Shock

-23-

Despite the fact that she was normally a few inches taller than me, my boss now looked small and vulnerable as she lay on the cot.
I was towering over her, a train of mismatched emotions racing through my insides.
Relief, worry, happiness, fear and disbelief all occupied my thoughts. So much so, that I couldn't bring myself to string together coherent sentences, and I ended up simply asking 'How?'
Her expression darkened a bit.
"I had to fix something with a dispatcher. He couldn't meet me at the diner, so he asked me to come over. I didn't want to bother you on your break, so I told Nathan he was in charge for the next few hours."
Her eyes flicked over my shoulder, to where Nathan was standing.
He, together with Paisley, Peter and Haley, had apparently followed me when I'd raced through the cots in my excitement. Now, they were all standing there, neatly side by side, following our conversation.
"I was driving for about five minutes when the car started shaking," Rhonda continued.
"Though, obviously, it wasn't just the car. It was the strangest thing! I saw lamp post bending right in front of my eyes. Trees! Post boxes! It was madness.
Anyway, I managed to keep control over the steering wheel. But when I was almost there, the earth started shaking again."
She was talking about the second shock we'd felt at the diner too, the larger one that had caused the windows to break and the jukebox to fall down on mrs. Stratford... I didn't want to think about that right now. Mrs. Stratford was at the diner with Layla and Keith, and there was nothing I could do for her right then and there. I forced myself to focus my attention on Rhonda's words.
"I tried to stop the car," she said, a grim expression creeping on her face, "but another car coming out of a side street lost control and crashed into me..."
She saw me flinch at the word 'crash'. Maybe that's why she decided to give me the abbreviated version.
"So, yeah, that's how I ended up here."
"Wait, wait, wait," Nathan stomped forward, in between me and Rhonda.
"You skipped a lot there. How did you get out of the car?"
Rhonda glanced at me, then quickly looked back at Nathan.
"That's not important. The important thing is, some nice people found me and told me they could take me somewhere safe. They brought me here, and I've been here all day."
"Did you get hurt in the..." I let my voice trail off, still not comfortable with the word 'car crash'.
She pursed her lips, as if deciding how much to tell me.
"Be honest," I encouraged her.
"A little," she finally said, "I broke a few ribs-"
"A few?" I shouted.
She looked at me sternly and I apologized for interrupting.
"As I was saying," she continued, "I broke a few ribs and I may have suffered a light whiplash, but other than that, I'm fine."
I was relieved to hear her injuries weren't life-threatening, but I was still shaken from her story. I'd been worried sick when she wasn't back at the diner during the earthquake. Now that so much had happened to us, I hadn't really thought about her that much, and I felt terrible.
While my thoughts had been focussed on my family, I'd forgotten someone who was just as important. Though Rhonda might not be related to me biologically, I'd known her for so long that was just a minor detail, something that didn't influence the close bond we had.
"So," she said now, "what have you been up to? I see you've met Nathan,"
Nathan smiled shyly at the mention of his name.
"...and Peter's here," she smiled at Peter, who took this as an invitation to run up to Rhonda and give her a hug. I could see by her cramped smile it hurt her ribs, but she didn't say anything.
"And you're the birthday girl, aren't you?" Rhonda said to Haley, who nodded timidly. Right there, I could see the similarity to her uncle.
"But you..." Rhonda was now speaking to Paisley.
"I'm Paisley," Paisley responded.
"I'm Charlie's friend."
I smiled when I heard her refer to me as a friend. It was nice to know she still thought of me in that way.
"Well, any friend of Charlie's is a friend of mine," Rhonda said cheerfully, before asking how we'd all held up during the earthquake.
I told her about the small damage during the first shock, about how Nathan and I had been cleaning up the storage room when the second one hit.
I left out the bit about the fist fight, jumping straight to the part where we'd left the diner.
"We went to my house first."
Then I remembered something.
"Wait, that's not entirely true. We got sidetracked and found Paisley in an abandoned building."
I went on to report our discovery of the empty house and our adventures in the Ugly duckling.
"And now we're here," I concluded.
"Wow," Rhonda whistled, "That's quite the adventure."
It was. Up until just now, I hadn't really been looking back at the events. Now, telling the story like this, I realized just how much had happened over the last twenty-four hours. It was a lot to handle for a couple of seventeen-year olds like Nathan, Paisley and myself.
I couldn't even begin to comprehend what it must be like for the two seven-year olds we had with us.
"You guys have really earned yourselves some rest. I'm pretty sure there are still some empty cots," Rhonda said, attempting to look around the room, but failing due to her injuries.
"Oh, we're not staying," Nathan interjected.
Rhonda seemed surprised. I was too. Though I knew we had to get back on the road, I couldn't help but feel a bit fuzzy at the thought of staying inside, wrapped up in blankets, safe from the dangers that lay beyond our reach.
To hear Nathan say so bluntly that that was not going to happen felt like a rude awakening.
"You're not?" Rhonda asked.
"We need to find Charlie's family." He explained.
Rhonda nodded understandingly, a warm smile adorned her face.
"I knew I made the right decision leaving you in charge."
And with a round of elaborate goodbyes, we left the Youth Music Centre.