Thundering in the distance
The sky roared as a thicker patch of clouds covered the light grey ones that had been flying over the mountain all day. Down on the road, just where the Hill and Main streets met, Eve tried bringing her motorcycle back to life. It was an old model, a dirty, white mountain bike that had long seen better days, and now coughed and struggled to start. Embarrassed and frustrated, she hit the kick starter over and over, glancing with one eye at the girl who waited for her on another bike, while her other eyeball rolled away due to her strabismus. The blonde girl had been battling her machine for about half an hour when her neighbor, Rachel, had come down and asked if everything was ok; it had been another half hour since then.
“J-Just give me a minute…” Eve said for the ninth time. “I’ll just…”
“Look, I really don’t mind.” Rachel said once more. “Besides I can’t just leave you here with the storm about to come.” She was being as nice as her impatience let her be. Eve and her where some of the only people that lived up in Hill street, up the mountain, and by this hour she was sure that their other neighbors where sheltered in the town hall, due to the incoming weather, or gathering supplies as she was supposed to be doing. Anyway, leaving Eve alone wasn’t a good idea at all, especially after Rachel had seen her get lost on their one way street, or getting locked out of her own house more times than she could remember in the couple of years she had known her.
“You sure it’s got gas?”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s been a pain lately, that’s all.” Eve tried to smile and be funny about it, but she was feeling more embarrassed by the minute, and even though her bike was worrying her more than the storm clouds coming their way, the thought of stalling her acquaintance was really what made her uncomfortable. She kicked her bike one last time and for a second the engine sounded like it was about to come to life, and then died away just like before.
Frustrated, Rachel stepped away from her crimson dual-sport bike and, and shoving Eve to the back got on the bike.
“Sorry,” She said while kicking the motorcycle on. “But it’s really getting dangerous, we shouldn’t be here anymore.” She got off the bike, grabbing her helmet from the floor and placing it over her green, purple, blue and yellow highlights. “See you downtown!” In a few seconds, she had gotten on her bike and fled down Main Street towards town hall.
Eve stayed a moment in the middle of the street, fixing her helmet and letting the engine warm up while she thought about Rachel’s hair. Since the moment she had moved to town and met Rachel, about three years ago, she had been fascinated with her rainbow highlights, and the way she continued to dye her short her every month without fail. As things were, Eve had no idea what Rachel’s natural hair color was, but, until that day, her curiosity had always been to see that colorful hair up close. It was funny, she thought, that now that she had finally seen it so closely, all she could think about was her neighbor sitting on her bike, and wondering how it would feel to ride with her.
She shook her head; a rumble of thunder reminded her of the incoming storm. With her bike ready and Rachel out of sight, she tried to focus her gaze on her lane, and drove carefully down the street.
Eve got to the town hall just when the wind had started to get stronger. Inside the building, Tina, the librarian, was in charge, and giving orders to everyone she came across. There was still a lot to be done before the storm came, but they had just a couple of hours left, since the wind was expected to keep rising until nightfall.
“Okay, the windows are all sealed shut.” She pointed out to her assistant, a teenager boy who followed her with a notebook. “We’re still a couple of gallons of water short, and then there’s the problem with the lamps and the fuses… I’ll need someone to go look for replacements in case the ones we have fail, which, given what I’ve seen, wouldn’t be surprising…” The kid behind her wrote down every single thing needed, as she continued listing things while talking to others and making sure everything as set.
Eve came in and saw Rachel talking to Anne, a blonde, strong, kind of country-ish girl, while they both helped to move a large table to the side of the hall in order to make space for sleeping bags and supplies. She had seen both Anne and Tina, along with other of Rachel’s best friends come along to her neighbor’s house a couple of times, but she barely knew any of them, or if she did, it was due to their complains when Eve misplaced their mail of bumped into them while delivering it, so instead of coming over to thank Rachel for her help, she went to the opposite side of the room, to find something useful to do. Soon enough, she found Rick, her best friend, and one of the few she had, who was holding a ladder for one of the men who were checking the roof for leaks or cracks. After inquiring why she was so late, she explained about her bike and Rick laughed warmly at her.
“You really need to get a new ride.” He said while watching the man over him struggle to shut the leak that dripped just over them.
“Yeah I know.” Eve answered gloomily. “But I’m barely making it now; I can’t even send Bubbles to a cheap mechanic.”
“That’s too bad. Can you hold this for a sec? I got to pee.” Rick replied, handing over the ladder to his friend, and then running straight to the bathroom.
Eve stood there, as firmly as she could over the wet floor, holding the ladder and looking around with her good eye. Tina was still running around, chasing everybody and giving orders; she was beginning to lose her calm, as every word she spoke seemed to come in a higher pitch and volume than the last. Rachel was no longer with Anne, but setting her sleeping bag and her belongings near her friend’s; Eve always felt a weird mixture of feelings when looking at their group together: either a little envious of Rachel for having so many friends, or envious of them for being close to her. This last feeling had been growing since a couple of months ago, when her mail deliveries and Rachel’s workout run had met each morning; sometimes Rachel would stop and walk with her for a little while, say hi, ask how she was doing, and then run away, only for them to meet twenty minutes later, when she reached her second lap. Other times Eve would run behind her, as fast as she could given her mail bag and her lack of physical condition, and try to talk about anything and mostly nothing. Weeks went by and Rachel eventually made it so that she would take a break while walking with Eve before her second lap around the mountain, and so they had been growing closer in the past few days, although not very much.
Even so, Eve had never expected her help like that morning; she knew most people considered her clumsy, laughably or annoyingly so, and therefore had stopped trying to help her when she got in a mess. But Rachel had been incredibly patient all morning, and now still, when she looked up and her eyes crossed Eve´s focused one, she smiled and waved slightly at her, to which Eve tried to do the same thing, turning instead an awkward smile, and letting go of the ladder for a second.
“Hey! Watch out!” cried the man on top of the ladder, who was almost done with the repairs. “Quit daydreaming!”
Eve jumped back to her initial position and tried to focus again on what she was doing; god knows she didn’t need any more accidents on her today. That’s when she noticed Tina, her assistant and Eve’s boss, a gray haired, bulky old man, coming towards her, with a look on their faces that couldn’t mean anything good. They stood beside the ladder and Eve expected her boss to be the one who would talk, but Tina started instead:
“Eve isn’t it?” Eve nodded, not wanting to meet her glare. “Tell me, where are the supplies I ordered?” Her tone was harsh, yet controlled, she was obviously about to burst with stress.
“I dunno. What supplies?” Eve really had no idea what she was talking about, but still, as usual, couldn’t be sure it wasn’t her fault if something was missing.
“It was in your deliveries yesterday.” Her boss said, giving her a stern, piercing look. “There was a package of medical supplies in case of emergency that was supposed to be delivered here. Now, where did you leave it?” Eve’s mind was racing, remembering all her deliveries from the day before, and the packages she had seen; she was so stressed she could barely remember them well, but then it hit her: she had left four boxes at a restaurant yesterday, one of them was a little bit different from the rest, but since she was running late she didn’t mind double checking all of them, and the owner, who was preparing his business for the storm, didn’t mind them much either.
“I think I might have left it at. Stracci’s.” She said, ashamed, passing her hand over her forehead to avoid the raging stares Tina and her boss were giving her.
“Don’t you get what’s happening?” Tina roared, frustrated. “There’s a storm coming, a big one, and if we have to stay three or four days sheltered in here we will need all the drugs and supplies we can! I already need an aspirin with all this mess, and you are about to give me another headache!”
“I-I’m sorry! I just-“ Eve mumbled, ashamed, frustrated, she tried to look elsewhere to escape her guilt but only saw Rachel, walking towards them, and her concern suddenly became fear of being humiliated in front of her.
“Don’t try to make up for it now!” Tina interrupted her, her voice in a high pitch and over Eve by now. “The radio just said the storm might hit sooner than we thought! What are we going to do if we have to shut this place closed right now and we don’t have that stuff!?”
“Hey relax!” Rachel stood next to Tina and tapped her lightly in the shoulder. “I already talked to Mr. Stracci and he gave me the key. I’ll go pick it up.” She showed them the keys of the restaurant dangling from her fingers, and she smiled confidently.
“Ray it’s too dangerous.” Her friend said in a serious yet more calmed tone. “For what I heard, we might have to seal the doors in about an hour at max. Leave it, we’ll have to make it out without that package.” She glared at Eve and turned around to go back to the door. Eve’s boos gave her a look she knew all too well, and was about to leave too when she spoke.
“I’ll go.” She said simply, trying to hide her frustration. Rachel looked at her with surprise.
“Hey it was an honest mistake, but don’t sweat it! You heard the girl: the wind is about to get much stronger, nobody should be on the streets.” She said, trying to comfort her; but Eve didn’t listen, she stood in front of her and held her hand open.
“Give me the keys please.” She said coldly. Rachel was about to store the keys in her pocket and try to calm Eve down when she saw her eyes where growing red and tearful, she was trying to hold her tears back and her good eye was focused over Tina. “Please.” She insisted. Rachel knew pride too well to deny her neighbor hers. She handed over the keys to Straccis restaurant and Eve marched on past Tina while saying out loud. “No problem, I’ll go get them quick.”
She stormed out of the building and fortunately her bike started on the first try; she was out of sight into town in seconds, between the wind and the piles of rubble it dragged. Tina and Rachel stared at each other for a moment.
“You shouldn’t have given her those keys Ray.” She coldly told her friend.
“And you shouldn’t have talked to her like that.” She replied, walking past her and sitting on the doorstep, watching the sky and waiting for Eve to come back safely.
