Texts in Times of Trouble
Submitted by pirate_satellite on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 12:00.
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Who: Buttahfly
When: 5:10am
wish i had called before now, sorry. still alive for wat thats worth
Who: Syn
When: 5:15am
Still alive i think, sorry i didnt leave town dunno what to do now
Who: Herbert
When: 6:00am
dunno if you saw the news - were both alive and mostly ok but i think im going insane.
Who: Peyton
When: 6:03am
dunno if you saw the news - were both alive and mostly ok but i think im going insane.
Sent 5:12am
no good news comes this early. alive is good, you ok?
...
yes. no. i dont know. im alive, not bad hurt, but the house is gone, stuff is gone, parents...just...dont wanna think, cant stop thinkin.
..
wait, that was YOUR house?? aw shit baby, i'm so sorry. heard the sirens. your lil bro ok? i'm so sorry, honeydoll. ya'll need a place to crash or anythin?
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ya our house, sam's...fine as you could expect. we're at our sisters for the night, might take you up on that offer soon, sam cant stand her, last thing I need is her ragging on him after this. this is all so fucked up.
..
you jus let me know, door's open anytime. for anything.
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thanks so much. feels like im watching a train wreck, dont wanna watch, cant look away
Sent back at 6:06AM
didnt see the news im out on my bike what happened can i call you or come by
..
call, house is gone. sam's ok, i'm ok, house is....yeah.
.
Herbert hadn't bothered to get back on his bicycle while waiting for that text back, because if Geo felt like he had to tell Herbert "we're both alive"-- at least, he assumed there was supposed to be an apostrophe in there-- it sounded like something was really pretty dire and he wanted to know what it was. When it came, he stared at it for a few seconds in shock-- their house was gone??-- then quickly decided that this counted as an emergency and he was going to call then and there on the cell phone. He shuffled through the (very few) numbers in his address book, found Geo's, and hit the little green "talk" button.
...
Geo sat on the counter in Helen and Marek's kitchen, watching Helen pacing back and forth on the porch, chain-smoking her way through a pack of Marlboro's. He hadn't even realized she smoked.
He hadn't realized a lot of things.
He couldn't stop staring at the cigarette every time she paced back toward him, watching the end flare in the darkness. How could she do that at a time like this?
The phone in his hand rang, and he answered without looking at the caller ID, voice hoarse. "'lo?"
.
"Geo?" Herbert said, leaning his bicycle against a lamppost, and himself against the bicycle. That almost didn't sound like Geo. Which was weird and a little unsettling. But seeing as it was Geo's cell phone, it was probably him. "Geo, it's Herbert. Are you okay? What happened?"
.
"Something...happened. House is gone; burned." Geo rubbed at his good eye, gingerly avoiding his re-bandaged one. Helen dropped her cigarette to the porch, stomping on the stub and grinding it under her heels. Geo had to flinch at the flash of sparks. "Mom and dad..." He choked on the end of the sentence, not able to finish. "Herbert, I just..." That one trailed off too before he spoke again. "What do I even do?"
.
"Oh, no." His house had burned down? Had they been inside? Their parents-- oh, he could fill that one in just fine, thank you. Not that he wanted to. What a terrible, horrible thing. "Oh, I'm sorry, Geo. Where are you? Do you have a place to stay?" He didn't know exactly what Geo meant by what did he do, but he knew what he would do, which was make sure they both had a place to stay and friends or family or... something. He'd even bike right over there, right now, if he had to. Maybe he would, anyway.
...
"We're at my sister's." Geo kept watching said sister out the window. She was halfway through the pack already...how the hell was she able to smoke at a time like this? He looked away at the flare of her lighter. "We'll be here for a few days." Hopefully no more. "At least until we get something worked out." He picked at the hem on the bathrobe he was wearing - his own clothes smelled too much like smoke. "It's all so...insane right now."
.
Thank the spirits, he at least had a place. "I can only imagine how insane, but I...." Would feel a lot better if he could see them. "Where is that?" Herbert asked. "Can I come by? Or would that be a bad idea?" He didn't know anything about their sister-- actually, he didn't even know they had a sister, until now. Or if he had, he'd forgotten.
...
Geo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Bad, at least right now. Helen's, like, seven shades of pissed off." Geo managed a weak laugh, leaning against the window sill to watch her pace back again. "I didn't even know she'd moved here until a few days ago. How sad is that?"
.
"It's not sad at all, if she didn't tell you, except maybe on her part," Herbert said firmly. He knew nothing about this unknown sister except, now, that she was angry and that she hadn't told her brothers she was living in town, neither of which were endearing her to him in that moment. Or maybe it was just because she was keeping him from seeing his friends and making sure they were okay, and he was just rationalizing. That was possible, too.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked. "Can I see you later? Is there anything I can do? Besides, erm, not battering you with questions?"
...
"I'll survive. I think." Though if Sammy had...he shoved that thought away hurriedly, the idea touching on areas of his mind to raw and sore to even be brushed right now. "P-probably this afternoon..." He was amazed that he could stay this calm right now. Maybe it was shock...parents died three hours ago, you'd have shock, right? It was scaring him, even as he welcomed it. "And you can...talk? J-just talk. L-let me talk. I dunno..."
.
"We can do talk," Herbert promised. "Now, this afternoon, both, whenever." He did lean his bicycle back up off the lamppost and start walking it back in the direction of the apartment. "Or should I focus on this afternoon, when your sister will hopefully not be six shades of angry." Or whatever it was Geo had said a minute ago.
...
"Afternoon, I think..." He kept watching Helen; she'd set the rest of the pack down on the porch upright, and was heading towards the door. "Helen's coming back in, she'll prob'ly want to talk to me..." Or at him. The two seemed to happen about as often. "So...I should prob'ly go." He didn't want to.
.
"All right." Herbert could hear that reluctance, and wondered just what this Helen person was like, a little protectively. If Geo would rather talk to him than his own sister.... "I'll come by 'round two-ish. Give me a call if that's a bad time, and I'll come later. But I will definitely come."
...
"'k." Geo eyed the door, waiting. "Th-thanks, Herbert. I really will be looking forward to seeing you..." Though I hope you don't mind the jerky sister. "And I'll call if things change. Promise."
.
"All right. Take care, Geo. I'll see you soon enough." And with that, Herbert hung up and tucked his phone back into his pocket. This was already shaping up to be a pretty rotten day... but he bet it was a lot more rotten for Geo and Sammy.
Sent 6:59am
where are you now?? what can I do? do you need anything??? i'm so sorry geo. when you're feeling up to it, call me okay??? or come over. anything you need.
..
sister's. I'll...do something, dunno what, will probably bring sam. sam's a mess, helen's a mess...think I'm a mess but I can't tell...dunno what im gonna do.
if you need anything - a
if you need anything - a place to stay - anything - call me. you let me know when you're up to seeing people and i'll be over.
...
youll be the first to know i promise.
Highly Belated Text
Hey, Geo, sorry for not getting back to you. During the onslaught, things got very bad, very quickly. My brother nearly died. Is everything going okay with you? -Syn
...
That house fire was our house. my parents are gone, my brother and I are living with our sister. things are going...about as well as can be expected, i guess. sorry to hear about your brother - he ok?