Page 119 of The Only Seconds that Matter
“Last summer my mom and I saw one from our porch.My mom always jokes that tornado watching is Oklahoma’s second most popular spectator sport.”
“Don’t they scare you?”
Jade shrugged.“I’ve seen a lot of them.”
“I’ve experienced a few earthquakes and I can’t say it’s a picnic.”
Jade patted Victor’s shoulder.“You’ll be fine.You’ve got yourself a big strong man to protect you.”
“Funny,” Victor replied sarcastically, deciding to keep Jade out of any current drama between him and Johnny.
Jade finished off her lunch and went back to work, and Victor checked his phone.No word from Johnny.He was starting to worry.He meant what he said this morning, but he also didn’t want Johnny to vanish into the night.What if Johnny got drunk and did something stupid, like drive?Or maybe he’d drink himself into the hospital.Anything was possible at this point.Victor was used to Johnny having his moody moments, but this felt different.
To ease his anxiety, Victor set aside forty minutes after lunch to work with Doña, even though he hadn’t planned for it in his schedule.There were few horses beyond Victor’s patience, but Johnny was another matter.Victor thought about the mustangs he’d trained who made a week of progress before suddenly reverting back to their wild self and making Victor do all the same work over again.Maybe Johnny was like that—always dragging Victor back to square one no matter how far they’d come.
Taylor was supposed to show up around four, but when she didn’t, it had Victor worrying about both herandher uncle.He sent a text to her mother inquiring if something was wrong.Thankfully Kayla was better at responding to his messages than Johnny.
She fought with some kids at school so she’s grounded.Sorry.
Victor sighed.He would have liked a heads up.He wondered what Taylor had said or who she’d mouthed off to.Victor had been planning on her presence to get stalls cleaned and horses groomed, but seeing as that wasn’t going to happen, he let Hannah know so she could deal with it.
Victor was making tlacoyos for dinner when his phone chirped.After wiping his corn flour-dusted hands on his apron, he grabbed his phone and swiped the screensaver photo of Blitz out of the way.
It was a text from Sarah.Johnny called me.He sounded sober.Asked if he could stay at my place a few days.So he’ll be here if you wanna talk to him.
Victor stared at the phone a few seconds before sighing and setting the phone down.He couldn’t think about this right now, not if he wanted to get anything done tonight.Talking to Johnny would only make him want to crawl under his covers and hide away from the world, and Victor had too much work and too many animals to worry about to check out like that.There was nothing Victor could do to help Johnny, because Johnny’s biggest problem was himself, and he’d made it clear to Victor that his love wasn’t enough to fix it.
* * *
The next morning’s sky was blue and breezy even as the radio talked about a stormfront rolling through that afternoon.Maybe Jade wasn’t going to worry about it, but Victor was.He circled the barnyard, putting away or bolting down anything that a strong wind could pick up and sling.Into each horse’s mane he braided a tag reading their name and his address, should debris knock a fence down and the horses run off.He was tempted to bring them into the barn, but not only did he not have enough stalls for all the horses, but his horse barn was made of timber and metal sheeting.A tornado could rip it to shreds if strong enough, so he figured the horses were safer somewhere they could run away, even if it left them vulnerable to flying debris.The whole thing had him an anxious mess by the time he saw the gathering clouds on the horizon.At least the earthquakes he’d experienced were minor and no one died.But he’d seen footage of the damage tornados could inflict, and he hated to think of everything he owned demolished in the span of twenty seconds.
He wished Johnny were here.Johnny would laugh all of this off and tell him he was overreacting.Victor still hadn’t texted Sarah back, and he wondered if he should drive over there now.But his instinct to look after Johnny’s every need was why they were in this mess, so perhaps he should just leave him to his own devices.If he wanted to run away from emotional intimacy, that wasn’t Victor’s problem.
Around four o’ clock, the usual busy barn was completely empty except for Victor.Even Hannah, who lived in the little apartment attached to the barn, had decided to spend the rest of the day at her sister’s where they could hunker down in a basement.The heavy dark clouds had advanced, and the radio said that a tornado had touched down about forty miles west.When Victor checked the radar on his phone, he saw that he sat right in its path.Fucking fantastic.
He was carrying his best show saddle to the storm shelter by the house when his phone rang.He let it go to voicemail as he threw open the storm shelter door and descended the few steps into the small metal room where he and the dogs would be weathering the storm until it moved on.Maybe it was stupid to protect a saddle like this, but it had been a gift from his father.
Once he had the saddle situated, he headed back up to the surface and checked his phone.The wind had picked up, whipping hard against Victor’s back as he saw Johnny’s name on the list of voicemails.Victor didn’t even bother listening to it.He called Johnny back.
“Vic!”was Johnny’s excited greeting, like they hadn’t spoken in weeks.There was audible relief in his voice.“Listen, you seen Taylor at all?”
“What?”Why the hell was he calling him to ask about Taylor?“I heard she was grounded.”
“She was.But my sister called and says she’s missin’.”
“Missing?How?”
“The lil dirtbike Mike bought the kids is gone.My sister said they heard her riding it around the yard and left her to it.But then when they heard it go quiet, she didn’t come back into the house.Kayla thinks she might have taken it somewhere.Kayla’s losin’ her damn mind.We were wonderin’ if she might have driven it to your place.You’re only a few miles away.”
“I haven’t seen her.Is it possible she crashed it somewhere?She could be hurt.”
“That’s the other possibility, but she ain’t anywhere on the property.Kayla’s checked a few times over.It’s like she vanished.”
“You want me to drive up the road and see if I can find her?”
“No need.I’m already on my way.”
“I’ll keep an eye out here.But this storm is coming up quick—it’ll start raining any minute, and I’m worried about tornados.”
