The Storm 94

The Storm

Apologies for the long delay between stories. My ADHD strikes again. I have been working on at least five projects in parallel without finishing any of them, but finally got this one to where I am happy with it. This story actually started out as something a bit more serious, but somewhere along the way, it morphed into one of those late-night disaster movies I used to watch as a kid.

Fair warning: there is basically no sex in this story. If graphic sex is your jam, there are many other excellent choices for you on this site. Otherwise, if you're still with me, I hope you have fun reading.

Kevin - Early Afternoon

A roadside gas station and convenience store somewhere on U.S. 41 south of Tampa.

There is something to be said for being out on the open road with no real plan or destination in mind. Most of the time, my mind is out of control with a million thoughts slamming into each other like a mosh pit at a death metal concert. When I am out on the road, though, my thoughts slow down to a tolerable hum, and I can start to relax.

Riding in early June in Florida can be a bit of a crapshoot. Some days are beautiful, warm enough that you can feel the sun on your skin but still cool enough to ride in comfort. Other days are melt-your-face hot, where it is only tolerable to ride any distance in the early morning or evening. Today was one of those first days, and my brother, Daniel, and I had been on the road for a couple of hours already.

I used to get my adrenaline fix doing maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) with the Coast Guard. I was one of the best, and I lived for that job. The training was intense, and the hours were erratic, but there was no feeling like putting yourself on the line to save a life, just you and your team against the worst that Mother Nature can throw at you. It seems like that was a lifetime ago, back when I was still married.

Now, I am divorced and out of the service. About the only adrenaline fix I get these days is from riding my motorcycle. My ex-wife, Rachel, is a good one. One of the best, in fact. But three years after the divorce, my daughter is still plenty angry with me and wants to see me as little as possible. So that gives me a lot of time to ride and think about how I messed it all up.

------

We started the day at Daniel's house in Tampa, and our plan, such as it was, was to end up down in Cape Haze at our parents' place. It had been a while since either of us had visited, and I was sure that my father would have a laundry list of chores he wanted us to take care of around the property when we got there.

Normally, this would have been my weekend with my daughter, Penny. But she was in Atlanta this weekend with Rachel, to meet her boyfriend's family for the first time. Rachel had been with her boyfriend, Frank, for the past year or so. She was finally moving on, I guess, but I couldn't hold it against her. I was the one who broke our marital vows long before she met Frank.

In case you haven't picked up on it yet, I am an idiot. And now, I am a lonely idiot.

It was easy to become morose when I thought too much about Rachel and Penny, so I shook off my dark thoughts and looked over to my left, where Daniel was sitting comfortably on his black 2022 Harley-Davidson Road King Special. He was always one for comfort over style. He bought his Road King brand new, and he got most of the advanced safety and all of the advanced comfort options. It suited him well.

The Road King weighed almost twice as much as my Ducati, and it had plenty of room for his powerful 6'3" firefighter frame to fit comfortably on it, even with his wife, Cindy, riding behind him. Today, though, he was by himself as Cindy and his daughter, Rebecca, had decided to stay home. They claimed to be worried about the Tropical Storm Watch that had been issued overnight, with the first real storm of the season forming out in the gulf. In reality, I think they just wanted to have a spa day together and to do some shopping without Daniel hovering over them. For Cindy and Rebecca, a day on the bikes for Daniel and me, meant a guilt-free day of mimosas and malls for them.

As for myself, I lean the other way on the question of comfort versus style. I was riding high on my cherry-red Ducati Monster 821. It was twitchy and responsive, like my wiry 5'11" frame. I looked good and traveled fast—but my ass and groin muscles were already screaming, and we weren't even halfway through the ride. I refused to mention my discomfort to Daniel, though, as I knew he would show no sympathy.

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Since it was just the two of us, we took our time meandering down the coast on U.S. 41, also known as the Tamiami Trail. It used to be the primary route between Tampa and Miami before they built the I-75. Now it was packed with locals and tourists. For the most part, we just hung back in traffic, although occasionally my ADHD would get the better of me and I would rocket ahead of Daniel when we hit an open stretch of road, waiting for him to catch up at the next service station.

We stopped for lunch in Venice, down by Caspersen Beach and were back on the road before 1 PM. We were maybe an hour away from Cape Haze when Daniel signaled to me, and we pulled into a gas station. I was listening to my 'Get There Sometime' playlist—more than 1,000 songs that help me get in the zone as I ride. They blend together as I cruise, letting my ADHD brain gear down enough to focus on the road. Think of Baby from

Baby Driver

but replace the Motown classics with hair metal from the eighties and hard rock from the nineties. Boston's "Peace of Mind" was just starting as we stopped. I waited while Daniel used the facilities, and my mind couldn't help but wander.

Back when I was still married, on a day like today we would have gone to the beach to hang out and ride the storm surge. Penny was a creature of the water. At eight, she had already been a better surfer than I ever was, and now, at eleven, she was gearing up for her first major competitions, and sponsors were already sniffing around.

If I closed my eyes, I could picture Rachel in her red two-piece, and Penny in her Quiksilver wetsuit, laughing as they rode the waves on our beach out on the key. Those were my favorite memories: spending the day on the beach with my family without a thought for tomorrow.

They were probably better off without me, though. I was a fun dad but a bad father and husband. It was a regret that I was sure I would take with me to my grave.

------

Lost in my own thoughts, it took me a minute to notice that the owner of the gas station had come outside and was starting to screw plywood sheets over the convenience store's windows. That seemed a bit excessive for a tropical storm that was forming far out in the gulf. Even if it intensified into a full-on hurricane, it would still make landfall hundreds of miles to the north. He was having a tough time holding up the plywood sheets while also screwing them into the siding, however, so I wandered over to help while I waited for Daniel to finish up.

"Need a hand?" I asked the owner.

"That would be much appreciated," he replied in a thick Georgian accent. "They're saying on the radio that we only have a couple of hours until the storm hits, and I want to be ready."

"I thought this storm was going to pass us by?" I said, as we worked. "I was sure I read this morning that it was going to make landfall closer to the panhandle than to here."

"That was this morning," he grunted as he drove in the last screw. "As of noon, it had grown into a full-blown hurricane and just after lunch, it took a hard right directly towards us. It's now on track to make a direct hit, and it is still growing. There is no telling how strong it will be by the time it gets here.

"If I were you, I would turn around and head back up the coast to get out of its way. It's no time to be out on your bikes."

Rachel - Early Afternoon

Stump Pass Beach State Park

It was nice to just lay back on the lounger, feet in the warm sand, oversized sunglasses and hat keeping the glare out of my eyes, watching Penny play in the surf. She was tall for an eleven-year-old and fearless. Her sun-bleached hair which had grown past her shoulders was blowing in the strong onshore breeze. She had stopped cutting it after the divorce, and I hadn't forced the issue. She was wearing her favorite wetsuit, although the swells were too rough for me to allow her to go too far out from shore, so she was riding the smaller waves closer to shore and playing in the surf.

You have to be cautious going out in hurricane season. But growing up in Florida, you learn that if you cancel your plans every time there is a Tropical Storm Watch in effect, you will never make it to the beach. It's true that the first big storm of the season was brewing out in the gulf, but it was well out to sea and was going to make landfall hundreds of miles to the north. With any luck, it would hit just close enough to generate some nice swells for Penny to play in, but far enough away to not cause too much concern.

The beach we were on was way out on the key, past the first beach where all the tourists stop, past the McMansions and yacht club, and past the second beach favored by locals. It took a while to get there, but it was worth it. There were fewer people, although the parking lot was almost full, and there was very little noise other than the muted sound of the waves hitting the beach. Penny loved this beach, even though it inevitably brought back memories of her father. The sand was pristine, though, there were shark teeth for the finding, and it had the best break within an hour's drive of our house. So, screw Kevin.

We were supposed to be in Atlanta this weekend to meet my fiancé Frank's family. He had proposed to me last weekend and booked the trip to meet his family to celebrate. A last-minute business trip, however, had put the kibosh on that plan, so we ended up staying home and coming to the beach instead.

------

I often wonder what life would be like if I hadn't powered up Kevin's old iPad that night, three years ago. Kevin had been away for two months, training new SAR team members, and I was catching up on some of the endless paperwork for the hospital. In typical Penny fashion, she had been watching a video while holding her iPad, pouring milk, and attempting to pet the cat. The iPad was the unintended victim of her multitasking, and its screen had shattered. I just wanted Penny to be able to watch her shows, and I knew Kevin kept all his old electronics in his office like some kind of cyber-hoarder.

The password was the same as it was on all of Kevin's devices. He wasn't a master of cybersecurity, and his ADHD made it difficult for him to remember one password, let alone a number of long and random alphanumeric codes. It took a while to start, but once it came back to life the notifications started rolling in.

I wasn't really paying attention, but one message caught my eye just before the notifications ended, "We still on for later?" One short message, and my world crumbled.

It was a pretty typical affair, as far as these things go. I was working fifty-hour weeks at the hospital and spending every spare moment fending off the advances of Dr. Douchebag, the head of my department. He knew I was married, but he thought he was God's gift to women, and he looked down on men like Kevin. Honestly, I had no time to sleep let alone think about other men, especially not a pompous self-important ass, but for whatever reason Dr. Douchebag brought out all of Kevin's insecurities.

Rather than communicating his concerns with me, Kevin stayed at home and stewed. He had always had a hard time between postings, the boredom and inactivity weighing heavily on his mind. That combined with my longer hours and Penny's growing independence mixed together into a potent cocktail of anger and discontent. In his mind, he constructed a fantasy that I was being unfaithful, and his fears gnawed away at him from within.

I never imagined Kevin would worry about someone like Dr. Douchebag. We had been together since high school, and we made it through medical school and postings, through the birth of Penny and through my post-partum depression. I thought we had been tested and we had survived, stronger than ever. But I was wrong.

Kevin had always been the kind of guy that drew a crowd wherever he went. He was rarely the tallest or best-looking man in a room, but he was ruggedly handsome in his own way and so charismatic women would offer to buy him drinks, even when I was right beside him. He was funny, kind and, I thought, loyal to a fault. He was my ride or die.

I wish I had noticed Kevin beginning to pull away from our marriage. If I hadn't been so exhausted all the time, maybe I could have done something before it happened. But I just didn't see it coming.

Things came to a head when Kevin was promoted to be the lead trainer for the Coast Guard SAR teams. He was working out of Sector St. Petersburg, where we lived at the time, but would be posted for 4-6 weeks to other sectors, to oversee their ongoing training. I missed him when he was away, but we texted every day and we spoke every evening when I was putting Penny to bed.

There was a woman who was part of one of Kevin's training cohorts. I looked her up on social media when I found out and immediately wished I hadn't. She was tall and fit, with raven black hair. She had been a competitive swimmer and amateur kickboxer, and she was all lean muscles and confidence. She was all the things that I wasn't. She made a practice of acquiring the men she wanted, and she set her sights on Kevin. He was flattered by the attention and was sure, by that point, that I was already stepping out from our marriage.

Things ended badly for Kevin and me, with harsh words exchanged both ways. We did the best we could to be civil around Penny, but when Penny found out why we were divorcing, she blamed her dad. She had always been a daddy's girl, and her rejection of her father after the divorce was like that of an evangelical Christian who loses their faith in God; it was sudden, intense, and final. I did my best to encourage her to forgive her father, in time, but there had been very little improvement on that front over the past three years, and I worried there might never be.

------

I came back from my daydream and noticed that there was a young girl, maybe 7 or 8, playing in the water with Penny, who was showing her how to ride waves on her boogie board. Just like her dad, Penny had one of those magnetic personalities that seemed to draw other children to her, and this girl was no exception.

A younger couple, who must have been her parents, were watching them play. After a few minutes, they came over and introduced themselves to me.

"Your daughter is a real force of nature," the husband said with a laugh.

"You don't know the half of it," I replied with a smile. "You haven't known fear until you have been hit by hurricane Penny."

"Well, Kira is sure having a blast playing with her. It's really nice of Penny to make the time to play with a younger girl like that. Most girls your daughter's age wouldn't be bothered."

"You're too kind, but I agree, Penny is pretty great. I am kinda biased though," I replied with a laugh.

"I hate to ask this, but we weren't really planning on spending too long at the beach today, and we didn't bring any snacks. Would you mind watching Kira for a few minutes while we scoot back to town? I noticed a food truck selling hotdogs and fries... we would be happy to bring you and Penny some fries to say thank you."

"I don't mind at all," I replied. "We should be here for another hour or so before we head back. And no need to bring back any fries for us. We always pick some up on the way home. They are worth the wait."

After a quick thank you and a word with Kira, they gave me their cell number and left. As they did so, a warm, moist wind started gusting along the beach. It wasn't the cooler breeze you would expect to be coming in off the ocean, but it was nothing to be too concerned about either.

Kevin - Early Afternoon

Heading south on State Road 776

Nothing like a little hurricane to put a damper on a nice day of riding. Hurricanes are no joke, though, and this hurricane, in particular, sounded like it could get pretty intense. Having switched from my playlists to the radio, the announcers were already calling it the 'storm of the century,' and it hadn't even made landfall yet. As if to echo that sentiment, the day was starting to become unnaturally dark.

Daniel and I could have gone back up to Tampa, I guess, but we were worried about our mom and dad, whose house was distressingly close to the coast and now, directly in the path of the oncoming storm. At least Dad was an engineer before he retired, and their house was designed and built to withstand a small nuclear strike. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that, but we were close enough that we decided to ride down to their place and wait out the storm with them just in case. Cindy and Rebecca would be safe back in Tampa and Daniel and I could provide mom and dad with some backup, in case anything went wrong.

There was no danger that Mom and Dad would evacuate before we got there. It was already pretty late for them to be leaving at this point, and my dad was as stubborn as I am. The only way he was going to be leaving that house was with the help of a tranquilizer gun and gurney.

Penny and Rachel lived close to my parents as well. After the divorce, Rachel took a position as the head of surgery at the local hospital in Englewood, which was a quarter-hour north of Cape Haze. My parents adored Penny and loved Rachel at least as much as they loved me, so they were thrilled when they moved closer. I tried my best to be a good dad and co-parent, but as my grandpa used to say, 'that's kind of like closing the barn doors after the horses are already out.' You might feel like you're making things better, but really, you're just hiding the evidence of your mistake.

Thank God they were in Atlanta, or I would have been beside myself with worry for them. Look, I know it's not my job to be worried about Rachel anymore. I get it. But there's nothing I wouldn't do for those two, same as when we were married. The only difference is that now Rachel doesn't want or need me to do much of anything.

Listening to the radio was making me even more jittery than usual. After half an hour of the same warnings and very little new information, I switched back to my playlists but upgraded from 'Get There Sometime' to 'Get There Fast.' Moments later, the Rolling Stones kicked things off with "Gimme Shelter." I had to chuckle as we rode on.

Rachel - Twenty minutes later

Stump Pass Beach State Park

Things started going sideways less than 15 minutes after Kira's parents left. That warm, moist breeze from earlier had picked up and was now a steady, swirling presence while the surf started to get much heavier. Where an hour before the waves had been high but even and regular, they were now white-capped and starting to smash into each other, creating a churning froth.

With an uneasy feeling in my gut, I got Kira and Penny out of the water, and I quickly put on my sandals and cover-up. Kira's parents still hadn't returned, and I noticed that very few, if any, cars had come into the parking lot in the last fifteen minutes. Other beachgoers around us were also looking worried and, as if by an unspoken agreement, began moving towards their parked cars.

Not five minutes later, the sky out over the gulf started turning a dark gray before descending towards the water in a grey curtain that was slowly being drawn across the day. The warm wind had grown much stronger and was now cut by gusts of almost frosty cold air.