Confessions of a Siren Singer by Irene Radford

Author:Irene Radford [Radford, Irene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sirens, Reality TV, Music, Dance
ISBN: 9781611389326
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2020-12-07T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lisa sat in the darkened living room of our suite, mesmerized by the news channel. “We weren’t the only ones hit by freak thunderstorms,” she gasped as soon as I entered.

“You’re supposed to be packing,” I said calmly, wondering if I was disappointed that an almost friend was going home, or delighted that I’d have more space to spread out and be the natural born slob I was.

As infants and toddlers, Joycelyn, Brittney, and I shared the same cradles, crib, and bedroom. Frequently we’d all crawl into the same bed in the middle of the night, no matter that Mom and Dad tucked us in separately. Gradually we all demanded our own room. Even then we still tended to migrate together. I was the first one to stay in my own bed, in my own room because I sprawled, arms and legs flung wide. Mom had to threaten to dynamite my room to get me to pick up my toys, clothes, and leftover snacks along with their dirty dishes.

Containing myself and my things while rooming with Lisa left me often unsettled and irritable. That was only one of the reasons I spent so much time in the pool where I could sprawl my body if not my things.

You could say that I reveled in chaos. And that thought gave me pause.

“I packed this morning,” Lisa said, never taking her eyes off the TV.

Sure enough her two big, royal blue, rolling suitcases stood by the door along with her matching shoulder bag designed for a laptop and overnight essentials.

“You’ve got to see this. The flooding in Venice is so sad, all that priceless art lost to rising ocean levels.”

That grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go. I had to sit in the chair that faced the screen squarely.

I wanted to cry at the pictures of people wading through murky water that covered the steps and half the doorways of the famous buildings I’d seen in photos and news clips all my life.

“That’s what they get for defying Mother Nature,” Lisa said with only a hint of remorse in her voice.

“Wh—what do you mean?” I was shaken enough by the devastation wrecked by the StormMother.

“Well, the city was built on a scattering of islands in a big inlet. They kept adding dirt from the mainland so they could build. They’ve been defying storms and high tides for centuries. Now they are succumbing. All their artificial barriers overwhelmed.” She shook her head and continued to watch.

Then the images changed from rain and rising tides to a dust storm in Arizona. The camera caught the wind-driven wall of sand racing toward Phoenix. The newscaster called it an Haboob. The next scene showed winter blizzards around the Great Lakes with frozen waves making dazzling patterns around docks projecting into the water.

“It’s only mid-October,” I gasped. “Still two months from winter.”

“Yeah, and look at those rainfall projections for southern California,” Lisa said, pointing at a weather map with the remote. “This is supposed to be

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