The wind howled outside. The support beams of the basement shook & I trembled. I didn’t trust that the entire building wasn’t going to be ripped away.
“Vic..” I murmured.
He held me & stroked my arm comfortingly.
“It’ll be okay.”
The roaring of the wind terrified me, but I tried to focus in on Vic & the guys. To my surprise they were laughing & joking like this was some impromptu camping trip. Mike had even snagged some beers off the bus.
“Guys!” I shouted, “there’s a tornado outside! What are you doing?!”
Tony looked at me bemusedly.
“There’s nothing we can do about it Courtney, & we’re in the safest possible place. We might as well have some fun.”
I sighed, realizing he was right. I was still scared, but I let Vic’s touch & the guys’ light banter calm me. And I realized, watching my boys play blackjack with a pack of cards they found in a junk box in the basement, that I was happy. I listened to Mike accuse Jaime of cheating and laughed, they got so into a silly game! I snuggled into Vic’s arms to wait out the storm. Listening to the havock the tornado was wreaking, I wasn’t sure we’d even have a bus to go back to when it was over, but for now, everyone I loved was safe & with me. I exhaled & smiled into Vic’s shirt.
I looked up for a second to see that Esther soon joined the games. Tony was laughing and for the first time I saw him truly happy besides being on the stage.
“Hey Vic, Join us!” Jaime motioned towards us. I looked up at him and released my grip on him.
“Go darling, have fun.” I said and sat against the wall, I was still scared but I couldn’t hold Vic down.
He looked back at me and said “Come play with us, Sit next to me, we will all protect you” he stood up and held out his hand, I took his hand and we walked over to them. We sat down and Mike tossed me a beer. I looked at him and laughed. “Mike, I’m pregnant, remember?”
“Forget him. He’s drunk off his ass.” Tony laughed at him.
“Even in a damn tornado he gets drunk” Esther laughed.
Mike laughed along with us clueless as to what we were saying.
We joked around and I forgot all about the tornado, I even forgot about holding Vic’s hand. It was almost natural to be around him.
Suddenly Jaime shushed us. “You hear that? It’s silence.”
I looked up at him and then Vic and stood up and walked towards the door. “No! Wait!” Vic ran to me and grabbed me. “Let Tony check” he said.
“It could just be a break” Tony said and walked towards the door, he opened it and I cringed. Vic kissed my head and pulled me closer. Tony closed the door quickly and ran back to us.
“What happened?” I asked him.
“It doesn’t look good, there may be another one. We should stay in here” He answered me. We sat back down discussed what we were going to do.
We voted to stay in the basement but the driver decided that we should get back on the bus and get to the other show.
“Are you crazy?!” Jaime said “Until we see sun, we aren’t leaving!” He finished.
The driver soon agreed and we continued talking and playing around. I would rub my belly once in a while and Vic would smile at me. I wasn’t really showing, but I felt different, I knew something living was there and I was counting on protecting he or she with my very life.
