The First Summer of Forever

Chapter 29- Help

Belly

Conrad only ever wanted to protect those around him that he loved. He always had. He took it upon himself to have that responsibility, and when he felt like he had failed, he was way too hard on himself. I knew he needed space, so I  went back inside the rental car place to sit down while Conrad was calling Jeremiah. I was feeling queasy again.

As I sat down, I heard the TV going in the lobby. They had it on the news channel, and a few of them were gathered around watching the news. "Damn, Cuba is getting their ass kicked" one guy said. "Shit, it's a category 4 now?" Another guy said. "No, not yet, but they said it's almost strong enough to be a Cat 4. All we can do now is pray. I think it's time to close up shop boys. Let's all get home." The lady said to them. Then she turned to me and said " Is everything okay Mrs. Fisher, do you need anything?" I didn't know how to answer that. All I wanted to do was cry. I've never been through a hurricane before; we seldom had those in a place like Cousins, far away from this humid atmosphere. But Jere was gonna find a way to help us. I knew he would.

"Ma'am". The word echoed, awakening me from my trance. "Uh, no, I don't think so, my husband is trying to work out some place for us to go. We're waiting for a phone call." I said.

"Oh. Okay." The lady said to me, and I could tell she felt sorry for us but was a little unsure with what I meant. I'm usually not one to be so absolutely transparent, but the floodgates opened up. Something about her eyes made me feel safe. Like the closest thing I had to a mother at the moment.

"We are on our honeymoon. We sailed all the way down here from our family's beach house in Massachusetts. When we heard the tropical storm had strengthened to a hurricane, we started trying to get off the island. But the evacuation route is completely congested, all the flights have been canceled, and there's no rental cars. On top of that, I just found out that I'm pregnant. On my honeymoon." I put my head in my hands and started to sob. The pregnancy hormones are raging through my body, obviously.

"Oh honey, honey." The lady said apologetically in her Latina accent, and clicked her tongue, her hand rubbing my back softly. About that time, Conrad came in with news.

"Hey Bells, Jere... wait, are you ok?" He said, obviously worried about me. 

"Yeah, I'm just getting scared. And everything just seems to be snowballing. I think my hormones are raging, honestly. I just started crying and I can't stop."

"It's, okay, babe." Conrad said as he rubbed my back in circles. "Everything's gonna be okay, alright? Jere called me back. He knows someone who can help us."

"Really?" I said, relieved.

"Oh Honeys, you take care of yourselves, okay?" The sweet lady said to me, squeezing my hand.

"Thank you," I said looking at her thankfully for listening to me and being a comfort to me even in that short amount of time. She looked at me with empathetic eyes that told me she understood. Conrad came over and grabbed our bags with one hand, and my hand in the other. He led us outside, where we sat and waited for our help to come.

Half an hour later, there was a black Audi that pulled up in the parking lot for us, and rolled down its window. "Mr. Fisher?" A man asked us. "Yes, thank you for coming." Conrad said.

The man got out of the car, walked straight over to us, grabbed our bags, and promptly loaded them in the trunk of the car. He then opened the back door and motioned for us to get in.

"Thank you," Conrad said to the man, as he held my hand helping me in.  "Your welcome, Mr. Fisher. Mr. Graves talks very highly of your brother and father, and we are happy to help you in this situation." he said, emotionless. " I'm sorry, we didn't catch your name, sir." Conrad said to the man. "It's Hobbs, sir." "Thank you,  Hobbs." Conrad said warmly, and I knew he meant it.