The Reluctant Heiress (A Christian Romance Novel)

Part 40 : The Worst is yet to Come

"What is that?" Telly asked Greg when an alarm at the hotel went off.

"Oh it's just the tornado alert," Greg casually replied. "Always just a false alarm."

"I also got it on my phone," she said. "And look, you got it too! Shouldn't we at least look?"

"Nah we're ok, look outside, sun is shining!" he reassured her. "They've done that many times. When was the last time we had tornado?" Rhetorical question posed by Greg.

She looked around and almost all the staff were just continually doing their own businesses. She glanced at Kay, who herself was a bit shaken, but then she just shrugged her shoulders as well.

"Phew!" Telly gave a big sigh of relief. "Ok, that's good to know because I don't think I can take any more blows so far."

"But do you have a storm shelter?" Kay asked her, who just in turn shifted her eye on Greg who was sitting across from them working on some of the documents, oblivious to their question.

Until he felt like eyes were on him and he looked at them, "Am sorry, were you asking me something?"

"Kay is asking if we have a storm shelter?" Telly repeated Tuesday question.

"Oh yes," he answered readily. "If you wanna see it, I'll show you." He dropped everything and stood up and led the way.

"Yes, just in case," Telly motioned for Kay to come and follow them.

As they were walking along one of the halls, a familiar face walked pass them and stopped right in front of Telly. She's an old lady, with a silver crowning of pixie-cut hair, and she was wearing thick-rimmed glasses. She maybe in her 70's, about 5 ft tall, shorter than all of them but she has the aura of joy and confidence.

"Hello! Are you Telly?" she asked smiling at hers

"Yes Ma'am," she politely replied smiling back, trying to figure out where she's seen her before.

"Oh, you've got your father's eyes!" she cheerfully said as she took a closer look at her face. "I am Trudy by the way. Been a long time friend of your daddy."

'Trudy! How could I forget! That lady who gave me the book Be Still and Know that I am God while I was rachelling!'

"I'm on my way to Japan for a short-term mission," as soon as she said that, it made sense. "And your daddy has always generously offered this hotel for us."

"Of course," Telly replied remembering her talk with Mrs. Robinson about his daddy's definition of success. "It's my pleasure to have finally met you. Please let us know if you need anything. I apologize for the construction happening, the noise-"

"Oh don't worry about that!" she waved her hand like dismissing the matter. "I've been praying for y'all since this fire happened. May God give you wisdom."

"Thank you Trudy," was all she could say as they made their move to the storm shelter.  There are people that we would meet that just exudes peace and calm and Trudy was like that.

*************

"I remember this place! We used to play here!" Telly exclaimed when they went down to the basement.

"Well, they made a lot of renovations according to the city guidelines for storm shelter," he said. "Like this shelter door. Very sturdy." He tried to knock it hard many times to prove his point.