Tornado

I peered through my windshield, examining the blanket of clouds above me. The weather channel hadn't mentioned any storm warnings, but this was tornado season in Oklahoma. As someone who had never lived around tornadoes before, the very idea of them left me cold and nervous.

Evie was singing softly to herself in the back seat, watching out the window for signs of planes. "There's Daddy!" she would yell whenever she saw one, excited by the idea that the plane overhead might be her father's.

I smiled to myself, adoring the little girl in the seat behind me. Evie was by far the sweetest, most adorable two-year-old on the planet. I joined her in singing "Changes" from the Shrek 2 soundtrack as we continued our drive to the store.

The week before, Ben had discovered a quicker way to Wal-Mart. By turning a mile early and taking the country roads, we could avoid a lot of traffic and lights. It was this road I was currently traveling on. Vance Air Force base was a mile away on the left, and the town of Enid was about the same distance away on my right. Immediately around us were nothing but houses and farmland. I noticed a ditch on either side of the road, for water to drain into whenever it rained. I made a mental note, reminding myself that a ditch is a good place to be if you're caught outside when a twister touches down.

We pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot. As I climbed out of the car, a cold wind whipped my hair around my face. I pulled my jacket tighter, shivering. It was supposed to get to almost 90 degrees later in the week, but you'd never know that from the wind we were getting.

After unbuckling Evie and locking the car, the two of us headed into the store. I grabbed a cart and slipped Evie (and Horton, her stuffed toy elephant) into the seat, buckling them in. We made our way into the store, searching for the items on our shopping list.

I took my time, wandering up and down isles. Shopping has always been a relaxing errand for me. I derive pleasure from hunting down the things on my list. I know that lots of people, my husband included, find shopping tedious and bothersome, but I genuinely enjoy it. There's something about performing such a simple, familiar errand that makes me happy.

After an hour and a half of searching, comparing brands and prices, making decisions, and paying for our groceries, we were done. Evie, Horton and I began making our way back out to the car with our purchases.

As we moved out of the warm building, the wind caught me full in the face. I gasped, shocked by the force of the air. Evie's hat flew off of her head, and would have gone tumbling down the street if I'd had lesser reflexes. I caught it and crammed it into my purse, where the wind couldn't snatch it away. Evie and I both squinted against the wind, which was blowing our hair into our eyes. She clutched Horton closer to her chest, fearful of losing him.

I ran to the car and threw the groceries in the trunk. After returning the shopping cart, Evie and I ran back to the car and climbed inside, relieved to be out of the wind. I quickly strapped Evie into her car seat, then turned on the car. We were only ten minutes from home, and I wanted to get there as quickly as possible. The weather had me worried.

I looked up through my windshield, just as I had not two hours before, and stared at the sky. It was only noon, but the sky had darkened so much, it felt more like late afternoon. The clouds overhead had become thicker, darker, more ominous. They seemed almost angry, churning and thrashing in the heavy winds. As I was examining them, they broke open. A heavy rain came pouring out of the skies, drenching my windshield.

An involuntary shiver went down my spine. I shook my head, trying to put aside all the thoughts of tornadoes and destruction that were crowding my mind. The chances that we would get hit by a twister on our ten-minute drive home were slim. My overactive imagination was doing me no favors. I flicked on the windshield wipers, put the car in gear, and headed home.

I tried to keep the mood light, worried that Evie would sense my nervousness. We sang our ABC's and practiced counting to ten as we traveled, heading back down the country road toward home.

"Wait! Shh," I hushed Evie. There was a sound, off in the distance. Over the cries of the wind, I thought I heard a loud wailing noise coming from Vance. It sounded like the tornado sirens were going off.

I peered out the windows, trying to spot a tornado through the lashing rain.

I couldn't see anything. Maybe it was all in my head. After all, I had been told multiple times by the local people that nothing in Enid or Vance had been destroyed by a tornado in over 40 years. Enid was apparently build on sacred Native American ground. The tornadoes always managed to avoid the town, staying in the countryside between the town and the Air Force base...

My heart stopped, frozen in my chest. That's where we were driving! We were right smack in the middle of twister territory!

I forgot all about trying to control my fear. I stared out at the sky, barely paying attention to the road I was driving on. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something in the rear view mirror.

In the distance, spinning and twisting like an insane nightmare, a tornado had touched down. A thick cloud of dirt and dust had formed at the base. The tornado was rapidly gaining size and strength, sucking up and throwing junk and shrapnel into anything unfortunate enough to cross its path.

A burst of adrenaline shocked my heart, starting it racing. Panicked, I hit the gas, praying that we could make it to safety. The twister was growing, however, and seemed to be getting closer despite my efforts to outrace it. I realized that I was gasping, hyperventilating. A strange, high-pitched squeak was coming from my throat.

"Mama, what's wrong?" Evie asked from her seat in the back, completely oblivious to the danger we were in. I snapped my mouth shut, trying to breathe normally. Silently, I began praying, tears running down my cheeks.

"Father, I don't know what to do! Please help me! Please don't let us die out here!" I pleaded, begging for help from the best source I could think of.

A thought entered my mind, clear and sharp. The ditch. Of course! A wave of peace washed over me, and I knew what I had to do.

Peering through the rain and darkness, I examined the ditch running alongside the road. Just ahead, it looked like there was a drain pipe that passed beneath the driveway of one of the nearby houses. It looked to be about three feet in diameter - hopefully big enough to hold us, strong enough to protect us from any debris from the oncoming tornado, and low enough in the ditch not to cause a wind tunnel.

As quickly as I could without wrecking the car, I pulled over. I ripped the keys out of the ignition, stuffed them into my purse, and opened the door. The force of the wind nearly ripped the car door off its hinges. I climbed out, and was instantly soaked. The rain felt like pebbles being hurled into my face. My jacket was whipping against my back like something alive, my hair blowing in mad, wet tangles around my face. My purse was nearly sucked off of my shoulder, but I held on tight to it. When this was all over, we would probably need to call for help, and my cell phone was in that bag.

With difficulty, I managed to get to Evie's door. It slammed open against my arm, causing me to shriek in pain. Evie, terrified, was struggling against her straps, trying to get to the safety of my arms. "Hold still! Hold still!" I yelled at her, trying to make myself audible over the screaming wind.

I struggled with her seat belt. For some reason, I couldn't get the buckle undone. My fingers didn't seem to be working right. Frustrated and scared beyond belief, I yanked hard on the strap, screaming, "STOP!" To my surprise, the buckle popped open. Evie pulled her arms out of the straps, grabbed Horton, and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I pulled Evie out of the car and bolted for the drain. Evie's arms were so tight, they were nearly cutting off my airway. I barely noticed. My one thought was to get my child to safety.

As I began sliding down into the ditch, an especially strong gust of wind came up, snatching Horton out of Evie's hand. It sent him bouncing away, across the road top, towards the nearing twister. "Horton!" Evie screamed into my ear, "Mama! Get Horton!" I just shook my head, knowing that Horton was long gone. We had to worry about staying alive.

Faintly, I heard something that sounded like a train, coming up behind us. I glanced over my shoulder. The tornado was closing in fast. Momentarily frozen, I watched it, wide-eyed. The train sound was growing louder. I realized that it was the tornado making the sound.

I sprinted for the pipe, covering the remaining distance in a few large bounds. I crawled into the pipe with difficulty, Evie's arms and legs still wrapped around me. I lay down as best I could, trying to avoid the rain water rushing through, but knowing Evie and I were so soaked that it probably didn't matter.

Evie was sobbing, tired and exhausted. "Mama, where's Horton?" she asked. The question broke my heart. My eyes filled with tears, and I told her, "Honey, the wind took him away. I'm sorry. We'll try to find him later, okay?" Red-eyed, she nodded, and snuggled closer to my body, trying to keep warm.

The tornado was getting closer. Over the shriek of the wind, I heard it, chug-a-chugging like a train from hell. I raised my head up, enough to look out of the pipe, and saw it, not 20 feet away. My car was shaking, bouncing on its wheels, like it knew what was about to happen. The twister hit the car, swallowing it with its dust cloud. I heard the torturous scream of metal being ripped apart. Fearful of the resulting shrapnel being thrown through the air, I lay back down and curled my body around Evie's, trying to keep her safe.

The noise was deafening. This is it, I thought. This is where we find out if we're going to live or die.

I screwed my eyes shut, not wanting to see what was happening. I had one of my arms wrapped around Evie's head, trying to cover her eyes and ears as well. The other arm held her to me tightly. Whatever happened, I was not going to let this monster take my baby from me.

We lay there for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, the sound began getting softer, until it disappeared altogether. The winds weren't howling so loudly anymore, either. Even the rain, which had been rushing like a small river through our hiding place, had slowed.

Tentatively, I opened my eyes. The light I could see outside the pipe seemed different, somehow. It was brighter, and somehow comforting. Evie and I sat up, and I made my way to the end of the pipe, chancing a look around.

The cloud cover had broken. The sun was shining through the gaps, lighting the surrounding countryside. Where the tornado had been raging, wisps of cloud floated in the air. The ground around us was littered with all kinds of debris, including -

"Horton!" I gasped. "Evie, I see Horton!"

Evie popped her head out of the pipe, searching for her friend. "Horton?"

I crawled out of the storm pipe, picked Evie up, and hurried over to where Horton was laying. He was dirty, tattered, and soaking wet, but he seemed to be all in one piece.

"What do you say we take Horton home and get him cleaned up? Get all of us cleaned up?"

"Yay!" Evie hugged Horton tightly, not caring about his disheveled condition. I hugged Evie just as fiercely, gladder than I'd ever before been to be alive.

We'd made it through the storm.