Regeneration

Part 1

Leticia stared at the cursor blinking insistently on her computer screen. Now that she was school principal, she had endless tasks to complete, but she couldn't concentrate. Sighing, she recalled Nadine, who was her all-time best friend, and Nadine's devoted husband, Edmond. The three of them had been through thick and thin together before Hurricane Maria altered the course of their lives forever—before that wicked witch robbed them of their future. One minute, they were climbing the staircase to the unfinished top floor of Nadine's and Edmond's house with the children. Next, they fought for their lives against the flood waters that had burst through the back wall. Choking back tears, Leticia wondered if she would ever totally recover from the trauma the hurricane inflicted upon all of them.

Although it was a clear, sunny day, Leticia sensed her office space growing eerily dark. "Oh, no," she muttered. "Here it comes again."

Torn from the present moment, she plummeted into the painful past. She shivered as she imagined torrential rain pelting against the wire-meshed glass window that overlooked the playing field. She cringed when she thought she heard the wind howling outside the closed door. The panicky voices of the children huddling on the staircase landing echoed in her mind.

"Aunty Leti! Where's Mommy and Dada?" they cried desperately.

She rested her head on her desk and repeated the words that she had uttered so many times before. "I don't know," she muttered. "I just don't know."

Nadine, Edmond, and Leticia were kindred spirits who connected during their college years. They had plenty of good times together and remained fast friends after graduation. Leticia and Nadine were excited to land teaching jobs in the same secondary school in Roseau. They ate lunch together almost every day and traded stories about classroom drama. When Edmond secured a lucrative career in banking, he and Nadine tied the knot and started a family. The happily married couple had three daughters: seven-year-old Kamryn, and four-year-old twins, Jennie and Mallie. Much to their delight, Aunty Leticia visited their home often and shamelessly spoiled her adopted nieces.

The news of Maria's possible landfall in Dominica met the trio of friends checking out the newly added upper floor of Nadine's and Edmond's expanding home. Kamryn had seen the Hurricane Watch posted on an online news platform and hurried upstairs to share the information. Her younger sisters, Jennie and Mallie, followed her up the steps eager to be part of the delivery. Despite the whole Hurricane-Irma-skimming-past-Dominica fiasco (Thank God), Leticia decided to shelter at her friends' house a few villages away, instead of at her seaside cottage. It was a decision that would haunt her dreams to the end of her days.

The eve of the hurricane began with the entire village hammering away as they tried to batten shutters and secure their belongings. But the constant din ceased when the first deluge of rain descended from the mountains like liquid bullets, pelting people still outside. The fading light gave way to sudden darkness and caused Nadine and Edmond to flee indoors before they finished covering the bare window frame on the upper floor bathroom with plywood.