Page 56 of Sandbar Sunrise
It was easy to see why her husband had died saving her.
In the swirl of the storm, Stone had seen it unfold.
He knew that the tornado had changed his life just as it had changed J.J.’s life.
He was moved that day and in the days after.
There was something about being on the ground, in it, and ultimately with the people of this tight-knit little place that shifted his view of what mattered in the world.
It’s not that he hadn’t helped other places, or things, or companies, or even charities.
Stone Stirling had invested his money into businesses he felt were profitable in his younger days. Now, with such wild success, he was on the hunt for ways to give it away. That was part of the shift: how could he do good with this money that now multiplied without him even doing anything.
Over the years, he’d built things—or thought he had. But honestly, he saw now that what he’d done was fund the work of others. And not even that. He’d funded companies that funded companies that built things. If Dean Tucker was hands-on, Stone Stirling was hands-off, on-high, too far away to say he built anything.
At fifty-five, he’d experienced so much. Been so many places. But this place was different. Just like J.J. was different.
The day of the tornado, he’d heard the wail of the siren and then the roar, like a freight train. There was no mistaking when a tornado was coming.
He’d been in California during a huge earthquake and, of course, hundreds of small ones. He’d been in Miami during Hurricane Andrew.
But this was different from those events. There was no warning, really. The siren was almost too late. While meteorologists can track the exact path of a hurricane, days before landfall, the tornado explodes in the sky. Two opposing forces swirl and create something fearsome but also random.
When Stone saw it in the distance, it weaved and leaped and jerked. His first instinct was to go high, like for a hurricane. You needed to get away from the water in a hurricane. But here it was different. You need to get down. You need to hope it skips over you.
He'd been in his SUV coming from the airport when he heard the sirens. Even last year, he was changing. He’d started to eschew having a driver and an assistant.
Normally, he would be in the back seat, on the phone. It was his habit to not look at the landscape. It was his time to catch up on work while he was in transit. But he’d realized how many vistas he’d missed by doing that. Stone was trying not to miss the view when the view turned dark that day. And there was no driving through it. He’d need to get out of his SUV and take cover. He only had seconds to decide.
He pulled up to Barton’s and got out of the SUV. That’s when he saw the girl. Maybe she was ten or twelve? The kid was alone and paralyzed with indecision outside in the grocery parking lot, like he was. Her long red hair was whipping around, and she stood and circled in the same place. She needed to run but didn’t.
Seeing her snapped Stone out of it. “Hey! Come on!” He grabbed the girl’s hand.
“I was trying to get to the store, and my dad is…”
“No time.” And that was it. There was no more time. Getting inside the grocery store or anywhere else was impossible. The twister was there. He took the girl and dragged her to the far side of his SUV.
“Crawl under there!” He didn’t know if that was even the right thing to do, but it was better than getting hit by a flying limb. He hunched down, back to the wind, and covered his head. The girl was half under the car. The rattle and roar surrounded them. He peered through his elbow to try to see what was happening.
Stone saw a man in work boots and jeans running toward the town.Who in the world would run toward it? Stone ventured another glimpse down Main Street.
It was Dean Tucker, and he was waiving people into the beauty parlor. He recognized J.J. in the distance. But he couldn’t hear anything but the wind.
Stone had to hunch down again as sand hit his eyes. “Stay down, it’s here!” he called to the girl. And that was all he actually saw. He heard the crashing. The snapping of lumber. It was a cacophony of destruction all around him.
For a terrifying moment, there was an absence of sound. Something seemed to suck the air away. There was an unnatural silence. And then the pressure released. It made his ears pop like a rapid descent in an airplane.
The monstrous thing was gone. He saw its dark talons on the horizon. But it was moving away.
“Okay, come on out.”
The girl crawled out. He took her hand. He looked her up and down. She was stunned, clearly, like anyone who saw that thing. But she seemed unharmed.
“What store were you going to?”
“What?”
“Where’s the store your dad’s at? Can I help you get there?”
