the dream that they might flicker back on and look outside, taking in the growing storm.
The sky is nearly black and the rain is relentless.
Glancing down towards the street, I can see how the wind is forcing trees to bend and how angry the ocean looks.
The streets are already starting to flood like they do during a bad storm and I can see some poor suckers who have gotten caught in the rain running down the sidewalk for shelter.
Storms never bother me but they definitely aren’t my favorite thing, especially when they’re this bad.
‘I’m horribly terrified of bad storms.’ His words hit me as I stare out the window, watching the storm grow in power.
My eyebrows furrow as I remember our conversation from Saturday.
‘ So much so that there have been times where I’ve been found curled up in my bath trying to hide from the thunder and lightning. ’
Shit .
I hurry for my phone that’s sitting where I left it on my desk and open up our text thread.
Hey, I just wanted to check in with you with this storm.
I send the message and pace around my living room waiting for a reply. When he doesn’t answer after a few minutes, I send another.
It’s just a tropical storm, it will pass. Do you have power?
Again, I let my feet carry me in an anxious circle around my coffee table as I wait for him to answer. Maybe he is busy? Maybe he’s at the studio in a meeting or something. He could be teaching a class , I try to reason with myself.
Or maybe he’s holed up in his bathroom afraid for his life like he told me he gets during bad storms.
Texting him is getting me nowhere so I opt to call him but that doesn’t get me anywhere either. I call him over and over, each time getting his voicemail and each time getting more and more panicked by his lack of a response. I can feel my heart starting to race not knowing if he is okay or not.
Because he’s a friend.
I’m worried about him because he’s a friend. Nothing more.
When he doesn’t answer my fourth call, I give up entirely and decide that trying to get him on the phone isn’t enough.
Looking out the window again, I purse my lips, annoyed by the plan my brain is formulating and more annoyed that I know I’m going to do it no matter how much I don’t want to go out into this stupid storm.
But he doesn’t have anyone here and if he is truly as afraid of them as he said he was, I’m not going to let him ride this storm out alone.
“Annie, let’s go,” I call out to her and she comes running. I slide her harness around her and pull my rainboots and jacket on before stepping out and locking the front door behind me.