My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Twenty Three

Annabelle calls me on our way over to the hotel then we pick them up as soon as we get there and we all head over to the shelter. By the time we get there it’s 7:30am. Annabelle realized that we still needed to put the beds together so that’s what we’re all doing now.

“The littles can stay out of this. Putting a bed together is much more complicated than changing a lock,” I say as I open up a box.

“I’m not that small Rose. I helped Daniel put my bed together two days ago,” Julian tells me, sitting down on the floor beside me.

“He’s telling the truth. I was going to help him put it together but ended up dealing with other stuff. I’m a very busy person. I’m lucky to have people that can help to stabilize me,” Annabelle tells me as she walks over to Daniel.

“You help me just as much as I help you. Before I met you I felt lost and didn’t know where I was heading in my life. You gave me purpose and bring more excitement to my life everyday,” Daniel tells her, picking a box up off the floor.

“You two are so sweet,” Alexia says, smiling at the two of them. “You seem like you’ve been together for years but I know from my Rose that it’s only been a month and a half.”

Molly sits down on the couch against the wall and watches everyone work away. “I’d like to help too in some way,” she says.

Annabelle goes over to her and takes her hand. “Come on Molly. You can come with me and Daniel to another room and help us put the bed together,” she tells her, following after Daniel. “You girls have fun in here. Remember they’ll be here in two and a half hours so don’t take all day putting the beds together. We have 25 beds to make. Between four young adults and two kids.”

“Don’t you worry Annabelle, we got this,” I say with a wink.

Alexia pokes at me and says, “Hey, don’t be winking at other women.”

Annabelle laughs as she walks into the other room, disappearing behind the wall.

For the next two and half hours we all work at putting the beds together, having lots of laughs and some sounds of frustration but over all cheerful excitement at finishing the job in time for the delivery.

Annabelle walks outside to greet the delivery driver. She takes the clipboard from him and signs the paper to show that she received her delivery. “Thanks a lot for bringing it all out here,” She tells him. She turns her body to look behind her and waves her hand. “Hey guys you can come get the stuff now.”

Everyone comes out to grab stuff from the truck. I grab stuff as well and the workers help us too. We take everything into the building and drop them in the hallways till everything was offloaded. We waved off the delivery guys and headed back inside, locking the door behind us.

“Alright, who’s ready to dress up those beds we just built?” Annabelle asks, looking at the packaged blankets, mattress and pillows.

“We should start with the mattresses,” Daniel says, looking at the mess on the floor. “I can carry them and put them on the beds if you guys can take the plastic sheets off then.”

“We can do that,” Molly says, tugging at the plastic sheet.

Alexia helps her and it slides right off. “Done. Take it away,” she says, smiling at Molly.

“I’ll help you with that Daniel,” I say, picking up the end of it.

“I don’t really need help but alright, let’s go,” he says, grabbing the other end of it. He drags me along and we head to the first room.

I help Daniel get into the room with the mattress, slowly bringing it over to the bed that’s up against the wall.

“Over here, just put it down gently,” Daniel says, maneuvering the mattress to go down into the bed frame.

Daniel and I come back over to find half the mattresses uncovered. “You guys work fast,” Daniel says, stunned.

Annabelle smiles over at him and says, “It doesn’t take long to take plastic sheets off of mattresses. Once we’re done with this we’re going to help you move the mattresses. With six of us we can go by twos and have it done faster.”

“That’s a great plan,” I say. “Can I work with you instead Alexia?”

“Sorry Rose but I got this adorable little girl as my partner,” she says, grinning down at Molly.

“Ah man, beat by a six year old. Oh well, at least I get to take you home with me,” I say with a wink.

Daniel goes over to grab the next mattress and gives Annabelle a quick kiss on the lips. “Love you my beautiful butterfly,” he tells her, pulling away.

“I love you too my handsome man.” She waves him off and gets back to pulling the sheets off the mattresses.

I grab the other end and run off with Daniel, going to the next room.

The next room is a bit further but not too far, it’s just one door over. We go inside and slowly bring the mattress over to the next bed. Which is also up against the wall.

“How’s it been, being back home?” Daniel asks me curiously as we bring the mattress down onto the bed frame.

“Different for sure. It’s strange not having my parents around and living with my aunt. But ever since I found Alexia things have been pretty amazing. She brings a light to my life I never knew I needed,” I tell him, letting go of the mattress.

“I can relate to that completely. Not the whole parents thing but, finding Alexia. I felt the same way when I found Annabelle. After I left her to go to work I couldn’t get her out of my head. All that I could think about was saving her from that place she told me about,” he tells me, stepping away from the bed.

“I knew you loved her the moment I first met you. I was jealous of the way you guys looked at each other. But everything worked out the way it was meant to,” I tell him, walking towards the door.

We leave the room not saying another word and head towards the front to see Julian and Annabelle picking up a mattress. Julian says, “This isn’t very heavy. I thought it would be super heavy.”

“They ‘re only heavy when it’s one person carrying it. But with two people it becomes much easier to move,” Annabelle tells him, walking towards another room with a bed.

Daniel and I come back and grab another mattress while Alexia and Molly take a mattress and we all make our way to a room with a bed.

Before long we have all the mattresses put on their bed. We come back to the front, gather up all the garbage and shove it into a single plastic sheet. No one had picked up any garbage bags yet so it would have to do.

Before long we start taking more packaging off this stuff Annabelle wants to bring it all where it belongs. “Once it’s in the room it’ll stay in, we can open them up and put them on the beds,” Annabelle tells all of us. “Since it’s not something heavy we can do it by ourselves. Let’s get to it. Two pillows per bed, one of each of everything else. Let’s go,” She claps her hands together then she starts grabbing stuff off the floor.

The rest of us do the same thing and we all head off going back and forth until the front hall is clean of any and all bedding. Once everything is sorted, we start opening and placing all the sheets, blankets and pillows.

After a couple of hours we all finish putting the beds together and everything is all done up. All the shelter needed now was garbage cans towels and basic stuff. But that could be dealt with another time.

“What do you all think?” Annabelle asks us, looking around at the rooms.

“It’s amazing. I can’t believe we did all this,” I say. “You’re an incredible person Annabelle.”

“I don’t know about that. I just do it because I enjoy it. And I love helping other people. Oh, Rose. I wanted to talk to you about something,” Annabelle tells me, walking closer to me.

“Sure Annabelle, what is it,” I ask, leaning in to hear what she has to say.

She grabs my hand and leads me away from everyone. She takes me into one of the further away rooms and closes the door. “Okay. I decided to do a search for missing girls named Clarisse and found one. Apparently she dated Alexander two years ago and one of her friends also went missing around that time.” She pulls out her phone and brings up a picture, showing it to me. “This is her. Clarisse Johnson. She’s been missing for three months,” she tells me.

I reach out and take her phone, staring at the photo, I look back at Annabelle and say, “She kind of looks like you.”

“I noticed that too. And Daniel pointed it out with her friend who was my age when she went missing,” She tells me, taking her phone back.

“That’s insane Annabelle. He definitely has his eyes set on you then. That man is messed up. I almost wish I hadn’t contacted him but you needed this place.” I tell her, looking a bit worried.

The door opens up and Daniel pops his head in. “What’s going on in here? Should I be concerned?” he asks, pushing into the room.

I put my hands on my hips, staring at Daniel and say, “I sure hope you’re concerned. That psycho killer is targeting your Belle.”

Daniel smiles, walking over to wrap his arm around Annabelle and says, “She has already taken care of that. I have nothing to worry about. It’s kind of hard to catch a psychic off guard. They know everything just by thinking about it or touching you.”

“You can do that Annabelle?” I ask her, looking at her curiously.

“I can but only recently. I actually saw you and Alexia together in your room the other day. You were in your bed talking and kissing I pulled myself out of the vision before it turned into something else. But not all psychics are like me. Apparently I’m a powerful once in a century kind of psychic,” she tells me.

“So you’re special,” I tell her, laughing ironically.

Daniel hugs her gently and says, “Of course she’s special. I knew she was the moment I laid my eyes on her.”

A knock comes at the door. “Can I come in there or are you guys having a three way? If you are I’d like to join,” Alexia says with a laugh.

I open the door and leave it that way, smiling at her, I say, “I would never have a three way with a man my lover. I only have eyes for you. And Annabelle isn’t interested in woman. We’re just talking about Annabelle’s abilities. She’s special.”

“I’m not special. I’m just one of a kind,” she tells us with a smile.