Second Chance at Love

“The Red Cross has a shelter set up not far from Williamson,” Chase said. “We have a Jeep parked down the road about a mile, and we can take you to the shelter.”

“No, thanks.”

“But, Mr….” Chase paused. “I guess we haven’t been introduced. I’m Chase Ramsey, and this is Amelia Stone. We’re working with the Red Cross to help flood victims.”

“My name’s Willie Honaker. Call me Willie.”

“But, Willie, you shouldn’t stay here,” Amelia said. “The road has washed away, and no vehicles can drive up the hollow to bring fuel or food for you.”

“I ain’t leavin’ my home. The forepart of the house is stable, and my fireplace is all right. The water didn’t get upstairs, and I’ve got a bed up there. I aim to watch over my things and protect my neighbors’ homes from thieves until they can come back. We ain’t got much left, but I’m staying here.”

Amelia slanted an apprehensive look toward Chase. It would be a long time before the road would be passable for any of these residents to come home, let alone any thieves.

“There’ll be government grants to help you rebuild, I’d imagine. In the meantime, you’d be more comfortable at the shelter,” she insisted.

Willie resumed his seat in the chair, and slowly rocked back and forth, shaking his head negatively. “Nope. I don’t want government help. I’ve been lookin’ after myself for a long time. If you’ve got any more water or candy bars, I’ll make do until some of my kin come to look about me.”

Not knowing how many other needy people they’d encounter before the day was over, Chase gave Willie only half of the provisions he carried.

Before they left, Chase explained to Willie about the hazardous road they’d encountered. “Is there an easier way to get back to Williamson?”

Willie’s clear black eyes widened in astonishment.

“Man, you surely didn’t take a road across the mountain!”

“Rick Smith said to take the first road to the left. That’s what I did.”

“You must have been on a log road, made by contractors who’ve timbered that mountain. How’d you do it?”

With an embarrassed laugh, Chase said, “It wasn’t easy.”

“Young feller, I’d say you’re a pretty good driver or you’d still be on top of the mountain. You just follow the road in the creek valley, and it’ll take you to the highway.”

Although he’d been in doubt about whether he should stay any longer in the disaster area, on the way back to the Jeep, Chase made up his mind. He received four weeks’ vacation each year, and he’d take part of it to help here. He would get in touch with the bank to make arrangements if he could find a place to use his cell phone.

Would Amelia be pleased that he was staying? As they plodded through the thick mud, he told Amelia the decision he’d made. She nodded without saying anything, and he couldn’t tell from her expression if she was annoyed, pleased or just didn’t care what he did. He compared the Amelia he’d known to the woman with him today.

Because Amelia’s mother had kept her in new clothes, and since she’d had an unlimited credit card, she’d set the fashion on campus. She’d bought anything that had caught her eye, and all clothes had looked good on her. Amelia hadn’t been a snob, but because of her affluence, she’d outclassed most of the other students. She’d been a beautiful girl, and he’d wanted her the first time he’d seen her.

The roadbed was narrow in places, and Amelia walked in front of him, allowing ample opportunity for Chase to consider the person she’d become—a tall, willowy woman with a resolute mouth, candid dark eyes and long, very straight, brown hair that, today, fell in scraggly tufts over her shoulders. In her college days, she wouldn’t have been caught dead looking as she did now. Soft rain had started, and they’d forgotten to bring their raincoats. Amelia’s heavy sweater was soaked. Her jeans were splashed with mud, and the boots that had been clean and shiny this morning were filthy. She limped from weariness, and Chase figured that Amelia had never spent such a miserable day. Yet she hadn’t complained once, and sympathy for Willie Honaker had brought tears to her eyes.

Chase knew that thinking of “what might have been” was futile, but momentarily he wondered what their lives would be like now if their marriage hadn’t failed and they’d continued to live together.

Amelia slipped in the mud, and he reached a hand to help her. She steadied herself without his assistance and moved on, unaware that he was watching her. Chase knew he couldn’t redeem the past, but what did he want from Amelia now? Was it too late for them to start over? Did he want another chance with Amelia?

While the idea stirred his emotions, he questioned if Amelia would welcome an opportunity to start over. He recalled her words when they’d left the lawyer’s office on the day their divorce had been finalized.

“When we married, Chase, I meant it when I said, ‘‘Til death do us part.’ But I couldn’t see any way out except for a divorce, and I’m glad it’s over. Please stay out of my life. I don’t want to see you again.”

He’d taken Amelia at her word and had made no effort to contact her. Had time caused a change in her feelings toward him, or did she still feel the same way?

Chapter Four

The sun rose brightly the next morning, and the water had receded enough so that two kitchen vans had come across the West Virginia border into the flooded area. One van had set up in the parking lot of Mountainview Church, and the cooks would have hot food ready to deliver by noon.

Other volunteers had arrived, too. When Amelia learned that a route was open northward, she told Rick Smith she wanted to go to Charleston to get her Buick, when space was available in a vehicle to take her there.

Chase heard the conversation, and offered, “I’ll be going that way tomorrow. We’re taking the church’s truck home. I’ll stay in Worthington for a few days to get my work organized so others can carry on for a few weeks, and then I’ll come back. You can ride into Charleston with us, Amelia.”

Wishing heartily that he would leave her alone, she said, “We’ll see.”

Water had receded from the hollow where Josh and Mandy Newberry lived, and since the old couple wanted to go home, Rick asked Chase and Amelia to take them. It wasn’t an assignment Amelia welcomed. For one thing, she didn’t want to spend another day with Chase. And if the Newberrys’ home had been destroyed like those she’d seen yesterday, what words could she find to comfort Mandy and Josh?

Amelia helped Mandy choose cleaning necessities from the supplies sent from Chase’s church and by many local churches. Then she packaged the items Mandy chose and carried them for her. Instead of the Jeep, Chase was assigned to drive a four-seat pickup truck, and he helped Amelia pack the supplies in the truck bed.

The prospects of going home had brought smiles of pleasure to the work-worn faces of Josh and Mandy. They settled into the back seat of the truck, their hands clasped.

When Chase started the truck’s engine, Rick Smith peered in the open door and shook hands with Josh and Mandy.

“Staying in a damp building can make you sick, so after you clean the house, come back and stay at the shelter for several days until the house has time to dry.” Before he closed their door, Rick turned his attention to Amelia and Chase. “Don’t leave them out there.”

Chase nodded, but Amelia made no comment. One glance at the satisfied expressions on the Newberrys’ faces convinced her that it wasn’t likely they’d leave their home again.

After several miles of travel on a paved road that occasionally provided a view of the swollen Tug Fork River, following Josh’s instructions, Chase turned the truck into the narrow hollow where the Newberrys lived. At first, the elderly couple silently observed the devastation of the countryside. A lump built in Amelia’s throat when Josh started singing in an unsteady tenor voice that must have been strong and melodious in his youth. “God is so good, He’s so good to me.”

Amelia believed that her faith was strong, but if there was a possibility that her home and all her possessions had been destroyed, could she sing “God Is So Good”? In spite of her disappointing marriage, Amelia knew she’d been extremely fortunate, but how would she react if another tragedy struck her life? She started singing with Josh, trying with all her might to believe in the goodness of God, regardless of the circumstances.

Only ten families lived in the hollow, and Chase and Amelia came first to the property of the Newberrys’ neighbors. All of the mobile homes had been washed off their foundations, and many of the frame buildings leaned precariously toward the creek.

“Our home is next, at the head of the holler,” Mandy said excitedly.

They rounded the bend, and Josh shouted, “Praise God, the house still stands! Mandy, the house still stands!” He threw his arms around his little wife and hugged her tightly. When Chase stopped before the flooded house, Josh opened the door, jumped sprightly to the muddy ground and reached inside to lift Mandy out.

With Josh’s arm firmly around Mandy’s waist, they stood and surveyed the house as if it were a mansion. Unable to comprehend their joy, Amelia glanced at Chase with incredulous eyes. Precipitous mountain terrain surrounded the little farm. Even before it flooded, their acreage couldn’t have been comfortable, at least by most standards. And now, blooming daffodils and tulips had toppled to the ground, covered with mud. The posts of the yard fence had been washed out by the rushing water and the wire was flattened.

She considered her apartment to be small, but this house would easily fit into her apartment, with room to spare. Amelia assumed that the small shack behind the house, with a half-moon carved in the door, was the plumbing system, unless the lean-to with an air vent, attached to the house, was a bathroom. Several outbuildings, some washed off their foundations, were scattered around the clearing.

“Sad, isn’t it?” Chase murmured, his deep sympathy revealed in his eyes. “We might as well see what we can do to help them.”

Josh explained that the flood had come at night, and the Newberrys hadn’t known the creek was rising until their nearest neighbor pounded on the door.

“It hadn’t rained much right here, so I hadn’t been worried. But there was a cloudburst up on the mountain. I pulled on a pair of britches, and Mandy put a dress over her nightgown, and we climbed in his truck,” Josh said. “The creek was already runnin’ in the kitchen door, and it chased us all the way down the holler. God only knows how we made it to the high road before the water caught us.”

About five feet of water had rushed through the house, but it wasn’t as muddy as Willie’s house had been. The Newberrys did have antiquated plumbing inside, but the well house had flooded and the electric pump was probably ruined. All electricity in the area was out of service, so the lights wouldn’t work, either.

Mandy wiped tears from her eyes as she picked up two soaked picture albums. The memories of a lifetime had been destroyed in a matter of minutes.

“One of our daughters sent us word while we were in the shelter, and she said she’d replace as many of the pictures as she could. But I ought not to mourn over pictures when all of my family is safe.”