What The Water Brings In

1

The discordant wail sounded from my chest, startling me so my fork clattered onto the plate in front of me. The sound was sudden and loud, engineered to grab attention immediately. It did its job well.

The obnoxious tone came from everywhere inside the hospital cafeteria, including Dr. Green's lap under the table between us. We were just finishing up our lunch. Like choreographed performers, everyone in the facility, including myself, dug for their cellphones from where the electronics were stashed. Pavlov would have been proud. The phones came out of pockets, belt clips, purses, and in my case, my bra. Everyone's fingers simultaneously pushed buttons or tapped on glass screens to make the alarms stop before taking the time to read the message the noise was trying to bring to our attention.

Severe thunderstorm warning for this area til 3:45 PM EST. Check local media. –NWS

"Oh no. Not another one," Dr. Green groaned as he returned his purple-cased iPhone back to the pocket of his khakis. "We're waterlogged as it is. Were you jumping up and down on your bed in nothing but your underwear this morning for a rain dance?" the sandy blonde haired, green eyed man accused me.

"No, Dr. Sean. That ritual is to summon snow and is saved for school days. Today is Saturday," I managed to say in complete seriousness before taking a sip of water. The giggles overtook me when he was rendered speechless, but soon joined me with a full bout of laughter. I was sure we were both trying to imagine the reactions of North and Luke if I did indulge in such a silly superstition. Having spent the night in North's trailer with the Taylor Brothers, I was sure North would yell about falling off the bed and hurting myself, whereas Luke would probably strip and join me.

The entire state of South Carolina had been battered by strings of thunderstorms almost daily for the past week and a half in some freak weather phenomenon. The ground was already saturated and could absorb no more rain, so our area had been victim to flash flooding. As the boys drove me around, I noticed the abnormally high levels of the rivers and creeks. Even the ditch behind Nathan's back yard fence was full of muddy water.

Our laughter died out when Dr. Green's phone chimed, and he fished it back out to check the text message.

"Well, Pookie, looks like administration is letting all non-essential staff head home before the storm hits. Do you want to go home to ride this one out?" he asked as he set his phone on the table and opened up a weather app to check the latest radar maps.

"Are you essential staff?" I countered with another question.

"Today, I am. Even if I wasn't, I would still want to stay here. A lot of the nurses and office people have young kids to care for and would rather be home with them, which I don't blame them for. Being a bachelor myself, I don't have much to go home to right now, and I'm certainly more useful here when we're shorthanded," he explained. As lonely as it made him sound out to be, he made sense. It was a decision I could support. "But family first, and that means you, Pookie. If you want to get out of here, I'll take you out."

Before I could reply, his phone started vibrating, dancing on the tabletop, and singing 'One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater,' as a ringtone. A picture of Kota with his nose in a textbook and his glasses on the end of his nose illuminated the screen.

"Kota is calling you," I said with a grin.

"An astute observation!" he sarcastically praised as he answered my neighbor's call. "Talk to me."

"Hi, Kota!" I chirped.

Dr. Green beamed and relayed my message. "Kota says hello."

While he listened to the other end, I finished a few more bites of my chicken salad. Dr. Green scolded me about my eating habits (bordering on a lack thereof) just before the emergency alert, and I did not want him to worry about another thing if I could prevent it.