They didn’t pave it, that would cost too much according to the local politicians. But they did fill in the holes and level the dirt and gravel.
It would have to be done again this year, and she wondered how long they would delay, if it would be another four or five years.
She nodded. “What can I help you with?” She pocketed the radio and desperately wanted to call Rick with the license plate information that Bobby had given her. “We’re kind of busy around here.”
“Couple things,” he said. He carried a clipboard. “Can I come up to the porch and get out of the rain?”
She nodded and he jogged up the stairs, pushing back his hood when he reached the top. “Damn, it’s raining cats and dogs out there,” he said with a smile.
“Power’s out, but it just happened, so I’m sure you’re not here for that.”
“No, ma’am. I didn’t even know. Is it out just here or at other properties?”
“I don’t know, it happened ten minutes ago. We got the generator on, so we’re fine.” Hurry, she wanted to say. Instead, she stared at him, mentally willing him to get this over with.
He nodded. “I’ll call it in, but I don’t think anyone will get out here until tomorrow. But if the problem is at the powerhouse, they might get it up faster.”
Tell her something she didn’t know, she thought, and waited, growing more impatient.
“I’m out checking the status of waterways throughout the valley. The creek that cuts through your property to the east”—he gestured—“has flooded Orchard Lane. I just came to tell you we’re blocking off the road at both ends until it subsides.”
“I know where it’s flooded, and even in the worst years it’s not going to flood more than fifty feet from the banks.”
“It’s for your safety, ma’am.”
Jake and Bobby were on their way back, going the long way, which means they had to get home through the intersection where Privett Road met Orchard. That couldn’t be flooded—they had just repaired the area last year and put in huge draining culverts to avoid flooding even in storms like this one. But she would warn him. They might have to park at the Coulters and walk through, or go farther north up Privett and go through Travis’s place along the back road, then cut through the old path that led to Orchardright across from their entrance. It wouldn’t be any safer than just cutting through the intersection.
She just wanted all her kids home as soon as possible.
“Fine,” she said. The county would put up a set of traffic barricades with reflective stripes, maybe a flood warning sign. Then they would forget about them for weeks. Par for the course. She and Jake would end up moving them to the side.
He looked down at his phone. “Excuse me.” He answered it.
She didn’t have time for this.
“If that’s all,” she said, trying to get him to hurry up.
“I can’t hear you—Brian, you there? Damn.” He pocketed his phone. “That was my boss. The storm is messing with cell phones.”
No shit, she thought, but didn’t say.
“Would you mind if I make a call? I just got back from Rock Creek, where we had to put up a barricade—a car tried to make it through and had to be rescued.”
Not the first time, Ellen thought. She had barely made it across the road, and that was more than an hour ago. Definitely wasn’t a local, because they would know better.
“And,” he continued, “I’m supposed to check everything north of here, though I don’t know that I’ll be able to get through.”
She just wanted him to leave, so said, “Fine, but I have things to do, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
She led him into the kitchen. Penny was sitting in a padded rocking chair in the corner. It was her waiting chair, she called it. When she was waiting for a pie to be done or water to boil. Half the time she dozed off until the timer rang.
She looked tired, Ellen thought. The weather got to her more now in her eighties, sure, but Ellen suspected Penny was just as worried about the kids as she was.
“There,” she motioned to the phone on the wall. “You can see yourself out when you’re done.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
She leaned over to Penny, put her hand on her too skinny arm, and said softly, “Jake found Bobby, they’re on their way back.”
