The winds are relentless lashing at my small dwelling with
such force I’m waiting to be blown across the county. I ask myself now if I should
have gone to a shelter but the virus is there I know it and id rather be blown
away and enjoy the ride rather than be put on a respirator and die alone. My
faithful dog is lying at my feet shaking and scared. I gave him a huge handful of
treats to take his mind off this, but he only managed to eat one and that’s worrisome.
The creaking of the walls tells me the wind will eventually come in and the
windows will break all at once leaving us momentarily sitting on the slab as
everything explodes around us. I will hold onto his collar the best I can as we
are lifted and begin either a fast death or one hell of a ride to who knows
where?
I believe we are in the eye of a tornado as everything is
dead quiet and it feels like the gravity ride at the state fair. It is just
black air around us my dog whimpering and wondering why I brought him here. Now
I feel myself falling not very fast and I believe I can handle a landing
although I don’t know where that will be. The air is cleaner now as I’m beginning
to see below me. There’s farmland which means I’ve traveled about ten miles or
so and it's approaching me rather quickly. There’s a field of hay bales and if I’m
lucky, BAM We landed. My dog ran off as I tried to catch my breath that was
knocked out of me upon landing. I don’t feel like I broke anything, so I slowly
got up and looked around.
My dog came back and tried to talk which he sometimes does,
glad to see me I suppose but also yelling for me to never do that again. As I
looked around, I saw a farmhouse and walked towards it hoping somebody was
there and all right. The farmer came to the door and just stood there shaking
his head. Never saw the likes of that before, he began. I’ve seen cars and
trucks fly by but never saw a man and a dog-free fall onto a bale of hay. You aren’t
hurt he asked? All good I answered. Where exactly are we? You’re in Pasco
county friend. I did some quick math and shook my head in disbelief. That’s seventeen
miles from my house I said out loud. Holy crap.
After resting up for a bit the farmer drove us back to whatever was left of my house. A slab was what we found. Damn, he said it’s all gone
son. I got out of the truck and looked around for anything that might be mine,
but the place was picked clean, the winds had carried everything including us
to the four corners of the county. Fema came in with a brand new trailer and
set it up on the slab. I had to start fresh again going to thrift stores for
just about everything you’d need to live. It took some time but eventually, we
were settled in and going on with life. Family and friends read about us in the
papers and a lady from the local news came around to interview me about the
experience of living through such a violent storm. Guess we were heroes for a while.
If you think that was the end of it, think again. Three
years later almost to the date another superstorm was predicted. And it was
heading my way. I didn’t want to test faith again so me and my dog headed for
the shelter and joined the others who didn’t want to be victims’I heard the
winds outside and the pounding rain that sounded like a barrage of bullets
hitting the walls. Like most storms like these, it didn’t last long and soon the
siren went off saying it was gone. I made my way back to my place and what I
saw stays with me even today. The entire park was gone, blown away to who knows
where, Everything but one lonely house, my house. It hadn’t been touched. I
went inside and everything was just like I left it. No broken dishes or broken
glass, nothing.
That lady from the news came around again and asked me what
I thought about my house being the only one that wasn’t destroyed. I thought
about that for a bit then told her I think you only go around once in this life
and no matter what happens if it's your time then it is and if it’s not it's not.
I told her I had been swallowed up by the monster and spit out, wasn’t my time.
And I let God decide my fate this time too. Guess he figured Id had enough
excitement for now and spared my house. Who can say really? So, for the next
twelve years, the skies were quiet. No big storms or lashing winds, just a
peaceful life in the park until one day in late August a supercell formed and
headed my way. My dog was up in years as was I and riding out a monster like
this one wasn’t something we wanted to do. We headed for the shelter but the
roads were blocked with fallen trees and we couldn’t get there in time so, we
drove through the back roads for quite a few miles until coming upon a huge hay
field that looked familiar. I parked my truck in the field and held onto my old
friend for what could be our final ride.
I felt the truck beginning to lift, first the back and then teetering
like a kid’s see-saw. Slowly at first then WOOSH we were sucked into the storm
and the quiet. My dog sat next to me seemingly ok with all this, I think he was
just glad he was in the truck and not free falling like before. My gut told me
not to expect a soft landing onto a bale of hay. It wasn’t very long until I
felt us dropping at a pretty good clip. This is it I said to my dog, so long
fella we’ve had a good run. He looked at me with his old eyes then laid his
head on my lap ok with it. The next thing I remember is a loud thumping sound
and an abrupt stop. It got quiet and the sun came out as I looked through the
truck window and saw we weren’t on the ground but somewhere fairly high up.
Eventually, the fire department arrived below us. A fireman
climbed a ladder to reach us and when he spoke what I heard blew my mind. Seems
my truck landed on the steeple of a church. Somehow the needle of the steeple
pierced the bed of my truck sparing us inside. It was like we were parked there
way up high. The news lady came around again and just shook her head, again.
She said I know it wasn’t your time, right? Just goes to show you I said, life
is one hell of a ride and it will take you where you are meant to be. I really
wanted to believe that but deep inside I was already making plans to move. We’re
getting way too old for all this excitement.
Mike
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