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“You okay?” Jeremiah asked.
I nodded, making myself let go of his shirt. I hadn’t realised I was even holding it, but my hands hurt from clenching them. My whole body ached from being so tense.
He took my hands in his and rubbed where my fingernails had bitten into my palm. “They’ll be okay,” he said, somehow knowing where my mind had gone.
Maybe he was thinking about his dad back in Melbourne.
I nodded again. “I wish I knew for sure.”
Then something occurred to me...
I looked over at Shane and Lindsey. “You drove here from the newsroom?”
Lindsey still had her hands over her ears, but Shane nodded.
“What was the damage like?”
Shane gave a small shake of his head, as if tellin’ me not to ask.
“What was the damage?” I asked again, yelling this time. “The foreshore? The city centre?”
Shane glanced at Doreen and Suri, then at Jeff and his girls, and finally back to me. “Trees down, roofs gone. Flooding. Smashed windows. Some houses were ripped open. Some houses were flattened.”
“Where?” I asked.
He took too long to answer.
“Houses gone, where? Which suburbs?”
Jeremiah put his hand up, like he was telling Shane not to answer. He pulled me back against him and kept his arm around me.
“Everywhere,” Shane yelled. “Houses everywhere.” He gestured to the air, to the cyclone outside. “And this half is worse than the first.”
His words hit me like the storm itself.
I sagged back and Jeremiah’s hold on me tightened.
Houses everywhere.
I shouldn’t have asked.
Because knowing was worse.
It was so much worse.
And time dragged on slower then. The surreal time warp went on and on.
Until the bangs got fewer and farther in between, the roar was a mere ringin’ in my ears, and all that was left was the sound of rain.
“I think it’s over,” Jeremiah said.
Everyone sat in silence, listening now, instead of tryin’ to not hear.
He got to his feet and pulled me up with him.
God, my whole body hurt.
“I think it’s over,” he said again, going to the door. He put his hand on the handle and paused, looking at me.
