Summer Storm

“I’ll have one chocolate cone, one vanilla cone and a small coke and….” Dad trailed off to the hidden person inside the Sonic drive-thru machine, “That cloud sure doesn’t look good, kids. Hit the radio.”
“Is that all, sir,” questioned that hidden person.
“Umm…yeah. That’ll do it,” Dad fiddled with dial until the local AM station tuned in the sound of a weather emergency broadcast.
“The storm is five miles south of Middleville and is estimated to reach Franklin at 4:15 p.m. The storm is bringing strong downpours, heavy lightening and golf ball sized hail. Tornadoes are possible. Any persons in the path of this storm should take cover immediately,” the beep droned on announcing to new listeners the current weather situation.
Luckily for us, the Sonic “waitress on wheels” was ready to get inside before the weather hit and she quickly brought out our after-school snacks. Dad handed her a $10 bill and instructed her to “keep the change”. I don’t even think he looked behind him before starting to back up, “If we hurry, we can get to the farm, find your mom and head in the shelter ‘til this passes. I’ve seen enough of these. We gotta real live tornado; probably a category F2 or F3 headed our way.”
Sammy sank down in his seat and lowered his eyes. Storms terrify Sammy and he even still gets in bed with me or mama and daddy if it lightenings during the night. I took his hand and whispered, “It’ll be all right. The shelter is safe.” But, the swirling, blue-green clouds were unnerving me, too.
Dad did get home in record time and dropped us off at the front door to collect JimBob, our weiner dog, and Scoots, the farm cat that lives in my bedroom.
“Mama,” I yelled through the doorway, while Sammy scooped up JimBob and Scoots and started them out the back door towards the shelter. We could now hear the sirens from town blaring the warning that a tornado had touched down somewhere and might be heading right for us, “Run, Sammy!” I instructed, while searching the house for mama.
Sammy was terrified as he ran across the back yard and I have to say that I didn’t feel much better.
“Mary Beth, where’s mama?” he yelled over his shoulder as I ran to catch up. Mama’s car was parked right beside the house where she always keeps it.
“She’s probably already in the shelter. Hurry up, Sammy!” I could see the funnel shaped cloud getting closer on the horizon.
Dad was standing in the doorway of the barn that covered the shelter, “Wasn’t your mom in the house?”
“No, she must already be in the shelter,” the wind carried my voice as it whipped my hair around my face. Our shelter only sits a few feet from our house, but it seemed like it took hours for me to get there.
“She’s not there! You kids get in and shut the door. I’ll go find her!” Sammy was starting to cry and I felt my already thudding heart begin to shutter. My mama was somewhere out there and my dad was about to run out into the storm, too.
“Look!” Sammy shouted as dad began lifting the door to our underground safe haven.
There was mama running from the shed carrying something close to her chest. As she got closer so did the churning, roaring clouds.
I could just barely hear dad yell, “GET IN NOW!” and Sammy and I jumped down the five or six steps to the hard dirt floor. Mama was scurrying down the steps and we could now see she was clutching a black striped cat.
“I don’t know where she came from,” Mama yelled over the thundering din and the slamming safety door, “She ran towards the shed when she heard the thunder and I couldn’t leave her there.”
Sammy and I both jumped at mama and gave her, and the new cat, a big hug as we listened to the sound of wood flying off of the barn and the storm passing right over our heads. We were glad to be a family, safe and secure during the summer storm.