Roy walked up to the porch and dropped down on the steps. Debbie dropped down in the grass and fell backwards onto her back, looking up into the sky, exhausted.
Tom finally sat down on the steps next to Roy.
“You sure we really needed all this stuff.” Tom asked. “I thought the axe and the pick would have been enough.”
Roy laughed. “That’s why I’m in charge and you’re not, because I plan ahead. After we break into that warehouse, we have to have the tools to board it back up to keep the dead out. You have to see the whole picture.”
“Did you plan ahead about how we are going to get all this crud off of us?” Debbie said, still on her back in the grass.
“Hopefully there is still some water in the drain down by the road.” Roy said.
“I hope so too.” Debbie said as she slowly sat back up. “I haven’t felt this dirty in ages. In fact I have never been this filthy!”
“We better go get cleaned up before it gets dark.” Roy said as he stood and worked the cramps out of his legs.
Debbie slowly got up and dragged herself over next to Roy.
They walked out to the road and followed it to the intersection with Route 119.
It hadn’t rained in a few days, the drainage ditch was dry.
They went back to the bed and breakfast and used dry rags to wipe off as much of the dirt as they could.
They got out of their dirty clothes and went to bed.
Roy laid awake for twenty minutes thinking about how he wanted to do things tomorrow out at the warehouse.
Finally, exhaustion took its toll and he too feel into a deep sleep.
Chapter 23
The sound of thunder woke Tony early the next morning. He opened his eyes to see the dim light coming in through the open window. It was cloudy and the rain hitting the roof gave off a soft drumming sound that made him want to go back to sleep.
He pulled his sleeping bag up closer to his face. The warmth of the sleeping bag and the sound of the rain made him yawn as he started to get comfortable again.
As he began to turn on his side, he saw the dark outline of Trish sitting up on her bed with her blanket wrapped around her.
“Are you OK Trish?” Tony asked softly. “Having trouble sleeping? You need me to put more air in your mattress?”
“No. The mattress is great.” Trish answered quietly.
Tony waited for her to go on, but she just sat there quietly. He noticed her jump when a loud clap of thunder sounded, then rumble through the area for a full ten seconds.
“Trish?” Tony asked. “Does the thunder bother you?”
“Yes. It makes me afraid.” She replied in a voice barely above a whisper.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Tony said. “Have you always been afraid of thunder?”
“A little.” Trish answered.
“Did something happen when you were little that made you afraid of thunder?” He asked.
“Not when I was little.” Trish answered, then she jumped and let out a whimpering sound as another even louder clap of thunder rattled the warehouse.
“Not when you were little? When?” Tony asked wondering about all the things Trish was afraid of. What kind of childhood did she have that she was so afraid of so many things?
Trish was silent for a few minutes before she started to talk. “It was about seven months ago. Roy was taking us somewhere. He always made us move around. One night we were sleeping in the corner of a field. Roy got us lost and we wandered around all day. It got dark so we camped in this field out in the middle of nowhere.”
Trish started breathing heavy. “It started to rain in the middle of the night. Tom, Roy and Debbie slept together under a tarp so they wouldn’t get wet. They made me sleep with just my jacket under a tree. I couldn’t sleep because I was wet and cold. The storm got worse. Soon it started to thunder. At first the thunder didn’t bother me, but soon bright flashes of lightning followed every time it thundered. I could see the outlines of the dead off in the distance every time the lightning flashed. I was scared to death. I begged Debbie to let me sleep under the tarp with them. Roy told me to shut up and get back under my tree. He said if he heard a peep out of me, he would feed me to the dead. It thundered and lightning flashed all night. I was scared to death.”
“That bastard.” Tony said under his breath.
“He got a kick out of seeing me scared. “ Trish whimpered. “Later even when we stayed in a house, sometimes when a storm came up and there was thunder and lightning, he would make me sleep out on the porch to torment me.“
Tony got angry. “Why didn’t you just run away from those people?” He asked.
“Where would I go?” Trish answered sounding pathetic. “There was nowhere to go. Nowhere is safe.”
Tony thought as he watched Trish nervously sitting on her bed. “I used to be afraid of thunder too when I was little. My Mom helped me get over it.”
“What did she do?” Trish asked.
“I can show you, if you trust me.” Tony answered. “Will you trust me that I won’t try to hurt you?”
Another loud clap of thunder sounded, rattling the window in its frame.
“Trish?” Tony asked again.
“OK. I’ll try.” Trish answered sounding apprehensive. “What did she do?”
“Bring your pillow and blanket and come here.” Tony said.
“You want me to come over there?” Trish asked.
“Come on. Trust me.” Tony said softly.
Trish slowly stood, picked up her pillow and blanket and hesitantly walked over near Tony. She stood and looked down at him.
“Give me your pillow.” Tony instructed.
She reluctantly handed him her pillow.
Tony slid to the side of his bed. He was still in his sleeping bag. He set the pillow down next to his pillow. “OK, now lay down next to me.”
“You want me to get in bed with you?” Trish shrieked.
“Not in bed with me. Just on the bed. You lay down on top of my sleeping bag.” Tony answered.
“Why?” Trish asked nervously.
“Trust me.” Tony replied as another loud clap of thunder rumbled, followed by a bright flash outside the window.
Trish quickly sat down on top of the sleeping bag.
“Now lay down on the pillow with your back to me.” Tony instructed.
Trish laid down on her pillow, her body was tense.
Tony reached out from under his sleeping bag and took Trish’s blanket. He spread it out over her. Then he made himself comfortable and put his arm over her side.
“Now do you know what you do?”
Trish thought. She had seen Roy and Debbie in bed. She had no intention of doing what she had seen Debbie doing. She didn’t know how that would make her stop being afraid of the thunder. “What?” She asked nervously. Afraid of what he would say next.
“Now you go to sleep. As long as my arm is over you, the thunder can’t hurt you.” Tony said as his voice drifted off.
Trish turned her head and took a quick look at Tony. He had fallen asleep.
Another rumble sounded, followed by a flash of lightning. Trish didn’t jump. She almost didn’t even notice.
She let her head get comfortable. “It wasn’t a trick.” She thought to herself, almost surprised.
In fact it was actually comfortable. She relaxed. It was more than comfortable, she liked it.
She took a quick look at Tony to make sure he was still sleeping. Then she pushed her head down into her pillow. The sound of the rain tapping on the tin roof sounded hypnotic. She let the warmth of the bed and Tony next to her lull her to sleep. She didn’t notice that the storm continued on outside the warehouse.
Roy walked down the steps from the upstairs bedrooms and walked into the kitchen at the bed and breakfast. Tom had pulled the curtains to the side of the window and was staring outside.
“What are you looking at?” Roy asked.
Tom jumped. He hadn’t heard Roy come down the steps. He grinned back at Roy, looking like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Roy looked out the window and started laughing.
Debbie was standing under the edge of the porch roof, letting the run off from the roof fall over her as she scrubbed the black coal dust off of her hair and body.
“I was just watching to make sure none of the dead walked up on her while she was taking a shower.” Tom said.
Roy laughed again. “Why don’t you go out and join her? I am.” Roy started to pull his shirt up over his head.
“When I heard it start to rain, I told her to go outside and shower off. I was hoping it would stop her bitching!”
Roy sighed. “She bitched all night long about the coal crap all over us. You’d have thought she had never been dirty before. I was thrilled to hear it start to rain.”
Tom laughed as he looked at Roy. “Have you gotten a good look at yourself? You look like my grandfather coming home from work. He had worked in the mines. He would come home and shower, but he still always looked dirty. He always had black rings around his eyes, his finger nails were always black, and his wrinkles looked like someone had traced them with eye shadow.”
“So, you’re saying I look like a dirty old man?” Roy smiled.
Tom grinned, not sure if he should answer that question. He didn’t want Roy to get pissed at him so early in the day.
“Then I guess I better go get myself cleaned up.” Roy said as he headed for the door.
Tom started to follow. “You sure you and Debbie don’t mind if I join you?”
Roy looked at Tom. “Debbie will get off on it, just don’t try to wash my back or anything like that!”
Tom grinned. It wasn’t Roy’s back he wanted to wash.
As they walked out the door, Tom asked. “When are we going back over to the warehouse?”
“If it stops raining and clears up, maybe later today.” Roy replied. “If not, tomorrow morning. I’d like to have some decent weather when we go over there. It will make things easier.”
Tom nodded as he walked down the porch steps.
Debbie turned and got a big smile on her face as she watched Roy and Tom come to join her.
Roy looked at Debbie as he let the water fall over him. “We came down to see if you needed help to you wash your back.”
Debbie grinned. “You guys take such good care of me.”
Roy grinned as he watched the water run down over Debbie’s body. He thought to himself. “One day soon, I’m going to take care of you real good.” His grin grew wider.
Trish opened her eyes. The light coming in the window was much brighter than it had been earlier when she was up.
She noticed that it was still raining, not as bad as it had been raining during the night, but still a steady rain. The sound on the tin roof above was light but constant.
She was now feeling rested and comfortable. She felt good.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had got up feeling this good, this comfortable or this safe.
She remembered Tony telling her how his mother had made him feel safe when he was little and afraid of the thunder.
She remembered how he made her feel safe. How he made her feel good. How he didn’t try to trick her.
It had been so long since she had been able to trust anyone, like she was starting to trust Tony. He had done so many nice things for her. Nobody did nice things for her.
She thought. “Maybe I can trust Tony a little.”
“Tony!” She thought as her body suddenly tensed up. She slowly turned her head to look back at Tony.
He was gone.
That was strange. Tony always seemed to be there. Him not being there, suddenly made her feel nervous. Why wasn’t he here? Where did he go?
She quickly glanced up at the window. “Surely he didn’t go out there without her?
She jumped out of bed and ran over to the window.
She stared out at the clearing. Little streams of water ran across the parking lot, their paths constantly changing directions as the water ran against and around the dead bodies that covered the parking lot. But she didn’t see any sign of Tony.
“Good Morning.”
Trish heard Tony behind her. She turned to see him standing at the door.
“Good Morning.” Trish answered.
“I thought you were going to sleep all day.” Tony laughed.
She blushed. “Do you think Roy is going to try anything today?”
Tony looked past her and out the window at the rain. “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t if I were him. It would be too wet and miserable. I would wait for the rain to stop and let things dry up a little first.”
“Good!” Trish replied. “I was starting to worry.”
Tony set two large empty buckets down beside the doorway. “Would you like to have some breakfast? I made some hot blackberry tea and found a box of vanilla sugar cookies. I have everything set up for us down on the picnic table I put together.”
“That sounds good.” Trish said before she knew what she was saying.
“After breakfast, you can help me carry some water up here to our room. It rained so much I was able to collect five of these big buckets full of water. I thought it would be nice to have some fresh water up here in the room.” Tony said.
“OK.” Trish replied, then walked over to Tony, ready to follow him down into the warehouse for tea and cookies.
Tony smiled. “Miss Wednesday, why don’t you put on some pants before you come down to join me for breakfast.”
Trish looked at Tony confused for a second, then turned a bright red as she ran over to her bed and grabbed her green sweat pants and held them up to cover herself. “Sorry!”
Tony laughed. “No problem. It’s just that it is a little chilly down in the warehouse. I didn’t want your bottom to get cold.”
He turned and went out the door. Trish could hear him going down the ladder as she listened to the tapping sound of his shoes on the metal rungs.
Trish quickly pulled on her pants. Then she sat down and put on her socks and shoes. After admiring her shoes, she ran out the door and started down to join Tony.
By the time Trish had worked her way down to the ground floor, Tony was at the back of the warehouse.
She hurried to catch up to where he was. When she reached the picnic table, she saw a pan of dark red liquid, steaming in the middle of the table. Two mugs sat near each other on one side of the table. Next to the mugs, a box of cookies sat by each mug.
Tony saw her coming and poured the dark red tea, filling each mug to the brim.
Tony smiled to himself. He was touched every time he saw Trish staring at food or clothes or other things he had given her. The child like wonder that showed on her face always made him want to smile.