Earthquake – Chapter Two
"Are you two kids okay?"
Louis glanced up at the police officer standing over him and quickly stood up. Tawny had fallen into a sort of dazed sleep on the sidewalk, and Louis didn't want to disturb her.
"I...I need to call my sister," Louis told the officer. He swallowed. "And find out where my family is."
"If you tell me the names of your family members I can try to contact them," the officer offered. He extended his hand. "I'm Officer Franklin Drake."
"Louis Stevens," said Louis. "My parents are Steve and Eileen Stevens. My...my brother Donnie was visiting from Texas. He would have been with them."
Officer Drake picked removed his walkie-talkie from his belt and reported the names of the Stevens family into it. A few minutes later a second voice crackled over the walkie-talkie. Officer Drake turned to Louis and said, "Your family isn't on either of our lists."
"What kind of lists?" Louis, who had resumed his position next to Tawny, wanted to know.
"Our first one is a list of people who reported to the crisis shelter," Officer Drake informed him, "and our second list is people who have been confirmed dead."
Louis inhaled a deep, shaky breath and tried to smile in gratitude, but his head swam with the possibilities of where his family was.
"Where do you live, son?" Officer Drake asked. "You can come to the shelter if you want. Is this your sister?" He gestured to Tawny.
Louis shook his head. "She's my friend. I was staying at her house." He didn't want to tell Officer Drake that the remains of his house were just several feet away. What if the police officer inspected the site and found the dead bodies of his parents and brother? Louis decided to change the subject. "I need to contact my sister. She's in Michigan."
Tawny slowly sat up and looked around for a few seconds, almost as if she had forgotten everything that had happened within the last few hours. Then it all came rushing back to her. "Louis, is everything okay?"
"I don't know," said Louis.
"If you come to the police station we might be able to get a hold of your sister with our makeshift phone lines," said Officer Drake. "It's only a few miles away, but you'll have to walk."
"Let's go, Tawny," said Louis.
The two followed Officer Drake through a semi-cleared path leading to a small police station. At least a hundred people were crowding the building, inside and out, sobbing, trying to get food, trying to contact their families...
Officer Drake motioned to a place on the sidewalk for Louis and Tawny to sit and then disappeared inside the station. A few minutes later he came out holding assorted junk food and offered it to the two of them, telling them that it might be a few hours before they could contact Ren. They accepted the food and thanked him.
"God, how could I think about eating now?" Tawny said, almost to herself, as she opened a bag of potato chips.
"It's okay. All of your family is fine," said Louis, his voice slightly bitter.
"Louis." Tawny looked him in the eyes. "I promise you, everything's going to be okay. My family's probably freaking out right now because they're out of town and they don't know what happened to me. I'm sure your parents and Donnie are looking for you."
Officer Drake emerged once more from the building. "You're in luck," he told Louis. "Your sister's on the line. Called one of the emergency numbers that out-of-town residents are supposed to call." He escorted Louis and Tawny into the building, pushing their way through the mass of people assembled there, and handed Louis one of the phones, punching in the appropriate line number.
"Louis!" Ren shrieked into the phone. Louis could hardly hear her voice over the shouts of the other people in the station. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," Louis told her. "I was at Tawny's house."
"Where are Mom and Dad?" Ren asked.
"We...we don't know," Louis informed her.
"Oh," said Ren flatly.
"Ren," Louis started, a lump forming in his throat. "I'm really glad you called. I love you."
The other end was silent.
Louis held the mouthpiece on the phone and turned to Tawny. "Do you think you could talk to her or something?"
Tawny took the phone. "Ren, hi, it's Tawny," she stated. "Yeah...we're fine. No, my parents were on vacation. Don't worry. Oh. Okay. Okay, here's Louis." She began to hand the phone over to Louis and then put it back to her ear. "Oh. Yeah, I understand. All right. See you." She placed the phone back on the receiver and told Louis, "She said to tell you that she's taking the first flight she can get to San Francisco and then see if she can drive in to meet us. She said most of the flights were booked so it might be a few days."
Louis nodded slightly.
"Look, Louis, do you want to go back to my house?" Tawny asked him. "Just being here is kind of freaking me out."
"This is the only place my family will be able to contact me," Louis insisted.
"Yeah, but didn't your parents know you were at my place?"
Louis shrugged. "They won't be thinking about that."
"Oh, thank God," Louis heard behind him. He turned around to see Officer Drake guiding Donnie toward him.
"Donnie!" Louis ran to his brother and flung his arms around his muscular neck.
Donnie pulled back, his eyes wet. "You heard from Mom and Dad?"
"What?" Louis asked.
"Mom and Dad. Where are they? Are they okay?" Donnie was nearly frantic.
"I thought they were with you," said Louis.
Donnie shook his head. "No, I was..." He paused for a minute. "Look, I was partying all night with the guys. Louis, do you know where they are?"
"No," Louis told him.
"Screw you, man," said Donnie, pushing Louis backwards.
"Hey!" Officer Drake said sharply. "Calm down."
"Donnie, are you high?" Louis cried.
Donnie picked up a phone and smashed it against the desk that it was sitting on. An alarmed girl to his left stared in horror.
"Just shut the hell up!" Donnie screamed. "Just shut up! I'm trying to find my family, okay? Where the hell are they?" He tried to slap Officer Drake but was restrained.
"All right, come here, come with me," Officer Drake told Donnie, grabbing him roughly by the shoulders.
"Where are you taking him?" Louis asked.
"We'll just keep him in a holding area until he settles down," said Officer Drake, and pushed Donnie back through the crowds, trying to talk on his walkie-talkie at the same time.
"Louis, I'm sorry," said Tawny when Donnie was gone.
"Whatever," Louis replied.
"Let's go. Please. I can't be in this place anymore." Tawny stared at the families around her gripping each other in hope, or lone people desperately searching for anyone they knew.
"Fine." Louis gave in. He searched around for a police officer and finally found one, instructing her to tell anyone with the last name of Stevens that he could be found at the house of his friend Tawny Dean.
The two trudged back to Tawny's house. On the way back, Louis asked, "What do you think they'll do with Donnie?"
"I don't know." Tawny absentmindedly brushed hair from her face. "He looked pretty shaken up. I think they'll just try to calm him down. If they can."
"He's on drugs," said Louis. "Ever since he didn't make his college basketball team he's been partying practically every night. He should have been with Mom and Dad. God."
"I'm sorry," Tawny told him. It was about the only thing she could say right now.
"So what do we do now? Just wait?" Louis asked. "Just wait until everything gets sorted out and cleaned up? We don't go to school or anything, we just sit around and see how many people turn up dead? Or alive?"
"I have some food at my house," Tawny pointed out. "I'm sure we can get more at the police station if we need to. We'll be okay."
"It'll be okay when Ren gets here," Louis said out loud, trying to convince himself.
"Yeah," Tawny agreed. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, but after she had seen what had happened with Donnie she was afraid.
Louis and Tawny climbed back into Tawny's room and sat on her bed. They were back where they had begun. Louis only wished that he could have stayed there, in the little corner of his world that hadn't been damaged by the earthquake, and pretended that, just down the block, his family was waiting for them. But his brother was probably in a jail cell somewhere, his sister wouldn't be arriving for another few days, his parents were missing, Tawny's parents were on vacation, and on the morning of the day after homecoming in his senior year of high school, everything he had ever known had been shattered. Except for his relationship with Tawny.
And all they could do was wait.
To be continued...
