Chapter 12

Sam drove slowly, bumping over debris with every turn of the wheels. They saw several houses with damaged roofs and downed banana trees everywhere. Twice they had to drive around fallen telephone poles.

The first thing they did was check on Sam’s mother. The town of Portsmouth looked half-drowned—puddles that took up most of the road and swathes of mud deep enough to bury mopeds. There was too much debris to park by Sam’s tiny sky-blue house, so he was forced to park in the road. He heard a woman yelling at Sam before he saw her.

“This is the man I was telling you about, Mama. Rainn, this my mother, Rosa. Stand here in front of me, Rainn, so she can’t hit me.”

Rosa snorted a laugh, but put her hands on her hips. “Don’t be funny right now. What if there were landslides? You should have stayed in the shelter.” Rainn noticed Rosa’s accent. The lilt was so much stronger than Sam’s. Had Sam perhaps spent time in the U.S.?