“Yes. Even if someone did structurally damage the barn, it would take a lot more water than tonight, and much stronger winds, to take down this barn that fast.”
Lyla was still concerned.
“I’ll bring someone in first thing next week, okay?”
Lyla nodded.
“I brought Margery Sutton home with me because her blood pressure is elevated and she wouldn’t have been able to get out with Rock Creek flooding,” Ellen said. “I need to check on her. But you’ve done everything you can for the animals. Come in, eat, and later we’ll come out and check the sandbags.”
“Okay,” Lyla reluctantly agreed.
Before they could turn off the lights in the barn, they went off themselves. They stepped outside and the house was dark.
“You start the generator to the barn, I’ll take care of the house,” Ellen said. She put up her hood and ran across the plywood Jake and Mateo had laid earlier over the mud, to the far side of the house where the generator was hooked up, fueled, and ready to go.
Penny stepped out on the porch, saw that Ellen had it taken care of, and went back inside. Was her grandmother really going to come out into the rain and risk falling in the mud to start up the generator?
Yes, yes she would, Ellen thought, grateful that she was here to take care of it. Penny may be a spry eighty-four, but a gust of wind could push her down.
Ellen had the generator up and running and was about to go inside when she heard Lyla scream.
She turned and ran toward the barn.
“Lyla!”
She found Lyla in the mud five feet from the generator, holding her hand. “Are you okay?” Ellen asked, squatting next to her. “Where are you hurt?”
“It shocked me! My arm feels numb.”
Ellen inspected her arm, didn’t see any damage, but Lyla’s arm hung awkwardly at her side. “Does it hurt? Is it broken?”
“No, just numb, I can’t feel my fingers.”
Ellen walked over to the generator. At first, she couldn’t see anything unusual, but then realized that there were copper wires where they shouldn’t be, loosely wrapped around the engine.
This wasn’t an accident.
“Mom?” Lyla said.
Ellen went over to her daughter and helped her up. “Go inside, I’ll fix this.”
“What happened?”
“There’s some wires that shouldn’t be here. The numbness will go away, but go inside. Now.”
Lyla obeyed, holding her right arm.
Ellen went into the dark barn, straight to the tack room, where she knew there were work gloves.
She went back and carefully removed the extra wires. Then she inspected the rest of the generator and didn’t see anything wrong. Still, she was worried. She didn’t want to turn it on in case something else was damaged.
She went back into the barn and removed four gallons of fresh milk from the refrigerator. The rest would go bad overnight without refrigeration, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She didn’t even know if they would have room in the refrigerator for these gallons, considering how much cooking Penny had done this week.
She was at the top of the stairs when she saw lights coming down the driveway. She turned, hoping it was Jake, then sighedwhen it was only a utility work truck with the Cooke County logo on the door.
Idiot, she thought. They should have been out during the week to repair the roads after the hailstorm, there was nothing they could do now until the rain stopped.
She went inside and put the milk on the counter, then waited for the county employee to tell her things she already knew.
