Rolling in the Deep

For Speakeasy #161, a Yeah Write writing challenge…

tornado

She had seen the boy earlier that day.  Thunderstorms had been rolling in, one after another.  Volunteers lined up along the creek bank in between storms, loading sand bags.  Carlotta sat in the wheelchair on her concrete patio, drinking a vodka tonic.  It was 2:00 in the afternoon.  Chelsea Run, a small creek behind the row of apartment buildings, was rising and all the pipes feeding it from yards and streets uptown gushed with run-off. Carlotta wanted to jump into the creek, let it take her downstream, feel her tennis shoes filled with silt and water, dragging her down.  She pictured herself floating and bobbing, rolling in the deep, arms spread out, head first, skirt torn, carried to the Picquiti River.

Carlotta had tried to quell her ingratitude, her faithlessness. It wasn’t working. On Thursdays, she attended a therapy group for survivors of paralysis.  If she survived paralysis, she thought, why would she need a therapy group?  None of them were survivors.  They were a captive audience for a chatty therapist who needed more positive reinforcement than they did. She had joined a book club, met with ladies at the library to talk about Barbara Cartland and Danielle Steele. The women whispered and shifted in their seats, crossed their legs, reached for tea, while Carlotta’s wheelchair squeaked.  Ricky, a weightlifter who lived across the hall, had been training her to build upper body muscles.  Ricky promised that she would discover a new world if she could rely on her upper strength.

Drinking now buoyed her mood, especially after the second pour.  Carlotta watched the boy, who looked no more than 10 years old; he wore a Reds baseball cap and bright red sneakers. He worked alongside Ricky, who yelled to Carlotta:  “Are you going to help or are you going to drink all day?”

“Drink!,” she hollered back, raising her glass. Ricky shook his head.

Off to the southwest, Carlotta saw the horizon turning black. The clouds shifted, casting an ominous shadow on the ground.  It was sudden, this change. It was trouble.  The volunteers scattered to their cars and homes.  As the wind picked up, Carlotta backed herself into the screen door, slid it open, got inside, never taking her eyes off the sky.  She heard the boy cry for his mom.  He was walking in circles.  No sign of Ricky.  Carlotta rolled back outside just as the freight train rumbled and objects whipped the air. Tornado.

“Come here!  Run!” Carlotta yelled to the boy.  Papers flew, and a mailbox hit the building; an oven door landed on the patio.  Whose house did it come from?  The boy covered his head and ran towards her.  A tree limb struck his back; he fell to the gravel driveway. Carlotta watched the boy struggle –willed herself to be bigger, stronger.

“Don’t underestimate,” she said aloud, “the things that I will do.” Wrestling with each rotation, she wheeled herself across the patio, over the gravel, pelted by glass, stones, wood, trash.  She grabbed the boy’s left bicep and pulled him on top of her.

She wheeled back to the apartment, through the door, down the hall and into the bathroom.  “Get in the tub,” she said in the boy’s ear.  He rolled off her lap and into the bathtub. “Hunker down,” she said and the boy curled his legs and arms underneath himself, tucked his head. Carlotta grabbed the chair arms, flexed her triceps, and hoisted herself out of the chair, her torso and head covering the boy’s back, the weight of her useless legs balancing on porcelain.  She would shield him.

She thought of the things she did, at the urging of her doctors, to be a good patient, to unearth some gratitude, to keep from rolling herself down to Chelsea Run. She was certain that she would never go back to therapy.  She survived this.  She listened to the wind and then it stopped.

The boy crawled out from under her and stood in the tub, chanting, “Oh, my god.”

Then she heard Ricky. “The front half of the building is gone. You ok, Car?” he asked.

“Can you help me back into the chair?”

As the boy and Ricky dragged Carlotta out of the tub, she looked up and saw open sky.  She reached out for the boy’s hand and held it to her face.  “So this is gratitude.”

About the Speakeasy:

The speakeasy is the sister blog to the yeah write challenge grid, which is a weekly collection of traditional, non-fiction blog posts, and personal essays. The speakeasy challenge is for fiction and poetry. At the speakeasy, we provide you with two prompts. The first is a line to be used somewhere in your piece (where varies each week), and the second is a media (photo, music, video, etc.) prompt for inspiration.  This week’s prompt is:  “The clouds shifted, casting an ominous shadow on the ground.”  The media inspiration is Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”

20 Comments Rolling in the Deep

  1. atrm61 May 14, 2014 at 4:00 am

    What a beautiful,mind blowing powerful story-of human failures,the inner strength that we never know we have and what we are capable of in times of adversity!Brilliant!

    Reply
    1. Meg May 14, 2014 at 8:57 am

      Thank so much for your lovely comments. I really appreciate your time and words.

      Reply
      1. atrm61 May 14, 2014 at 11:42 am

        🙂

        Reply
  2. Jules May 14, 2014 at 11:29 am

    Loved the way you worded this piece and the understanding that comes at the end. Thank you!

    Reply
  3. zeudytigre May 15, 2014 at 4:50 am

    That was a life affirming read. Well written and engaging.

    Reply
    1. Meg May 15, 2014 at 8:21 pm

      Thanks so much for reading it and sharing kind words.

      Reply
  4. Kathy Combs May 15, 2014 at 9:49 am

    This was an awesome read. I loved how she had the strength she needed when she needed it to rescue the boy and survive the storm. Nice job!

    Reply
    1. Meg May 15, 2014 at 8:21 pm

      I’m so glad you liked it, Kathy! Thanks for reading.

      Reply
  5. jannatwrites May 15, 2014 at 11:31 am

    What I really enjoyed about this was how she changed right before our eyes. She ended the story a totally different person than when it began, and I can’t help but feel like she will join the living again.

    Reply
    1. Meg May 15, 2014 at 8:26 pm

      Thanks, Janna. Enjoyed reading yours too (great titles think alike!) — the betrayal of Robbie and Paulina against each other. Payback’s a bitch! Nicely done.

      Reply
  6. Suzanne May 15, 2014 at 12:04 pm

    This is a great story! I love the way you begin with the boy and then take us back through the lead up and tell Carlotta’s story. And I love the strong message of hope and survival. Excellent take on the prompts! 🙂

    Reply
    1. Meg May 15, 2014 at 8:29 pm

      Thanks so much, Suzanne. I struggled with the structure — present, past, present — but I was determined to figure it out. I feel like the Adele quote sticks out like a sore thumb, but I’m learning. Really appreciate the time you spend reading every entry!

      Reply
  7. Silverleaf May 15, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    This is so deeply touching! I love the little details, thinking about her tennis shoes soaking in the river and the many other little moments that you wove together to create this. The characters all work so well together, too, that it really illustrates what you can build when you can’t use family!

    Reply
    1. Meg May 15, 2014 at 10:48 pm

      Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. I appreciate the time and your kind words!

      Reply
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  9. innatejames May 16, 2014 at 11:48 pm

    Meg! Congrats! So well done; I felt like Carlotta scooped me up with the boy and shielded me from the storm.

    Reply
    1. Meg May 17, 2014 at 12:19 am

      Awww, thanks. I miss our group already!

      Reply
  10. Pingback: yeah write #162 weekly writing challenge kickoff: families return, submissions editor, challenge winners round-up, gargleblaster prompt, badges are ready | yeah writeyeah write

  11. Pingback: winners of the speakeasy at yeah write #162 | the speakeasy at yeah write

  12. Stephen Thom May 26, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    Ah…this is really effective. Nice one. There is a lot of scope fitted into this piece, a lot you could take from it. Quite a big undertaking, actually. The structure worked, I never noticed the adele quote til i saw you mention it in the comments…probably just ‘cos you’re aware of it, huh. Great job 🙂

    Reply

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