Before It Breaks

Thomas arrived at his hometown for the first time in four years. It was a poor town with not many people, which caused him to search for a college a little further away. As he was walking down the cobblestone path he got a glimpse of his town. Thomas gasped.

Everything was in ruins, and rubble was everywhere. A tree had fallen, causing him to take a detour to the old playground he used to play at. It pained him to look at it. The small slide was in pieces around the park and the swings were twisted around the monkey bars, or at least what was left of them. Mulch was thrown around, exposing the earth below. He noticed string hanging off a fallen tree. It was a tire swing, except the tire was missing. The place where most of his childhood took place was destroyed along with his memories of it.

He continued on until he found himself in front of his former home. Half the roof was caved in, the other half was most likely gone. The front door was blown open and the windows were shattered. As much as he wanted to go in, the house looked unstable and threatened to collapse at any moment. He sat down on a tree stump and sighed.

Thomas remembered how this town used to look. Small gardens in each yard, kids running around playing tag, they never had the technology like other people but they made the most of what they had. As for his family, he had a sister and mother. That was it. His father passed away from Pneumonia when he was only five and his sister was one. His mother always had to work late hours, causing him to take care of his sister.

A cold breeze blew by breaking him out of his thoughts. He did not realize how long he had been sitting there, the sun was bowing down over the horizon, meaning it was almost six o'clock. He needed to find somewhere that wasn't ruined to spend the night. So, he started down the cobblestone path again.

The only building left standing was the metal shelter. He walked up to the door and knocked, not expecting anyone to answer since the whole town seemed deserted. Awoman opened the door and seemed just as surprised as he was to see someone on the other side. Nevertheless, she let him in. A couple minutes later a girl ran up to him screaming, "Thomas!"

"Oh my god! I thought you were dead!" The girl said.

"Arianna? Why did you think I was dead?" Asked Thomas.

"You don't know?" She said with tears in her eyes.

Thomas shook his head, a little scared to know the answer.

"There was a terrible storm a few days ago, and I thought you got caught in it." She said then looked down, "It took mom."

Confused Thomas asked, "What took mom?"

"The tornado Thomas, she didn't get here in time. We found her in the ruins of our house." Arianna said quietly.

Thomas was speechless. The women who gave up all her time to work for him and his sister was gone. He could feel as the dam that had been holding back his tears all day finally broke as he held onto his sister.