Timothy touched my cheek. “Chloe, it’s over.”
I opened one eye. Timothy’s bright blue eyes stared at me through a mask of mud. A leaf stuck to his forehead. I reached over and plucked it off.
He smiled at me. “You look awful.”
“So do you.”
Mabel sat beside Timothy also covered in mud. She howled and shook her entire body, sending mud and leaves flying all over us. A leaf landed inside my mouth, and I spat it out. “Yuck!”
Timothy started laughing.
I giggled, despite myself. He helped me up, and I stumbled, bracing myself on his arm. It was still raining, but not nearly as hard. Instead of bolts of lightning, the sky lit with white flashes. I sighed and counted. “Thirteen Mississippi. It’s moving away.”
In another flash of lightning, I saw his smile, but not the truck. My heart sank. “Did your truck get sucked up in the tornado? Can we get out of here?”
“It’s still here. Just not exactly where I left it.”
Mabel stayed close to my side as Timothy helped me up the steep bank out of the drainage ditch. The truck had landed a few yards away, the powerful force turning it so it lay east and west across the road instead of north and south. In another flash of lightning, I saw the tornado’s path. It had made a sharp turn east off the highway and into a cornfield. A line the width of a small house cut through the corn rows almost like a crop circle.
No one could blame this on E.T.
Timothy patted the dog’s head. “Can you stay here with Mabel? I’m going to see if the pickup is okay and turn it around.”
Mabel leaned against my leg as Timothy ran into the road. Rain, which was still coming down in sheets, dripped off the tip of my nose. Every so often the shaggy dog would shake off some of the water collecting on her fur. If it made her feel better, I didn’t mind. It wasn’t like I could get any wetter—or dirtier for that matter.
The truck stalled the first two times Timothy tried to start the engine. I shivered. The last thing I wanted was to be trapped on this lonely stretch of county road in the middle of a thunderstorm. The storm was moving away, but until it passed, there was always the potential for more tornados. Scotch had been right about the weather after all. I wondered how the greenhouse and Becky faired. Uncontrollable shivers tried to overtake me, and I dug my fingers deep into Mabel’s fur.
The engine started on his third attempt, and slowly Timothy turned the truck in the right direction. Mabel and I ran to it and jumped inside.
“You okay?” he asked.
I started laughing even though it wasn’t funny. “I can’t believe we were just in the middle of a tornado. When I tell Tanisha, she’ll be shocked.”
“What about your family?”
I stared out the windshield. Rain rolled down the windowpane in waves.
“Did I say something wrong?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have much family outside of Tanisha and her parents.”
“No family is perfect,” he said. “Not even an Amish one.”
“Your family seems close to it.”
He laughed. “My father would disagree since two of his five children have left the district.”
I bit my lip. “Why did you leave?”
He wiped his muddy hands on the edge of his T-shirt. “I’m not good enough for that life.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t good enough in the eyes of my district. I made mistakes.”
Chief Rose’s warning about Timothy not being as good as he appeared came back to me. “Did something happen?” I shivered again.
He reached under his seat and pulled out an old sweatshirt. “Put this on. You must be freezing.”
I wrapped the sweatshirt around my shoulders, convinced that he would never answer my question.
“I was in the middle of rumspringa and thought I was invincible. My carpentry skills were in high demand. I had jobs all over the county. Aaron is my closest friend, and I asked him to work with me even though I knew he wasn’t a skilled carpenter.” Timothy sighed. “He’d helped me on jobs and made mistakes, which I always covered up because I wanted to work with my friend. We were working on a house in Mount Vernon one morning. The Englisch family wanted a balcony to be built off the third-floor master bedroom. Aaron wanted to do it, and I let him.”
“What happened?”
“When he was done with the project, I could tell right away it wasn’t stable, and I told Aaron so. He got angry at me, and we fought. I told him, ‘If you’re so sure it’s safe, go jump on it.’” Timothy shuddered, his voice grew thick. “Aaron will do anything to prove a point, and he jumped on it. At first it held . . .” Timothy stopped in the middle of the trail again.
“You were right about the balcony,” I whispered.
He nodded. “He fell twenty feet, and broke his back.”
I cupped a hand to my face. “Aaron was paralyzed from the fall.”
He nodded his head. “It’s my fault.” Rain coursed down the windshield.
I squeezed his hand. “It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “Even if you don’t believe that, Aaron has forgiven you.”
“I know.” He didn’t let go of my hand.
We listened to the rain hit the roof of the pickup’s cabin for a minute. I broke the silence. “Thank you for telling me.”
“I wanted to tell you because you think you have no family.” Timothy rubbed his thumb along my wrist. “You have Tanisha and her family, and you have Becky too.” He paused. “Look at me.”
I turned my head to look into his face.
“And you have me.”
After a few seconds, he let go of my hand, switched on the wipers, and shifted the pickup into drive. The sensation of his touch stayed with me.
By the time we drove into Appleseed Creek, the sky was starting to lighten, and the heavy rain transformed into a fine mist. Tree limbs were down around the town, and a park bench on the square overturned. All minor damage when it could have been so much worse.
In bare feet, Becky ran to the truck to meet us. “Timothy! Chloe! I was so worried!” I climbed out of the pickup, and the teenager threw her arms around me. “I tried to call your cell phone, but it went right to voicemail.”
I hugged her back. Timothy was right. I had Becky too.
Becky threw her arms around her brother next.
He hugged her back. “I’d better get going. Both Mabel and I need a bath.” He caught my eye. “Chloe, remember what I said.”
As if I could forget.
I removed my mud-soaked sneakers and left them on the front porch. I didn’t have much hope for them.
“Becky, can you bring me a towel? I don’t want to track all over the house.”
Inside the door, I stripped down to my underwear and wrapped the towel around my body. “There, I feel better already. Where were you during the storm? Were you already home?”
She nodded. “Scotch closed the greenhouse at two because he said a storm was on the way. He and Cookie dropped me off here around two thirty. I thought he was crazy because it was fine until six, and then the storm broke loose.”
“How did you know there was a tornado?”
“The tornado sirens went off. I took Gigabyte and went down into the basement.” She shivered. “If you think the upstairs of the house is bad, don’t go down in the basement. It’s a hundred times worse.”
Why am I not surprised?
I let my gaze wander around the room. “Where’s Gig?”
“Hiding. He was terrified.” She showed me an inch-long scratch on her arm.
“Ouch. Are you okay?”
She shrugged. “He didn’t mean it.”
“Still, you should put something on that.”
She wiggled her fingers sticking out of the hot pink cast. “I’m worried about my family. I tried to call the shed phone, but a voice said the line was disconnected. What if that tornado hit the farm?”
Through the window, the sky was clear and blue. At only eight o’clock, the sun hadn’t yet set.
“I won’t be able to sleep until I know they are okay. I should have asked Timothy to take me there before he left.” She picked up the cordless phone. “I’ll call him and ask him to take us.”
“No.” I wasn’t ready to see Timothy again so soon. I needed to sort out what I thought about our conversation in the pickup. Did he care about me? Am I reading too much into it? “Timothy must be exhausted from driving to Columbus and back. Let me take a quick shower and change. We can take my car. I’m sure everyone is fine, but I know we will both feel better when we are absolutely certain.”