Cool_dog was absolutely crazy about Brandy. They both worked at WalMart, ya see. Every day he would get online and tell Liza about how he had wanted to kiss Brandy and did she love him and yadayada. Liza could only speak for her own heart, which was firmly in Fred’s hands at that time.


“Yes dear….Brandy loves you.” Liza was the eternal optimist and always tried to keep the faith with her cyberfriends, just like the real live ones. Cooldog watched Brandy bend over the counter and wanted to kiss her right then and there. Liza could never understand that kind of letting the moment slip by. Maybe she was just a fool for the timing of all of it…..a bit of a control freak. God knows she’d let a few opportunities slip by her in this lifetime. But she had always gathered the courage to say what she felt and act on it. Usually, she got shot down.

Fred had shot her down like a bird in flight when she was very vulnerable. He had played with her at work and then turned her away when she reached out to his advances. Her friend Sanner had told her long ago that “work guy” as they referred to him was way too cute for her own good. Sanner and her much younger husband lived in a neighboring county with their dog and their attitudes. After the tornado, she and Barry came around to help Liza cut the tree offa the house.

“I thought this was gonna be like a BIG tree” Barry said with chainsaw in hand. “This is not a bit of a challenge for a real man”. Oh boy. Liza was thankful for the chainsaw hands and they cut down every piece of wood in sight that was messing up the environment. Liza and Lacey had ended up away from home for more than a week after the tornado. Lacey bunked at Dad’s and Liza went at first to her friend Katie’s house, home of the “Garden of Eden” as they laughingly referred to her beautifully landscaped pool area. Each day for the following 5 days the area was hit with torrential rains/ tornado warnings while Liza tried desperately to get back home. Her phone was still on, but no electricity. Then on Tuesday the phone went out. Most power to the city was restored by Tuesday, but not Liza’s. She played gypsy once again and moved into the home of a co-worker who was out of town. On Wednesday the hundred year old box culvert under the lane collapsed from the flooding leaving the road impassable. Road crews repaired the culvert on Friday and cut the phone line while working. By Saturday there was electricity, a road and a phone so Liza and Lacey piled all their belongings into their respective cars and headed home to a knee high yard full of limbs and an empty refrigerator.