Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank

Author:Dorothea Benton Frank
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins US
Published: 2012-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“I thought so!—I knew it!—hurrah!” vociferated Legrand. . . .

“Come! We must go back,” said the latter, “the game’s not up yet;” and he again led the way to the tulip-tree.

—Edgar Allan Poe, “The Gold-Bug”

Jackie

I came home from the VA hospital wrinkled, sweaty, and with a part-time job. They needed help, and I guess I secretly wanted to see what it would be like to work there if I ever came back to Charleston. So I told them I’d work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday from seven A.M. to seven at night. It was just for a couple of weeks, and I knew I’d learn something. You always learned something in a new job—a new treatment or therapy or about new medicines. As much as I loved visiting with my mother, I was beginning to get the itch for some diversion. And I missed nursing. Once it’s in your blood it’s hard to resist the call to duty. And I was aching to be with veterans. If nothing else, we would understand each other.

I came into the house through the kitchen, and no one was there. So I went from room to room until I found Dad and Charlie on the porch. They were at the trestle table, leaning over a hurricane-tracking chart. There was a pile of colored highlighters and other things scattered around.

“Hey, Dad! What a nice surprise to find you here!” I gave him a kiss on his cheek.

“Well, I brought down some supplies in case this Arlene decides to pay us a visit. I wanted Charlie to know how to prepare for a hurricane. After all, he is the man of the house, right?”

“Yup,” Charlie said.

“We made a hurricane checklist. See?” He handed me a legal pad on which he had written a list of things to be sure you had on hand and a list of things to do to secure the house. I noted that it said the skateboard should be in the trunk of the car in case they had to evacuate. “And we’ve had a nice morning. I took Charlie down to Dunleavy’s for a chili dog, and I had a very tasty chicken pot pie. We had a good time, didn’t we?”

“Yup,” Charlie said. “And now Guster and I are tracking Hurricane Arlene on this map. We got it free at the fire department. About an hour ago it looked like she was headed straight for the Bahamas, but now it looks like she’s just holding steady.”

“Which might mean she’s gathering strength,” Dad said. “But if you ask me, I think she’s going to make the turn and head up to Cape Hatteras.”

“I hope so,” I said, looking at the flashlights, hand-crank radio, and bungee cords on the table. I picked up the radio and looked at it. “We used to have one of these when I was a kid.”

“Every house should have one,” Dad said. “If you lose all your power, you can still find out what’s going on.”

“Yeah, like

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