Her head was bowed and it was all a blur of blond hair and purple sweater until the tremors stopped.
She looked up at me and there was this moment of plainness between us. Like she saw me and I saw her. She looked scared and young, like a little girl, and there were tears in her eyes.
I don't know what she read on my face. Probably that I was totally hers. That I loved her with everything worthy inside me.
I guess she didn't like what she saw, because she brushed away tears with the back of her hand and turned away from me. Her jaw was clenched and she looked like she wanted to punch me in the throat. That's the truth.
I got out from under her table.
* * *
"Screw this," Sahalia said. "I'm going home."
"No, you're not, Sahalia," Jake said. "Mrs. Wooly told us all to stay here and stay together and we're gonna do exactly that."
"Are you kidding?" Sahalia said. "Mrs. Wooly's not coming back. We're on our own. And frankly I'd rather take my chances out there than stay here with you losers."
Alex spoke up. "How are you going to get out? The gate is down."
Sahalia pointed to the wall, past the Pizza Shack, near the Grocery section.
Duh.
There was a door with a red, illuminated Exit sign above it.
How had we missed it until now?
"They have to have emergency exits," she said.
Then she walked over and pushed it.
"Let me," Brayden said.
"Bray!" Jake yelled, but Brayden had already sprinted over.
He bashed his weight against it.
"No good," he said. "It's locked."
"Like I said," Jake repeated, eyeing his friend. "We're staying here until Mrs. Wooly comes back."
"I'll find a way out," Sahalia said. She stomped off.
"Excuse me, but Sahalia is my neighbor," said Chloe. "If she's going home, I'm going with her."
"Me, too," said Max. "I can hitch a ride."
Jake was losing patience.
"You heard what Mrs. Wooly said! We stay here until she comes for us. It's simple."
"But why does Sahalia get to go?" whined Chloe.
"Sahalia's not going anywhere," Jake answered. "The doors are locked!"
"But I want my nana!"
Jake bent down and got up in her grill.
"Stop talking about going home. There is no going home until Mrs. Wooly gets back."
"But I want—"
He poked Chloe in the chest.
"Stop it."
"My nana—"
He poked her again. "Stop."
She stopped. Then she rubbed the spot on her chest where he'd poked her and glared at him.
So we were lucky that the Greenway was solidly built, but, man, the mess was incredible. Almost everything had been tossed from the shelves. The shelving units themselves hadn't fallen over, since they were bolted down. That was nice. But everything was a mess and most things made of glass were history.
