Storm Force

“I bet you won’t do that again.”

It’s not like there are opportunities to do that every day, Kate thought, but she didn’t say it.

Navigating the traffic, Kate pulled out through the airport exit ramp to follow the route out of the city. When she spotted the golden arches of McDonald’s only a little out of the way, she decided to stop.

“Anybody want a soda?” she asked.

“Can I have a McFlurry?” Hannah asked.

“Sure, baby girl.” Kate looked in the rearview mirror at Steven. “What about you? Want a McFlurry?”

“Dad says they’re not healthy.”

“Not everything has to be healthy. Sometimes it’s okay to splurge a little.”

Steven was reluctant, but she knew he liked ice cream. She didn’t like thinking that they didn’t get much of anything like that when they were with Bryce. There was excess, but they were kids too.

“All right,” Steven said.

As she changed lanes, Kate noticed that a black Lexus moved over at about the same time, cutting off the car behind them. Then she had to watch the entrance at McDonald’s.

She drove through the drive-thru and ordered the treats and three waters, telling Steven and Hannah that after the ice cream they could concentrate on being healthy.

Back on the street, she turned on to Dolphin Expressway, west on US-41, then north on Tamiami Trail for a straight shot to Everglades City. The trip was going to take about an hour and a half.

“Aren’t you going to miss school while you’re gone?” Kate asked.

“I’m going to miss school,” Hannah said, then spooned more ice cream into her mouth. “I like school. We’re getting to finger paint.”

“Very cool,” Kate said. “You should paint me a picture.”

“I will.”

“But that’s not exactly what I meant,” Kate said. “Won’t you get behind in your classes, Steven?”

He was looking out the window. “Not really. It’s a private school. The teachers do whatever Dad tells them to do.”

“Oh.” Kate sipped her water. She changed lanes again, watching the traffic closely. Although the truck handled a lot like the Jeep, it was different and she was conscious of the difference.

Glancing back through traffic, she thought she saw the same black Lexus again, then realized there were a lot of Lexuses on the road.

“You know,” she said as conversationally as possible, “your dad never did tell me why he wanted you to come stay with me for awhile. Or even how long you’re going to be here.” She smiled at the rearview mirror. “I guess with all the luggage back there, it could be for some time.” Please let it be for a long time.

But even as she hoped for that, she knew that it was a double-edged sword. The longer they stayed, the more she would miss them when they were gone.

“Dad just said it was business,” Steven said. “He didn’t say how long we were going to be down here.”

“Well,” Kate said, “your grandpa is excited to see you. I think he’s got some new video games to play.”

“Great!” Hannah cheered.

“He wins all the time,” Steven protested.

“Then beat him.”

“I can’t.”

“You can if you try hard enough.”

“He doesn’t have to play so hard.”

“One thing I learned from your grandpa,” Kate said. “He’s never going to give you anything you don’t work for. If you want it, you’re going to have to try to take it.”

Steven frowned but didn’t say anything.

Kate switched on the radio and concentrated on driving. Traffic was thicker than normal, what with everyone preparing to hunker down and wait out the storm or evacuate. There were only two kinds of people along the Florida coastline when it was storm season: those who stayed and those who left.

“The weatherman said a storm was coming,” Steven said.

“Her’cane Genevieve,” Hannah added.

“There is,” Kate said.

“I’ve never been here during a storm.”

Kate suddenly realized that was true. With them only coming down during the early summer, Steven and Hannah had never weathered a tropical storm. Maybe that’s what’s got Steven so irritable, she thought. He’s scared. She felt badly then about her own feelings.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kate told her son. “You’re going to be with me. Everything’s going to be all right. This’ll be cake.”

“What if we lose power?” Steven asked.

“I’ve got a generator,” Kate said. “We won’t lose power long.”

Kate’s house was a two-story farmhouse with a screened veranda on two sides. When she’d been small, she’d lived there with her dad and brother and sisters. After she’d returned to Everglades City—actually, outside Everglades City—she’d lived with her dad in his other house, one that was a little larger than this one with its small three bedrooms.

He’d kept the old house, though, as a rental property. After Kate started working for Epperson’s Contracting and Building, her dad had quietly closed out the rental agreement and given her the house. She’d tried to pay him for it, but he’d just pointed out all the work they’d done on it when they’d lived there while she was growing up. It wasn’t much of an investment, but it held so many memories.

The house sat back in clumps of cypress trees in a yard that flooded during the wet season and got overgrown in the dry season if she didn’t stay on top of the mowing. It had been painted white for years and needed a new coat now. But the roof kept the rain out and the screen doors and windows kept out the mosquitoes.

She pulled off Plantation Parkway and on to the shell-covered driveway that led to the house. The shells crunched under the tires. She parked under a copse of cypress and magnolia trees where the rope swing that Hannah loved hung. Steven’s tree house still occupied the lower branches, but he’d largely outgrown that these days.

While Hannah occupied herself with a favorite DVD and Steven took over the PlayStation 3 in one of the other rooms, Kate went around the house and made sure all the shutters were locked up tight. The storm warnings said there was going to be a lot of wind. Flying debris was always a problem.

As she walked around, a sleek black car drove by the front of the house. She was just coming up from the backyard when she saw the vehicle. It stood out at once in the neighborhood.

An unexplained fear ripped through Kate. The black car slowed just for a moment, the ruby taillights gleaming in the gathering darkness of the storm. Then it sped up again and disappeared around a corner.

For one insane moment, Kate felt certain whoever was driving the car was watching her. But that didn’t make any sense.