Tornadoes

 April to June are terror filled months here in the south. It’s the one thing I hate more about Texas than Arizona and that’s pretty good that can I find one thing because I loathed Arizona every minute of every day. 

Last week I saw something that I’ve only seen twice, actually two things that I’ve only seen twice, the first was a vortex forming right above us. The sirens were going off, which chills me to the bone, and as I stood on my balcony looking at the weather radar we could see that the tornado was on the edge of Plano and I am blocks from the edge of Plano. It started to dissipate but the sky turned emerald green which is THE tell tale sign, if it’s light enough, that you need to get the fuck out, except it was green because the vortex was churning above us. My son said, it looks like the wind is blowing two directions, which caught my attention, I told him that’s how tornadoes form and sure as hell, the wind was whipping the clouds into a circular motion and a tunnel was beginning, the train sound started but I knew by the direction of the wind that by the time it was fully formed it wouldn’t be over us anymore. My balcony furniture started to pick up off of the balcony, the air felt thick and heavy, the green is intense and even though you can hear the beginnings of the train everything else was dead silent. The noisy little freshwater bayou was silent. Not one frog. Not one cricket. Silent. It’s Other worldly. 

I’ve lived here so long that I’m as good as any meteorologist at reading the radar. I dare say that many in the south are. It’s not something that I ever wanted to learn.

We had a tornado watch yesterday and it rained so hard that the visibility out our windows was zero. 

I’ve only seen the green and heard the train one other time and that was traveling back from Louisiana with the youngest boy. We were trapped in a restaurant. It had no interior walls except for the bathrooms and the kitchen. The windows were boarded up and people were running for the bathrooms and kitchen. First, both were on the outside wall where cars were parked. It was a season of Cat 5 storms. I knew that A) a car could be pushed through and B) There was loose cutlery in the kitchen that would rip a person apart. I got josh under an attached booth, turned a table over and pulled it in towards us to block debris. We were covered on all four sides but you’re not gonna live through a Cat 5. I put the boy under my shirt, pulled his arms and head out of the holes and had him cross his legs around me as I did the same to him. He silently spoke… Mom, please don’t let me go….I promised that I would not. I couldn’t call out or get calls in. I could only get texts out and I sent messages to my family. My husband helplessly watched the radar from hundreds of miles away as the color turned to purple. That’s the worst color for storms.

That tornado killed several people. It grazed us. My husband texted to tell me that there was another one coming, get the hell out and drive towards home to outrun it, which I did, pushing past several people who were telling me that I couldn’t leave, watch me, drove as fast as I could.

When I got out of my car at home my knees buckled and I fell down. My body had done its job and it couldn’t do one thing more. 

I need June to get here fast!

Tracy