“I guess so,” Ursula said, brushing herself off.
The aftershock had only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to cause more havoc around town.
Even more people were milling about around town as Davy and Ursula walked carefully through the streets.
“Why don’t these people realize that they’d be better off in their homes,” Ursula asked as a group of teenagers ran past them. “With a disaster like this, there could be looting or rioting going on.”
“That’s right,” Davy said, taking Ursula’s hand and picking up the pace. “We’d betta’ hurry back to the Pad. It’s only a couple of blocks now.”
Finally they arrived at the Pad, but when Davy tried to open the front door, he found it wouldn’t budge.
“Hey, hey guys,” Davy called, pounding on the heavy wood, “let us in!”
“Hey, it’s Davy,” Peter exclaimed, from inside, running over to the door and pulling hard on the knob until it gave way. “The shaking must have jarred the door.”
“Boy are we glad to see you,” Davy said as they entered the Pad.
“Oh my gosh,” Ursula exclaimed as she saw Micky and Adriana with the baby. “I can’t believe it! I missed it!”
Micky stepped back and beamed with pride as Ursula and Davy came to see the baby girl.
“Oh, what’s her name,” Ursula asked smiling at Adriana.
“Well, we haven’t exactly decided that yet,” Adriana answered with a laugh.
“She’s just gorgeous,” Davy said, touching the baby’s tiny hand.
Everyone stood cooing and flaunting over the infant, until another knock was heard.
“I wonder who that could be,” Peter asked with a laugh as he went to the door.
Before he could get there, it burst open.
“Have you guys seen what happened next door,” Link asked, rushing through the door with Jessie close behind.
“No,” Katerina said, her voice rising with suspicion, “what exactly is going on next door?”
“Oh no,” Jessie said quickly. “Is everybody here? Adrian! You had the baby?!”
“Yeah,” Micky said, still looking at the baby, “everybody’s here but Mike and January.”
“Mike and January,” nearly everybody exclaimed together.
“Oh man,” Link said, “where were they when you last saw them?”
“I sent Mike next door with some food for January before the quake started,” Katerina said slowly, a rock forming in the pit of her stomach. “What’s wrong next door?”
“We better get over there,” Link said quickly.
Everybody but Adriana got up and trekked outside to look next door.
The entire second floor of the apartment had collapsed.
Mike groaned loudly as he tried to move. There was something heavy on him, impairing his ability to move even more.
Wherever he was, he soon found that there was not much room. He tried to move his arms and feel about him, but he kept hitting the wall.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw it was January’s body thrown across his own that had kept him from moving, and possibly kept him from being hit by more debris.
He tried to lift his head, but it just felt too heavy. Lifting one hand he touched the dull pain coming from his forehead. It stung, and he could feel a moist piece of cloth, which must have been used to help stop the bleeding.
Looking at January, he could barely see her, but he could tell that her shirt had been ripped. She had been helping him.
Carefully, he nudged January.
“January,” he called, moving his hand to push her dusty hair away from her face.
January’s eyes opened and quickly remembering where she was, moved off of Mike and slumped on the floor.
“Michael,” she said quickly, barely believing that he spoke again, “are you okay?”
“Hmm,” he answered, touching his forehead again, “I knew Babbit probably used some second hand carpenters on this place. No wonder it was done so soon.”
“You were hit pretty hard on the head with something,” January continued in a hurried voice.
“I know,” he said, wincing from the pain. “Thanks for stopping the bleeding.”
“I—I,” January began timidly, “I thought you were going to die.”
“I know,” he said quietly as he gazed through the darkness.
Something about the way he spoke made January want to flee, but as she tried to inch away, she hit another wall. Evidently the space they were in had gotten even smaller from the aftershock.
“What do you mean, you know,” she asked, into the blackness, resting her head on her arms as she lay on her stomach.
“I had a dream,” Mike said softly. “An incredible dream…You were in it.”
“I was,” January asked, shyly. It was one thing spilling out her life to him while she thought he was knocked out, but it was another thing to actually be attempting to hold a conversation with a man she had begun to hate since they met months ago.
“Yeah,” Mike answered, with a chuckle, “You told me about your life. You said I wouldn’t want someone like you.”
January swallowed hard and her throat became dry. He had heard her. He had heard everything she said. She couldn’t hide anymore. Mike had been listening the whole time.
“Kinda funny, ‘cause we sound a lot alike,” Mike continued. “My life isn’t as together as you think it might be. I haven’t always been who I am today. Heck, I won’t be who I am today, tomorrow.”
January couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at his comment despite the situation. Would they even be around tomorrow?
“I know you might not believe this,” said Mike, attempting to turn to look at her, “but I know how you feel.”
Instinctively January recoiled a bit as his gaze.
“Why are you so afraid of me,” Mike asked quietly, into the darkness. “I wouldn’t hurt you. Ever.”
Something in his voice was different from any January had ever heard before. It was a calm voice, but seemed to reflect an air of power and confidence. It was almost methodic as she played his last comment over and over in her mind.
Could she really believe him?
“I don’t know everything about your past,” Mike continued, breaking her revere, “but I want to know who you are now. Whoever hurt you—I’m not that person.”
Slowly, Mike reached out and she felt him pull her closer to him. She didn’t resist. Despite his condition, he wrapped her in a warm hug.
They stayed that way for what seemed like a long time. January buried her face in his shirt as she willed tears not to come. Mike closed his eyes and stroked her hair.
“Michael,” she said, lifting up her head and speaking into the darkness, “I’m so scarred.”
“Me too,” he said in a barely audible whisper.
“There can’t be much air left in here,” January said, looking about, fretful.
“Shhhh,” Mike told her, wrapping both his arms around her tightly, “it’s gonna be okay.”
The two just laid there for awhile, both of them not saying a thing. Each looking at the gloom. Thoughts going out in all directions.
“Michael,” January said, piercing the silence.
“What,” Mike whispered.
“I know this is a lot to ask right now,” January started, feeling foolish, but also realizeing that if she was about to die, she wanted to do it peacefully, “but would you—I mean—could you…would you sing something?”
“You want me to sing to you,” Mike asked, looking down where she laid in his arms. He didn’t think that this was neither the place nor the time for a serenade.
“Music always helps me when I’m afraid,” January said, feeling a bet sheepish that she had asked. “It’s okay. You don’t have to.”
Mike sighed and remembered how much music had a calming effect on him too. He couldn’t refuse her. January was acting so different from the hard and cold woman that he had come to know. She seemed so young and helpless.
“What do you want me to sing,” he finally asked.
“Anything,” January answered.
“Well, I have been working on this one tune…,” Mike started to say.
“Go ahead,” January said, her head beginning to feel heavy. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe.
“I haven’t been able to finish it,” he said softly.
“That’s fine,” January whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“I walk alone most every night,” Mike began to sing, his voice sounding strangely melancholy while singing a song that he had intended to be upbeat, “beneath the stars that shine so bright. Bright as the eyes of you.”
A soft smile played upon January’s lips as she nestled closer to Mike, the comfort she longed for found in his voice, her eyelids feeling heavier by the second.
“Lonely I look at the green, flowing meadows,” Mike sang breathing carefully, “wondering what I am to do. Sun going down and the trees cast their shadow…”
Mike could feel his own strength fading as he continued to sing very quietly, “Sun going down and the trees cast—their—shadow…”
Mike’s own eyelids couldn’t hold up any longer. His breathing became slow and infrequent.
Once again he encountered the darkness, but this time he was not alone.
“Mike,” Micky shouted, “Mike! Mike! Can you hear me Mike? Link, Peter, Davy, help me move this hunk of wood.”
“January,” Katerina called from next to the remains of her front door.
“Are they breathing,” Jessie asked, moving to stand next to Katerina.
“I don’t know,” Link said as the men maneuvered their way through the rubble to where Mike and January lay.
Peter and Katerina looked at each other questioningly as they saw Mike’s arm around January and her head resting next to Mike’s chest.
“I can’t really tell,” Link said after checking the two, “but we’ve got to get them to a hospital, and fast.”
Suddenly what they had hoped to see miraculously pulled up in the driveway. A police squad car.
“We’ve been patrolling the area and checking on everyone,” said the policeman who stepped out of the vehicle and met the group near the demolished building.
“Yes,” Micky said, motioning to the hole where January and Mike had been trapped. “These two need one and my wife is inside. She’s fine, but she just had a baby.”
“All right,” the officer said, “you kids stay with them and try to get those two awake, but don’t move them. The ambulance will be here any minute.”
Two days later, Mike found himself in a strange bed, sunlight streaming through a large window to the right of him.
Light. He felt as if he had not seen light forever. Everything lately had seemed so dark, so shadow covered. Even his dreams there were shadows.
Looking around him he saw that he was alone in this small, bright room. Where was his disaster companion?
“January,” he remembered, sitting up quickly, “I have to find her.”
Moving to get out of the bed, he was abruptly stopped by the machines hooked to him, not to mention the pounding in his head.
“Mr. Nesmith,” a nurse said, suddenly entering the room, “great to see you up finally. There’s a friend of yours waiting to see you.”
Ignoring her comment, Mike motioned for her to come over as he rubbed his eyes and set back on the bed.
“Miss,” he said as she reached the side of his bed, “you have to let me out of here. I have to find someone.”
“I’m afraid that’s just not possible in your condition,” the nurse said, turning on her heel and walking out of the room.
“My condition,” Mike called after the nurse, “I’m not worried about my condition.”
Turning away from the door Mike began to grumble to himself. He felt fine. Well, as fine as to be expected. If he wanted to leave, he had every right to do so. He was an adult. He paid taxes.
Mike reached over to his left and picked up the phone, “I’m going to give that nurse a piece of my mind…”
As he placed the receiver to his ear, he turned his head to the door. Standing there, smiling shyly at him, was someone he did not expect to see at all.
It was January. Dressed in black pants and a blue tank top the exact color of her eyes. She looked so alive.
“January,” he exclaimed, moving to get up again.
“Oh, don’t get up Michael,” January said, coming to his bedside, “I came to see you.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Mike said, reaching out his arms to hug her.
“Of course I’m okay,” January said with a laugh, coming to the bed and returning the hug.
“Have an uncomfortable seat,” Mike said, patting a space on the bed beside him.
“Michael, look--,” January began to say.
“You know, January, I think it’s just great that we got things worked out between us,” Mike said, with uncharacteristic excitement, a huge grin forming on his tired looking face. “As soon as they let me out of here, I tell you, I’m going to take you to the finest restaurant in town. You like Mexican food?”
“Michael, I--,” January tried to say again.
“Then we can go to a movie or maybe to see an act at the club. Then,” Mike said, turning her face to his own, “maybe a moonlit stroll on the beach.”
January turned away from Mike and looked down at the floor.
“Michael, I’m trying to tell you something,” January said with a sigh.
“What,” he asked, “tell me anything. I’m listenin’.”
“Well, Michael, it’s just that, I know we’ve been through a lot together lately,” she said carefully. “And I know that a lot of what I said or did while we were stuck in the apartment might have been interpreted by you as me wanting to be more than—more than friends with you.”
Mike’s heart fell as he listened to what she had to say.
“It’s really hard for me,” January continued, “to be in a relationship. I need to take things slower for now. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, I just want to be friends. No more, no less.”
Mike swallowed hard.
“I understand,” he said quietly. But, he didn’t.
“Good,” January said, standing up and walking over to the closet. She took out a pair of jeans and tossed them to Mike.
“Here, put these on,” she said, quickly changing the subject. “There’s someone in the other room that you should meet.”
With every step Mike could feel his muscles ache as January led him down the hall and into another wing of the hospital. Soon the usual beige walls were covered with bright colors, balloons and teddy bears.
“The maternity ward,” Mike questioned as they stopped in front of a small room.
Looking inside, he saw Micky sitting in a high-backed chair, holding a small bundle in his arms.
“Mike,” Micky exclaimed as he looked up and saw his friend standing in the doorway, “come in. I want you to meet my daughter.”
“Your daughter,” Mike questioned as he carefully walked into the room, hardly able to fathom what has been taking place. “I guess I musta been out for awhile.”
“Only a couple of days,” Adriana said from where she sat on the bed, putting things into a diaper bag. “I had her during the quake. Can you believe it?”
Micky stood up and walked over to Mike with the baby.
“Knock, knock,” Peter called from the doorway, waving a stuffed rabbit in the air “the gang’s all here to escort the little princess home!”
Davy, Ursula, Jessie, Link, and Katerina were close behind as Peter came into the room.
“Mike,” Peter exclaimed waving the blue bunny when he saw his friend, “it’s great to see you up, man!”
“I swear,” Katerina said, walking past Peter with Ursula and Jessie to where Adriana sat, “he has to get her something every time we pass a store.”
“She doesn’t mind, does she,” Peter asked, walking over to Micky and dancing the bunny around Micky’s arms.
Suddenly the baby burst into sobs.
“Peter,” Davy said from the other side of the room, “now look what you’ve been ‘n gone ‘n done.”
“I’m sorry,” Peter said dejectedly. “I just get so excited.”
“You want to hold her,” Micky asked Mike above the cries.
“Gee, I don’t know,” Mike said, looking at January. She smiled warmly at him and nodded encouragement.
“Come on man, there’s nothing too it,” Micky said loudly, holding the baby girl out to him.
“What’s her name,” Mike asked, gazing down at the tiny pink bundle wrapped in a yellow blanket in Micky’s arms.
“Michelle,” Micky said, looking up at his best friend.
“It’s the feminine form of Michael,” Adriana added.
For the first time in a long time, Mike felt tears start to well up in his eyes.
He sighed and carefully took the crying infant that Micky held out to him into his arms. Immediately the cries softened until they were hardly there.
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