Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

“Good luck with that! I can barely get my kids to do their homework.”

“Playing the piano is fun,” he said to her.

Half an hour later, the three women left. They took Meredith’s car, since their own garage doors were stuck and they couldn’t get their cars out, and Meredith’s wasn’t. They took her SUV, and Jack was shocked. Normally, she had him drive her, but she didn’t want him to. She had suddenly found independence, and now she had friends. He was as worried about it as Debbie, who looked sour as she turned the TV on for Tyla’s kids when the women drove away. Arthur had suggested a piano lesson to them and they liked the idea. Debbie was going to take them all to the piano in the drawing room after they watched a TV show or two. Since Meredith was out, she helped herself to a beer, out of sight of the children. Jack had had a swig of bourbon after lunch and was in a better mood, and he had told Debbie he had a plan.

“What do you think it will be like?” Ava asked them as they headed down the hill toward the Marina. It was slow going with many streets blocked off, and part of the Marina closed, since it was on landfill, and rows of houses had collapsed. They had suffered the worst damage in ’89 too. “Do you think it will be scary?” She was nervous now, but all three of them were excited, and liked the idea of lending a hand to help people in need.

They parked between two piles of rocks. Nothing was orderly when they got there, and they threaded their way through the crowds in front of the school. There were hundreds of people, men, women, and children, and close to a thousand more once they got inside. There were large rooms with food stations, a massive cafeteria, and everything else was set up as dormitories. There was a haphazard information area on rickety tables, with half a dozen people telling new arrivals where to go. There was a nursing station in the rear, where minor injuries were being treated. Those with anything more severe were being sent to local hospitals.

Meredith explained that they wanted to volunteer, and the woman they spoke to looked relieved.

“Great,” she said, glancing at them. They were clean, sane, sober, and willing. “Any special skills?”

“I’m a nurse,” Tyla said, and the woman told her to go to the first aid station. She left with a smile on her face and looked excited now that they were there.

“I’ll do whatever you need,” Ava said, “childcare, cafeteria.” The woman pointed to the main cafeteria and Ava took off with a wave at Meredith, and the same woman sent her to a room full of children, where they needed someone to read them stories, so they could give their frazzled parents a break.

They assigned Meredith to about twenty five- and six-year-olds, with another woman to help her, and she read book after book, wiped noses, took them to the bathroom, and let them sit on her lap in turns. She felt like she’d been running a race all day by the time her shift ended at seven. The children thanked her, and she went to find Ava in the cafeteria. She’d been handing out sandwiches, yogurt, and bottles of juice and water all day. She told them she had to go, and they went to find Tyla, who was bandaging scrapes and cuts. She had just assessed a child with a concussion, and sent her and her parents to the hospital where Andrew was working. She finished a few minutes later, and the three of them left the shelter a little after seven P.M. They’d been there longer than expected, and could have stayed all night. The school was filled with people who were now homeless, or with damaged homes, and were in desperate need of food, clothes, and housing.

“Wow, what an incredible day,” Ava said, as Meredith drove them home. All three of them were deeply moved by what they’d heard and seen.

“I hope my kids didn’t drive Debbie nuts,” Tyla said, on a high from working as a nurse again.

“I read stories to five-year-olds all afternoon. We spent more time in the bathroom than reading, but we went through a stack of books. I felt like Mary Poppins.” Meredith grinned. They had all promised to go back the next day. It took them less time to drive home, because Meredith knew what streets to avoid now. She pulled the car into the garage, and they entered the house through the kitchen. The men were all talking at the kitchen table. Debbie was cooking dinner, and shot Meredith a dark look. They were home much later than they’d said.

“How was it?” Ava asked Peter, and he was beaming.

“We found a family of a mom and dad and a three-month-old. The baby was fine, the mom was pretty shaken up, and the dad had a nasty head injury, but they’re going to be okay. Where were you?”

“At the shelter in the Marina.” All three looked as excited as Peter did, and Daphne ran into her mother’s arms.

“I can play the piano!” she said. “I played ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ Mr. Arthur showed me how.” Tyla smiled and kissed her, as Andrew looked at her coldly.

“You just walked off and left our kids? What if there’d been another earthquake?”

“I’d have come back if there were, and so would you,” she said, less cowed by him than usual. She didn’t want to let him spoil a great day where she’d done something useful and got to use her skills again.

Joel looked hurt as he came to kiss Ava. “Hey, babe, if you want to help, you can help me put my office back together. You don’t have to go to some school with a lot of filthy homeless people. There are others who can do that.”

“You have your staff to help with your office. They need everyone they can get at the shelters,” she said, and kissed him. He looked like a boy whose feelings were hurt.

“You have talented children,” Arthur added. “We had a very good first lesson,” he told Tyla and Andrew.

“I really liked it, Mom,” Will said.

“Me too.” Daphne grinned.

Debbie had hamburgers ready for them ten minutes later and they all sat down to dinner. Andrew said he’d had an exhausting day, and didn’t speak to his wife all through the meal. He left the table as soon as they finished eating, and signaled to Tyla to come with him. She followed a few minutes later with the children, who didn’t want to go upstairs, but thanked Debbie for dinner, and did as they were told. Peter, Ava, and Meredith were full of tales about what they’d done that day. And they all went to bed early. They were exhausted, and Joel made it obvious that he wanted alone time with Ava, which left Arthur and Meredith alone in the kitchen for a little while, until he went upstairs too. Meredith walked him upstairs, and Peter was waiting for him with the bed turned down, and his pajamas.

“It sounds like you had a good day,” Arthur said to Meredith as they walked upstairs together.

“I feel alive for the first time in years,” she admitted. “It’s terrible to say, but the earthquake is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I feel useful again.”

“That’s something to think about, isn’t it?” he said wisely, kissed her cheek, and walked into his room with Peter.

He was right, Meredith realized. She sat in her room, physically tired but wide awake, thinking about her afternoon at the shelter, but at the same time, she was worried about Tyla. She didn’t like the look on Andrew’s face when he went upstairs and gestured to Tyla to follow him, like a child who had done something bad and needed to be punished in private. She hoped he wasn’t being too hard on her. Something about him frightened her for Tyla, but she hadn’t complained about him. It was the look of terror in her eyes that Meredith didn’t like.

As she thought about it, she went to her closet and pulled out piles of old sweaters and jeans, some warm jackets and shoes to take to the shelter the next day. They needed them more than she did.