20 C20
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Hannah sat in front of the large tank, watching the various fish swim to and fro. She knew her mom was behind her somewhere, also sitting, but watching her rather than the fish. There was another appointment set up for Monday morning, this time with a psychiatrist to both rule out a psychological issue and to help Hannah cope with her condition. No one could pinpoint any sort of actual cause, and about the only thing they hadn't done yet was to go in with a camera and see what was going on. Hannah sensed someone sitting next to her and turned her head. Lexie and her dad must have come in while she was staring into the fish tank.
"If there's any thing I can do to help you, just ask, okay?" Lexie said. "I've been feeling left out."
Hannah reached over and hugged her sister. "I'll let you know. I'm sorry that you've been feeling left out, but I don't think you want to have any part of it..." Hannah chuckled. The silence of the aquarium was broken by the ringing of a phone. Not just any phone, but her dad's phone. Hannah turned slowly to look toward the source of the sound. Her and her father locked eyes as he answered the call.
"What's it like?" Lexie asked, not at all bothered by the phone call that her father was taking behind them.
"Hmm?" Hannah said, not hearing her sisters question.
"What's it like?" the question was repeated.
"Which part of it?" Hannah asked quietly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her mom and dad stand up and walk toward them.
"All of it." Lexie said. It was obvious to Hannah that she as being careful about what she actually said with not so kind ears around.
"Let's talk about it when we get home." Hannah said, quietly as their parents approached.
"Ok." Lexie said, turning so that she could see her parents approaching.
"We need to go," John said, his face not showing any emotion. "Jim just called. They want me in to the WFO as soon as possible." He wrapped his arms over Hannah and Lexie's shoulders. "I'm going to run ahead and get to the car and start driving back toward the entrance of the zoo. I'll meet you guys somewhere in the middle." He said after they had exited the aquarium and taken a look at the sky. The previously blue sky had turned a nasty shade of grey, punctuated by black clouds. Hannah watched as the whole cloud mass moved in opposite directions because of the wind directions and speeds at different levels of the atmosphere. Hannah felt more pee leak into her diaper; this time from fear.
"Mom, your phone." Hannah said, turning her head in as much of a three hundred sixty degree circle as her little neck would allow.
"Grab it." Emily said, not taking a hand off of either of her daughters backs. Her face was ashen, and it wasn't like her to be scared in the face of weather; It was what she did after all. Something about this storm seemed wrong. Hannah fished around in her mom's purse for the phone. After entering the password, she opened the radar.
"Oh my God." Hannah said quietly, before glancing at the sky around them. "Mom, I count at least three couplets, and Correlation shows something other than rain." All of the sudden, there was a loud clap of thunder, and it started to rain, not too hard, but what would be more like a gentle spring rain. Hannah was glad that the phone was in a waterproof case. Just as suddenly as the thunder had clapped, the tornado sirens went off.
"Mommy, I'm scared." Lexie said. In the distance, the black Chevy Impala that belonged to her mother came around the bend and sped up, finally screeching to a halt right next to them. Everyone got in on the passenger side, and buckled their seat belts. John didn't wait for Emily's door to close before mashing the gas, closing the door and forcing everyone back into the seats.
"Hannah, give me my phone." Emily said, reaching back to where Hannah sat. Hannah handed the phone to her mom.
"Get in the back and flip the probe to on, I want to be able to deploy if we don't have a choice." John said, glancing at the mirror. Hannah nodded. "Lexie, get down and cover your head." It was somewhat useful advice, but everyone in this car knew that it was a pointless thing to do in an automobile. Hannah unbuckled her seatbelt and stood as much as she could to open the seat and get to the probe. After she had lowered her side of the seat, she practically crawled into the trunk and flipped the probe on. The lights on the top lit up to indicate that it was on. Hannah saw one of the laptop bags in the back and grabbed it. "Hang on, hard right turn coming up." Hannah braced her self for the turn and as soon as they had made it, she made her way back into the back seat. She flipped her seat back upright and sat down, buckled her seat belt and pulled the toughbook out of the bag that it was in. Booting it, she logged in and connected to the internet. Now she had a much clearer picture of their location and the location of the various parts of the storm than her mom did up front. Glancing around, she tried to get her bearings. There was a light rain falling, making the whole event seem less threatening than it was. In the field to their left, Hannah spotted a spin up touch down and kick up dirt. When it stayed down, she compared what she saw on the radar to what she could see with her eyes.
"Tornado!" She shouted, causing her mom and dad to look around. Lexie was doubled over, quietly sobbing.
"Tornado!" John said, after seeing the location of it; Emily dialed a number on her phone and held it to her ear, watching the rotating column of wind.
"Yes, My name is Dr. Emily Peterson, I am a meteorologist and I'd like to report a tornado on the ground at interstate thirty-five and north east fiftieth street." Her mom paused, watching the tornado. "Ok, thank you."
"Can anyone tell what way it's moving?" John asked, not taking his eyes off the road. He hated trying to chase in a town, everyone started to drive erratically when there was a tornado near by.
"It looks to be tracking along side us, due south." Hannah said, watching the tornado. "Umm... We might have a problem."
"What?" John said.
"Radar shows a couplet at the thirty five and forty interchange." Hannah said.
"It's only a couplet, it doesn't mean that there is any thing there." John said, crossing three lanes of traffic to get off on an exit. "Emily, plug the address to the National Weather Center in the GPS for me." John's phone rang, and he answered it by using the steering wheel. "This is John!" he practically shouted.
"Where are you?" Jim's voice boomed through the speakers in the car.
"Southwest on fiftieth. Trying to get to the NWC. Hannah just informed me of a couplet at the thirty five and forty interchange."
"We see that too." Jim said. "KOCO has people on the ground, but there is nothing happening there that we can tell."
"Alright," John said. "We're going to be taking back roads to get to the NWC. If you guys see anything that you think we should be aware of, shout. I've got my eyes in the back seat watching too." John said.
His eyes in the back seat weren't watching anything anything at the moment. They were trying to locate the pacifier that was in her backpack. Once she found it, she reached over and popped it into Lexie's mouth, the sobbing stopped, replaced by a quiet sucking sound.
"You have anything new?" John asked, taking a corner at a higher speed that he normally would have.
"Nope." Hannah said, watching the marker move along the map. She had zoomed out a bit and was looking at the bigger picture. "What route are you planning on taking to get there?"
"Broadway to Shields to 35 to Oklahoma 9" John said, driving around a slower moving car. Most of the roads were deserted, which was an oddity because it was a Saturday. John could only hope that it was because the sirens were going off and that people were heeding the warning. John slowed down for a red light. There was no traffic coming from either direction so he hit the gas and continued through it.
"John, there was a camera on that light..." Emily said.
"It's ok, we're on official government business. I'll get it taken care of." Up ahead the exit to 35 was rapidly approaching.
"We should be in nothing other than light rain all the way to the NWC," Hannah said after zooming out and looking at the greater Oklahoma City Metro Area on the radar. "The core of the system is northwest of Guthrie, moving northeast." John pulled off the freeway and slowed to a stop at the light. There was more traffic down here, with the storm being on the north end of the metro area. John drove the speed limit from the exit off of 35 all the way to the National Weather Center, parking the car. The sky here was mostly clear, with large puffy clouds that didn't seem to be moving. Hannah reached over and pulled the pacifer out of Lexie's mouth and stashed it back in her bag. Lexie's eyes fluttered open and looked at her sister. "Don't worry, I won't tell."