Sinful Waters (eBook)

Chapter 1

“Damn this spring wind!” Sailor Masters was attempting to leave work and heading home, but she was being pushed around the parking lot like a rag doll! All she wanted to do was get safely across the parking lot, but she was having immense trouble just trying to get to her truck. It was like she was pushing against a brick wall. They were no strangers to strong winds here on the coast, but this was something else. She really wanted to go home though and needed to just make it to her truck. Then she would be alright.

The preschool had lost power and sent kids home several hours earlier in the day but Sailor had stayed to straighten up and get things ready for the next day. After all, this wasn’t the first time that they had lost power and although they had solar panels, they would only last with a few hours of emergency power.

She had texted her friends, Sapphire and Matt and her boyfriend Joe that she was leaving and thinking of stopping at Papa Gio’s to wait out the storm if she couldn’t get home. She hadn’t gotten a response though so she figured that they were busy and decided that she should just head out by herself.

“Sailor!” She heard her name called out, but with the wind rushing around her, it sounded like the person calling to her was far away. She kept trying to get to her truck, one heavy step at a time but the wind gusts were unusually strong and getting worse. “What the Fuck is going on?” She cursed as she was pushed back again. It was like mother nature just did not want her to go anywhere.

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind and she screamed out ready to strike at whoever dared to come at her like that . “Honey! It’s me! You need to come back inside.” Joe spoke into her ear. “We got a notification that a hurricane is right off the coast. It’s too dangerous out here and not safe to drive anywhere.”

He wrapped his arm around her and gave her his brute weight as he helped her back inside where they joined Matt and several other employees to secure the windows and doors.

Sapphire ran up to her. “What were you thinking!”

“I honestly don’t know. It wasn’t that bad until I got halfway across the parking lot and was nearly knocked on my ass. I texted you guys before I even left but when you didn’t respond I just decided to go.”

“My phone wasn’t working last time I checked. We got notice a bit ago that there are some cell towers that are down that are affecting several carriers.” Matt showed her his phone which had absolutely no reception bars showing.

“Mine seems to be working still.” Sailor looked at her phone.

“How much battery do you have?”

“Eighty percent.”

“You should turn it off and save the power, we might need it later.”

“I have a charged power bank in my purse but yes, I guess you’re right.” She put her phone into the side pocket in her purse and placed it on her desk. “I guess we should start pulling out the emergency items too. Before it gets too dark that is.”

Sapphire turned to the teachers and staff that were gathered in the lobby. “Attention everyone, please go to your offices and classrooms and gather all of your flashlights and bring them out here to the reception desk.” She directed. “We are also going to need all of the kids blankets and the cot blankets, it’s going to be chilly tonight and we might have to bunk down for a bit.”

“I’m going to take my shipment cart with the guys and go to the emergency storage room and get some cases of water.” Sailor told her. “I think that we have a stash of army surplus blankets in there too. There are three flashlights in the cupboard behind my desk and you might want to break out the C and D batteries from my supply closet and put them on my desk in case the batteries need to be replaced.”

Sapphire nodded and went behind the reception area while Sailor, Matt and Joe headed down a steadily darkening hallway to the storage room where their emergency supplies were stored. Inside the room were tall storage shelves that held Cases and totes filled with supplies that had been compiled for emergencies like this one. They loaded six cases of water onto the cart as well as two huge boxes full of the surplus blankets. They found some battery-operated lanterns also that Joe looped onto a bungee cord that he had found and attached to the cart as well as a NOAA crank radio. Next, they went to the kitchen and grabbed as many jars of peanut butter and boxes of ritz crackers that they could carry. Sailor also put a giant bag of apples and oranges on top of the water and dug a case of granola bars for the back of a shelf. They didn’t want to risk opening the walk ins for anything in an attempt to keep everything in there as cold as it could be while the power was out.

Almost everyone had returned to the lobby with their items by the time that they arrived with the food and blankets, and Sapphire had set up a couple folding tables against the wall for the water and food. Chairs were being brought from offices and the cot and kid’s blankets were in piles on the lower end of the reception counter.

“So far the safety lights are still working in the bathrooms and the toilets still flush.” She told them as they unloaded their cart.

“Ok, the best thing to do is keep everyone out here for safety.” Joe announced to the room. “I know that you all are wondering what the heck is going on, it’s the middle of May!” He tried to lighten the mood. “Seriously though, storms like these make it cold and dangerous. Huddle together for warmth if needed and use the blankets the best you can. If you need to use the rest room, we are putting these battery-operated lights in them for safety as well as convenience. Please remember to turn them off when you leave the restroom so that we can conserve the batteries and use your flashlight when moving around.”

“Also, stay hydrated and nourished. I know it’s not much but we can’t risk opening the walk in with the power out. Peanut butter is a great source of protein and for those of you with nut allergies, we also brought fruit and crackers as well as some granola bars.” Sailor announced.

The winds were howling outside and even though they had done their best to board up the windows, they still were able to see an occasional tree branch fly by between the cracks and gaps in the boards. Suddenly, they heard a crash and Matt ran to one of the gaps and looked through the boards.

“A telephone pole is down and there are power lines on the road. There is nothing that we can do about it right now.” He reported as he looked down at the radio in his hands. “This thing is pretty useless. I think that we need to invest in a better-quality unit for future use.”

“Thank God we got all of the kids home safely before the worst of this started.” Sailor said to Joe as he approached her and handed her a flashlight.

“I agree. It would have been mass panic if we hadn’t thought to call parents earlier.” He put his arm around her waist and drew her near to him. “Don’t you keep a winter coat in the closet down here?”

“Not so much ‘keep’ as ‘keep forgetting’ She told him. “Never was a huge fan of it.”

“Why don’t you go and get it. It’s beginning to get dark and the wind and rain aren’t helping much.” He pushed her toward the closet behind her desk. “It will help to keep you warm.”

She returned with her long black oversized puffy coat. “I guess I keep forgetting it because I don’t really like it.” She admitted. “It was gift from a college friend a few years ago and she grossly misjudged my size. My shorter, white, puffy coat is much more to my liking.”

“Well, I guess this is the exact reason why you kept it here then. Let’s sit down over here.” He pointed to a patch of carpet in front of the reception counter. “That way we have something to lean on. I saw that teachers also brought out all of the floor pillows from the classrooms, would you prefer cloth or vinyl?” He smiled a wicked little smile at her.

” Cloth please.” She laughed.

Joe walked over to the huge pile of floor pillows and grabbed two of the big cloth ones and then motioned to Matt to get a couple more and join them.”

Sapphire brought four bottles of water and two sleeves of crackers along with a spoon and a jar of peanut butter. “Dinner anyone?” She held out her goodies.

They sat huddled on their pillows munching on crackers and listening to the howling wind. A branch hit the front window and startled Sailor who scooted closer to Joe. “I can’t wait for our cruise next month.” She said absent mindedly. “We really need a vacation.”

“I can’t either, we got some awesome upgrades on all of the prizes that we won.” Sapphire joined in. “I can’t believe that we will be sunning ourselves on a beach in our bikini’s in less than a month!”

“Patience girls, all in good time.” Matt told them. “To be honest though, I can’t wait to see you sunning yourself on the beach in your bikini’s.”

Sapphire elbowed him. “We have a lot to...