Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain

speak again, but he fell silent.
    “What are you thinking, love?” I asked quietly.
    “Why didn’t he follow me when I said to?”
    I put my arm around him. “Maybe he didn’t hear you, or he
    was trying to help some of the other children. We’ll never
    know.You did the very best you—”
    Somber piano music suddenly filled the room, swallowing
    my words, and Trish Delphy and Reverend Bill walked up the
    center aisle together. Reverend Bill stood behind the podium,
    while the mayor took the last empty seat in our row. Reverend
    Bill was so tall, skinny and long necked that he reminded me
    of an egret. Sara told me that he came into Jabeen’s Java every
    afternoon for a large double-fudge-and-caramel-iced coffee
    with extra whipped cream, yet there was not an ounce of fat
    on the man. He was all sticks and angles.
    Now he craned his long neck forward to speak into the microphone. “Let us pray,” he said.
    I bowed my head and tried to listen to his words, but I felt
    Maggie’s warm body against my left arm and Andy’s against
    my right. I felt them breathing, and my eyes once more filled
    with tears. I was so lucky.

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    diane chamberlain
    When I lifted my head again, Reverend Bill began talking
    about the two teenagers and one adult killed in the fire. I
    forced myself to look at the blown-up images to the left of the
    podium. I didn’t know either of the teenagers, both of whom
    were from Sneads Ferry. The girl, Jordy Matthews, was a
    smiling, freckle-faced blonde with eyes the powder-blue of the
    firefighters’ shirts. The boy, Henderson Wright, looked about
    thirteen, sullen and a little scared. A tiny gold hoop hung
    from one end of his right eyebrow and his hair was in a buzz
    cut so short it was difficult to tell what color it was.
    “…and Henderson Wright lived in his family’s old green van
    for the past three years,” Reverend Bill was saying. “We have
    people in our very own community who are forced to live that
    way, through no fault of their own.” Somewhere to my right, I
    heard quiet weeping, and it suddenly occurred to me that the
    families of the victims most likely shared this front row with us.
    I wondered if it had been necessary for Reverend Bill to mention
    the Wright boy’s poverty. Shrimping had once sustained Sneads
    Ferry’s families, but imported seafood was changing all that.
    There were many poor people living amidst the wealth in our
    area.
    I thought of Sara. Ever since I’d heard that Keith had
    referred to Andy as rich, apparently with much disdain, I’d
    been stewing about it. Andy and Keith had known each other
    since they were babies and the disparity between our financial
    situations had never been an issue, at least as far as I knew. I
    wondered now if there was some underlying resentment on
    Sara’s part. God, I hoped not. I loved her like a sister. We were
    so open with each other—we had one of those friendships
    where nothing was off-limits. We’d both been single mothers

    before the storm
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    for a decade, but Jamie had left my children and me more than
    comfortable. We had a handsome, ten-year-old four-bedroom
    house on the sound, while Sara and Keith lived in an aging
    double-wide sandwiched in a sea of other mobile homes.
    My cheeks burned. How could I have thought that didn’t
    matter to her? Did she say things to Keith behind my back? Had
    Keith’s resentment built up until it spilled out on Andy at the
    lock-in?
    Sara had been at the UNC burn center with Keith since the
    fire, so we’d had no good chance to talk. Our phone conversations were about Keith’s condition; he was still battling for
    his life. Although the most serious burns were on his arms and
    one side of his face, his lungs had suffered severe damage, and
    he was being kept in a medicated coma because the pain would
    otherwise be unbearable.
    Neither of us brought up the fight between our sons. Maybe
    she didn’t even know about it. She had one thing on her mind,
    and that was