Chapter 42
1100 Words
Chapter 42
THE BALLERINA’S GHOST
Seth took the driver's seat without notice while I sat in the passenger seat. His hand smoothly pushed the key to its hole and turned it. The engine revved. We put our seat belts on, and he maneuvered the car out of the parking lot. I kept staring at his face, trying to figure out what he was feeling right now, but there was no trace of fear nor panic while my inside was in turmoil.
I opened my phone again and surfed the feed. A lot of videos about the tornado flashed with every swipe of my finger on the screen. The sound of the people shouting and rushing their family members and relatives rang in my ears. I clicked one video from a netizen that shows the latest update about the violently rotating air. She was far away from its eye.
“This is dangerously beautiful,” the woman in the video commented. “Oh, my God!”
The video turned shaky and was moving away.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Save me!” she shouted. "This is really breathtaking!"
The falling bulletin board was caught in the footage before it ended. I saw another one. I recognized that it was near our village.
“Turn that off.”
I glanced at Seth and put my phone down. “Do you think they'd be safe?”
“I'm not sure.”
I hoped my mom is awake before it happens, or I hoped that she wasn't in the house. She should be in the mall, in the spa, or anywhere as long as there were people who could help her, and she was in a sturdy place because I knew our house was not built for that attack from Mother Nature.
My fingers drummed the screen of my phone, and my heels tapped the floor of his car. Seth threw an irritated glimpse at me, but he didn't say anything.
“Can you please stop that, babe?”
I stared down. My hands and feet stopped moving. “I’m sorry.”
In this case, I changed from making noise to biting my finger to inflict mild pain. I slowly rocked myself forward and backward.
Seth took my hand and intertwined it with his while driving the car. “I'm sure they'd be fine.”
“Who's left in your home?”
“Dad is,” he said. “He knows what to do.”
“How many times had this happen?”
He shrugged and eyed me for a while. “Many times? I don't know how fatal the others are, and how dangerous this one is.”
We were a few miles away from the village when he stopped the car on the road. The other cars also did not dare to move forward to cross the dancing air. I rolled down my window and lifted myself to look outside. From our distance, the ballerina of clouds and air did a wild pirouette. The roofs of the houses, towers, bulletin boards, and other objects that could knock you out twirled like it was the skirt of the tornado.
I gasped at the horrendous sight of the flying objects. I slid it back to the car and dialed my mom. Why didn't I think of this earlier?
Her phone was unattended. I looked at Seth whose phone was also ringing as he tries to reach his father.
“The number you dial is unattended. Please try again later.”
The frustration I was feeling was hard to explain. My insides were shivering because of my imagination. I saw dead bodies, wrecked homes, and blinking streetlights. The cries of the children echoed inside my head.
“Babe, calm down.”
But I knew that even if he told me that, we shared the same feeling. How could I calm down? Before, I was only afraid of how storms flipped unstable houses and flooded the streets. In news, I saw how others struggled in the flowing water. Humans drowned, animals also died. It was terrifying how nature can bury us alive.
“It was not moving!” someone shouted and pointed out the steady air.
“Move back!”
“It's moving to our direction!”
More words were announced. Seth abruptly turned to the other road and drove fast away from the possible scope of the twister. I looked behind and saw how it was rotating fast.
“Babe...”
I sat properly and focused in front. The road ahead was packed. As far as I know, there was an intersection. He moved the car to the right, and we entered an almost empty road only if weren't for the people watching the news on the street. We went to the left side then straight ahead.
“Where are we going?”
“We'll just stay in a mall for now. It is safer even if the tornado comes there.”
I saw the wide building of the mall he was referring to. He took right, the way to the parking lot, and paid an employee for the parking lot fee. He steadied the car in a space, then we went out. We went to the first floor using the elevator, then headed to a fast-food chain, so we can sit. I just remembered that we hadn't eaten yet.
We sat at a table for two. Seth immediately fished his phone from his pocket and dialed his father again. I did the same, but she didn't pick up.
“Stay here.”
I waited in line to order our food. I understood that too much is going on inside our heads, but we needed to eat. The personnel gave me a number and told us to wait.
“Is there no basement on your house?” I asked as I pull the chair to my seat.
“I doubt that they would stay there.” He swiped and faced the screen to me. “Look at the damage.”
It was our village. The houses were down, trees fell on the street, and a fire hydrant exploded. A dead dog was lying on the ground.
“Where is that photo from?”
“The tornado died down on our way here.” He sighed. “A boy used a drone to get photos of the casualties, and this is from him. It's not only our village.”
A hope glowed inside my heart. “Does that mean we can go there now?”
“Let's try.”
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- Writer
