Tornado

I sat at my computer desk, tapping my foot impatiently and starting at my office phone. My mouth was dry and my heart racing. Down below, people were being checked out. Finally things were coming back to normal for Oklahoma after the tornado. Relief efforts were done in the hospital; there were a few we couldn’t treat completely so they got transferred to a hospital not far that had a large ICU. For the homes, I was still offering my help on the weekends but, if this phone call was for what I thought it was, that was about to change.

I picked it up on the first ring.

“Amy?” I whispered.

Silence for a few seconds. “Hi, Ryder.”

Her voice was empty and I shut my eyes tightly.

“Did something happen?” I asked, getting right to the point.

“You were on the TV.”

I gulped. “Yeah, yeah I was. It was a random news station.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Amy, talk to me please.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” she snapped.

“How are your art classes going?”

She scoffed. “Nice change in subject, asshole.” I gripped my hands into fists. “I hate them. All they do is talk about proper techniques. There’s no such thing as a proper technique!”

She continued to rant and I let her, loosening my tie. I felt like the temperature in the room sky rocketed and I glanced at the thermostat. It was only 72 degrees and I bit hard on my lower lip.

“And, of course, Mom talks about how there are ‘beginners’ and ‘we should be patient with them’.”

My first thought was to agree with my mother but I bit that back.

“Have you made anything new?”

She started sobbing and I shut my eyes, my heart breaking. A few tears fell down my face, too, and I waited until she calmed down.

“Come home,” she choked and I put my head in my hand. “Please. I miss you!”

“Do you want to come visit me?” I whispered and she sniffled.

“I don’t know if Mom will let me….”

“I’ll talk to her,” I said quickly. “Do you want to?”

Another wave of sobs. “I really want to, Ryder!”

“Then it’s settled,” I said as firmly as I could, trying to stop my voice from shaking. “I’ll talk to Mom and find out when we can get you out here.”

She cried for a while longer, saying things I couldn’t make out. When she stopped, I asked her questions about art again, knowing it was her passion and she’d calm down eventually. I hung up the phone an hour later. I glared at my desktop and felt anger pulse through my veins.

“Damn it!” I yelled and threw my phone off my desk.

I picked up the clock and chucked it at the wall where it shattered. My desk calendar ended up on the other side of the room and I flipped the two chairs in front of my desk. I threw the plant at the window and slid to the floor, sobbing.

“Ryder?” someone whispered. I didn’t look up as the door closed and locked. “Ryder, what’s wrong?”

I could smell her perfume as she sat in front of me. I didn’t know what Juniper was doing here but I didn’t really care. I gripped my hair and pulled.

“Don’t. You’ll pull it out.”

“I don’t care,” I said but she gently loosened my hands.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“I got off the phone with my sister,” I mumbled.

“Is she okay?”

“No. I don’t know what’s wrong. I could barely do anything for her.” I sobbed and she pulled me to her. I cried into her neck. “All I wanted was to hold her, to tell her everything would be okay! But I couldn’t.”

Juniper stayed with me until I managed myself again. I looked up. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was in an outfit that clearly said she had been at the site.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

She straightened my tie. “Zachary called me,” she whispered. “He walked by your office before you got on the phone with your sister, I guess. He wanted me to make sure you’d be okay.”

I touched her cheek. “Thanks for coming.” She smiled kindly. “How much damage did I do?”

“Not much. The window is dirty but it didn’t break.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths. She kept running her hands through my hair and then fixed my shirt and jacket.

“You know, messy hair actually looks pretty good on you,” she said and I laughed a little. I kissed her. She hesitated. “Ryder….”

“Please.”

Her eyes stared deeply into mine as if trying to decide if it was a good idea. Finally, she pressed her lips to mine and I pulled her close. She wrapped her arms around my neck. I pressed my chest to hers and she sighed into my lips.

“Let’s clean up,” she whispered and I nodded.

She helped me up and I looked around. “You said I didn’t do much damage,” I accused, cringing at the mess.

The phone was off the hook; I could hear the busy dial tone. Fake dirt was scattered behind my desk and there was glass among the ruined remains of my clock. One of the chairs had collided with the wall but, thankfully, it hadn’t left a mark. While she straightened the chairs, I went to the closet with cleaning supplies for the janitor and swept up the glass from my clock. We worked in silence until someone knocked on the door.

“Is everything okay now?” Zachary asked.

I stood up and nodded, avoiding his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Was it about your sister?”

“Yeah. She’s coming to visit me soon and I’d like you to talk to her.”

He nodded quickly. “Of course. I’d love to.”

“Let’s go get something to eat,” Juniper said, glancing at her watch. “I’m feeling Subway. What about you guys?”

“Sounds delicious,” I agreed and we went down to her car.

I felt a little better after spending time with Juniper and Zachary. We were talking about her restaurant and she told us about an investor who came up to her.

“Completely out of the blue,” she said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Turns out, he was a homeless man I used to feed.”

“Karma,” Zachary said, waving his sandwich at her, sending some sauce from his meatball sub flying. “Good deeds come around.”

She giggled, wiping the sauce off the table.

“Did the guys agree to the new name?” I asked and she nodded.

“I was glad they did. The other one really was too long.” Her phone rang. “Excuse me,” she said and walked outside where it was quieter.

I groaned and ate some of the lettuce that had fallen from my sub. “She saw everything,” I mumbled.

Zachary squeezed my shoulder. “You scared Margaret a little.”

I frowned and looked at him. “Was my door open?”

“No but you were making quite the ruckus.”

I groaned again. “I’m really sorry. I just… I lost it.”

“Is Amy okay, though? Seriously.”

“I don’t know. She sent me a text this morning asking if she could call but my cell was about to die so I gave her my office number. It was shortly before she had to leave for school. She didn’t tell me what was wrong but, for people with her illnesses, there doesn’t necessarily have to be anything wrong.”

“Are you going to tell your parents?”

“No. That would betray her trust. It was obvious she didn’t want them to know; they had already left for work.” I shook my head. “They know better than to leave her alone in the mornings.”

“When is she coming to visit?”

“I don’t know yet. I still have to talk my parents into it somehow.”

“Just tell them the truth: you have someone she needs to talk to.”

I nodded slowly and rolled my wrapper into a ball. “Her current doctors are clueless sometimes,” I said bitterly. “One is old school and believes if it worked for Joe, it’ll work for Mark. The other treats her like a baby which only makes her angrier.”

Zachary was frowning. “Old school doctors are nice but if they’re letting that cloud their judgement, they could easily damage someone quickly.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m so worried about her, Zachary,” I mumbled.

“Hand me your phone.” I did so after unlocking it. He put something in my calendar. “There.” I looked. He had given me a week off next month. “Bring her then. If your parents try to fight you about it, tell them I’ve given you an order as your boss.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

He clapped me on the back. “Oops,” he said guiltily and I looked at my shoulder.

I laughed. “No more meatball subs for you, Dr. Pipps,” I said, getting a napkin to dab the sauce off my jacket.