The Entry Hall Tile

Era sat at the kitchen table, tapping her fingers impatiently against the wood. Cracks of lightning. The pounding of thunder. Raindrop’s pitter-patter. It could all be heard outside the walls of her home. A pot of soup grew cold on the stovetop, yet she just sat there. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Pa-da-dump, Pa-da-dump was the sound her roughly bitten nails made on the wood while the raindrops hurled themselves onto the roof above. Era began tapping her heels anxiously against the floor as her eyes stared there, glued on her cell phone that sat next to her on the kitchen table.

It lay screen-up, but the call had not yet come. It instead just lay there, black. Once again, she nervously tapped the glass to see if she had missed the call, but when the photograph of her and Scalar from last autumn lit up, she knew she had not.

He was so happy then. They were so happy then. Those beginning autumn days before he was to go to college all the way across the nation. She hadn’t really understood how the distance would work out at the time. But now, as she waited for his call, she knew all too well what the school years had done to the two of them.

Crack! Another burst of lightning sent chills down her spine as the pa-da-dump, pa-da-dump of her fingernails continued against the wood. He would call, she knew he would. His train surely had arrived by now. It was supposed to arrive at five p.m., but the wicked storm had delayed him till six already.

Glancing over at the clock above the stove, she found the green numbers flashing a “12:00” at her. She had been sitting in a dim light, so she had noticed it. The power was out. It had caused the stove to go off and the clocks to reset. Era’s fingers frantically fumbled to switch her phone off Wi-Fi and onto cell data, yet the call still hadn’t come in.

She paced the kitchen now. Where was he? He surely would have texted if they had been delayed further, right? Her phone lit up. On the table she had just put it down on, she hastily picked it up once again. Blinking twice, she frowned as her eyes set on the message. “Flash Flood Warning in your Area,” it warned, but she didn’t care.

The house was beginning to feel cold now, so she grabbed a blanket from the living room and wrapped it around her petite caramel shoulders and made her way to the entry hall. Era’s breath echoed throughout the quiet, silent home. It was a large place. Far larger than they needed but he had wanted children and they had the money, so they bought it. 

But once he had moved for the school year up to New York, she had found the place rather eerie all by herself. He hadn’t even come down to visit for Christmas—said he had work and would see her at the end of the year. She understood. It was in his nature to put work first.

Gazing out the front window in search of his car, all her eyes found was rain pouring down the gutters and flooding the front yards of her neighborhood. Something hurt the back of her neck, like a fly bite or maybe a flick across her skin.

Era reached her fingers up and when she pulled them away, there was blood.  Going to the bathroom, she cleaned it up. The phone still did not ring. She made her way back to the front door only to squint.

The water that had once overflowed the gutters on the street was now collecting in her grass. Her yard was turning into a swamp. Waves of rainwater brushed up against her door like something out of a movie. 

She checked her phone once again only to see a thirty-minute old evacuation flood warning next to the hour old flash floor warning. Had it really been another hour? It couldn’t have been. Turning to check if the windows were closed, a trail of drops of blood was left behind her.

Not noticing the blood staining the white tile, she made her way up the stairs and closed her bedroom window. Back down the stairs, she creased her brow at the window in the kitchen. It was closed, yes, but outside the water had to be a foot off the ground.

Era blinked a few times in confusion. It didn’t look real. But… it was. Her phone still did not ring. Pa-da-dump, her fingers tapped softly against the stone of the countertops. Scalar still wasn’t calling.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the feeling of icy water against her bare feet. Era followed the train of water out of the kitchen, around the bend and into the downstairs bedroom. There was water outside the window, leaking in through the cracks of the window and streaming in onto the carpet.

On the walls of that room were years and years of the artwork she had made before giving up the dream. If the storm continued flooding like this, it would surely all be ruined by the humidity in the air. All of it. Wasted. Years of her life for nothing.

But for some reason, without a second thought she walked away from the window and closed the door. All she cared about now was Scalar’s call. Those years of art were gone. It was time to let the flood take them away.

The water still streamed in from under the door, yet at a much slower pace now. Deep down, she didn’t mind the fact that the home Scalar and she had worked so hard for was being ruined by the water. She didn’t care anymore. She just wanted him to call.

The water rose around the home, drowning It and everything in it. Era walked around the downstairs, closing each door but the water still came in. She was ancle deep in cold, cold water that continued to pour in. All around here. It took her paintings, her home, her life. It took everything except her and the phone in her hand.

The water rose and rose and took everything she had. It cleaned the blood off the white tile but that’s not all it cleaned. It took the cold soup from the stove, the paintings from the spare bedroom, the blood from the hall. Behind closed doors, water poured in and took the life she knew.

Era made her way to the top of the stairs. The water continued to rise. Her hair was wet with blood. She sat there over her phone, shivering and begging Scalar to call her. The water rose to her knees. She didn’t move. It touched the glass of her phone. Please, she cried at it. It’s been too long. Please don’t leave. Please.

The water was at her neck and she could no longer see the glass of her phone beneath her. She didn’t stand. It covered her mouth. Closing her eyes, she breathed out and the bubbles floated up above her head.

***

“Era? Era! Oh, my goodness! Era, what happened?” Scalar’s voice spoke to her, muffled as if it were underwater. Opening her eyes, Era stared up at Scalar’s deep brown eyes. She was laying on the white tile of the entry hall. Blood encircled her upper neck.

The front door was open, and Scalar’s keys lay on the tile a few feet away. His big brown eyes shot from her confused eyes to the blood on the floor. It took Era a few moments before realizing it. She had blacked out again. The flood, the loss, the loneliness. It was all a simulation. It was gone now. He was here. She was safe.

“You must have fell and hit your head again,” he continued as if he had seen her yesterday, but she just looked around. “Do you need me to call an-”

She interrupted him by sitting up and wrapping her arms around her boyfriend. 

“I missed you, Scalar,” she whispered as he eyes moistened, and she hugged him. “I missed you really bad.”

“I missed you too,” he smiled as he nuzzled her nose. Helping her get up, he directed her over to the coach where he made her sit down. He grabbed the pills from the cabinet and got her a glass of water. Scalar sat next to her on the coach. “You’re going to be okay, Era. I have your medications.  You should have taken them earlier, you know.”

“I wanted to wait till you were here so I could have them with dinner.” He smiled softly at her.

“I know, you shouldn’t do that though…”

“I know…”