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“Uh huh. And the panting I heard as you answered the phone? Last I checked, video games don’t usually leave you breathless.”
“Ohmygosh, Ma!” Sabrina did not want to have this conversation right now. Talk about dumping ice water on her arousal. Damn.
“You’ve had a crush on him for a long time.”
She had never told her mother that, but then, Tracy had a sixth sense when it came to her daughter’s relationships. “We are not talking about this right now. Why are you calling me at midnight? What’s going on?”
“Fine,” her ma agreed, turning serious again. “I’m safe, but we just got hit by a tornado.”
Her legs turned wobbly, and she sank down to sit on the floor, still leaning against her bedroom door. “What? Ma, what happened?” Then she listened as her mom recounted Sabrina’s biggest fear.
Tracy’s voice trembled as she shared her harrowing evening. “The tornado sirens started wailing, and I could hear the wind howling something fierce outside. I was about to hunker down in the bathtub like I usually do, but then I saw Mrs. Johnson’s porch swing fly by my window.”
Sabrina gasped, imagining the chaos and destruction. Her mother had weathered many storms in her doublewide, but this one must have been truly terrifying for her to seek shelter elsewhere.
“I knew right then I had to get out,” Tracy continued. “So I grabbed my emergency bag and ran to the car. The church down the road always opens up their fellowship hall during bad storms, you know, for folks like us in the trailer park.”
Sabrina nodded, even though her mother couldn’t see her. She remembered the small, white church from her childhood, its basement a haven during the worst storms.
“On the way there, I had to swerve around branches and debris flying across the road. A big oak tree came crashing down right behind me and nearly gave me a heart attack.” Ma let out a shaky laugh. “But I made it to the church just in time. Spent about an hour down there with some other folks from the park.”
“Thank god you’re okay,” Sabrina breathed, relief washing over her. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, Ma. I should have been paying more attention to the weather reports.”
“Now don’t you go blaming yourself,” Tracy chided gently. “I’m just fine, a little shaken up is all. The important thing is, everyone’s safe.”
Sabrina closed her eyes, trying to calm her racing thoughts. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? Do you need anything?”
“I promise I’m alright, honey.” Tracy’s voice softened. “I just wanted to call to let you know that I’m okay, but uh. Well, I went back to the trailer once the worst of it passed, and it didn’t fare so well.”
“What do you mean, Ma?” Did she need a new roof? Sabrina didn’t have much savings, but her insurance company had promised a check would be in the mail soon for her own home. She could use that to help out her mom. She could take out a loan, but getting approval to use it to replace the roof of a trailer would be a tough sell. And if she didn’t have her job at Taylor Industries anymore, it would be impossible.
Her mom’s voice broke. “The trailer’s gone, Sabrina. Everything inside it’s gone, too.”
Sabrina’s heart plummeted. She pictured the familiar doublewide where she’d grown up, now reduced to nothing. “Oh, Ma,” she whispered, her throat tight.
“There’s nothing left,” Tracy continued, her voice hollow. “Just piles of rubble and debris. The tornado carried away or destroyed everything.”
Sabrina’s mind raced. “Where are you now? Do you have somewhere to stay?”
“I’ve got enough in the account for a motel room for a couple nights,” Tracy replied with her usual strength returning to her voice. “Piney’s was destroyed, but my car’s good, so I’ll drive over to the Super 8 in Lester.”
Sabrina’s chest constricted. She’d worked so hard to keep her mother afloat, to give her a semblance of stability. Now, in the blink of an eye, it had all been swept away. A few nights wasn’t much, either. They’d need to figure out something soon.
“We’ll work it out, Ma,” Sabrina said, trying to infuse her voice with a confidence she didn’t feel. “I’ll start looking at options right away.” Maybe this would be the push her mom needed to move into some place safer. She wasn’t ready to explain that she might be coming home.
“You’re such a good girl, Sabrina. I’m so proud of you, buttercup.”
“Is that your new way of telling me to suck it up?” she asked.
“No. It’s my way of telling you not to let me drag you down–”
“Tell me more about what you need, Ma.” Sabrina couldn’t stand to listen to her mom praise her when she knew how close to failure she really was.
As she listened to her mother’s tired voice detailing the destruction, Sabrina’s mind whirled with calculations. Her own finances were stretched thin already. If she could convince Patrick to give her some kind of severance, it would get her back to Nebraska and give them something more than her insurance check to start with. It might be enough to hold them over until she found work there. If Freddy did find a way to prove the leak didn’t come from Sabrina or convince Dynamic Solutions thatno one needed to be fired to prove their security was solid, her financial situation might be even worse. Somehow, she needed to find a way to bankroll both of them finding a new home and replacing all of their belongings.
By the time she ended the call with her mother, Sabrina felt like she was being crushed by the weight of her life. And the one person she most wanted to talk to about it would never be able to understand. This wasn’t a weight Freddy ever had to carry.
The connection and arousal she’d felt earlier faded to a hazy fever dream. If not for her bare breasts rubbing against her shirt, she’d think it was all a hallucination.Suck it up, buttercup. It was time to pull her head out of the clouds and focus on cleaning up the mess that was her life.
