It’s a Tornado!

It’s a Tornado!

“I wish something exciting would happen.” It was a childhood mantra for my sister and me when we were bored. Don’t get the wrong idea. We never wanted anyone to get hurt. Our hope for a sensational adventure didn’t include trauma for anyone.

One day during a drive to my mother’s house, I received my wish. The clouds had turned an angry blackish-green color. The rain came down hard. Each second that ticked by, the driving conditions became more and more hazardous.

Then I saw it. To my left, it started high in the clouds and extended down to the ground, a whirl of black destruction. The tornado spun like an expanding drill bit. It whirled and then transformed into a tool of destruction preparing to extinguish everything in its path. My guess was the twister was about a mile from us, but I had no idea which direction it would turn next.

I looked over at my mother. “Should I pull over? We could lie flat in the ditch.”

“No, I’m going to pray,” my mother said. She proceeded to say a short simple prayer, and as she prayed, the mean-looking coil changed to a black, misty substance and pulled back up into the clouds above it.

I have received both my desires—I experienced something exciting and no one was hurt. I saw a breathtaking power of nature disperse before my eyes that day.

Now if I feel that strange desire for the dramatic, I think about the way the tornado touched down to the ground: large, magnificent, overpowering, bent-on-destruction. I say, no, thank you. Too dangerous. I’ll settle on boring. (o:

Karen Gaus