Between the Ocean and the Stars by M.M. Cochran

Author:M.M. Cochran
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: IngramElliott, Inc.
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Boris was gone.

It had flooded the marina, washed away boats, and its winds had raised the roof off most of the houses on Ophelia. It had also broken the windows at the gas station where Mat worked, even though they had been boarded up with haphazard plywood. Mobile homes were toppled on their sides or simply gone altogether. Most of the shop owners on Main Street had been lucky, but a few would have to deal with the broken glass that now littered the sidewalk. I wondered how our house had fared in the storm, but, like the lighthouse, it had been there for years. The side roads were still flooded, so we had to take the long way around to get home.

I shrank in the back seat, absorbing the damage, wondering how Georgia survived unharmed. If she survived unharmed.

When I’d gotten back to the hotel, my parents had been furious. I understood why. I apologized and swore I would never do something that stupid ever again. After they had given me both a lecture and a guilt trip, they asked if I had been able to find Georgia. And they seemed happy for me when they heard that my mission to tell her how I felt had been successful. They also knew that I planned on heading straight to the lighthouse the moment we parked the car at home.

They wanted to argue but didn’t. I think it was because they knew their arguments would fall on deaf ears. They had been most angry about the fact that I’d risked my safety, but they seemed to understand my urgency after I explained how I’d found her strolling along the beach. I also told them that Mat wasn’t trying to find her and that he didn’t answer his door.

Devastating scenes met us at every turn as we drove across Ophelia early this morning. While the day before had blanketed the island in a black downpour, the sun was shining once more, and everything was colorful again. The sky wasn’t in the ocean anymore.

Our home still stood under the soggy trees, and the roof was still intact, but several of the boards Dad had nailed up to protect the windows were either hanging down or missing. The greenery around the house drooped left and right in a temporary windblown wilt, though a few trees had fallen. One big tree had taken out the driveway, its trunk uprooted, its exposed root system caked in heavy balls of muck.

I’d expected it to be worse, but if my house was still standing, the lighthouse would be too. My parents were relieved to discover we still had power, as did the rest of our end of the island, but I wouldn’t feel an ounce of relief until I laid my eyes on Georgia.

To my dismay, Red would have to sit out because the sidewalks were still too muddy and wet for a bicycle. I would have to drive there instead. So I tucked Red in

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