Unforeseen Circumstances: Day 14

Word Count: 84,035

Summary of Events:

Friday dawned very hot, prompting one of the farmhands — who always fussed about the weather — to predict a tornado. Weston invited Shawn over to play some games in the shade until he had a dentist appointment. Once Shawn left, Weston and Andie walked around in the shade and ended up learning from the fearful farmhand that the Weather Radio station he always listened to had broadcast a tornado warning, which caused Andie to fret until she called her mom, who reported that the weather forecast was only for a late-afternoon thunderstorm. Later on, however, Andie's oldest brother called to report his girlfriend's grandmother had seen a tornado heading north and he couldn't get a hold of Andie's other brother who was at home, prompting Andie to fret again. Weston was certain that the tornado wouldn't be severe, or jump the deep river valley that bisected Edmonton, as was his father, but eventually heavy winds and rain reached the farm and Weston's father came in from working in the shop to take Weston and Andie into the basement, where they sheltered in the spare bedroom closet…

Excerpt of the Day:

Weston appreciated Dad’s touch and closeness as he listened to the wind buffeting the house with a voiceless, heaving moan, the rain and hail striking the house in rapid-fire staccato that sounded like someone spilling a bagful of something hard on a wood floor.

Andie soon started to cry and Weston began to feel the prick of warm tears in his eyes despite the fact that he didn’t want to cry as his mind called up his most recent memory of Shannon at the gas station, being taken back home by Gramp. She would’ve been safer if she would’ve stayed at Gram and Gramp’s through the weekend.

After awhile Weston leaned his head against Dad, but he fought hard to keep from crying, even though he was worried about Shannon. Sure she was a girl, and she was younger than him, but she was his sister, the only sister — or sibling of any sort — he had, and he couldn’t deny that he loved her and knew that she loved him. Losing her would be probably the worst thing he could experience in his life. He hoped she was alright.

Dad’s hand started rubbing on his upper arm just over his shoulder, which Weston had to admit was a comfort, as was the ability to rest his head on Dad’s shoulder and nestle himself as close to Dad’s side as possible. Even Dad’s breathing continuing to be calm and steady gave Weston a sense of comfort and reassurance that even though everyone went on and on about how he was a young man who was practically all grown-up, he didn’t have to be the strongest or the bravest one at the moment, because he didn’t really know how.

Weston had no idea how long they huddled in the closet sitting on the spare pillows and covered by the spare blanket. He couldn’t really see much light through the closet door, as the basement wasn’t very high out of the ground, so the windows were small, making the room dim and dreary compared to Weston’s bedroom upstairs, and he had to admit that it felt long enough that the sun might’ve set.

Eventually, however, Dad carefully shifted his position, drawing his arm off Weston’s shoulder and moving it in front of himself to push the blanket off.

“The wind seems to have gone down,” Dad said quietly.

Reaching forward, he carefully opened the closet doors, revealing that it wasn’t nearly as dark as Weston had anticipated it could’ve been. He straightened out his legs, which had been feeling rather cramped. Dad did the same before easing to his feet and walking over to one of the windows.

“It looks like we’ve got at least part of a tree down,” Dad said. “We’ll see better upstairs.”

“You think it’s safe?” Weston asked.

“The worst of it is past us, I think,” Dad replied.

Nodding, Weston carefully got to his feet and offered his hand to Andie, who eased to her feet and stepped close to Weston, who put his arm around her and followed Dad out of the spare room and upstairs, where the view out the unusually dry front windows showed a decently thick covering of hail and steady falling rain that wasn’t near as heavy as when it’d first opened up.