Author's Chapter Notes:
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Gabriel didn’t even have to see 100% to know what happened. He turned around and practically ran to the spot where he heard the shout. There was Robin, lying on the ground with something on his chest. Gabriel grabbed for it, thinking that it was only laying on top of him but Isaiah stopped him. “What!? We don’t have time-“
“Are you crazy!? We cant move that branch, its stuck inside him, you’ll do more damage than good trying to get that thing out of there!”Isaiah shouted over the wind.
Gabriel gasped and looked back at Robin,”No, Im not leaving you. We are getting out of this together”he said as he squeezed Robin’s hand. “Fine we’ll move him, help me get him up-“
“Go Gabe….just go….tell Ruth I love her”
“Shut up! Don’t give up on me, damn it!”Gabriel shouted at him
“Just tell her I love her….I always will….”he said and then all they could hear was the wind blowing, trees falling down, houses and farms being destroyed.
“WE GOTTA GET TO THE CELLAR NOW!”Frank shouted as he pulled them away from Robin’s body.
“HELLO!? BETH!? HELLO!? BETH, WHERE ARE YOU!? GABE!? ROB!? ISAIAH, FRANK!”they heard McNamara call. They followed the voice and saw him struggling to get the cellar open. “Oh thank God! I don’t know where Beth is! Here, you all open this while I find her-“
“Not a good idea old man”Isaiah said as he surprised everyone by opening the cellar and basically dropped McNamara down there himself. The men scrambled in after him and closed the door and locked it tight. “Its not good out there trust me”he said as he attempted to wipe the dust off his face and out of his eyes.
“Wait…..where’s Robin? Where’s Bethie!? Where are they!?”McNamara freaked out. He started to cry. Beth was all he had left and if he was going to lose his precious daughter to this storm, he wouldn’t know how to live with himself. “Where are they?!”
Frank luckily found some wine. He broke the bottle open and gave it to him. “We should stay quiet. Lets not think about that right now, lets just hope they are…alright”he said. Luckily, there were more bottles. “Geez Mac….you got a winery down here?”
“Brenda never liked Prohibition and loved wine, she hid it all here. Hell if I know where she got it from”he said, thinking of his late wife. He started to cry. Was Beth with her now?
Frank gave Isaiah a bottle and he reluctantly took it. He’d rather have whiskey or scotch or beer. Not this uppity wine shit. He drank it down anyway. If he died, he didn’t want to be sober. He handed one to Gabe but he just sat there silently. Numb. He refused to take it. Many thoughts were racing through his mind. What stuck out was why he couldn’t keep a friend around. All of his best friends, his ‘brothers from another mother’, always had to leave him when he wasn’t ready. He closed his eyes and saw Adam falling off the Titanic to his death, he was only 15 then, both of them were. He saw Leon wearing an expensive tuxedo, comforting a friend and then out of nowhere they were both killed by Darla’s gun which was fueled by misunderstanding and jealousy. Now Robin, his confidante, his best friend, his partner who worked with him and his family to make their lives better during this Depression….gone in an instant. He felt guilty just leaving him out there. What if he was still alive? If he was, will he make it once the storm does pass? Was Beth in the same predicament? Now he felt that their feud was so childish and stupid. Why should he be mad at her anymore? She was obviously in love with Bobby. She hadn’t come on to him, let alone spoken to him like a normal human being in a year. She was no longer a threat. She never really was. What if she was gone? That means he would never have a chance to say that he was sorry, that he forgave her, that he wanted to be friends again. What if it was too late?
They all sat there in silence, drinking, crying, listening to the destruction that was happening above ground. Gabriel didn’t even realize that he went to sleep until Frank shook him awake. “Its over”he said to him. Gabriel jumped up and followed Isaiah up the ladder without even so much thinking about wiping the sleep out of his eyes.
“BETH!”McNamara said as he engulfed his daughter in a huge hug. She was the one knocking on the cellar door and told them the storm was finally over. “I thought you were dead! Where were you!?”
“I was safe Daddy”Beth said as she wiped his tears.
“Where were you?!”McNamara said and finally noticed a man standing a couple of feet away from them. “And who are you?”
“That’s Bobby McFerrin, Daddy. I was with him, he kept me safe”Beth said. “Ive been with him a lot, Daddy. We have been courtin’ for some time now and I was at his place when the storm started yesterday morning. He and his parents kept me safe. And Im so glad you all are too”
“How dare you!? How dare you court and take my daughter away without asking my permission!!!”McNamara yelled at Bobby.
Bobby jumped and stepped back a little and then stepped forward, he was about to open his mouth when Beth interrupted,”He had my permission! Im going to be thirty soon! Don’t you want grandkids? Don’t you want me to be happy? I know your upset and Im sorry that I didn’t tell you before but I didn’t want you to yell like a banshee unless we knew we were right for each other. We are in love, Daddy. Im going to keep seeing him”
McNamara was shaking in his boots,”I apologize too sir. But I didn’t let you know until Beth was ready and shes ready now. I looked after her yesterday and made sure she was safe because like you, I love Beth, and I want to keep taking care of her. Our farm is destroyed and what we really need to focus on is getting our lives back on track”Bobby said as he nodded to what was once McNamara’s land. McNamara looked around and realized he didn’t pay attention to the devastation the storm caused. He was focused on Beth and Bobby. Crops were buried in dust, animals dead, the shack, stables and their farmhouse was destroyed. They now had nothing. Bobby patted McNamara on the back. “I will make it up to you. We will all come together as a community and help each other get out of this mess” McNamara nodded, he had to forgive him. There were more important things to take care of.
Beth hugged Frank and Isaiah close to her,”Im so glad you all are alright. I was so worried”she said as she looked around,”Where’s Gabe and Robin?”she asked as Frank and Isaiah hung their heads sadly. She then saw Gabriel across the yard and ran to him. She had so much to say to him. Life was too short to hold a grudge. Her mother always said that but she lost sight of it. She gasped when she reached Gabriel and saw that he was crying over Robin’s body which was covered in dust and dirt with a huge branch impaled into his chest. She started to cry and knelt down next to Gabriel and held her close to him as he cried. “Im sorry. Im so very sorry”she said, for so many reasons.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
The week after the dust storm the small town came together to help their neighbors in the community. Many helped with cleaning up various farms and fixing up the ones that were still there. Many funerals were held for the many people who lost their lives including Robin. Beth bent over and laid a white rose on Robin’s grave. He was buried on the McNamara farm right next to Beth’s mother. They stood there in silence just looking at the grave and then McNamara broke the silence. “I guess we should all part ways”he said sadly. Like most families in the area and like other families in other states in the same situation, he and Beth were traveling west to start a new life. The storm basically ruined the land around them and it was now to the point of no return. This meant that Gabriel, Frank and Isaiah all had to go home. They all dreamed of this but they didn’t want to leave like this. Especially without Robin.
They all hugged each other and said their goodbyes. Gabriel hugged McNamara close to him,”You’re a lifesaver. I will never forget you”he said to him.
“Take care of yourself, Gabe. You’re a good man. You’ll be alright, Im sure of it”he said to him.
He nodded and turned to Beth. She smiled shyly. “Take care of yourself, Beth”he said as he opened his arms to her. She smiled and hugged him close. To think she used to dream about this. It was different now, but still felt good. What felt better was that Gabriel would get to hug Salomi and his children again and that made her happy. “Take care of her, she’s a good woman”he said to Bobby as he shook his hand.
“I will”Bobby said as Beth stared at Gabriel in shock. No one has ever called her a ‘woman’ before. It was always ‘good kid’ or ‘good girl’. That felt good.
“Make sure to keep in touch”Beth said. “Kiss your wife and kids for me”she said
“I will, let me know when you get to California. Go to the beach. It does wonders”he said to them. He smiled through his tears and then they finally parted ways. Gabriel sighed as he got on the train and sat down. He thought about riding the rails like he and Robin had done but he wanted to get home as soon as possible and he could actually afford it. He sat down and ordered some tea as he looked out the window. Kansas. He was here for 3 years and now he was going back home to New York City. He was going back home to his children. He was going back home to his best friend, Ruth. He was going back home to his beautiful wife, Salomi. It was the happiest day of his life but leaving Robin behind was bittersweet.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Gabriel stood in the middle of Grand Central Station in shock as he watched the hustle and bustle around him. He watched tourists stare in awe just as he was as they traveled in groups, he saw businessmen rushing to their next destinations and families greeting loved ones. His own family was not here because he couldn’t write them. The postal service in Kansas was shut down due to the storm and he would have beaten the letter getting here anyway. A surprise was in store for them! He finally walked outside and smiled as he breathed in the smell of New York, which was exhaust, hot dogs and peanuts but it smelled great to him. He bought a hot dog and relished in the taste as he walked along the sidewalk. However, he noticed black stuff in the air and looked up in wonder. How could this be? It was May!
“Excuse me?”he asked someone,”Whats this stuff in the air?”
“Black snow”the person said hurriedly,”The worlds ending I tell you!”
He then noticed a headline and bought a newspaper:
MIDWEST DUST STORM CAUSES BLACK SNOW TO FALL IN THE NORTHEAST
He read the article and sure enough, the storm that hit Kansas also blew black dust to Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, New York City and Washington, DC. He sighed and instantly thought of Beth, Bobby and McNamara. He hoped they were alright. He was again reminded of Robin and how hard it was going to be to tell Ruth the news.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Michael tapped his pencil on the small kitchen table as he tried to do his arithmetic assignment. He sighed, it seemed the older he got, the more he didn’t understand it! He sighed and put it away, he would wait for Ma to get home and she was always good at arithmetic’s. He got out one of his writing notebooks and continued to write a poem for Emily. He would be 10 in a couple of weeks but he wrote poems at a high school level. Emily was a princess who was trapped and in a deep depression and Michael would be the man to save her. He smiled and then heard a shout. He sighed. Not again.
“Dahlia! If you go outside, I swear to God-!”12 year old Rita said as she followed a very determined 8 year old to the front door.
“Im bored! I want to go outside and play!”Dahlia said as she reached up for the door handle
“Ma said we cant go outside while shes at work, Lia, you know that”Michael said glumly. Everyday it was the same thing. When Lia got bored, she screamed and caused trouble. Why couldn’t she sit down and write poems like normal kids?
“Yea, Mikey’s right, so come on”Rita said as she tapped her foot impatiently. Unfortunately, she was wearing her tap shoes and the tapping was extra loud. She had a recital in a couple of weeks and she needed to be perfect but she wasn’t going to be if Dahlia decided to raise hell every hour of every day!
“Just for 5 minutes! Gee whiz!!!!”Dahlia screamed at them
“No Lia! Because then 5 will turn into 30 and I will get in trouble because of you again!”Rita said
“I don’t care. Im going!”Dahlia said as she pulled the door open as Michael sighed. He couldn’t write with all this ruckus. He picked up his pencil and notebook and stood up.
“NO! THERE’S BLACK SNOW FALLING OUTSIDE AND MA SAID IT WAS DANGEROUS! SO STAY INSIDE!”Rita yelled.
Dahlia stuck her tongue out at her as she stood in the doorway. “Your such a crybaby, Rita! You cry all the time when daddy went to that farm!”
“Move one more step or so help me-“
“Crybaby, crybaby, Rita is a crybaby. Nah nah nah nah nah”Dahlia said as she stuck out her tongue and wiggled her little butt as she put her hands on her hips. Rita and Michael stared at her with wide eyes, Rita gasped and Michael dropped his book and pencil. “Nah nah nah nah nah. Nah nah nah nah nah”she kept tormenting. She then realized that they weren’t looking at her and turned around and looked up. Her mouth hung open. “Daddy?”she said
It was him, even though he looked really different. He seemed taller, thicker, darker and he had a lot of hair on his face and his clothes were dirty. But it was him. He was back! “Now whats all the commotion here!? I thought I was going to come back to good children”he said with a little laugh. The three children just stared at him and did not move, they were in absolute shock. “Well, do I get a hug or is Lia here going to torment me as well?”he asked as he opened his arms. The three of them ran to him attached their little bodies to his like magnets. They all started to cry and they all said their “Im glad your back’s”, “I missed you’s” and “never go away again”. He looked at each of them and kissed them on their little foreheads. They couldn’t afford to take family pictures anymore and he could see now that they had grown up so much. Rita was taller, her hair a very dark blonde like his and her eyes even bluer. She even had little breasts. Shit! Little Michael wasn’t so little. He was almost as tall as Rita with darker features. Dahlia looked the same however, but she was taller and had a little more attitude to go with her wild and crazy ways. But her eyes were beautiful dark pools of brown, just like her mother’s. “Where’s your mother?”he asked them.
“At work”they all said in unison. “She’ll be back when it gets dark”Rita added. “Yea she tutors those rich kids”Dahlia groaned, she obviously didn’t like that.
“What about….Ruth?”
“She always works late at night at the bar”Rita said,”She comes home real late”
“Well that gives us a couple of hours”Gabriel said as he set his bag down by the door. “Get your shoes, we are going to get your mother a present!”
“But daddy, the black snow-“Rita tried to say
“Daddy can do what he wants RITA!”Dahlia yelled at her. She then quickly shut up and turned to Gabriel with quivering lips. Great, a spanking.
“Apologize to Rita now”Gabriel said sternly and she did. “Now that Daddy’s back”, wow it felt so good to say that!,”there will be no more yelling at each other, you hear?” They nodded eagerly. “Now, we’ll be fine. Ive seen worse. Ma wont mind when we bring her back something special. If you all are good, I will get you ice cream”he said. They all cheered and put on their shoes and followed him out the door.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Salomi sighed with relief when she realized that she only had one more block to go. It was a long walk to the Tudor’s, Waldorf’s and the Bass’s. Those three families were close friends to Eleanor Roosevelt. Once the school’s opened back up, Salomi was left with nothing to do with all the children gone. She felt guilty sitting around while Ruth worked long night shifts at the pub and while Gabriel and Robin worked their asses off thousands of miles away. She got in touch with Eleanor and she set her up with tutoring the rich family’s children. It was great pay and the children were all well behaved, too proper and stiff for her taste, but they were a far cry from Dahlia’s antics. However, these families lived nearly 25 blocks from her neighborhood and it was a long walk for her. As she walked, she would always daydream. She would daydream about when she and Gabe first met, she would daydream about them living in the penthouse, or vacationing on an exotic beach. She missed him so much, more and more everyday. Even with Roosevelt in office, the world still seemed chaotic. Black snow? What would come next?! She smiled as she stood in front of their run down apartment building. She was very thankful for this place. She took a deep breath and carried herself up 5 stories. “5……4……..3…….2……..1…….”she said as she climbed higher. She approached the door and was surprised to hear that it was quiet. Every night when she would come home one of the children was yelling at the other.
“Im home”she said as she opened the door and dropped her purse and bag in shock. There was a feast set on the dinner table which was on top of a nice red table cloth with one candle burning and a bouquet of red roses. There was jazz music playing on the radio and the three children were dressed and cleaned up and smiling widely. Salomi got choked up. “Oh my word! This is so sweet! How did you all pull this off!?”she asked as she hugged each of them. Dahlia giggled and covered her mouth with both hands. Rita and Michael shot her a glance. “What are you three hiding??”Salomi asked, they were always up to something. Then Dahlia pointed toward the bedroom door excitedly. Salomi turned and there was Gabriel, in the flesh, leaning against the door frame.
“Welcome home, babe”he said to her with a smile as she jumped into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in it as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He laughed as he helped hold her up as she kissed his neck, cheek and lips numerous times. The children awkwardly looked away and sat down at the table as she started to cry.
“Im so happy you’re here! I dream about this all day, every day!”she cried. “Please don’t go away again, please!”she said,”I love you Gabe”
“I love you too”he said as he cried tears of joy. They stood there for awhile and then he whispered.”Come on, I know you have been working hard all day, lets sit down and eat. I even got you your favorite wine”he said to her. She nodded and got down and held his hand tight in hers.
“Ruth’s gonna die when she sees Robin! Where is he?”then she gasps,”Hes on his way to surprise her too isn’t he?”she asked him with a huge smile.
Gabriel didn’t want to tell her like this, she was way too happy, but she was going to figure it out. “Well-“
“No Lia!”Rita shouted at Dahlia as the little girl held her own neck with two hands like she was choking. Gabriel and Salomi rushed over to them,”Ma! She drank the big people drink!”Rita said. Salomi sighed, ‘big people drink’ was a codeword for wine. Dahlia stuck out her tongue like it was the most disgusting thing she ever tasted.
“Ok lets behave and welcome Daddy back home”Salomi said as they all sat down for dinner. She grabbed Gabriel’s hand in hers and smiled. This will be one of the most memorable nights of her life.
*_____________________________*