Calm Before the Storm

The Jackson Manor Orphanage prepares for the storm.

Bulging storm-clouds rolled onwards through the eerie, grey landscape, framed with lines of silver and gold alike. A lone woman in her late forties was standing by the window, looking out at the empty, grim fields. Similar in quality to harbingers of death and destruction they seemed to her, presenting their household with horrible threats such as lightning and wind: a death sentence it was, meant only for their private execution. Truth be told, they were cut off. No chance to reach anybody from the outside, no chance for anybody from the outside to reach them back. The storm had cut each and every line from the orphanage into the outside world.

They knew what was coming. Hurricanes, tornadoes, a whole bunch of them hitting on Indiana like a pack of crazed monkeys; so the weatherman had said in the TV. The ominous clouds they now saw, aside from being mighty displeasing, were clearly a vanguard of the said storm: they could all picture it in their minds, like an army of old streaming down from a hillside to hammer their foes down. They wondered when they would see it looming against the horizon as a great, grey tidal wave, and ponder whether they will survive or not. Some even wondered whether it was God's judgment to leave them stranded like this, but she, her mind was filled with questions of more urgency. Would her manor survive the hurricane's onslaught? What would happen to the animals indoors? Just for their sake, the building had to hold. There was no other way.

Although the animals could only watch and see what happened in their barns, the humans inside had a little more options. They had devised a survival plan, filled with several different steps and details: everyone had wanted a hand in creating it. You can probably guess that the group we're talking about was indeed a very active and dedicated one. One could call them your model citizens, even, although barely.

'The Plan' was to take the cats and dogs with them into the cellar, where they could ideally wait for the storm to end. Everything was planned out: nutrition, entertainment and kids were all taken care of in good measure. The only problem, if it could be called a problem, was the cellar itself. It was incredibly old, probably just as old as the manor itself, dating back to the 1700s when an english settler had built the place: this meant several problems. First off, there was no modern lighting down there. Hallways had to be lit by torches or candles. Fortunately, however, there were torches put within equal distance from each other on either sides, meaning that the group would only need some matches. Those they had scarcely, given the size of the cellar: eight packages, each containing some twenty matches. A hundred-and-sixty matches was a very low number, even for such a small area they had to inhabit: for the torches would run out after some time, and new ones will have to be lit in order to maintain a pleasant habitat. That would surely become one of their chief problems during their little visit downstairs.

Another fact sure to cause problems would be the children. They had quite a few of them in the Jackson Manor, kids from several families around the countryside: Emily, Linda, Kenny, Ben; Michael, Nick, Jenny, Sara; Tina, Kurt, Maria and Marcus; all orphans, too weak to look after themselves. Her folk at the manor had to take care of them daily: six people taking care of twelve children. Hailey knew that it'd become twice harder in the cellar, where light and safety was scarcer. A child could get lost in those tunnels for years, never to find his way out; they needed them, just as much as they all needed each other. One could go mad down there.

She had been there several times when she was younger, although rarely venturing further than the first few hallways, and never past the first crossroads: the light would become too shallow in those parts, too dark for you to see anything. Literally anything could be lying in that endless-seeming darkness, forgotten there by its former owner(may he rest in peace). But the cellar was simply too big for a full inventory. A shame: what treasures could've been lying down there, they were now missing out on it. Who knows what wealth those things could've brought to her family.

Hailey Jackson turned her analytical stare away from the window. She had seen enough clouds and bad weather for today: now she craved for company, someone to just talk with; someone who could stay positive even with the storm looming literally right at their doorstep. Luckily they had one such person in the house: a woman, who could still make remarkable witty comments about the weather; a woman, whose personality was still the same old mixture of warmness, irony, humor and hopefulness. Anna Jennifer Olson, their very own priest. Needless to be said, she was not liked by all. Her strange occupation had bewildered some and startled everyone, yet a chosen few had chosen to accept it like everything else in life. Then there was another group, people who took every chance they could to offend her and her strange job. They weren't bad people - not all of them - but somehow, perhaps due to human nature, they turned into heartless monsters whenever she was nearby. Anna, on the other hand, never seemed to take the comments too seriously. But beyond her positive smile that spoke of constant satisfaction, Hailey could sense sadness. The way her smile didn't reach her eyes was depressed, and the look in those pupils also spoke of the same deep, hurt sadness. That said, she could sometimes be incredibly deep and touching without even realizing it. Perhaps that was why she was so kind and polite to everyone, never showing a sign of strain or stress on her features.

Hailey began to walk softly towards the exit. She found herself wanting to talk to Anna, go through the recent events; but most of all she wanted to talk about the storm. Hailey was wise enough to know that Anna would serve a major role in coping with all the kids in such a dangerous and unsettling environment. But as she was about to step out of her room, she suddenly heard footsteps from just beyond the doorway. She stopped and began to wait expectantly for the arrival. Sure enough, soon Anna walked in; dressed in a long, white robe, she was tall and slightly chubby in a motherly way. She could be called curvy, though, and Hailey supposed some men would consider her attractive. Hailey smiled.

"Hey! I was just going search for you. How did you learn of my wish so quickly?"

"Instincts. I'm a superhero, you know. I can predict the future! See, even now I can clearly predict our future: wear off a storm and live on happily under the end of time."

They both laughed heartily at that; the storm began to fade away from their minds.

"Yes, but first we shall have to raise the orphans to become productive members of the society," came Hailey's level reply. She had the most extraordinary quality of killing off any stray jokes as soon as they expired.

"Indeed."

They were silent awhile, until Hailey finally decided to voice her chief concern.

"The kids will have a hard time down there."

"Come on, Hailey. They've seen worse places than some old cellar. What's in there that could possibly hurt them?"

"Getting lost?"

"Well, we won't let them from our sight. And we'll tell them not to go."

"Yes, we won't. It'll be a stroll in the park," she added, a tiny smile flashing briefly on her features.

Anna stood up from her seat and walked over to the window. She looked outside at the grim landscape for a long while, not speaking. Hailey remained seated, but looked outside too. From her spot she had a clear view of the horizon: it was a large window, and the window-glass was bright and clear. The rains should come before evening, and by that time they should have everything ready to move down. The storm should arrive in the horizon before tomorrow's eve, and at that point it would only take half an hour for it to reach the Orphanage. They had to be down in the cellar long before that. Anna turned away from the window and looked at Hailey.

"It'll be here in less than two days, Hailey. We'll make it down there before it's upon us. Mark my words, we will."

There was no need to clarify what "it" meant.

"We will reach the cellar long before tomorrow evening, Anna. We can both rest assured on that." Hailey gave a small laugh, and Anna replied with a slight smile.

"In any case, I should get going... herd the children together..." said Anna, already leaning towards the doorway. "And tell the others, too," she added hastily.

"You do that, Anna. I'm feeling a little sick today. I think I shall take a walk around the house... see how the preparations are going."

Anna offered her farewells and left the room swiftly, leaving a small cloud of dust in her wake. She made her way towards the living room, hoping to find the others in there. Hailey watched as she left and soon trailed after her, but instead of the living room, she started towards the kitchen.

It turned out that there was little to prepare. In fact, she could find nothing more to add on top of the preparations already finished. It felt as though she had been given the evening free, and given their current circumstances, an evening free was exactly what she needed the most. Hailey settled in her room with a cup of coffee, finally being able to look outside without troubling herself too much. But just as her thoughts were beginning to trail away from the storm and her other troubles, someone suddenly bounded through the door into her room. When Hailey turned to stare, frightened by the sudden noise, Kenny's gaze drew to the ground. He was clearly ashamed of his haste. Hailey let out a relieved sigh, seeing that it was only him.

"God, Kenny! You frightened me!"

Kenny looked up, bright eyes flashing anxiously at her. Tears began to flow down his cheeks even as he spoke. Hailey suddenly got an odd feel about the whole situation, as though something more sinister than she had expected was going on.

"I'm sorry, Hailey... but J-James and Arthur... they're shouting again..."

Hailey stiffened visibly. Most of the folk in the Orphanage were good people, but if there was any trouble, it usually came from those two. They said they were 'concerned about the kids' and that they 'worried about the state of the manor', but in reality, Hailey knew they only wanted to get out of this place. She could see it in their eyes, as bright and clear as your mirror image reflected from the clearest lake in the world. She smiled reassuringly at Kenny.

"Well, lead me there. I'll sort it out," she said with an ominous reverberation to it.

Author's Note

This chapter has been finished.

Be constructive, please. (:

Reviews

[Nienor Niniel]

I agree with Nora Duncan: this is an intriguing, good start to a book. You build tension, too: what sounds like the storm of of the century; orphanage completely isolated from the outside world; everyone has to retreat in the cold creepy cellar.

Keep it going, please.

[CreativeStroke]

You have started off this story with great detail and gave very vivid descriptions for your reader to picture. What an eerie background you provided! I felt as if I were right there at the orphanage. That is a really good start if you want your readers to stay hooked. They need to be able to visualize what is going on and you did a fantastic job with that.
With character development... you also did a good job with this. I assume as the story goes you will get into more detail about each of your characters, but as of right now you have a good thing started with each of them. I felt as if I were truly getting to know both Hailey and Anna. That is another good thing to have in your story. You want your reader to feel in touch with your main character/characters and you have done that well so far.
In every story there are grammatical issues, but you had very few incidents with this actually. I was impressed with your wording and layout of your paragraphs. I thought it was all very well done and no major fixes that I could spot.
So, overall, you have a great start going for your story and I look forward to reading more. Thank you for sending me the read request... I am actually really enjoying this so far.

[Mikael Malmberg]

That's very nice to hear!

I shall also be working on the chapter three today, although perhaps only for an hour or two. It will probably not be enough to finish it, but I will finish it and start the fourth ere the week ends, that much is assured!

Thank you also for posting such great poems. They are imaginative and I enjoy reading them.

[CreativeStroke]

Well whenever you get them finished send me a read request for them and I will certainly read them. Thank you... I enjoy writing the poems and it really inspires me when people really read and enjoy them.

[Felicity's Eve]

I like it. It's intriguing and has a good plot. This is a great start.

I love the detail you have in the beginning! But I feel that as the chapter wore on, there wasn't as such amazing detail like in the beginning.

Great job! :)

[Mikael Malmberg]

Hey there!

Thanks. I was planning on this becoming my main project in the following few months, so it's definitely nice to hear that it has an intriguing beginning.

[Felicity's Eve]

It'll be great. :)

[Felicity's Eve]

I love this ending! Hailey is a fun character. ^^

Continue, please! :)