What was taking Mama so long? We’d be blown halfway across Union County if she didn’t hurry up!
“Jackson, watch the kids!” I shouted, pushing Noah into his arms.
Noah looked stricken.
You’ll be fine, I assured him.
Don’t go, Daddy!
I have to!
“Daddy!” he shouted.
“Wiley, what are you doing?” Jackson demanded in a high-pitched voice.
“Just watch them!” I ordered.
I turned away and ran across the yard as lightning flashed and thunder rumbled angrily across the sky. I glanced at the county road out front and saw a funnel-shaped darkness reaching down from the agitated sky, a swirling mass of coal black that tapered down to a small tentacle reaching for the ground but still not quite succeeding.
A tornado.
A goddamn tornado, just across the road.
Just like that.