I looked out at the thrashing seas. It was really starting to churn out there, and the skies were darkening ominously. Any good riding waves were long gone. Maybe it would have been better to evacuate, I thought. There was no one else on the beach, and maybe no one on the whole peninsula, for all I knew. Then I saw the lone car coming toward me, its shape almost obscured by the blowing sand. I thought I knew who it was.
Sure enough, it was the police. The loudspeaker blared unreasonably loud. "You, there," it said. "You have been ordered to evacuate. Please exit the beach immediately, and head for the mainland."
I squinted at the windows, but I couldn't make out whether there was one officer in the car, or twenty. The salt spray had made them semi-obscure. I waved at the car and turned toward the approach, fighting to keep my surfboard from being blown out of my hands. As I glanced back, I saw the car slowly following me up the beach ramp. I walked back to it, and waited for the window to come down. It dropped an inch.
"I'm having a little trouble with the wind," I said to the officer, whose eyes peered at me from the tiny opening he had created. He looked at me like he didn't believe me. Suddenly, the wind reversed, and my board smacked the patrol car just behind his door.
"Get in," was all he said. I opened the rear door and fought to get the surfboard lined up to go in.
"HEY!"
I felt the nose of my board contact something, and a girl leaned across the seat toward me. "You trying to kill me with this thing?" she yelled, then took hold of the rails and pulled it in across her lap. I jumped in, and the wind slammed the door shut behind me.
"Sorry," I offered, and smiled at her. She smiled back, and I couldn't help but notice how cute she was. She was young, probably about 20, and had long sun-streaked blonde hair, loosely tied with a half dozen little scrunchies of various colors. Freckles on her cheeks, green eyes, and the whitest teeth I had ever seen completed the picture. My smile immediately increased. "What's your name?" I asked.
Before she could answer, the police officer in the front seat said, "Non-evacuee, just like yours." I rolled my eyes upward, and she giggled.
"Yep," she said. "That's me. Ol' Non-evacuee. Your parents run out of normal names, too?"
I liked her immediately. "No, my mom worked for FEMA," I deadpanned, "and that was the only name approved by the agency. That, and Catastrophic."
She giggled again, a child-like and yet somehow sexy little laugh. Then, seemingly embarrassed, she turned and looked pensively out her side window. I took the moment to look more closely at her.
She wasn't the snappiest dresser. She wore a pair of sweat- pants and a baggy military-style jacket. Not exactly the Hilfiger or ENYCE I would have expected someone of her age to be dressed in, but somehow it worked for her. Well, I had on just a pair of baggies and a torn long-sleeve t-shirt, so who was I to criticize?
"Where are you taking us?" she suddenly asked of our driver. He gave no immediate answer, and I realized he was listening to his police radio. The call was giving out information about some other people who apparently hadn't evacuated as ordered, but they were in the next community up the coast.
"The local hospital," he said, satisfied that he wouldn't have to take the call. "They're the designated shelter for this area. You ever think about listening to the radio when there's a hurricane approaching?"
"Cumberland, or Holy Trinity?" I asked. I hoped it wasn't Trinity. My mother had taken me there once when I broke my arm, years ago, and I had a bad reaction to the tetanus shot they had given me. I hadn't been back there in over 40 years. Superstitious, I guess.
"It'll be Cumberland," he informed us. "Trinity's evacuated." I thought about this for a moment. It must be a bad one, I realized, to evacuate a 150-bed hospital! Guess I should pay more attention to the news from now on. I glanced over at the girl, and she was looking at me, with a worried look in her eyes.
"Stacy," she said.
We were let out at the entrance to the hospital, and ordered to register at the front desk, in order to be given a place to sleep. As we entered, I was amazed at the sheer number of people inside. They lined both sides of the main corridor, most clutching pillows and bags of food and belongings. I was asked to leave my surfboard in a room behind the desk, which I reluctantly did. We registered, were shown into some kind of conference room with the chairs stacked against one wall, and chose a section of the floor upon which to sleep. Then we got these thin mattresses from a stack and laid them down.
"Well, I guess this is home," I said to Stacy, propping myself up on one arm on the mattress. It actually wasn't too bad; not as lumpy as the bed in my apartment.
Stacy settled onto her pallet with a skeptical look on her face. "I'd rather be home," she said, and she looked suddenly very young and scared. I asked her where home was, and she told me, "A long way from here." Then, after some gentle prompting, she began to talk, softly.
Over the course of the next hour, she told me about how she came to leave home, how she met up with some other girls, and how together they shared an apartment. The others had fled back to their homes and their parents when the evacuation order came out, but Stacy had burned that bridge, so she decided to ride the storm out.
"Then that cop saw me outside, and ordered me into the car," she said. "I knew I shouldn't have gone out, but I wanted to watch the ocean."
I told her I had wanted to ride the storm surf, so I hid out in the dunes until all the traffic had gone. Then I snuck down the beach a ways, looking for a good place to go out, but the waves kept getting more and more angry, and I began to realize I was too old to do battle with that kind of ocean.
"In fact, I think I aged a couple of years, just looking at those waves," I laughed. "I never was a big-wave rider."
I noticed she was studying my face thoughtfully. "How old are you?" she asked. "And by the way, just what is your name?"
"Oh, sorry, it's Brad," I answered. "And I'm old enough to be your father." Damn, I thought, that was a stupid thing to say!"
She smiled, however, and said, "I doubt that."