Saving Summer (6 page)

I could hear her screaming from the open window as she recounted what happened to the person on the other end of the phone. There was a female intruder in her house and she was in fear for her life.

I needed help, and I knew there were only three other people on this Island who could assist me. I was in such a daze and so upset that the second the Cortez’s house came into view I sobbed with relief. I hurried up the back porch steps and knocked on the sliding glass door.

I must have stood there for ten minutes.

Apparently the boys were heavy sleepers.

I wound my way around the house, peeking in windows, hoping to see someone. I remembered where Gael’s room was, and was lucky enough to discover his window on the side of the house under the shade of a massive palm tree.

I wiped my eyes, made a fist, and pounded on the glass.

The blinds shot up and Gael’s bleary face appeared.

“Help, please?”

He opened the window and stuck his head out. “What are you doing?”

“Can I come in?”

He shut the window, and I met him at the glass doors, feeling like I might not be able to hold things together. I hadn’t given into hysterics just yet, but I could feel myself starting to crumble inside.

He slid them open and pulled me inside, lowering his voice so no one else heard. “What are you doing?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but froze as the other two Cortez brothers came down the hall.

“Wow, you all are up.” I looked at Gael, trying to keep cool. I didn’t want an audience. If he’d gone and woken them up, I was not going to be happy about it.

“They heard our voices.”

Celso sat on the sofa with a big yawn. “I woke Damian up, just because I thought he should be here so I wouldn’t have to repeat everything later.”

“So what brings you over at this ungodly hour?” Damian was looking at me like I’d lost it. “You do realize it’s before noon?”

“Not on purpose.” I folded my arms in front of me like it was a shield that would protect me. I was feeling pretty lost, and upset. “I popped into the kitchen to get some juice. Aunt Lou didn’t recognize me.”

Gael plopped in a leather chair near the sofa. “What do you mean?”

“She looked at me like I was a total stranger…” I breathed deep. “She didn’t know who I was.”

Celso frowned, “I thought she was a little strange, but this is crazy.”

“How old is she?” Damian asked.

“I don’t know. Older than eighty,” I said. “Do you think she hit her head or something? She knew the old me…said I was in the second grade.”

Gael sighed. “This sounds like what happened to our grandma. They remember the past clearly, but the present can freak them out.”

“Yeah, she threw a knife at me. She thought I broke into the house or something.”

“She what?” Gael looked me up and down. “Are you hurt?”

“No, just upset and worried. I’m afraid to go back over. What should I do?”

“Call the cops?” Celso asked.

“Too late, Lou’s already done that.”

“So we call them and tell them what happened. Maybe they can help us. Or we can call nine-one-one and get her to the hospital.”

“I’m thinking the hospital is the best idea.” I said. “She obviously needs a doctor.”

I wanted to call my parents, but I doubted they’d receive it. The last two calls never made it through, and when I finally spoke to them, the call dropped.

Before any of us could get to a phone to call the cops, there was a knock on the front door. Damian went to answer it, and came back with a police officer.

He was investigating a break in, and wanted to know if we’d had any similar issues. Nothing had ever happened on the island before. And since Lou was so upset, this warranted a call in person.

Perfect.

“It was me,” I said, after he was seated on the sofa with a cup of coffee. Apparently he knew the Cortez boys, and made himself right at home.

“You broke in?” he frowned at me over the mug.

“Chill, Vic.” Celso sighed, and glanced at me. “Meet our cousin, Victor Cortez.”

No wonder he felt so comfortable here.

“No, I live with Lou during the summer. She’s my great aunt.” I told him everything that happened, and if he didn’t believe me, to check the guest room. It was full of my things.

“I believe you if the boys believe you,” he said. “And call me Vic.”

When Vic walked in I should have known that he was a member of the family. Same out of this world good looks and macho attitude. If only the girls at school could see me now. I was standing in the living room of a house oozing with enough testosterone to drown the local female population.

“What are we going to do?”

Vic frowned. “Well, since Lou seems to be out of her mind, she needs medical attention. I’ll ask you to stay with the boys, Summer. If she sees you again she may get upset.”

I nodded, worried beyond belief for my aunt. “But how will you get her off the island?”

“The hurricane.”

“What hurricane?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” He looked at all of us. “Have you four been living under a rock?”

Damian shrugged it off. “Everyone always gets excited about these things.”

“There’s a monster of a hurricane headed right for us.” Vic didn’t look at me when he said this, but he glared at the boys and straightened to his full height. “You’ve got forty-eight hours till landfall, and it’s projected to become category four. You better pray this house is standing when you get back.”

Chapter 9
Gael

When Summer finally got back to Lou’s house, it was empty. The door was unlocked, and Lou was gone. She’d accepted Vic’s story about the hurricane and gone willingly, even packed a little overnight bag and put Napoleon in his carrier. She didn’t seem to remember that her great niece was staying with her, which was more disturbing than I could have imagined.

I couldn’t fathom forgetting someone like that. Just to check out and not realize what was going on. She was stuck in the past from what I’d heard, and she didn’t act like she was going to come back to the future any time soon.

“What are we going to do?” Summer paced the kitchen with her arms wrapped around her middle. “I’ve never been through a hurricane like this before.”

I’d called my parents, but they were on their way to Spain. They wouldn’t be able to help us from the other side of the world. And Summer’s folk’s were on a cruise to Alaska with crappy reception.

We were on our own, except for my brothers.

Until my phone rang.

“What’s up?” I answered when I saw Damian’s name flash across the screen.

“I’m sorry.” He was apologizing? I wish I’d recorded this call. I couldn’t remember the last time he said sorry for anything. “I hate to do this to you, but I gotta go.”

“What?” I shouted.

“They need help with evacuations,” he said. “After that I’m going with Vic to the station in case they need extra help. They’re stretched thin right now.”

“Fine, I understand.” Damian had it in him to be a cop just like our cousin. Or maybe join the army or something. He was just one of those people that looked good saving the day. And despite his tendency to be an ass, he’d be an even better cop than Vic. He didn’t put up with bullshit, or people that hurt other people. Damian would deny it till he was blue in the face that he helped a little old lady with her groceries, and enjoyed doing it. “What about Celso?”

“Uh…”

I closed my eyes. In my mind, it would be best if we stuck together. I would have gone with them, but I couldn’t leave Summer alone. “Is he going with you?”

“They need all the help they can get. We’ve packed some of our stuff, and if you need us, we’ll be with Vic.”

“What about us? We can help, too.” I was more of the get-the-hell-out-of-town type, but in this case, I would stay and help if my brothers wanted me to.

“That’s nice of you, brother, but do you really think Summer will want to brave the storm alone?”

“I said, us. She can help too.”

He spoke to someone beside him, probably Vic or Celso, before answering. “She could be a liability. We have too much to do, and Vic says we can’t worry about her, or what her parents might do if something happened. Maybe Celso would rather switch places. He can go with Summer, and you can stay with me.”

The thought of leaving Summer, and Celso taking my place, did not sit well at all. I trusted my brother. It would be fine, but damn if I just didn’t think it was right to dump her on him. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself.

There was a grunt and a rustling sound, almost as if Damian dropped the phone.

“Get out of town, Gael.” Celso’s voice came over the phone. “Leave. Shelters will be packed, and I guarantee they will lose power like last time. Use my truck. It’s got a full tank. I’ll leave the keys under the driver’s seat and one of the doors unlocked. It’ll be parked behind the restaurant.”

“Great, I’ll call if we need anything.”

“Where you gonna go?”

“North. Probably Miami.”

“Be safe,” he said.

“Yeah, you too.” I hung up.

“Gael?” Summer called from the other side of the kitchen. She had her ear pressed to a small radio. Lou kept it on the counter just in case. I was surprised the thing still worked.

“What is it?” I pocketed my phone and crossed the room, trying to hear through the static.

“It’s worse. Stronger. Faster.” She hushed me when I tried to ask how strong. “I can’t hear… Would it kill Lou to do a tiny bit of updating?”

“We have a TV at my house.”

“Shush!”

I got quiet, and then I heard the last thing either of us expected to hear.

The last thing we wanted to hear come out of the forecaster’s mouth.

“It’s a three now, but when it makes landfall, it’s expected to be a category four.” The weatherman drew a deep breath and the radio crackled. “Now this is nothing we want to mess with, people.”

No one wants to hear the weather guy say that.

“Pack whatever you need,” I said, turning off the radio to save the batteries. If we lost power, we’d need it. Our cell phones would only stay charged for so long. “We’re getting off this island.”

Summer ran down a hallway with faded wallpaper and gold sconces. I followed her into what I assumed was her bedroom and held open a duffle bag as she chucked clothes and other personal items in it. Once that was done, we shut every light off in the house, locked up, and headed across the island.

At my house we did the same thing. Shut it down, packed my bag, and as we were leaving I took one last look at it, hoping that I’d see home again. My shed would be gone for sure, but hopefully the house would make it.

We walked down to the dock, and as I neared the end, I noticed something very important missing.

Wilbur.

Summer pushed her brown hair out of her eyes and blinked. “Gael, where is the boat?”

I ran to the end and rocked to a stop, clasping a piling for support.

My boat was gone.

Just gone.

“I…I don’t know…” I ran a hand over my face, knowing my brothers would not take the boat and leave us stranded with a deadly storm coming.

My pocket vibrated.

I pulled out my phone and glanced down at a text from Danny that said everything in two small words.

Missing something?

“Fuck!”

I texted back.

There is a hurricane headed for us!

It took a few seconds, but I got a reply.

I Know :)

I dropped my stuff on the deck, wanting to beat the shit out of him, but instead I hit and kicked one of the pilings. This was payback for stepping in when he was being an ass to Summer. Clearly, he thought it was funny to strand me on the island without a way to get off, except for my brothers. I mean, I was pretty sure the guy wouldn’t do it to kill me, just make me squirm for a while. And I was positive that if he knew Summer was with me, then he’d have left the boat.

Wait…

How had he known to text me now?

I glanced up, and sure enough, off in the distance, I saw Wilbur secured to the back of Danny’s boat. Danny was at the helm, waving. He started the engine and took off. Away from us, dragging Wilbur behind him. Laughing so hard that I felt as if I could feel it.

This was not funny.

“Danny!” I shouted.

But he was gone.

“Gael, calm down.” Summer hushed me, and her soothing voice worked a little. “We’ll get the boat back, and we’ll get off the island.”

“Why would he do something like that?” I wondered, staring at the spot where he used to be.

“I have no idea,”

I let out a heavy sigh, and felt Summer stumble up beside me. “We’re stuck.”

Then I heard a plop, like a small object hitting the water.

My phone.

I looked back at Summer. She stared up at me with the biggest, saddest brown eyes I’d ever seen.

“It’s sunk, isn’t it?”

She took me by complete surprise and smacked my arm. It stung a little, but it also made me smile. She was shy with me. “Gael, why in the hell would you leave your phone on the dock?”

I glanced down at the murky water, wondering which fish would find my phone first. “I dropped it on the deck so I wouldn’t crush it. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Great, so we can go back to your house and use the phone?” She asked.

“Uh, no.” I said. “We only have cell phones. And mine is swimming with the fishes. Can I have yours?”

Summer bit her lip and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Lou hid it. She doesn’t believe in technology, remember?”

“Okay, then we’ll just use her house phone.” I smiled, knowing that this was just a small bump. We’d be off the island in no time.

We ran back to her aunt’s house, and once in the kitchen, we stared dumbstruck at where the old yellow phone hung on the wall…

Or where it used to hang.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I wanted to punch something else. “This is a joke. This has to be a joke. Things do not go this bad.”

Summer eyed the empty cradle where the phone usually sat. “Well, it is a portable phone.”

“No phones. No boat. We’re on an island, and things are going to get really bad.” I had my computer…but what was I going to do? Email for help?