“I guess I could do that,” Rick said.

Marc gave him the number to his cell and his address.

“Okay, got it,” Rick said. “I’ll send him a text, but I don’t know where he is right now. He’s traveling.”

At that moment, Marc heard the alarms going off inside the station.

“Sorry, mister. We’ve got a call. Gotta go,” Rick said. He disconnected, dropped the note pad with the number on the chief’s desk, and ran.

“I appreciate anything you can do,” Marc said, but the man had already hung up.

Marc disconnected and put some bread in to toast. Right now, he’d done all he could do, and in the meantime he had to finish this project for Nat Geo.

He pulled out the notes he’d made about follow-up trips and decided to revisit the Georgia locations first. That dramatic rescue using the bulldozer for transportation was nothing short of heroic. He wanted to interview this man, Johnny Pine, and he needed a picture of the woman Johnny had saved. Maybe he’d find something interesting about the story that played into how natural disasters changed the landscape of countries and the landscape of lives in the people who inhabited them.

When the toast popped up, Marc covered it with peanut butter and jelly and ate as he worked, looking for the exact location of Blessings, Georgia, and the kind of motels available for travelers.

Once he’d located Blessings on the map, he googled motels and got two hits. One was a small motel; the other was a very inviting bed-and-breakfast. He called the B and B and made a reservation, after estimating how long it would take him to get there, then finished his PB&J and went to pack.

He was going to overnight in Nashville and then drive on to Blessings the next day.

He made it to Nashville without incident. Exhausted from a drive of over eight hours, he stopped at a La Quinta Inn and got a room. He showered and crawled into bed, then for the first time in ages, forgot to set his alarm.

When he woke and saw that it was almost noon, he groaned, got up and showered and shaved, ate a quick lunch in the motel café, and continued southeast.

He drove into rain just as he crossed the border into Georgia, then drove by a wreck that blocked traffic for almost two hours before motorists were allowed to proceed. At that point, he called the B and B to let them know his arrival was going to be delayed. The nice woman who answered assured him that it was no problem and told him to travel safe.

He stopped once after that to refuel and then drove through intermittent thunderstorms the rest of the way.

* * *

It was just after 11:00 p.m. when headlights flashed across the front windows of the Blessings Bed and Breakfast. It had been raining for hours, but the lights were on outside in the parking lot and along the walkway to the entrance, as well as inside the front lobby.