Rick spoke first. "Lesseeβah, here it is!" and he flipped on a flashlight, bathing the room in dim light that would have been romantic except for the storm howling outside rattling the plywood.
Karen headed for the candles and lit several. Rick switched on the lantern. Nobody felt much like continuing the bridge game, but there wasn't much else to do. Everyone made desultory remarks about the storm, and Rick peeked out through a space he had left on the edge of the store window. It was completely dark. He shined his flashlight through the space and revealed horizontal rain with occasional debris flying or tumbling by. The weather monitor had indicated close to a direct hit. This meant the wind would be blowing mostly straight down their street until the eye of the storm, then it would blow up the street. Neither direction was directly against the front of the building, but the wind still rattled the plywood. Rick was glad he hadn't spared the nails.
"See anything?" Roy's voice near his ear startled him.
"Take a look," Rick handed him the flashlight, and Roy peered out. "Worse than what we get in Alabama, that's for sure. Reminds me of when my wife looses her temper!"
"You better watch out or I'll lose my temper in here, mister Janks. And we ain't got no plywood for that!" She pretended to look fierce.
"Yes, my dear," Roy smiled back. "Since there isn't anything else to do, maybe we should continue our game, eh?" He seated himself, "Um, where were we?"
The game picked back up, and Rick decided to see if he could find something to do in the shop. He put away a few things, stared into the blackness on the other side of the garage door window, and thought about what civic cleanup might await them tomorrow. Eventually he roamed back into the main room and idly watched the card players. The noise of the storm made it hard to carry on a conversation, and when that rubber was over, they quit playing. Karen pulled out some food and passed it around.
"Do you think we'll be able to get back into our store?" queried Giuseppe.
"Maybe," said Rick, but you'll get soaking wet in about one second, and the wind is something fierce. Both of our doors open into the wind, so they won't blow open. If we can even get them open." Rick looked thoughtful. "If you can wait a few hours, the wind will stop when the eye hits, and you can get back then." Rick experimentally pushed open the door a few inches. The howling seemed to triple, rain blew in, and it was obvious that Rick was pushing fairly hard to keep the door open that much. He let the door shut.
Dominic yawned. "Maybe we should try to go there now anyway? Yes? I think these nice people are staying up because they have company, and it's pretty late."
"I'm not sure we could sleep anyway with all that carrying on outside," said Mrs. Janks, and then she yawned.
Karen said, "well, we have lots of soft things on the wetsuit racks. Why don't we improvise something? My parents have a spot up stairs, Rick likes the door, I have my office, and you two can sleep in the pah-lah by the clothing."
With Rick and Karen's help, they arranged makeshift sleeping pads for the two brothers, and everyone tried to settle down.
The storm really was more of an inconvenience than a danger so far, but Rick worried about Gus and Bill.
About 3 AM Rick was awakened by the silence. They had taken the full brunt of the storm and the eye was overhead. He got up and nudged the two Italians to see if they wanted to try for their store.
Dominic was already awake, and he whacked his brother on the head. "Get up, you bum. It's safe to go back."
Giuseppe shook his head rapidly. "Momma Mia! You coulda just poked me!" and he dragged himself up.
Rick shook his head slowly. "I can sure tell you're brothers," he grinned. The three of them restored the wet suits to their hangers and headed for the door.
Except for distant flickers of lightning, it was pitch dark outside, and eerily quiet. He waved the flashlight left and right. Debris cluttered the street. He looked up. The moon was not visible, but stars were! The Milky Way spangled across the sky almost bright enough to cast a shadow. Rick couldn't help but stare at the sky while Giuseppe unlocked their door. With goodbyes and profuse thanks, they went inside.
Rick turned around to go back, and ran into Karen! She had deliberately placed herself too close, which Rick didn't mind a bit. "So. Ever kiss in the eye of a hurricane?" he asked.
"I wanna do more than that, but I don't think we'll get away with it. You brave man, you," And she put her arms around his neck and ground herself into him while they kissed.
They decided to walk around and look over the area. It turned out that only two stores hadn't covered their windows, and both had blown in, a coffee shop and a realty office, both small. They turned inland toward the residential districts, and the buildings there didn't fare as well. They saw several damaged and missing roofs. Some buildings had walls missing. Rick could make out part of his apartment building; that much of it looked okay. At least the roof appeared to be in place. Trees had fallen everywhere, sometimes onto things, and most branches on the standing trees were bare. Power poles and lines criss-crossed the roads. A few other people were also roaming around, and reported essentially the same things Rick and Karen were seeing. It looked discouraging; lots of work lay ahead.
A breath of air stirred. "We better get back inside. It's gonna start up again." As they headed back in, they spotted Mom and Dad standing at the doorway. "Come quick and look," Rick said. You have maybe a minute before it starts to blow again," and he led them out to admire the sky.
Rick pointed out a few stars and constellations, then shined the flashlight up toward the east, and they could just make out a wall of clouds nearly overhead. Rick could hear a muffled roaring. "Let's get inside!" They shut the door, and a few seconds later the storm picked up as suddenly as it had stopped half an hour before.
"You sure don't see that in Alabama," Roy said.
"It even beats my temper!" Mom agreed, to chuckles from her hubby.
Karen had turned on the lantern and was setting out some munchies. "Our Italian friends left the last of their wine," she said as she poured a spot into some paper cups. "Let's toast the storm!"
They lifted their cups to multiple cries of "To the storm!"
Karen's parents thanked Rick for the astronomy lesson and shuffled back upstairs. Rick and Karen sat down to the munchies.
Rick said, "Last time I was able to look, the boat still wasn't in its slip. I'm worried." They exchanged concerned looks. "I'm frustrated that we don't know and can't do anything about it. And we can't help."
"Yet." Karen tossed back the last of her wine. "Let's make a trip to the terminal our first order of business when we can get out."
Rick glanced at the window and saw that the crack was getting lighter. Dawn was starting. He got up and looked out. "What a mess! I don't see any broken windows, but nobody'll be driving down the street for a while. I hope we'll be able to walk it!"
Karen came to look. Rick was just too nervous about the parents to show the affection he wanted to, and apparently Karen was, too. They kept a chaste distance and presently they heard the shop door.
Roy said, "Couldn't sleep. Y'all see anything?"
They turned. Karen offered, "Come and look. I'd say it looks like Mom went on a rampage, but that's your joke." She moved aside so her dad could look out.