A Firm Foundation Read online

  Paul said, “You’ve done this before?”

  The boy nodded. “I’ve been studying these while my mom’s working in there.” He jerked a thumb toward the library.

  “You know your facts, son,” Paul said. Then, as the boy rose from the ground, Paul added, “I’m Paul Hanlon, and this is my wife, Kate.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Jeremy Pellman.” The slightly built boy beamed. To Kate’s surprise, he stepped forward and offered a hand.

  Each of them shook his hand, then Paul said, “Your mom is Louisa?”

  The boy nodded. “She’s in the library. She just started volunteering there this weekend.”

  “I met her today,” Kate told him.

  “So you’re spending your summer studying squirrels, are you?” Paul asked.

  Jeremy grinned. “Just these squirrels. They’re always around this tree, but they go in and out of a little hole over there. I think they might have a nest there.”

  “Don’t squirrels nest in trees?” Kate had never heard of squirrels nesting anywhere other than in trees. Then again, she didn’t know very much about squirrels.

  “Mostly,” Jeremy responded to her question. “But I think these squirrels are different from regular old red or gray squirrels.”

  “Different, how?” Paul asked.

  “Well, first of all, I’m pretty sure they’re flying squirrels. But even for flying squirrels, they’re little,” Jeremy told him. “And did you see how dark that one was? They’re all that color. It’s a whole lot darker than regular gray squirrels. Those aren’t flying squirrels, either.”

  “Maybe these are the babies of the big ones,” Kate said.

  Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t think so. The big gray ones chase them away when they come around.”

  “You’re very observant,” Paul said with a chuckle, patting the youngster’s shoulder. “Good luck with your squirrel sightings.”

  “Thanks,” Jeremy said.

  Just then, a low rumble of thunder sounded.

  “It’s still rumbling around,” Paul said. “Keep an eye on the weather, Jeremy, and go inside if that gets any closer.”

  “Okay,” the boy said.

  To Kate, Paul said, “Are you ready to go?”

  She nodded. “Good-bye,” they both said to Jeremy.

  “’Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Hanlon. It was nice to meet you.” Jeremy waved as Paul and Kate headed back to their car.

  “What a polite child,” Kate said. “Louisa Pellman is obviously doing something right.”

  Paul chuckled. “He was one smart little cookie, wasn’t he?” He reached for her hand as he said, “I wanted to swing out by the Pellman place and show you our roofing project. But I’m not sure about this storm forecast. Maybe we’d better wait until tomorrow.”

  “Oh, let’s go now,” Kate said. She glanced at the sky, which was beginning to creep into pinks and lavenders as night approached, though it still was quite light outside. She hadn’t seen any lightning in quite a while. “I don’t think that storm’s coming this way, do you?”

  Paul scanned the sky. “It doesn’t look like it,” he agreed.

  IT TOOK MORE THAN TWENTY MINUTES to leave Copper Mill and take the country roads out to Skunk Hollow Trail. The Pellman home was the first one they came to, and as Paul swung into the gravel driveway, Kate said, “Oh, it is run-down, isn’t it?”

  “It needs some work,” Paul agreed. “But Mrs. Pellman says she can handle the mortgage, so she doesn’t want to move unless she has to. She and her three children are staying with her parents until these repairs are done, but they’ll be returning once all our mess is cleaned up.”

  He got out of the car and came around to help Kate out. “They attend St. Lucy’s,” he went on, “and Lucas found out about the roof because Louisa got very ill with pneumonia last March. She almost lost her job—she’s some kind of clerk over at the courthouse in Pine Ridge—and I guess there was concern that the children might be split up and placed in foster care. But their church stepped up and organized assistance for her until she was well again.”

  “I wonder why on earth she’s volunteering at the library?” Kate mused. “And didn’t you say she has three children?”

  “I believe her parents live in town,” Paul said. “Perhaps they’re helping out. If I had to guess, I’d say Mrs. Pellman is trying to give back a little to the community in return for the assistance she’s been given.”

  Kate nodded. “I suspect you’re right.”

  “She’s a good mother, according to Lucas. In addition to working, she does her best to keep the kids involved in church and school.”

  “If Jeremy is any indication, she’s doing a fabulous job. What happened to her husband?”

  “Lucas told me he has a serious alcohol problem, and there were some suspicions of abuse. She divorced him when the third child was a baby.”

  Kate shook her head sadly. “That’s too bad.”

  “She’s really trying. I feel like we’re doing a good thing here, Katie.”

  “I feel like you’re right.” Kate squeezed Paul’s hand as he led her toward the back of the house. “Just for the record, I am not climbing any ladders. I’ll applaud your roofing efforts from down here on solid ground.”

  Paul laughed. “Come around here, and I’ll show you where we’re starting.”

  He spent several minutes explaining some of the tools and techniques to Kate, then pointed out the side where they had started. Although she could see nothing of consequence and most of his explanation went right over her head, Kate smiled and nodded as he spoke, delighted with his enthusiasm. He was in the middle of telling her something about “flashing” when a loud boom of thunder rattled the windows of the house.

  “Yikes!” Paul said. “Where did that come from?”

  “I don’t know, but I think we were wrong about that storm not coming this way. Maybe we’d better go.”

  “Good idea.” He took her hand, and they started around the corner of the house.

  As soon as they stepped away from the shelter of the building, Kate noticed an ominous stillness. The air felt different in a way she couldn’t really define. It was almost as if there was some invisible thing crouched in the atmosphere, waiting to pounce. Glancing at the sky, she was startled to see a huge bank of dark clouds. That hadn’t been there ten minutes ago.

  Paul stopped. “Whoa! Look at that.” He scanned the purpling thunderheads on the horizon. “I’m sorry I dragged you out here. Let’s go home.”

  “You didn’t drag me anywhere,” Kate told him as they hurried toward the Honda. “I didn’t anticipate this any more than you did.”

  In moments, they were backing out of the driveway. Kate looked out the window at the approaching wall of dark clouds. They had taken on a greenish cast, and she felt the first true pangs of fear. Like any Texan, she knew what those clouds meant. Tornadoes were a distinct possibility.

  Soon, fat drops of rain began to fall. Paul switched on the radio as he started down the road.

  “...is now a warning. Again, I repeat,” the broadcaster said, “the tornado watch has now become a tornado warning. A funnel cloud was spotted to the northeast of Copper Mill just a short time ago. It has not touched down. We advise residents of Harrington County and surrounding areas to go to a safe area immediately. Get into a storm shelter if you have one, or take shelter in an interior room of your home with no windows. If you have a bathtub, lie down in it. If you have a basement, huddle in a corner. Use mattresses, pillows, and blankets to protect yourself from flying debris...”

  “To the northeast? That’s where we are,” Paul said. Even as he spoke, the rain came faster, and in seconds, it was a torrential downpour. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed almost simultaneously, making Kate jump. “Maybe we’d better go back to the Pellmans’ and get into the driveway so we’re off the road. We’ll have to ride out the storm there, Katie. It would be foolish to try to drive back to town in this.”

 
; “Sounds like the best option.” Kate could barely force out the words because her throat felt so tight. She took deep breaths, determined to stay calm. They had experienced tornado scares when they lived in San Antonio, although neither of them had ever seen any kind of funnel cloud.

  Paul whipped the Honda into reverse and made a three-point turn on the narrow country road. Slowly he began driving back the way they had come. He leaned forward over the steering wheel as if that would help him see through the curtain of rain in front of them. “Don’t let me miss the driveway.”

  “I’m looking.” Her words were cut off by loud pinging sounds, and she realized that hail was hitting the car.

  Within seconds, it was impossible to hear anything but the cacophony of ice hitting metal. Kate twisted her hands together and began to pray silently, not wanting to distract Paul from his driving. Some of the pieces of hail were the size of golf balls. She didn’t even think about the damage being done to her car; she just wanted them both to be safe.

  After what seemed like hours but probably was barely minutes, the hail sounds began to die away. Paul turned off the windshield wipers because it was no longer raining. Kate took a deep breath and forced herself to relax as silence fell. That had been some kind of experience, but she hoped the storm had moved on.

  Then another huge flash of lightning, combined with a clap of thunder, lit up the world like a nuclear explosion.

  For one brief instant, she could see everything around them. To her surprise, they were nearly back to the Pellmans’ home. She could see the house clearly for an instant, only a couple hundred yards down the road, before blackness claimed the world around them again.

  She turned to Paul. “I think—”

  “Listen!” he shouted, grabbing her arm to emphasize his words. He hit the brakes so hard, she was thrown against her seat belt for an instant.

  Kate listened.

  The stillness was replaced by another sound now. A roaring sound, which she instantly recognized as high wind. Very high wind. As it got louder and louder, it began to sound like a train approaching.

  “We have to get out of the car!” Paul leaned across Kate and threw open her door. Then he unbuckled her seat belt and practically shoved her out of the car, yelling again, “Get out of the car!”

  In an instant, she was soaked to the skin. Paul must have climbed right over the console and passenger seat because he followed her out, leaving the car door ajar behind him. “In the ditch!” he shouted. “We need to get down!”

  Kate stumbled forward, her hair whipping wildly around her head. As she did so, another extended series of lightning flashes and simultaneous thunderclaps illuminated the world around them a second time.

  Not the length of a football field away was an enormous black thunderhead with a funnel cloud descending from it.

  Chapter Four

  The funnel undulated as its height and girth grew and shrank repeatedly.

  A surge of paralyzing terror rushed through Kate. Her mouth went cotton dry. Her lungs felt compressed; she was unable to take a deep breath. Dear Lord, we are yours. We give ourselves into your care. Shield us, save us. Keep us from harm.

  She continued to pray as Paul reached her. He placed one strong arm around her waist, propelling her forward. The ground was sloping down.

  “Lie down here,” he shouted in her ear, gripping her forearm and dragging her down with him.

  Kate didn’t even question him. She knew one of the worst places a person could be was in a car during a tornado. She knew the drill: if you get caught outdoors, go to the lowest ground you can find. The bottom of a ditch was good, unless the area was prone to flash flooding.

  The ditch along the side of the road had been dry before the storm.

  Paul pushed her down the bank into the ditch, and she sucked in her breath as muddy water splashed into her face. There was water in the ditch now, although perhaps only two inches or so, and she held her head up high enough to avoid drinking the muddy brew. She realized she was lying on a mattress of large balls of hail.

  Paul threw himself down half beside her, half on her, pressing her into the hail and muddy earth. Around them, the roar continued. Interspersed with it, she could hear occasional odd noises that sounded like pistol shots, clanking, and ripping—presumably debris in the funnel as it hit other pieces of debris. In her mind’s eye, she could see again the funnel cloud in that one bright instant of light. It hadn’t been on the ground, she thought. Dear Lord, please don’t let that thing touch down. Please.

  She lifted her head as far as she could, straining to see through the darkness that had descended. Yet another lightning strike showed the tornado moving past the Pellmans’ home without a direct hit, but Kate watched as a corner of the roof lifted off and was instantly whipped away. She lowered her head again, instinctively pressing herself against her husband.

  Paul’s larger body protected her. Once or twice she felt him jerk and hiss in a breath, and she realized debris of some sort was hitting him. His mouth was buried in her hair, close to her right ear, and he was praying the Twenty-third Psalm, using the traditional King James language that both of them had learned in childhood. With the noise around them, she could barely hear him, but she took up the verses as well.

  “...He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...”

  Paul and Kate repeated the familiar comforting prayer as the sounds of the tornado assaulted their ears. While they prayed, the wind died down and the roaring sound faded away.

  As quiet fell, Paul raised his head cautiously. A moment later, he gathered up Kate like a rag doll and laid her on the grassy bank before flopping down beside her on his back.

  She looked at the sky for a few moments as she tried to process everything that had just happened. Finally she turned her head and looked at Paul. He was covered from head to toe in mud. Even his hair was muddy. The whites of his eyes looked startling peering out of his mud-covered face.

  She must have looked the same, she realized. Slowly she sat up. Then she began to laugh. “All those years in Texas, and we never even saw a tornado. We move to Tennessee, and what do we get? A close encounter.”

  Paul had gotten to his knees and then pushed himself to his feet. “A very close encounter,” he said soberly.

  She couldn’t stop laughing. Paul extended a hand, hauling her to her feet. As he enfolded her in his arms, the laughter turned to hitching breaths and then to sobs. A part of Kate’s brain registered the fact that she was becoming hysterical, but she felt completely unable to control her reaction.

  Paul hugged her tightly, rocking slightly back and forth. “Shh-shh-shh,” he said. “We’re okay. You’re okay, Katie.” He repeated it over and over again, hushing her until she began to take deep gulping breaths. Slowly she calmed herself.

  She shivered involuntarily. “Br-r-r-r,” she said. “I’m freezing.” It was raining again, hard enough that the worst of the mud on Paul’s face began to melt away.

  A smile flickered across his lips as his grim expression lightened. “All day you complained about the heat, and now you’re cold.”

  “I was lying in a ditch filled with balls of ice,” she reminded him with a chuckle as she regained some of her spirit.

  “And the storm blew the heat away.” He held out his arms. “Feel how much cooler it is?”

  The levity she felt suddenly fled. Kate whispered, “Oh, Paul, you shielded me from the worst of it. Are you all right?”

  He nodded. “I think so. A couple of times, I felt some little stings, but nothing big hit me.”

  She walked around behind him and tugged up the sport shirt he’d been wearing. There were several red welts on the skin of his back, but no blood, for which she was grateful.

  “Let’s go home and clean up,” she suggested, sliding her hand into his.<
br />
  “Good idea.” He glanced up at the road. “Except for one little problem,” he added slowly, looking over her head.

  Kate turned to see what he was looking at. “Dear heavens! Where’s the car?” Their car was gone. Gone?

  Even as she spoke the words, she saw the Honda. It had been pushed down the road about a hundred feet and was now pointed in the opposite direction.

  “There.” She pointed.

  They walked down the road toward the car. The door that Paul had left open was shut. To Kate’s shock, the engine was still running, and when Paul opened her door, the radio blared out at them.

  “Unbelievable,” Paul murmured.

  “Miraculous,” Kate corrected. “I was praying that the tornado wouldn’t touch down.”

  “Me too,” Paul said, “and it looks like our prayers were answered. He pointed across the land in the direction the tornado had gone. Kate could see debris, the occasional downed tree, broken branches...but the wholesale destruction that would have accompanied a direct strike was absent.

  Paul took her hands. “Let’s take one more moment in prayer before we go,” he said quietly.

  IT WAS FULLY DARK and much later than Kate had expected when they finally arrived home. A downed tree and power lines blocked the road right at the edge of town, and Paul had been forced to take a roundabout route to get back to the parsonage.

  “You go ahead and take your shower first,” Paul told Kate as they got out of the car, which he had pulled into the garage. “I’m going to call the power company and alert them to those downed lines. Then I need to call the roofing committee chairman and tell him the Pellmans’ roof may have sustained some damage.”

  On the ride home, Kate had shared what she had seen when the funnel cloud raced past them. “No ‘may have’ about it,” Kate told him. “I saw part of the roof lift right up in the air, and then a section of it was torn away.” She shook her head. “It looked as easy as tearing paper.”

  She handed him some newspaper from the stack she kept to recycle. “Here. Try to dry off as much of the mud and mess as you can before you go into the house. Why don’t you shower first? I can wait. And whatever you do, leave your shoes and socks out here. It’s going to be hard enough to clean the upholstery in the car. I don’t want to have to clean mud from inside the house too!”