When the wind howls like a freight train, it's a sound that can instill panic in even the bravest of hearts. You run and hide, praying that it won't tear everything you own, until there's no way to tell your home from your neighbors. Things that you could never have recognized as having been a home, now spread across your town like last weeks' rumors.
Tornados are relentless. They don't care whose family you are. They don't care how much life you have left to live, or that you just made the final payment to the bank on your house. They come through your life and rip everything off of its foundation. They'll take a life, as quickly as any possession you have.
I haven't been the same since the night the tornado took my family. We huddled in the barn, since momma said it was the sturdiest thing daddy had ever built. Our home was older than my memaw, and looked a whole lot rougher. Pepaw built it with his bare hands when he and memaw moved to this tiny town in Oklahoma. Momma rushed all of us across the yard to the barn, no shoes on our feet or nothing. Daddy pulled us all into the far back corner of that barn, and we sat and listened as the fierce winds got closer.
In the rounded window on the side of the barn, I saw a small barn owl sitting. He was perched there, looking as calm as any normal day. His head turned to the side, as if he was looking right at me. Then as quickly as he'd come, he flew off into the dark, eerie night.
I'd never seen an owl in my 16 years on this Earth, until that night. I've always asked myself if that owl was an omen of what was to come. Whether he was supposed to be my guardian angel, and was protecting me that night. Maybe he's why I survived that tornado.
I have a reoccurring nightmare of what happened in those last moments I remember. The shrieking winds ripped the roof off of that bark, and sucked us all out like a vacuum. I heard their screams, as we got thrown into the winds, all in different directions. I woke up about 30 feet from the barn, my head pounding like a drum. I couldn't find anyone, as I ran across the field, yelling out everyone's names. I hollered for what seemed like all night, until I eventually collapsed from exhaustion somewhere in that pitch-black night.
I remember waking up in the back of a car, bright lights baring down in my face. I was confused and lost. I had no idea what was going on or where anyone was. They brought me in to the hospital, but no one would answer me, no matter how much I pleaded to know where my family was. I looked around for anyone I might have known, until I finally saw one of our neighbors' boys across the room, talking to a doctor.
"Philip! Philip! Have you seen my momma?! Have you seen Daddy?! I got brought here by myself and no one will answer me. Where's my momma, Philip?" Tears ran down my face as I begged for any answer other than the one I was so afraid was the truth.
Shane nodded at the doctor, as he turned to walk away. "Edith.. I.." He looked down at his shoes, hat in hand.
"NO!" I hollered at him. "You look at me, Philip! Where is my momma?! Where are they?!" Tears pouring down my face, with his shirt collar in hand.
I watched as a tear rolled down his cheek, "I'm so sorry Eedi.. They.. They didn't make it. They found your momma and daddy, and two of your sisters.. But we still haven't found Tommy.." I watched him melt away as tears fell from his face to the hospital floor.
I dropped to the floor, paralyzed by the reality of what had was happening. I was going to be all alone... An orphan, an only child.
Two days later, I was released from the hospital, being sent home with my only aunt. A woman that I had only met once in my life. I barely had a thing in my hands.
I prayed for hours, as we drove. I prayed they'd find my little brother, somewhere off in the woods, doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. I laughed to myself as I pictured them finding him startin' a fire, or playin' by the creek.
I felt a whisper of night air hit my face from the crack in the window. As we drove past the "Leaving Oklahoma" sign, I looked up and saw a little barn owl perched right on top, looking in my direction. For a split moment, as I stared off into the darkness beyond the road, I thought that just maybe everything might actually be alright.
