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Another stab to Kaj’s heart. “I’m sorry, Elijah.”
“It’s fine, Dad. I can’t trick-or-treat because of the candy anyway. But dressing up would have been fun.”
“There’s a costume party at your school on Monday,” Kaj said, remembering with dismay.
“Dad, it’s fine. I’m not really sad or anything.” He smiled then, looking young again. “But don’t tell MaryBeth that. If she feels sorry for me, I’ll get more cake pops.”
Kaj chuckled as Elijah headed out of his room. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Phin mimed zipping his lips.
Elijah stopped in his doorway, suddenly serious again. “Thank you, Phin. I know you did a lot of extra work to get this done so fast. I appreciate it and I’ll be back up soon.”
“Whenever you’re ready,” Phin said.
Elijah gave them a little wave, then bounded down the stairs, calling for Czar.
“It’s not your fault,” Phin said quietly.
Kaj’s gaze jerked to meet Phin’s, surprised that the man had read his mind. “What?”
The big man shrugged. “My dad’s a cop. Up in Ohio.”
“Okay,” Kaj said slowly.
“My mom was a teacher. When I was a kid, I always thought my dad was the stronger one, you know? Because Mom isn’t big and tough.” He opened the closet door, exposing the safe room door within. “We had a storm cellar, of course. It was Ohio. Tornadoes.”
Kaj followed him to the closet, wondering where this story was going. But Phin seldom spoke, and when he did, his friends listened. So Kaj would listen, too.
“My friends went to their basements and hung out until the tornado warnings were over. But we had a special room in our basement. It had reinforced concrete walls and a steel door. And it was big enough for all of us—and that’s saying something. I’m one of seven kids.”
“Wow.”
Phin’s mouth quirked up. “You have no idea. My poor mother. But anyway, she decorated our storm room. It had a phone and snacks. Pillows and blankets and flashlights. A radio. She even pasted glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling in case the flashlight batteries ran out. Whenever the tornado sirens would blow, we’d all rush down to the storm room and Mom made it like a party. We were never scared. We’d sing and play cards.”
“Your mom sounds nice.”
“She is. But I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m telling you this.”
“A little.”
“One night she woke us all up. Had to have been two in the morning. Told us that there was a storm coming and we had to get down to the storm room. I remember asking her why there wasn’t a siren. She said she’d heard the warning on the radio while she was waiting for Dad to come home because he was working that night. So we all tromped down to the storm room and she locked the door from the inside. I’d never seen her lock it before.”
Kaj thought he knew where Phin was going now. “How old were you?”
“About Elijah’s age. I almost asked Mom why she’d locked the door, but then I realized that I was the only one who’d noticed. She just shook her head at me.”
“Asking you not to say anything.”
“Exactly. She started passing out snacks and we stayed there for hours. Looking back, I can see that she was terrified. But then I thought she was worried about the storm. I wasn’t scared. I’d asked my dad all kinds of questions about the storm room’s structure and I knew that even if the house fell down on our heads, we’d be safe. I’m not sure how much time passed, but it was just getting light outside when we finally came out. The phone had rung in the storm room and Mom started crying when she answered it. It was Dad and he was outside the storm room door. Mom unlocked it and we all went upstairs. It was a Saturday morning, so we didn’t have school. She made us waffles that morning and it was like any other day.”
“Except?”
“Except there was no storm. Never had been. I heard my parents talking later that day because I was eavesdropping. I needed to know what had happened. I’ll never forget it. Mom was sobbing and Dad was crying, too. I’d never seen my father cry. Never. It was unsettling.”
“I guess so. I take it that someone had tried to attack your home?”
“Yes. And Dad was blaming himself. He’d called my mother the night before to tell her to get us to the storm room. Some guy had a grudge against my father and had threatened us. He broke into our house but thought we’d run away. He didn’t know about our storm room. Eventually, cops confronted him a few miles away and it lasted for hours. Dad told Mom that the only thing keeping him sane was knowing we were in the storm room.”
