"Well folks, you won't wanna be caught without your umbrella this afternoon," I heard the weatherman advising as I headed out the door that morning. I glanced up at the sky as I stepped outside and wished the rain to go away. There was no way I could have prepared myself for what was about to unfold the day, even if I had an umbrella to protect me.

I gazed out the window of my Grandma's minivan, watching fields of various crops pass by on the familiar stretch of highway leading to my grandparents farm. I could feel the mid-July sun warming my bones as I closed my eyes and turned up the volume on my discman, ignoring the complaints of both my older brother Derek and sister, Laura. We were on our way out to make lunch for the guys in the fields and get some work done in the garden before the rain came.

By the time we arrived at the farm, the sun was already scorching hot and the humidity was making it hard to breathe outside. We all helped unload groceries from the van before we all dispersed in different directions. I grabbed a frozen juice barrel from the freezer as I searched out the coolest room in the house to escape the rising heat

  I walked into the living room where my two cousins, Nick and Stephanie, were already sprawled out on the shaggy brown carpet in front of an old metal box frame fan. I intentionally plopped down directly in the fans forefront even though it barely moved around the hot humid air. There was no AC in the house, so that old metal fan was all that we had to escape the brutal heat of North Dakota's summer. I had expected a reaction from Stephanie when I blocked her airflow, maybe along the lines of a quick kick to the back, but it was too hot for her to move or even notice.

I spoke slowly into the fan, enjoying the way it altered my voice to sound like a robot, enticing my younger cousin, Nick, to sit up and join in with me making Star Wars voices. It wasn't long before Derek snapped, "Shut up!" at the both of us, making it clear he was annoyed with us and the noise we were making. "You two are such babies!" he said tauntingly, as he snatched my cousins ball cap off the top of his head and sprinted towards the door with it, knowing my cousin would chase him because he was never caught without wearing a hat.

I got up, deciding to follow the boys outside through the kitchen door to see where they had run off to, or if my brother had already made Nick cry. As soon as I stepped through the old swing screen door, the humidity and heat instantly stole my breath away. I noticed how the sky had changed drastically, with dark heavy clouds closing in quickly, making it look as if it was night time. The low, dark clouds moving in strange patterns reminded me of my grandpa's cigar smoke, lingering low in the sky.  

Suddenly, my grandma burst through the kitchen door with a loud familiar squeak as she hollered out, “Dinner!” and rang the large brass dinner bell attached to the side of the farmhouse to alert anyone working out in the yard to come and wash up for lunch. Within an instant, my brother and Nick came sprinting out of the wooded shelter belt that was home to the hidden tree fort we had built a few summers prior. I wondered if they had actually gone out to work on the fort together, but was too intimidated to ask my brother as he shoved past me into the house.

 I followed them into the dining room for lunch where soon my extended family was gathered around our generations old Norwegian table. My grandpa and Uncle Marty were seated at opposite ends of the table, smelling of sweat, pain, and diesel gasoline, fresh out of the field, hungry for a hot plate of food and a cold glass of milk. We had just finished saying grace had started to pass the food around when I heard the first alarm go off from the television in the living room. My sister must have heard it too, because she quickly stood up and ran to turn up the volume on the TV. I sat up on my knees and turned to peer through the opening in the wall in the living room trying to get any sort of glimpse of what was on the screen. All I could see was a man wearing a nice suit sitting behind a large desk along with the words ‘TORNADO WARNING’ and ‘SEEK SHELTER” flashing across the bottom of the screen.

TORNADO WARNING

The image of what the sky looked like earlier flashed before me, reminding me of how dark and dangerous the clouds had looked. I followed my cousins into the living room to try to get a better look at the TV, but I couldn't push my way through them.  I decided to go out to the front porch to see how the sky looked now as my brother ran past me through the kitchen. The screen door slammed shut behind him. “What a jerk!” I muttered to myself. I never understood why he was so mean to me. What did I ever do to him?  

The next thing I knew, I was on the porch watching the heavy rainfall when I heard my brother yell out, “Hey Nick, come check this out!” as he overturned the hat he was wearing and started running around in circles trying to catch the small hailstones that had begun falling. Without hesitation, Nick rushed past me to join in. They looked like they were having fun, but I was too afraid of the hail to run out and join them. Instead, I just stayed under the safety of the covered porch and tried to reach out to catch myself a small hailstone.

As I reached out, I looked to my left and noticed my brother had stopped dead in his tracks with a look of pure terror on his face. “What?! What is it?!” I shouted to him right as a surge of wind snatched his hat right out of his hand. He didn't answer. He just stood there staring off. All of a sudden, I noticed Nick running towards the house screaming, “Get Grandma! Tell her there's a tornado in the West field. NOW!” This snapped my brother back into reality and into action as he came running towards the house.

Behind me, my grandma and uncle emerged from the house with my cousin and sister close behind. They looked up towards the Western sky as they assessed the weather and  realized we needed to take shelter immediately. My sister grabbed my hand and led me over to where we would all have to take shelter; the underground cellar.

  I had always feared the cellar, but I had no time to be scared now. The entrance to the cellar was an old, weathered, heavy wood door with a dingy handle making it difficult to lift off the ground. My grandma struggled to open the heavy door against the strong wind gusts so my uncle quickly stepped in to help her. We all rushed down the flimsy, rotten steps as my grandma shouted  out, “Boyd! Boyd! Hurry up!”, but my grandpa wasn't coming. “Where was he?” I worried frantically, waiting for him to appear, but then... BOOM! The cellar door slammed shut, prompting my sister to shriek out loud she was so startled by the noise.