David didn’t say a word all the way to Hatchville Memorial Hospital. When Blair asked if he was okay, he just nodded.
Weirdly, Logan talked to Walter. Talked about his favorite bands, the food at their mom’s wedding reception, the fact that he couldn’t text some girl he liked because his phone had been blown away by a tornado earlier this morning.
Normal stuff.
Walter seemed to be listening carefully.
Meanwhile, Blair texted both her parents to explain what was happening. Their dad was probably in a meeting with his phone off, but her mom called her back immediately.
“I’ll pick you up,” her mom said firmly. “No arguments. The hospital’s only ten minutes away from our house. I’ll bring you home as soon as David’s gotten his stitches. Can I talk to the boys?”
Blair handed the phone to Logan. When her younger brother finished chattering at their mom and passed the phone back, she looked at David. “Mom wants to talk to you too.”
“I’m good.”
“David . . .” But Blair didn’t know how to finish that sentence. She settled on “Mom loves us.” It seemed better than Snap out of it or You’re worrying me.
David sighed. “I know.” Well, that was something, at least. “I’ll talk to her when we get there.”
Great, thought Blair. Awkward family reunion, Round Two. Now with a hundred percent more tornadoes. As if they weren’t all stressed enough. If only they’d left Hatchville an hour earlier this morning. Then they would’ve missed the severe weather, and David would be done brooding. And none of them would have to deal with the Is-Mom-really-back-in-our-lives? question again until winter break.
Then Blair looked at Walter Letzmann. A man who didn’t know for sure if his wife was okay. A man who was going through the scariest experience of his life, surrounded by a bunch of strangers.
Strangers who were explaining the difference between black doom and sludge metal.
Blair took a deep breath. “Hey, Mom. Dave’s napping right now. We’ll see you soon, though. We all love you.”
***
Blair spent the next hour tracking the weather on her phone. At the hospital while David got stitches. On the ride from the hospital to their mom’s house. And in the living room of that house, while everyone else talked.
Their dad had called, and their mom put him on speakerphone while Logan gave everyone a play-by-play of the morning’s events. “. . . And then Blair just straight-up dived into the other lane and cut them off. Like, I’ve never seen a turn that fast. Except in movies. It was so freaking cool. And then they let us all get in their tornado-mobile . . .”
Their dad’s voice crackled through the phone. “Blair, honey, I’m so proud of you. You’ve been incredibly brave.” At the same time, their mom walked over to give Blair a hug.
“I mean, I couldn’t have done it all by myself,” Blair pointed out. It felt odd to be treated like the hero of the whole strange experience. Especially when she had the feeling that this ordeal wasn’t over yet.
After the call with their dad ended, the living room got quieter. Rain drummed on the roof. Blair could hear the wind wrapping around the house, searching for a way in.
Staring at radar images on her phone was making Blair feel woozy. She wished her mom or Theo would turn on the TV or the radio. But both of them were just getting on with their day. Theo was in the kitchen baking. Blair’s mom sat on the couch writing wedding thank-you notes. Just a typical Sunday for them, tree-bending winds included.
“Shouldn’t we be in the storm shelter?” Blair asked her mom.
Her mom shrugged. “We’ll head there if something actually touches down near us, but it’ll be pretty cramped with five of us. No point scrunching in there unless we have to.”
This happens all the time here, Blair reminded herself. She forced herself to put her phone down. Theo was telling David about the time he almost cut his whole finger off and needed a million stitches. Blair noticed that David was listening politely, not looking too broody. She chewed on a piece of banana bread that Theo had made. The tension in her shoulders started to fade.
And then the siren sounded.
That long, high-pitched wail meant only one thing. “Okay, everybody,” said Theo calmly. “Time to get in the shelter. Follow me out to the backyard.”
Nobody panicked. Nobody ran. They all moved quietly to the back door.
The panic set in when they stepped outside.
“It’s right on top of us!” yelled Theo.
Thanks, Theo, thought Blair in some non-terrified corner of her mind. Really helpful.
The tornado was crashing through houses three blocks away. Fragments of houses spurted into the air.
Nobody needed to be told to run.
They ran in an awkward clump. Theo clung to Blair’s mom, who had one arm around her new husband and held Logan’s hand with the other. Blair held on to Logan, with David bringing up the rear. Blair was sandwiched between brothers, trying not to trip them.
The wind no longer sounded like wind. It was just a deep, earth-shaking roar. Not like a train or a jet engine—not like anything Blair had ever heard.
Blair’s mom pulled open the hatch to the storm shelter. She pushed Theo in ahead of her and then pulled Logan after her.
Blair was on the top step of the shelter when a wooden beam flew toward them. The tornado had blown it from another yard, another house. Blair ducked as it hurtled through the air.
It hit David instead of her.
She whipped around just in time to see him sprawl backward. He landed hard on the wet ground, pinned under the slab of wood.
“Dave!” Blair screamed. She felt like she was running in slow motion. Partly because the wind was pulling at her so powerfully. She had to fight for every step. When she reached David, he was already trying to sit up.
She didn’t think about whether the wooden beam was heavy. She just shoved it off him. Then she grabbed him under the arms and hauled him up. Together they staggered back to the storm shelter’s entrance. The door stood upright, wavering from the impact of the wind.
David would’ve stopped her if he’d been strong enough, if he hadn’t been dazed and injured. He would’ve made sure she got into the shelter first. She knew that. He’d spent her whole life protecting her. He was the one who’d taught her how to be brave in the first place.
She pushed her brother through the entrance. And when the door blew shut behind him, she let it close. She knew she couldn’t fight that wind. But she gripped the handle with both hands, hoping to anchor herself.
The next thing she knew, she was airborne.