Short Story Collection

The Windstorm

This really happened where I live, It was the strongest winds my city has ever seen, the parks opened a month after it, and the arboretum opened in March. This occurred in November of 2011 :) Please vote and read my other stories!

P.S I live in southern California

November 31st 2011

My sister Taylor and I were watching T.V, our parents were at work, mom worked odd hours and my dad worked 2 jobs. But it was nice just hanging out with her sometimes. We started to channel surf when we saw the news. It said to be careful while driving; the wind was going to get so much stronger. She looked outside and laughed. I saw what she was laughing at. There was no wind at all! It was dead! I laughed too and continued to watch T.V. I realized I still had some biology homework to do so when I started to write down the answers, there was a small gust of wind. Not too big and not too little. Just enough so we knew there was wind. Taylor looked at me.

"Well that's probably just how bad it's going to be tonight." She said. I nodded because I knew how strong our winds are. They couldn't knock anything over. I continued to do my homework, around 10pm the wind really started to pick up. It was so loud and so forceful, it shook our house. I was scared because our wind never made...well...NOISE. The trees outside swayed and rustled, the houses around us groaned, our dogs barked and cried, our newborn kittens were still fast asleep not yet ready for warm milk. Taylor called our mom to tell her that the wind was getting strong and for her to hurry up, of course she did because we were her babies. My dad got home around the same time as my mom. Both of them looked startled.

"This wind's going to be a problem." My dad said. I looked at them, my mom told me to go to bed. So I did, and Taylor did too. She didn't have school in the morning because her classes were pre-canceled. My school didn't bother to notify us. Though I was sure they would anyways. I plugged in my phone and tried to sleep but the wind kept me wide awake.

What if Anna's tree fell on her house?

What if our fence breaks and our dogs got away?

What if...

What if...

What if...

I heard my dad yell to my mom to get up, I checked my phone for the time, it was around 11pm already! I ran to my parents room and then the lights went out. Wind blew my hair in my face, my dad had opened their sliding door to go get our dogs.

"Shanny grab a light and come help me get Talula, Shorty, and Ramone! Jessie! Go get Maya and put her in the kennel!" He ordered. I quickly grabbed a camping lantern from my room and rushed to get my baby girl. I opened the kennel and quickly brought her in. Taylor came out and helped me by vying her with treats. Then once she was in, we checked the kittens, still not named. I tried to go to sleep once the commotion was seemingly over with. I had school in the morning; I had to get up early. Ramone jumped onto my bed and into my lap. I sat up quickly and grabbed hold of him. This was seriously happening. My dad took Ramone out of my room and put him with the others. I ran to my parent's room, in the dark. Our cabana had been blown into the pool, leafs were everywhere, I noticed part of our fence was been taken off. If I had gone out, I'd be blown away. This was crazy. My mom took me to my room and tucked me in. I just wanted the night to be over soon. This wind was going to keep me up all night. Or so I thought.

***

I woke up at 6 in the morning, my dad thought school was going to be open. I looked at my phone, it was charged and I had a text from my best friend and my mom

Mom: Hey babygirl, no school today. Luv you!

Anna had asked me if school was going to be open, of course I told her no. I fell back asleep and woke up at noon. Everyone was up, the T.V and lights were out, my sisters were sitting on the couch. But my dad was on his phone talking to my mom. He couldn't get out of the city because of the trees. Taylor's boyfriend had come over; I got dressed in jeans and my favorite pink sweatshirt. Ivan wanted to go look around town to see what had happened, and holy crap, trees everywhere. The largest trees were knocked over like dominos, a tree was pushed onto my neighbors house, one fell onto our power lines, now it hung there like a marionette with broken strings. That was just my street; the city looked like a twister had gone around. Tree's everywhere, the park was a disaster area...poor hobo's. Businesses were all closed, every car was on the street, unless it had got stuck by a tree, or damaged. Ivan cursed at the traffic. We went down to the library, we weren't going to get anywhere with this traffic. On our way back we tried to use a shortcut, now blocked my a huge oak tree, somehow the palm trees had lived through the night.