Simple but beautiful
Chapter Six ~
Janna
woke up, at first disoriented. “Where am I?” She moved to sit up, but something
was holding her down. She tried to pull her hand up to push the tangled mass of
her hair from her eyes, but it was trapped, as well. Her eyes popped open. She
blinked. It was dark. Pitch black. And then her memory slammed back to her
brain and she screamed. “Tilly! Jessie?” Tears of fear and frustration trailed
down her aching cheeks.
As
her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she took in her surroundings, all the while
pulling at her trapped arm. “Erg, let go.” Put it didn’t budge. She could see
something large and white was trapping her up against a huge support beam. Where are they?
She
finally recognized the object holding her hostage. It was the family-sized deep
freezer from Tilly’s dining room. She wiggled, pushing at the cold metal
against her arm. She knew it was broke, the extreme pain radiating all the way
up to her shoulder and down her spine. “Dear God, please let them be okay and
let me get out so I can help them.”
“Janna?”
“Tilly,
are you okay?” Renewed strength surged through her at the sound of her friend’s
voice and she pushed the deep freezer with her left arm, and it moved. “Praise
the Lord.” She smiled, tried to stand up, and fell back to the dirt floor.
“I’m
alive, but I can’t find Jessie and I’m trapped!”
Janna
could hear the hysteria in her friend’s tone. “Hold on, I’m almost free…”
“Do
you see him, Janna?” The hope in her voice brought a fresh deluge of tears down
her cheeks and goose bumps to her arms.
“No,
not yet.” Janna took a deep breath, gave the support beam a huge heave, and as
it moved, she jumped up and out of the way. The beam thudded to the floor and what
was left of the house began raining down on her again. She crouched to the
floor and covered her head with her arms. “Dear Lord, please help me.”
The
avalanche of debris stopped. Janna waited a full minute before gingerly moving
toward where she’d heard Tilly’s voice. “Is there a flashlight down here? I
brought my emergency bag, but it’s still in the car.”
“There
was, but I don’t know where it’s at now.”
Tilly
was in shock and she needed to get help. “What color is it?” She began scanning
the rubble pretty sure she wasn’t finding anything in this mess.
“It’s
clear. It’s one of those you shake.”
“Oh,
I know what kind it is, then.” She tripped and fell to one knee, a sharp pain
telling her she’d just cut it. She was trying to support her dangling arm, without
much luck. It hit something as she went down and she yelled in pain.
“Janna,
are you hurt?”
She
stood up slowly. She didn’t want to lie, but didn’t want to worry her friend,
either. “I’ll be okay.” She spotted something round under the tossed garbage can
and squealed like a child, “I found it!” She bent down and picked it up,
shaking it vigorously. Her finger pushed the switch up and a dim beam of light
shone in the darkness.
“Shake
it some more,” Tilly ordered. “You have to find my baby!”
“I
have to get you out first.”
“No!
You find my baby!” Tilly burst into loud sobs.
“Okay,
okay.” Janna moved the light through every nook and cranny of the rubble, but
didn’t see Jessie.
“Do
you see him yet?” The voice was hesitant-sounding.
Janna
sighed. Dear Lord, please help me find
that baby. “No, but I haven’t started digging yet. Let me come get you out
first.” She rounded the corner of the basement where Tilly was and stopped in
horror. “Oh Tilly…”
Broken
arm and cut knee forgotten, Janna sank to her knees.
“There’s
no point worrying about it, girl. It’s too late for me. Find my son.”
Janna
tried to keep her eyes trained on Tilly’s face so she wouldn’t have to see the
grotesque way she was twisted around one of the support beams for the steps.
“I’m so sorry.” Janna sobbed as she scooted over to her injured friend. “You
must be in so much pain…”
“Honestly,
it doesn’t hurt at all. Maybe I’m in shock, I don’t know.”
“We
can get you out of this…”
“Janna,
don’t. You know that isn’t true. Pray with me.”
Tilly’s
face was pale as a ghost and her eyes were beginning to flutter.
“Stay
with me, girl.” Janna reached over with her good arm and held her friend. “Dear
Lord, please be with Tilly as she suffers through this trauma. Please allow her
to heal if it’s your will.” She rested her head against Tilly’s blood-soaked
hair and wept. Dear Lord, I made a friend
and now you’re going to take her away? Why? What about her child?
A
few minutes passed and Janna was afraid to raise her head for fear her friend
was gone when suddenly, she spoke, “I want you to have Jessie if he’s still
alive. Raise him as your own.” Her voice was weak and halting, but firm.
“I
can’t, Tilly. He has a dad.”
“He
won’t have a choice. Jessie isn’t his.”
The
circumstances didn’t keep Janna from gasping in disbelief. “You’re in shock,
girl.”
“No,
he knows Jessie isn’t his. He was going to raise him, anyway. All my papers are
in the safe. Make sure you find…them.”
Janna
had been staring into her friend’s eyes, but they had fluttered closed, and she
knew it was for the last time. “No, Tilly…” She stroked the dark hair, her
hands encountering sticky blood, but she didn’t care. Tears streamed down her
face in grief. Why?
She
had no idea how long she sat there stroking Tilly’s hair, but finally the pain
in her arm insisted she do something to get herself out of the basement. She
needed a doctor, and she needed to find Jessie. Please help me find him, Dear Lord.
She
drudged through several feet of debris, trying to find a way out. Finally, she
poked her good arm up through a hole. Was it freedom? Her heart pumped with
joy. She needed to find Jessie and make sure he was okay.
She
heard a noise. Her heart sped-up double-time. “Hello, is someone out there?”
Her voice trembled with pain and exhaustion but she’d gained renewed energy
once more.
“Hello?”
A male voice questioned from above her.
It
sounded vaguely familiar. Where had she heard that voice before? Her own eyes felt
heavy with tiredness as she dug through the hole, trying to see who was out
there.
The
sound of a child crying made her halt. She tilted her head and said, “Jessie?”
“Ja-Ja?”
His
little baby-voice sounded scratchy and scared.
“Yes
Jessie, it’s Janna.”
“I
want my mommy.” The little boy cried, apparently so relieved to hear a familiar
voice he allowed himself to let go.
Heaviness
filled her heart. How could she tell him? Would he even understand? “I know you
do, buddy, but let’s get you out of here first.” She’d uncovered one chubby
arm. “Do you hurt?”
“My
leg hurts real bad.” Her good hand ran along the length of one chubby leg and
he winced, as if to prove his point.
“I
have to get you out of here, little man.”
“What
happened?” The three year old asked.
“It
was a tornado, buddy.”
Silence
for a moment. “Oh.”
He
raised both chubby arms and attached them around her neck when she moved the
piece of vinyl siding from his side and pulled off a sheet of wet, pink
insulation.
“Hello?”
The male voice came from above her again.
She’d
forgotten about the man at the little boy’s cries. “Yes, can you help us out?”
“Yes.”
There was a loud thumping noise as Jedidiah jumped down through the hole.
“You!”
“Yes
me.” He gave her a big grin as he pulled woman and child up through the hole
and laid them at the side of the yard.
He
sat down beside them, panting from the exertion. He wiped his forehead with a
black, sooty hand. “The child’s mother?”
She
gave him a sharp look. His face fell, seeming to say, ‘I’m sorry.’
He
got to his hands and knees, and then rose to his feet. He picked them up and
carried them to his car.
The
last thing Janna remembered was being deposited in the front seat, Jedidiah’s
hand gently pulling a strand of her wet, gritty hair from her face and fastening
her seatbelt; and then blessed darkness.
