Page 75 of The Pass
The power of four girls and the contacts in their phones is impressive, but nearly an hour later, we’ve exhausted them all and no one has heard from Tanner.
“And now my phone is dead,” Tara says with a groan.
“I’m at five percent,” Corinne adds.
“Seven.” Amelia slides hers onto the coffee table.
As I’m deciding whether or not it’s too extreme to call the highway patrol or hospitals, I’m struck with an idea. “Is there some sort of online social media group for the neighborhood or a local highway patrol page we could check for updates on accidents and road closures?”
“That’s a good idea,” Corinne says and picks up her phone
We occupy the next hour by scouring local news and social media pages until all our phone batteries die.
“There aren’t any reports of major accidents at the closure. That’s promising,” Amelia says. “And they have crews working on the downed power lines.”
Someone’s stomach growls so loudly we all hear it.
“Tanner is fine. I’m sure of it.” There are so many things I want to say to him, do with him. I’m not me without him.
In the kitchen, I rummage through the pantry and fridge for anything that we can eat without the microwave or oven. “Does anyone else want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” I offer as I start to make myself one.
“I’m not that desperate yet,” Tara says dismissively, but Amelia comes to the kitchen and I hand her the supplies.
“Thanks.” Her voice is no more than a whisper.
For as friendly as Tara acted toward Amelia, they’re not too chummy now which makes me wonder what happened after I left. I’ll burn in hell before asking.
As it gets darker outside, the mood shifts inside. Tara gets less snarky and the genuine concern for her brother is more apparent. She shuts down, sitting on the couch with her legs pulled up and staring out into the night.
I grab the candles from the spare bedroom, so we have more light in the living room and then I go to the game closet for a deck of cards and settle on the floor. As I lay out the cards for Solitaire, Tara makes an annoyed sound deep in her throat. “How are you sitting around playing cards right now? Do you even care if Tanner is okay? Or maybe you’ll just move on to the next guy and ruin his life too. One hot jock is as good as the next.”
“How dare you.” The cards bend as I fist my hands with anger. “You don’t get to judge me. You know absolutely nothing about me. Of course, I care if he’s okay. The thought of something happening to him.” I shake my head as my stomach clenches. “I can’t even fathom it.”
“We should be out there looking for him.” She stands and motions with a big wave of her hand toward the window.
“He said to stay put.” Though, I agree it feels awful not doing anything. “Besides, the road is closed. How far can we get?”
“Farther than we can sitting here.” She resumes her position on the couch, hugging her knees.
“Well, let’s go then. We’ll go as far as we can.”
“You’re serious?” she asks.
“You’re right, it beats sitting here. The rain has slowed so the roads should be safer.” She doesn’t move. Maybe she still thinks I’m kidding. “It’s what Tanner would do if it were any of us.”
And if it shuts her up, all the better.
25
Sydney
The four ofus pile into Tara’s small car. None of us had thought of charging our phones in the car before, but eagerly take turns plugging our phones in and turning them on to check for messages.
The road in the Shaw’s lake house subdivision is quiet and the few vehicles we encounter are going as slow as we are. The rain is just a drizzle, but there’s an eerie feeling being out when the houses all along are dark from the power outage.
We go on as far as we can until a police barricade prevents us from getting any closer to the highway. Tara pulls over on the side of the road and puts on her flashers. “I’m going to walk from here.”
“Walk? And do what?” Corinne asks from the back seat. “They’re not going to let you through on foot.”
