Page 32 of The Sandbar saga

Chapter 12

Katie woke up witha moan inside her room at St. Mary's. The old window facing the street rattled. She crawled to the end of her bed and looked out. It was still dark.

Rain splattered the window.

Her stomach cramped. When the pain pulled her from sleep, she'd first thought her period had started.

Thunder crackled overhead. She shivered and sat in front of the window, watching the darkness for the spear of lightning that was promised to come.

Several seconds later, the flash lit up the sky. She spotted the bolt to her left.

She shivered. South.

Astoria was in that direction. But how far could a person see lightning?

Crawling back over the bed, she grabbed her cell phone and returned to the window. She covered her bare legs with the blanket, chilled from how cool the dorm supervisor kept the building at night.

Hitting recall, knowing the last person she called was Dr. C, she waited for him to answer.

The call connected. "Katie? Is everything okay?"

"Is it storming there?" she whispered, knowing noise traveled in the old building, especially at night with the other girls sleeping.

"It's, uh,..." He yawned. "It's raining."

"Is there thunder and lightning?"

"I don't believe so, but I was sleeping. It's two o'clock in the morning," he said.

Worry continued to grip her. He should stay aware of the weather. If he'd been caught outside in the storm, anything could've happened.

"Go back to bed." She leaned against the windowsill. "I'll watch the storm for you."

"It's just rain, Katie."

"Not here."

"Do you want to go wake Miss Brooke?" he asked.

She shook her head and realizing he couldn't see her, said, "No. I want you."

"I'm in Astoria."

"I know." She jolted when thunder cracked the sky. "Did you hear that?"

"No."

"It's closer to me than you." She pressed her hand against the window. "Do you think someone will die tonight?"

"We've talked about the natural order of life versus accident. We can't always stop accidents from happening, but we can make conscious efforts to be aware of our surroundings and make better choices in an attempt to keep ourselves safe. You're inside, in your room, and you're safe."

Her father had made a wrong choice to go out on the sandbar the night her parents got in a fight, and her mother had found out he was having an affair. He hadn't had time to leave before the storm hit, the tide came in, and trapped him in the riptides. If he'd made a better choice, he'd still be alive.

She knew those facts, but nobody could prove, not even Dr. C, that her wishing her father would just go away and leave the house, so the fighting would stop, hadn't had something to do with the choices he'd made. Nobody wanted to believe it was her fault that her father had died.

The truth made Dr. C uncomfortable, so he wished not to believe it. But, she knew what had happened.

"Katie?"