Against my better judgment, I chased Marshall’s bootheels and could hardly breathe when we reached the shop. Marshall was barely winded and led me around the side to the only door there was. He pulled it open to step inside before I had the chance to ask him if he was crazy. I didn’t bother asking myself the same because I already knew the answer.

I held the door open while Marshall looked for something we could use to prop it open. What we needed to do is find a light switch, but I wasn’t going to waste a word telling Marshall so. We’d made a rule not to speak unless it was necessary and telling him something he already knew didn’t qualify. Marshall appeared from the darkness like some horror movie slasher carrying one of Harp’s tool bags he laid at the corner of the door. It moved a couple of inches when I let it go but held it, and I left the doorway.

The few times Andy brought me in here, I never paid attention to the layout of the building. She knew exactly where to lead me, and it was to her deddy’s fridge for a couple of beers. We’d sit inside one of the cars he was working on, drink our cold ones, and have a backseat rodeo. I felt along the wall until my hand ran over a switch, and I flipped it. Nothing happened at first, but once the lights started buzzing, the inside of that shop lit up like the Tugalo County Titans were fixing to take the field for Friday Night Lights.

My eyes took a second to adjust, and I rubbed away the spots clouding my vision. Marshall waved for me to follow him and led me to a back corner of the building with bare walls and no tool cabinets. A steel door was sunk into the floor, and I wondered why Andy had never shown me this. Marshall dropped to a knee, lifted the door, and it opened without a squeak. Its hinges locked in place, and Marshall waved for me to follow before he dropped inside.

Marshall whistled when I didn’t follow him right away and stuck his head out to see what I waited for. I didn’t like the idea of not being able to keep an eye on the door. If anybody came inside, we’d be trapped with nowhere to go. But with the way Marshall looked at me, I knew there’d be no talking him out of it. We were always bent on making a series of bad decisions anyway. This wasn’t no worse than some other shit we’d gotten into. Without much more thought, I followed my brother down into the hole.

2.

When my bootheels met the concrete, Marshall pulled the string on an overhead light. A single bulb lit the space enough my eyes didn’t have to strain to see we were in some kind of storm shelter. I didn’t know what kind of storms Harp planned on taking refuge from in north Georgia. The only tornadoes Tugalo County ever got happened while I was still wetting myself, and my only memories were of what Mama told me about them. It looked like the same thought occurred to Harper, and he turned the shelter into a bunker.