by Alexie Aaron
“Not the way we play it. He makes up stories, and we go on trips.”
Mia hid her surprise. She hadn’t seen this softer side of Mike. “Whenever I play a game with Uncle Mike, he is a fierce competitor,” Mia said.
“It’s because you’re a girl,” Brian dismissed. “I want cheese fries.”
“Me too. Let’s split them.”
Dieter found them munching on fries and watching Mark on one of the big walls.
“How did your lesson go?” Mia asked.
“It was tough. I’m pretty tall, so they put me on a medium wall. I didn’t fall, but man, my hands are tired.” He bent down and took one of Brian’s cheese fries.
“Here,” Mia said, digging in her pocket. “Buy yourself a snack. It looks like Mark is going to be awhile longer.”
Dieter accepted the money and walked over to the snack bar.
Two of the girls from the game table looked up as he passed. They giggled at something one of the boys said in the group.
Mia’s eyes narrowed. She wanted to know what the kid said.
“Mom. Mom,” Brian repeated.
“Sorry, I was someplace else.”
“Mark is waving,” Brian said and waved back to the youth on the outcropping.
Mia waved too.
Dieter arrived at the table with a tray full of food and drinks.
“Whoa, I didn’t give you that much money.”
“Mark gave me some money to buy him something. He’s too smitten to talk to the girl running the snack bar.”
Mia turned and saw the attractive, Hispanic young lady. She was older than Mark by a few years and very striking. “She’s pretty.”
“Mia, she’s hot.”
“Maybe she shouldn’t wear a sweater,” Brian said innocently.
Mia hid her smile with her drink cup.
“What do you think of this place?” Dieter asked her.
“From what I’ve seen, I like it. I wish I’d had something like this when I was a teen. It looks like a great place to go solo or with a friend.”
“Where did you hang out when you were my age?”
“You’re fourteen… so… I guess, at the farm with Whitney Martin’s gang and then Murphy. If you had a car, you could go into the city. Most of the girls spent time in the malls, but I didn’t have much in the way of money. My parents were distracted and frequently forgot to leave me any. If it wasn’t for Ralph, I’d hate to think what would have happened to me.”
“So you were poor?” Dieter asked.
“I never thought about it that way. I just had to make do with what I had.”
“Me too,” Brian said.
“You too, what?” Mia asked.
“I’m poor. After you took my allowance…”
“That was just this morning.”
“Yes, but I’m poor now.”
Dieter and Mia exchanged looks.
“You will earn more,” Dieter said. “If I did what you did, I would have lost more than my allowance. In the country where I grew up, I would have quite possibly been imprisoned.”
Brian paled.
“I’m glad you’re here with us now,” Mia said.
“Me too,” Brian agreed.
Mark walked into the lounge. The group of teens motioned him over. He smiled, shook his head, and sat down with the Martins.
“You can sit with your friends if you want,” Mia said.
“They aren’t my friends,” Mark said quietly.
“Mark, you were up so high!” Brian said, raising his hands.
“I saw you watching me,” Mark said and ruffled Brian’s hair.
“They let me on the medium wall,” Dieter said. The two teens commenced sharing their experiences. Mia could hardly keep up with what they were saying. Brian listened intently.
The young lady from behind the snack counter was walking through the tables picking up trash and wiping down the surfaces. She stopped at their table.
“I thought I would let you know that we have a severe weather alert. If it goes to a warning, the management requests that we clear this area and go into the storm cellar below. The entrance is behind the snack counter.”
“Thank you, Lena,” Mark said. “These are my friends, Dieter, Mia and Brian Martin.”
“It’s good to meet you. If you would excuse me…” she said and walked over to the teens’ table and repeated the warning information. They didn’t say anything until after she left, and the boy, once again, said something too low for Mia to pick up and the girls laughed.
Mark watched Mia’s face. He reached over and put his hand on hers. “They aren’t very nice people. Just ignore them.”
“I’m too sensitive for my own good,” Mia said.
“My mom doesn’t like it when people are mean,” Brian said.
“Me either,” Mark agreed.
The boys went back to talking about climbing. Mia looked at her smart phone, accessing the weather app. She saw that most of northern Illinois had a tornado watch going. She would take the boys home right after Mark finished eating.
Mia took Brian to the bathroom. As they passed, the boy made a comment, calling Mia a welfare mother. She ignored the jerk and his two giggling cheerleaders. She found it interesting that the other boy didn’t say a word. He just seemed to be concentrating on playing the game.
Mark and Dieter had the table cleared when Mia and Brian returned. Mia was just about ready to put Brian in the stroller when the lights started flashing.
“Attention, we request that you make your way to the nearest storm cellar. If you are in the big wall area, the entrance is behind the snack bar. If you’re in the small wall area, the entrance is beside the gift shop.” The warning was repeated several times.
Mia grabbed her go bag, and Dieter scooped Brian up before Brian could insist he was old enough to walk. Mark put a firm hand on Mia’s elbow as they made their way across the kitchen area. The group made their way down the stairs. Lena waited until the last two climbers, who were with Clench and another coach, came downstairs before closing the door. Mark insisted that Mia sit down on a very large bag of rice. Brian climbed onto her lap.
The sounds above them were all too familiar to Mia and Mark: the roar of a train of destructive wind and the vibrations of the earth being punished as the tornado progressed towards them. The two had experienced a tornado during their time at Wolf’s Head Lake.
“Heads down and covered, people,” Lena called above the din.
Dieter wrapped his arms around Mia and Brian, much like Mia had done when she’d had wings. Mark held on to Mia from the back.
The lights went out, and then a dimmer emergency light went on by the stairs. The roar was painful, and the pressure hurt. Brian put his hands over his ears and tried not to cry.
“I’m here. We’ll be alright,” Mia sent her thoughts into each boy’s head. “Hang on. Together, we will get through this.”
There was the scream of tearing metal combined with the screams of the frightened girls as they clung to each other. The food stores on the metal shelves vibrated, many falling off onto the floor. The lights went out completely. It felt as if the very air was being sucked out of their lungs. Mia fought to stay conscious. The closeness of Mark and Dieter fed her mind with many thoughts. At one point, she didn’t really know if she was Mia, Dieter, or Mark.
When it was over, a quiet like no other preceded the popping of their ears. Dieter and Mark released their hold and quickly moved around, checking the others. Mia pulled a light disc from her pack and lit it. The storage cellar was illuminated once again. Mia saw that Lena’s forehead was bleeding. She grabbed her pack and Brian. Together, they made their way to the injured young woman.
“Sit back,” Mia ordered. She took her penlight and examined the wound, and with a pair of tweezers from her first aid kit, she pulled a few splinters out. She looked around her to find the source of the wood splinters. Mia examined the doorjamb behind Lena. The door hung crookedly on the one hinge tha
t had held the door in place during the onslaught. The edges of the jamb were rough and shredded.
“Mia, could you come over here?” Mark requested.
She and Brian made their way to where one of the coaches was lying unconscious. There was a large lump on the back of his head. Mark held up a large dented can of jalapeños that he suspected to be the cause. Mia grabbed a few rolls of paper towels to cushion the man’s head. Brian stood to block the view of the others while Mia examined the man and started the healing process. “We need to get some ice on this bump soon,” she told Mark.
Dieter, whom Lena had directed to a large box of first aid equipment, walked over, kneaded an instant cold pack, and handed it to Mia. She turned to Clench. “Hold this here for twenty minutes.”
Mia stood up and announced, “Is anyone else hurt? Now is not the time to be shy.”
“Excuse me, Ma’am,” a soft male voice asked behind her.
Mia turned to see the silent male Risk player. “I tried to catch the shelf from toppling and twisted my shoulder.”
Mia squatted down and examined what she determined to be a dislocation. “I can fix this, but it’s going to hurt.”
“Go ahead. I have I feeling I’m going to need that arm to help us get out of here.”
“What’s your name?”
“Wesley, but call me Wes, please.”
“I’m Mia.” She turned to her young son. “Brian, would you go and sit with Lena? This isn’t going to be pretty.”
Brian was very interested in what his mother was going to do but knew better than to disobey her after the melon incident.
“Focus on my face,” Mark said while Mia got ready to reset the arm in the socket.
Wes released a yelp that got everyone’s attention, but that was all. Dieter activated another icepack, and Mia tucked it into the makeshift sling she’d fashioned out of some red, white and blue bunting she found on a shelf labeled “Patriotic Stuff.”
The coach moaned.
Mia looked over at the man and then back at the teen.
“Go ahead, I’ll be fine. Thank you,” Wes said.
“Wes, keep this still for a while. Don’t use it unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she instructed before she walked over to the unconscious man.
~
Ted stared at the screen in horror. Jake had been tracking the series of tornados that were born out of the colliding cold and warm fronts. “Where is this climbing place?”
Jake circled the area where one tornado had just passed through and two others were approaching.
Cid put a firm hand on Ted’s shoulder. “Come on, we have to get there. I’ll drive. Jake, send us weather updates.”
The two men tossed everything they thought they would need to help dig out and rescue anyone caught in the path of the tornados, including their family.
Murphy was sitting in the vehicle sharpening his axe.
“Slide over will you,” Ted said.
“This isn’t Mia’s first tornado,” Murphy said, trying to comfort him.
“It is without her wings,” Ted replied.
Cid started the PEEPs truck and pulled out. “Hang on. I have a feeling this is going to be a rough ride.”
Ted and Murphy just nodded. Each busy with other thoughts and prayers.
Chapter Four
Mia sat with the fallen coach while Dieter and Mark moved cautiously up the stairs with Clench and the other climbers. They managed to push the kitchen door open and clear the exit. Dieter walked into the climbing area and looked up. There wasn’t a ceiling anymore. The climbing walls were intact, but anything that wasn’t bolted down was either piled across the entrance to the bridge or jutting out of the walls like pins on a bulletin board.
“Come on,” Clench encouraged. “We need to clear this debris to get out of here.”
The boys had started to dislodge the tables and chairs when dime-sized hail started falling from the open roof. The boys picked up whatever they could to protect their heads. When the dimes became quarters, Clench ordered them back into the kitchen with the lower, intact roof to wait out the downpour. The wind slammed the annex hard, bringing with it the all too recent roar of another tornado.
“Get into the shelter!” Clench yelled.
The boys all but dove down the steps. Clench tried to shut the kitchen door, but the pressure wouldn’t allow it. He slid down the stairs, and with Dieter’s help, pushed the damaged cellar door into place.
Mia, with Lena’s help, braced the door with a shelffull of rice. They herded the others to the far end of the space as an explosion of wood and metal deafened them all.
“A second tornado has landed,” Jake reported.
“Where?” Ted asked.
“It followed the same path.”
“That means it’s quite possibly hammering The Rock again,” Ted agonized.
Cid dodged fallen trees as they entered the forest preserve. He had to slow down and finally stop; a big fallen pine blocked the road.
Murphy moved out of the truck and was soon swinging and connecting with his axe. He cut on each side of the tree trunk, pushing the middle out of the way, so Cid could pull the truck through. He looked down the road and moved to the next obstacle.
Dieter and Mark carried away the wreckage that had blown into the stairwell. Clench climbed the stairs, checking each step before he would let the others follow him. Mia stayed below with the unconscious man and Brian. The two teenage girls sniffled in the corner. Mia tried not to form an opinion on them. Each person reacted differently to a crisis, but she was getting tired of their selfish inactivity.
Clench led the group back to where they had been working to clear the bridge. The debris was gone. And so was the bridge. Instead, there was what appeared to be the remains of a grain silo wedged between the two buildings. The force of the wind had flattened it against the larger of the two buildings. Dieter pushed at the corrugated steel to no avail. It couldn’t have been a stronger bond had it been bolted there on purpose.
The sky darkened.
Clench looked around them first before speaking. “I think we should try to make a shelter before we do anything else. If we get too much rain, it will flood the cellar unless we can channel it away from the kitchen.”
“I saw some big blue tarps in the cellar,” one of the climbers said. “How about Nev and I climb up and hang them across?”
“As long as it has a lower end so the water can run off instead of pooling in the middle,” Mark said. “Like a shed roof. I suggest we use the lounge area. It’s elevated above the rest of the floor.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Clench said. “You guys get the tarps, and the rest of us will clear an area.”
The injured coach opened his eyes. “What happened?” he asked Mia.
“I think you were assaulted by a can of jalapeños, but there weren’t any witnesses. It could have been the hot sauce.”
“Jalapeños never did agree with me. Hello, I’m Zip to my friends or Alfred to my grandmother. I was in charge of two… There they are. These are my best climbers. Nev and Cliff.”
“Zip, we were so worried,” Cliff said.
“He’s going to be alright, a bit deformed, but he’ll live,” Mia said.
“He’s always looked deformed,” Nev said. “We’re going to build a shelter up there. The bridge between the buildings is gone. It’s been replaced by the silo from hell.”
“That I’ve got to see. Zip, can I assist you up the stairs?” Mia asked.
“I’ll come up with the boys. Thank you.”
Mia and Brian climbed the stairs slowly. “Brian, stay close to me. Things could still be unsettled up there.”
“Yes, Mom.”
Mia checked her phone, disappointed to see that there was no cell coverage.
Lena looked over and said, “The storm must have taken out the cell tower. It was the only thing keeping this area out of the nineteen hundreds.”
“I wonder how the other half of the bui
lding faired,” Mia worried.
“It’s built like this one, except it has windows and doors.”
Mia climbed over to where the silo was blocking their way out. She got on her knees, pulled at the flooring, and found more stone. Her hope that they could tunnel out evaporated.
“Mom, I found our stroller,” Brian said, pointing up.
Mia craned her head into the room and saw the stroller intact, sitting bold as brass on top of the outcropping. “Good thing I left the brakes on,” Mia said, shaking her head.
Mia moved away from the opening to listen to Clench hand out assignments.
Hers was duct tape. As soon as the boys unfolded the big blue tarps, Mia and Lena were to secure them together with rope and duct tape. Brian was asked to be in charge of holding the extra rolls of tape. It was a job he took very seriously. Clench looked around for the two teenage girls. He shook his head and started for the cellar to get them.
A tennis ball that seemed to fall from the sky hit the outcropping and bounced around before landing near Clench.
Clench picked it up. It had “Open Me!” written in red Sharpie. He turned it around and found that it had a slit on one side. He eased open the ball with his penknife and found a note inside. He read it before summarizing it for the others. “It says that the others managed to survive the storm with only a few minor casualties. Nev, your mother wants to know if you’re alright.”
“Tell her I’m fine. She should go home and take care of my father.”
Clench wrote down the names of the people under his care, the injuries sustained, and quoted Nev. He described their plan for surviving until the silo could either be moved or cut through. They had plenty of food and bottled water for a few days.
Cliff climbed the wall and tossed the ball over the edge after yelling, “Heads up!” He climbed over to the outcropping, tied a rope on the stroller, and lowered it down to Dieter.
Dieter wheeled it over to Brian. “The seat’s a little wet.”
Mia’s eyes opened wide. “Speaking of wet, come on, Brian, take your Mom to the bathroom before I embarrass myself in front of our new friends.”