The Heat Seekers

“Tell me about them,” Geren prodded, just as a clap of thunder exploded over their heads.

Tempest glanced up at the sky. It was dark gray. An electrical storm was impending.

“Maybe later. Let’s go,” she insisted, heading back to Geren’s car. “This is only depressing me.”

Once she got in, she noticed Geren was all the way up on the lawn by the realty sign. “Geren, you coming?” she shouted.

“Here I come,” Geren replied, shoving one of the pamphlets into his left pants pocket.

CHAPTER 21

when the other shoe falls

it was pouring down rain when Tempest pulled into the gravel parking lot of the playground. She glanced at the digital clock on her dashboard: 2:35. Janessa had left a message with Linda, asking Tempest to meet her there at two-thirty.

Figuring there was absolutely no way Janessa would be out in that weather, Tempest reached into the glove compartment to get her cell phone. She had the first four digits of Janessa’s home number punched in when she noticed someone sitting on a swing on the far side of the picnic shelter.

“Janessa!” she said to herself, pushing the car door open and unbuckling her seat belt simultaneously. She looked on the back floor of her car to see if she had an umbrella but remembered she hadn’t replaced it after the last shower. It was in her office. The continuous rainfall in D.C. was becoming frustrating.

Tempest sloshed through the mud, unconcerned about damage to the heels of her navy pumps. She had to get to Janessa. She’d had this terrible feeling in her gut the second she got the message, and now, seeing Janessa drooped on the seat of a swing in the middle of a shower made her heart speed up.

“Janessa, what are you doing out here?” Tempest shouted, while there was still about ten yards between them. “Linda gave me your message!”

Tempest stood in front of Janessa, but Janessa didn’t even acknowledge her presence. She kept her eyes glued to the ground. She had on her postal uniform, so Tempest asked her, “Why’d you ask me to meet you here, and why aren’t you at work?”

Still nothing! Tempest kneeled down in the mud, letting the left leg of her taupe pantsuit absorb the dirt. She grabbed both of Janessa’s shoulders and shook her. “Janessa, look at me, dammit!”

Janessa finally raised her eyes, and Tempest was startled by their blank, lifeless expression. She stood up, forcing Janessa to get up off the swing, and guided her toward the covered picnic shelter. “Come on, let’s go over here under the shelter. We’re both going to get pneumonia if we stay out here.”

As soon as Tempest forced Janessa down on a bench at a picnic table, an earsplitting clap of thunder came out of nowhere. Tempest had always been afraid of storms. She remembered when the lightning used to dance through the house when she was a child. She would always bury herself under the covers and pray she wouldn’t get struck.

But now, the pitiful look on Janessa’s face made Tempest reconsider her priorities. Her first duty was to help her friend get through whatever was bothering her. She had to get Janessa to open up to her.

“Please talk to me,” Tempest pleaded. “You’re frightening me, sis!”

Janessa looked out toward the jungle gym and finally uttered some words. “Remember when we used to play here?”

“Yes, of course I remember,” Tempest replied. The playground was located within a ten-block radius of the homes where they both grew up. “We used to spend every Saturday afternoon having a ball on the play equipment.”

Janessa grinned slightly. “Hmph, that’s not how I recall it. You were too much of a punktress to go down the giant slide at first. We all used to tease you something terrible.”

“Yes, and your skank ass pushed me down it one day while I was sitting at the top trying to get the nerve to come down it by myself.”

They shared a laugh. Tempest was glad Janessa wasn’t totally withdrawn. She still had her sense of humor.

“Janessa, it’s not that I mind reminiscing about the good times, but it’s the middle of a workday, and we’re sitting out here in the middle of a thunderstorm. What’s up with that?”

Janessa took Tempest’s hand. Tempest noticed that Janessa was trembling, and her hands were practically icicles. “You’re freezing, Janessa!” she said, releasing her hand and removing the jacket of her suit, leaving herself exposed to the elements with nothing but a thin, silk blouse on. She placed it around Janessa’s shoulders and rubbed her arms, trying to generate some body heat.

“You know what’s ironic about life?” Janessa asked.

“

What’s ironic?”

Janessa leaned against Tempest, placing her cheek on Tempest’s breastbone. “Whenever things start to look up for me, something horrible happens to ruin it all.”

Tempest wanted to babble off fifty-eleven questions but refrained and limited herself to one. “I’m lost, sis. What’s going on with you?”