Clouds rolled in the reddening sky, the white-and-red-tinged edges on the horizon shading gradually darker into the grays and blacks of the cumulonimbus directly above. The darkest, in the center, seemed to be more a void than black; a gap in between it and its neighbor allowed Nick a glimpse at the atmospheric heights it reached for. At the top, a flash lit the air. First yellow, then red, then blue, a highly unusual color pattern for any sort of atmospheric light, excluding auroras.
A voice beside Nick startled him into looking down. “Is there aliens up there?”
“No, Joshua, there are no aliens.” Nick jerked his head upwards sharply back to the hole in the clouds, but it had closed in the time he had taken to look down. He grunted. “Why don’t you go back inside. We don’t need to leave for school for another hour.”
“Mama’s yellin’ at dad again. I didn’t want her to yell at me, so I came out here.”
Nick’s lips contorted into a grimace and he threw an arm around his little brother’s shoulder, pulling him a little closer. “What did dad do to draw her ire this time?”
“He got in the shower before her. She said she needed to go to work earlier today or somethin’ like that. I didn’t stay to listen. So, what’s them lights if they ain’t aliens?”
“Lightning. Rare lightning. Look.” Nick pointed at another gap in the clouds that had just opened, revealing a yellow flash that veined its way through the towering structure of water and dust. “The yellow is just regular cloud-to-cloud lightning. There’s nothing special about that, but what comes after is pretty cool.” A column of dim red light, almost invisible, shot up miles above the cloud. After that, a jet of brighter blue light shot up even higher. “That is sprite lightning. It’s one of the rarest forms, especially the blue jets. They form in the ionosphere, hundreds of miles above the top of any storm cloud due to an irregular charging and discharge of positive and negatively charged particles in the storm cloud.”
“What’s an ion sphere?”
“Not ion sphere. Ionosphere. It’s a layer in the atmosphere of charged particles. It causes stuff like the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Why’s it so rare?”
“The conditions for it to form are very particular. Basically, sprite lightning occurs when the process to make regular lightning screws up, and since nature rarely screws up, we rarely get to see it, but when we do, it’s definitely something to remember. In addition, sprites are very dim, and thus, very hard to see. We’re lucky that it’s still mostly dark outside, or we wouldn’t be able to catch a glimpse of anything more than the barest hint of blue jets, especially considering the redness of the sunrise.” He muttered the next part barely loud enough for himself to hear. “Though, these are a lot of strange occurrences to be had all in the same morning.”
“Don’t dad always say something about red in the mornings being bad?”
“It’s an old sailor’s saying: Red in the morning, sailors take warning; red in the night, sailor’s delight. Basically, the conditions that create a red morning are conducive to incoming thunderstorms that can be very dangerous, like the one we’re about to experience.”
A thick drop of water punctuated Nick’s final word, splashing on the tip of Joshua’s nose, who promptly giggled like the fifth grader he was.
“It’s gonna rain again. That means no recess!”
“Well, at least that means Zach won’t have the chance to pick on you today. Come on, get in the car. I’ll go tell mom and dad we’re going to school and we can get breakfast on the way.” Joshua flashed a wide grin at him before taking off for Nick’s car. Nick smiled briefly back before dropping his features into a dead glare with his lips downturned, eyes deadened by his half-closed eyelids and taking a deep breath. Then, he stepped back into the house.
Before the door could shut behind him, he was beset upon by his mother. “What were you doing outside?”
“Cloud watching.”
“Don’t you do enough of that useless stuff on T.V. in the afternoons?”
“No. I like to learn about the weather, and there is no such thing as doing too much of something you enjoy, mom.”
“There is when you don’t get your chores done. How many times have I told you to wash the dishes this week?”
“At least once a day.”
“Then why haven’t you done it?”
Nick’s face shifted from the deadened expression. The corners of his lips upturned and his eyes flashed slightly in the dim light of the living room. “I have. You seem to forget, for some reason, that every night when we eat dinner more dishes are dirtied. I have washed dishes every day this week and will continue to do so every day of every week I spend in this house.”
“That’s no excuse for me seeing dirty dishes in the sink. Go wash them. Now!”
“I can’t. I’m just grabbing my bag before taking Joshua to school.”
“School isn’t for another forty-five minutes. You have time.”
“I have a meeting with Mr. Garrick before class today. I’ll do them when I get home,” he said, simultaneously reaching down and grabbing his backpack from the top of the stairs leading down to his basement bedroom. Two years ago, he had moved into the basement when his mother threw out the bunk beds he and his brother had shared before confining Joshua, who was afraid of the dark, to the abyss for keeping her up vomiting with a stomach bug one night.
“Fine, but you’d better not have that stupid weather channel nonsense on when I get home.”
Nick just brushed past her into the bedroom she shared with his father and his baby sister. The crib was pushed into his dad’s corner of the room. He leaned in over the walls of the crib and picked up the awakening toddler, just over a year old. “Hey, little Emily,” he cooed. “Did you sleep well?”
The brown-haired little girl lifted her meaty hands to her face and rubbed at her eyes, nodding her head. “Good.”
“Good.” He set her back down in the crib. “Behave for dad, today, okay?”
“’Kay.”
The door to the adjoining bathroom flung open, bathing the mostly dark room in fluorescent light around the six-foot figure filling the door frame. “Hey dad. Just letting you know Joshua and I are going to school. I’m buying him breakfast. Text me if you need anything and I’ll get it on my way home.”
Nick’s dad crossed the distance between them and hugged him. “Alright bud. Y’all be safe, especially with this weather. Red in the morning and all.”
Nick hugged him back. “I know. I’ll drive carefully. Don’t let mother boss you around too much before she leaves, and don’t forget to take care of Emily before your Skype interview.”
They separated and Nick’s dad only grinned. “Hey, this ain’t my first rodeo, you know. I did raise you and your little brother, and I’ve searched for jobs before. I got this.”
“I know, dad, but I worry still.”
“You’re only 17. You’re too young to be worrying about me. Now get on to school and grab some money out of my wallet for breakfast. Save yours for gas.”
“It’s alright. I worked an extra eight hours last week. I have a little to spare.”
“Not a chance. He’s my kid, not yours. I’ll take care of him.”
“Look here, old man, if I want to treat my little brother to Bojangles, I’ll treat him to Bojangles, especially after he attentively listened to my lecture on lightning earlier. He deserves it.”
“You sure are intent on making your old man feel useless, aren’t you?”
“Nonsense. I just want to be helpful, and this is how I can help.” He walked towards the bedroom door but turned before opening it. “Love you, dad. See you this afternoon.”
“Love you, too, bud. Now get going; I’m sure Josh is hungry.” Nick reached for the handle, but the door swung open before he got there, smacking into his hand and nose before being stopped by his foot. He reached up to swipe at his now runny nose and could see the skin of his hand already turning a little darker with the first stages of a bruise. It came away with a shimmering red liquid covering it.
“Get out of the way!” He backed up slightly from the door as his mother slammed into it from the other side and she stumbled in, barely able to straighten out from her momentum. She glanced briefly down at the floor, then glared into Nick’s face, taking in the blood dripping off his lip and adding to the already present puddle below and said, “Don’t forget to wash the dishes when you get home, and clean up that mess you made on the floor!”
Nick grunted and walked past her for a box of tissues next to the door. He swiped them off the table, acknowledging his dad’s comment about cleaning up the floor for him by shouldering the door open and kicking it shut behind him. He rolled his eyes and got in his car, starting the manual piece of junk that was all he could afford after a year of working at the local grocery store. The rattle of the engine briefly disguised the deluge of rain that had just tumbled from the sky, but the sound was too much to cover up completely, especially with the massive burst of wind that howled as it dropped straight down from the sky, nearly pushing the rust-bucket car into the ground.
Joshua, who had been trying to avoid looking at his older brother’s bloody nose yelped and asked, “What was that?”
Nick answered, “A microburst,” but it came out a little muffled and stuffy from the drying blood in his nose.
“A what?”
“A microburst. A lot of water and wind all coming straight down at one time. It seems we were on the edge of it.”
“How do you know that?”
“If we were in the middle of one in this piece of crap, we’d be dead, probably. Luckily, they’re not very big, and they don’t last long. It probably hit the house, but it isn’t quite enough to damage it.” That wasn’t strictly true, but Josh didn’t need to know the utter disrepair their house could be in. Microbursts were one-in-a-million weather occurrences, so it wasn’t anything he needed to worry over. Tornadoes, maybe, but those were nearly as rare in the mountains where they lived.
Nick shifted the car into gear and slipped out of the driveway and onto the road, maintaining a velocity just under the speed limit to avoid any extra danger of hydroplaning. He flicked his windshield wipers on to the highest speed to see through the downpour now being unleashed from the void-like cloud above.
After grabbing breakfast, Nick dropped his brother off at the elementary school just down the road from the high school. As Joshua grabbed his bag and exited the car, a loud, rolling crash rent the air. Joshua jumped and smacked his head on the door frame. “Ow,” he cried, rubbing his head.
Nick frowned. “Joshua, run into school, and don’t leave the building until I come get you. Stay away from the windows, okay?”
“Is the storm that bad?”
“Maybe. That lightning was close, from the sound of the thunder created by its shockwave of displaced air. Better safe than sorry.”
Sensing the tinge of fear almost hidden in his voice, Joshua nodded his head and said, “Be careful, bro.”
Nick tried to smile reassuringly. “I will, now run along.” He watched until his brother’s backpack disappeared in between the double doors of the school’s entrance and then set out for his own school, reaching into his bag for some fries. When his fingers couldn’t feel any, he braved a glance down into the bag; it lasted no longer than a few seconds. He spotted some and grasped his prize just as another shockwave of sound blasted the area. His head jerked upright in shock, and a flash of lightning illuminated the area like the midday sun. In that brief instant, he spotted a large, smoking tree stretched out across the road. He slammed on the brakes, initiating a stop, but almost immediately began sliding. He cursed himself for forgetting his Driver’s Ed lessons and started pumping the brakes, trying to force his wheels to gain traction on the slick surface. When he stopped, his front bumper was mere feet from the tree.
Even from that distance the tree was barely visible through the streams of water that darkened his windshield. The thick clouds above blocked out all the light now that the outer edge of the storm had stretched beyond the horizon and the sun had risen to a place above them, and the headlights on his car were nearly useless anyway. Nick took a moment to thank Mother Nature for the storm being directly above him. Had it not, the thunder and lightning combo would not have struck in nearly as quick succession, and he would surely be a smoking, impaled corpse on one of the many sharp limbs of the tree.
Ever so slowly, with shaking hands, Nick turned the car around and traveled back before cutting down a side road detour. Just before he entered the school building, he took one last glance at the clouds in the distance. At the very edge, a low, long cloud filled the sky underneath the storm, barely visible against the darkness of the clouds surrounding it, almost like camouflage. Had it been on the eastern edge of the storm, he never would have seen it; however, its presence on the western edge meant it was highlighted by the greenery of the Appalachian mountain range in the distance. It was a sign of, perhaps, the greatest danger a storm on land ever posed to people: a tornado. The timing of events after a wall cloud formation are sporadic at best. Tornadoes can form anywhere between one minute after the formation of a wall cloud to an hour or more.
Knowing this, Nick promptly pulled out his phone and texted his dad: Dad, take Emily into the basement now! Make sure you have something sturdy to hold over you and her and grab the radio. Don’t go upstairs until you get an all-clear from the weather station. We’re under a tornado warning.
A few minutes later, his dad texted back: I took care of it. But, how did you know we were under a tornado warning? The radio only just announced it for the first time after you texted me.
I saw the wall cloud. Stay safe. Love you.
We will. Love you, too.
Satisfied he had done everything possible at the moment, Nick glanced at the time and read 8:05. He groaned. Of course, that stupid downed tree made him late for class. He shoved the door open and made his way to calculus, greeted only by the sounds of his shoes echoing in the empty hallway. Another roar of thunder sounded, rattling the doors in their frames. As he passed the remedial classrooms, he noticed a figure stomping down the hall and into the remedial algebra classroom. He locked eyes with the figure, staring directly into the beady black eyes of his personal version of Joshua’s Zach. Jacob had a habit of picking on the cloud-watching nerd every chance he could get. It was one he had built up since recess in elementary school, but now could only pursue in the mornings before classes started. Fortune smiled upon Nick once more that day; since he was late, Jacob was unable to pull anything, which meant he only had the two bruises from his mother to sport all day, now.
Classes passed as usual, with the storm intensifying as the day continued. Just after noon, though, in the middle of lunch, the lights in the cafeteria flashed above Nick. He assumed they had done the same in the rest of the building and was justified when they shut off for good and the administration announced that everyone would be going home early.
Nick raced for his car, eager to check on his family. As he sprinted through the parking lot, he passed by Jacob who didn’t even spare him a glance in the downpour, as he was too annoyed at the rain soaking his brand-new jacket and shoes. Nick slipped into his car and slammed the door shut before dialing the number for the elementary school. After confirming they were letting out, too, he made his way back through the side roads to avoid the downed tree and picked Joshua up, heading directly home from there.
He tapped feverishly on the steering wheel as he drove, hoping that his luck would hold, and his dad and sister would be perfectly fine in a completely safe house when he arrived. Joshua was uncharacteristically silent the whole way, picking up on his older brother’s tension.
When he arrived home, he dropped his stuff in his room and jerked open the door to his dad’s room. Seeing no one, he assumed he was still in the basement, and subsequently dragged Joshua down the stairs. Another rolling thunder punctuated the door slamming shut behind them and masked their steps coming down the stairs. As they reached the bottom, Nick heard the high-pitched squeal of Emily’s laughter accompanied by the booming bass of his dad’s. He rounded the corner of the stairwell to see them lying on his bed, with his dad holding Emily above his head and swooping her around in the air like a plane.
When he saw them, he sat up, pulling Emily into his chest. “What’re you two doing home so early?”
“Power went out at school, so they sent us home. I take it the tornado warning is still in effect?”
“Yep. I just finished my interview a little while ago, and Emily wanted to play, so we’ve been doing that for a while.”
“How’d the interview go?”
“You’ll never believe this, but it seems that luck is turning for me today. I forgot to turn the radio off during the interview, and they heard the tornado warning report. I was about to apologize to ‘em when all of a sudden they stopped the interview and just said, ‘you’re hired.’ I stuttered a bit, and all I could think to ask was ‘why?’ They told me that I had some kind of dedication doing an interview in the middle of a tornado warning and that was what they was looking for, so they hired me immediately.”
Nick’s eyes widened so much they looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets. “Really? That’s almost unbelievable! Congratulations, dad!”
“Yep. Only problem now is I’ve gotta break the news to your mother that we need to move. The job’s only two hours down the road, but it’s too far for me to drive to work every day, and she can take her job from home, so we’ll have to switch up everything.”
Nick grimaced. “Well, we can break the news to her when it’s not so stormy outside so we can get out when she starts yelling.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” They grinned at each other and all three passed the time playing.
**
By about mid-evening, the storm had ended, bringing with it the reddest sunset Nick had ever laid eyes on. He was sitting on the porch watching the clouds dissipate in the distance when his dad opened the front door. He had his phone in his hand, and his face was as pale as the barely visible ghost moon rising above the horizon. “Nick, get your sister and get her in the car. We need to go.”
Nick shot up from the chair, a question springing from his lips, but before he could make a sound his dad just held a finger over his lips and shook his head. “You’ll see when we get there.”
Nick hurried inside and grabbed Emily, securing her tightly in the car. He hopped in the passenger seat as his dad pressed into the car and cranked it before backing out and heading the opposite direction of the school. Nick’s eyebrows furrowed momentarily before realization hit him like lightning. They were headed to where his mom worked.
Nick glanced at his dad, who caught the action and only shook his head again. They remained silent for the entire 30-minute drive. When they arrived at the Verizon store where his mother worked as tech support, Nick knew immediately why his dad wouldn’t say anything. The store, and everything around it, was nothing but rubble. Nick leaped out of the car as it came to a stop out of pure instinct and dashed toward the rubble of the store.
His father was right behind him, followed shortly by Joshua. He froze as a voice sounded from behind. “Are you Mr. Silas Drake?”
Nick turned with his father, feeling a tear slide, unbidden, down his face at the news that was about to come.
His dad answered, “I am.”
The EMT nodded and stared him in the eyes. “I’m sorry. We’ve called the mortuary to retrieve your wife so that funeral arrangements can be set up. I hate to say this, but it’ll probably be a closed casket.”
For a long moment, Nick and his father stood side by side and stared at the man, who began to shift uncomfortably. Tears began to flow more freely now, gushing from Nick’s eyes. He reached up and rubbed at them, frustrated at his own emotions. ‘I shouldn’t be crying right now,’ he thought. ‘She bullied, bruised, and demeaned Joshua and me. She controlled dad all the time; she made it so hard to be a family. Why am I sad?’
Joshua broke him from his thoughts, tugging on his shirt. “Why are you crying, Nick? What’s wrong?”
Nick turned to face him but found himself unable to look Joshua in the eyes, instead looking above his head at the storm clouds dissipating in the distance. “Mom… Mom isn’t here anymore. The storm… and the tornado. They killed her.”
Joshua’s brow remained furrowed in confusion for a moment before Nick’s words hit him. The transition from confusion to despair was immediate as tears flowed from his eyes. In the next moment, he shoved his face into Nick’s side and wrapped his arms around him. “Why?”
Nick leaned down and embraced his little brother. “I don’t know, buddy. With all the things I understand about the weather, I just don’t know why it hurts.”
After a few minutes, the tears began to slow, and Josh finally looked up at Nick. “Mother Nature is a mom, too, right?”
“What?”
“Mother Nature. She’s a mother, so she’s a mom just like ours, right?”
“Uh, I guess so. Why?”
“I was just thinking that if Mother Nature was a mom, maybe our mom is like her. She takes care of us and helps us, but sometimes she hurts, too. Like a bad storm. But, it’s sunny more than it’s storming, ya know?”
Nick released Joshua and rubbed at the excess moisture in his eyes again. “I think you’re right. That’s why. A majority of the weather is so good that we never really stop to think about it, but we always remember the rarities, when nature screws up, even though—“
“Nature rarely screws up,” Joshua finished.