When I got up Tuesday, I looked outside and found Jake was already gone. It made me sad that I couldn’t say goodbye to him. I went outside and noticed the sky was darker than yesterday evening, and everything sort of had an eerie feeling about it. I wanted to stay inside and read most of the day. At lunch, I ran to Dairy Queen and got two corn dogs for mom and I. I then went back to reading.
I had fallen asleep on the bed when mom came storming into the room.
“Quick, get up, son. Get your shoes on. Come with me.”
“What’s up, mom?”
“Tornado, son!! Get up. Start out at this end and knock on every door. I’ll start at the other end and meet you at the middle.”
“But what do I do? What do I say?”
“Tell…no, beg everyone to get up and run across the street to the meat packing plant. Mr. Roberts says we can stay in the vault. Tell everybody to bring a coat. It will be cold but the walls are three feet thick. It should hold up under three tornadoes. Hurry, son, hurry.”
I grabbed my shoes and coat and quickly ran out. The sky to the northwest looked blacker than any I had ever seen. Then I saw it. It stretched all the way to heaven, it seemed. I guessed it was maybe a mile or mile-and-a-half away. I ran to #14 and knocked and knocked. Nobody came.
“Go son!” I heard mom yell. She was already at #4, coming my way. “Skip #13. I saw them leave earlier.” I went on till I met mom at # 9. We roused only about six of the twenty or so people who were staying there at the time. I was glad Jake was twenty miles from town, but I couldn’t find Collette. It worried me.
“Mom, I can’t find Collette,” I yelled.
“Go, son! Run to the packing plant. Quick. Everybody, Go!”
I waved my arms for people to follow me and started across the street. We got to the door and Mr. Roberts was just inside, ready to guide us through the maze of halls to the main cold vault.
“We don’t have to go in unless it is right on top of us. No use everyone freezing. I can see most everything through that window. If I give you a signal, everybody pile in. It should take just a second. There might be others coming from the office next door, but I’m not sure.”
“Where’s my mom, Mr. Roberts?” I asked, pretty scared now. I looked up at his worried face. “I… I don’t know, son.”
“Randy!” I knew it was mom. She ran up and gave me a huge hug. “You did a great job, son. Thanks.” I was so glad to see her.
“Mom?” I spoke. “Mom, I haven’t seen Collette.” I had to yell this time because the sound from outside was getting louder and louder.
“I’m sure she is fine, son. I opened her apartment with my key and I know she is not still there.” That gave me a little bit of hope. “Maybe she is out looking for a job again. She’s probably safe inside someone’s big office or in someone’s storm shelter. She’ll be fine.” The wind got louder and Mr. Roberts went back to the front window to check on things. He came back in a panic.
“Quick, every one in the vault. I think this is going to be the real thing,” he warned. Every one scrambled to get in. When we were finally in, Mr. Roberts latched the door shut. We all shivered in the cold.
“There it is,” someone shouted. “There’s the train sound.” We all stood frozen, I guess that’s a bad choice of words at the moment, but we all stood silent as we heard a roar that sounded like three train whistles roaring inside our small shelter. I had to cover my ears. Mom grabbed me tight until it hurt. She wouldn’t let me go. The sound continued to roar and the walls seemed to shake. I’m not sure if they really did or not, it’s just that the sound was so scary. The lady in #3 started screaming. It scared us all. She screamed and screamed and wouldn’t quit.
“We’re gonna’ die!” she yelled. “We’re all gonna’ die.”
“Shut up,” yelled somebody, and as soon as they did, everything went pitch black. Several people started crying.
“Hang on people,” encouraged Mr. Roberts. “This building is very solid. The electricity going out was to be expected.” Surprisingly, everyone got quiet for about a minute until we noticed that everything had gone still, even outside. “Let’s wait just one more minute, please. It might not be over. I know it’s cold…” He didn’t finish, but stood there a little longer. The door suddenly opened and startled a few people.
“Let me go outside and see what’s going on,” Mr. Roberts said.
We all waited, shivering, getting more nervous as time went by. He finally returned, holding a lit flashlight. “Let’s come on out. I think it is all over. There is even some blue sky showing through. But,” he stopped, “I need to warn you. It’s not pretty out there. There has been quite a bit of damage. At least what I could see, that is.”
I knew what he meant. What little he could see from his door was the Sunset. And that was home to everybody in the room, except Mr. Roberts. He grabbed my mom’s hand and led her out first. She got to the door and started crying. We all knew it was bad. We all made it outside, glad to be warm again. But that was little comfort. We all stood there, staring. The Sunset office, and #1 through #3 were still there. The rest was gone. Not really gone, but left there in a pile of mess.
We slowly made our way across the street and when we got to the parking lot, everyone stopped in unison and stared. Most were crying. “What are we going to do now, Mrs. Simpson?” someone asked.
“I…I don’t know. I haven’t a clue. Whoa…come back here!” she yelled as she ran after the old man who lived in #7. “Stop. Everybody, stop.” She waved her hands like a football referee. “We can’t go in yet. We don’t know if the electricity is still hooked up or not. Some one could get killed. Let me go make a few calls first.
We tried to make ourselves comfortable. All the lawn chairs had been blown away. There was nothing to sit on. Most of the cars were damaged and a few had a large electric wire draped across them. About ten minutes later, a truck from the electricity company showed up. Five minutes after that, the man dressed in all yellow told us everything was turned off and safe. Mom walked out and they talked.
“I don’t know if this will make you upset, ma’am, or give you comfort, but it looks like your motel is the only thing to be damaged very much in the whole town. It came through that cotton field there of Mr. Smyth’s and hit here and apparently made a left turn and back out of town along where the railroad track used to be. I’m … I’m sorry folks. Ma’am, you call us immediately if you see any more problems. But everything is shut off. You should have no problems. I need to be going. We’ll have a crew out here soon to start cleaning up stuff. Poles and wires, I mean.”
“Now what, Mrs. Simpson?” someone asked again. Mom started crying.
“I honestly don’t know,” mom whimpered.
“Doesn’t the owner of this dump own another motel over in Billow Ridge? Can’t he put us up somewhere else? We can’t just sleep in our cars. Some of us don’t even have cars.”
“The electricity is off, so if you want to scrounge through to find any valuables, go ahead. Just be careful. There will be sharp objects everywhere. I’m going to call Mr. Wilkinson and see what he says. Give me thirty minutes.” Mom slipped me two dollars and told me to go get some ice cream. I think she just wanted me out of the way. I think she was tired of crying and didn’t want me to be around if she started again.
I timed thirty minutes just right, and as I walked back into the parking lot, the whole crowd was walking into the office. I followed. Mom had not cried anymore, but looked like she had probably put her fist through a wall. I could tell when she was mad, and now, she was mad.
“This will be short and sweet, everyone. That…that…” I know she wanted to say something worse until she saw me. “That wonderful landlord that we all have just informed me that he has not been able to pay the insurance for two months. He’s now got a mortgage of $200,000 to pay off, and you are all,… we are all on our own. At least ya’ll lost just your homes. I just lost my home and my job. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilkerson!” she said sarcastically. “I’m going to go get drunk.”
Everyone walked out muttering and cursing, but not knowing what to do. I watched as everybody wandered to where their homes used to be and pick and pull at a few loose boards. Most cried. I looked up as I heard a screech of tires and then rocks skidding in the parking lot behind me. Jake skidded to a stop and jumped out.
He ran up to me and hugged me. “Is anyone hurt?” I shook my head. He sighed in relief. “I am so glad. I heard about it on our company scanner and got here as soon as possible. How is your mom, and Collette?” I told him I hadn’t seen Collette, and then I told him about mom talking to Mr. Wilkinson. He looked sad. He had lost a lot also.
“Gotta go, kid. I’ll be back soon,” he said and left suddenly.
When he got back, Pastor Ron and Pastor Wiggins were both squeezed into the seat of his truck. They all got out and I ran over to Jake. Ron reached down and gave me a big hug and said he was very glad I was safe. I followed the three into the office, which was getting a little warm since the air conditioner was not working. They walked up to the counter where mom was drinking. She wasn’t drunk yet, and she made no attempt this time to hide her bottle.
“Mrs. Simpson,” Ron said. “Let me tell you that Pastor Wiggins and I want to let you know we are so, so very sorry about your loss. Of your home and your job.” Mom just stood there and nodded. She didn’t have much use for preachers. “In times of drastic need, ma’am, churches should be the first to step out and help. Jake said you have about twenty people living here, right?” She nodded. “That would be about ten people for each of our churches.” Mom stared at him with a puzzled look. “What I mean ma’am, is that the both of us want to open our church doors to let anyone at the Sunset to come to either of our churches and live for a few weeks. Sorry the Catholic church can’t help out just now, but as many of you know, they are in the middle of a big construction project and things just wouldn’t be safe at the moment. Charlie over at the farm co-op said they had enough fold-out cots for everyone to sleep on, no charge. We will worry about the rest of what everyone might need as time goes on. Please allow us to give you a home for awhile.”
Mom started to tear up again, but she was smiling this time. “I don’t know what to say, sir. I’ve never been through anything like this before. Thank you. What do we need to do?”
“Just come. I know everybody has stuff to try to find in the rubble. We will try to get a backhoe or something over here tomorrow and try to get the big stuff out of the way. Hopefully most of you can salvage some valuables. Spread the word among your residents and see if you can split them up half and half between the Baptist and Methodist church. But Mrs. Simpson, since Randy meets with us, and since Jake and Collette have been visiting with us recently, we insist you stay with us at Riverstone. Is that Ok?” Mom nodded.
The pastors said goodbye and started to leave. As they got to the door of the lobby, mom yelled at them. “Jake, …sirs. We just today got back a full load of clean blankets and sheets and towels from our laundry service. Would God think it wrong if the Sunset ‘donated’ a few things?”
“Ma’am, since your owner has washed his hands of you, I don’t see much problem. If he does happen to come back for them, we’ll deal with that then. Bring all the linens you can,” said Pastor Wiggins.
The pastors left and Jake went from person to person trying to help them salvage what they could. He said he didn’t lose much but a few clothes, so he spent the rest of the afternoon helping others. After long, people from all over town started showing up to help sift through the mess. At 6:00, I noticed that Collette had not showed up yet. I mentioned it to Jake, and he left immediately. He was worried too.
By the time the sun set, there were about fifty people, along with the Sunset residents there to help. Several men showed up with big trucks and carried us and our few belongings to the two churches. At almost 10:00, Jake walked in with his arm around a crying Collette. He led her over to a cot, got her a set of blankets and sheets, and then showed her where the restrooms were. When she walked out, I went over to Jake.
“Is she going to be Ok?” I asked.
“She will be fine, I think. She was walking around town when the storm hit and just as she heard the loud roar, she looked up and saw Margie Scott running out the door of her house toward her storm shelter. Margie waved her arms for Collette to follow her and the two rode out the storm underground. After it was over, the two went back inside Margie’s and talked the rest of the time until recently. I found her just as she and Margie pulled up in the parking lot of the Sunset. She is pretty torn up about the storm damage. Twice in two weeks she is left with nothing but one change of clothes to wear. She has nothing at all. She needs some ‘TLC’.”
“Huh?”
“Tender Loving Care.” Jake explained. I just nodded. Everyone was pretty wiped out by 10:30 and quietly laid down on a cot and went to sleep.
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