Looks Like A Great Day for Foreshadowing

Sandstorm

Just as Tyler had predicted, their cars were 'returned' later that day.

The Perfectionites returned to their normal activities, though no one went anywhere alone. It seemed to be going well.

Until Rosalita and Harlow returned from Bixby.

The day started out relatively normal. Rosalita and Harlow came driving in around 10 o'clock, pulling up in front of the store and getting out. Tyler waved at them cheerfully from his spot on the bench, waiting for his next tour group to finish shopping.

"Hey, Tyler!" Rosalita greeted cheerfully. "Did we miss anything while we were gone?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," Tyler shrugged. "Mixmaster creations, crazy scientists tryin' to kill us, falling vehicles, brain chemistry..."

Rosalita gave him a strange look. "You're messing with me," she said, disbelieving.

"No, he's not, he's just explaining it in Tyler Tongue," Jodi replied, coming out of the store. "In other words, it's been hectic. And completely not usual," she added with a frown at Tyler. He just grinned.

"Sounds interesting," Harlow commented.

"So what exactly happened?" Rosalita asked, looking perplexed.

"I'll explain inside," Jodi replied, catching the door and holding it open as the tour group filed out and headed across the street.

"I'll leave you to it then," Tyler said, hopping off the porch. "Larry! Let's go!"

Larry practically ran out of the store, obviously bubbling with excitement. "Ya' know, this is the first time I've been on the Graboid Tour since the Plantimal attacked Perfection."

Rosalita just rolled her eyes at the hyper sci-fi fan and followed Jodi into the store. Jodi grabbed them each a cup of coffee before joining them at the counter.

"So what happened?" Harlow asked, genuinely curious now due to Jodi's behavior.

"Quit stalling, Jodi," Rosalita urged.

Jodi sighed again. "Ok. But you're probably going to have a hard time believing me..."

*******************

"And just down there you can see the old Perkins' place that was lost in the flood of '09."

"Larry, what the hell are you talking about? We're in a desert. And it's only 2003."

"Hey, what's that?" a young boy asked, pointing off in the distance.

"I was kidding," Larry said innocently. "And what's what?" he asked, looking where the boy pointed.

"That big dust cloud," he replied.

"Huh?" Tyler glanced away from the road to look. Sure enough, there was a large cloud of dust moving across the desert.

"Is it El Blanco?" Larry asked.

Tyler shook his head. "He only makes a small trail of dust. That looks more like a sandstorm but we don't really have those and it's too low anyway."

Larry's face drained of color again. "Tyler..." he whispered, "Maybe we should turn around..."

Tyler nodded, turning the wheel. "I don't like this," he mumbled.

"What's happening?" a female passenger asked, almost hysterically.

"Nothing to be concerned about, we're just cutting our tour a little short today due to the weather," Tyler replied calmly.