The Night of the Tornado

THE NIGHT OF THE TORNADO

written and illustrated

by

Katelyn Zoss

(age 11)

1. The Beginning

God has blessed our family in so many ways like last year……………………………

Sometime last year (2010) on a Saturday night in Illinois, I and my family were watching a movie just for some fun family time.

Normally we don’t watch movies that are rated over PG although I have watched Amazing Grace which is a PG13. Any ways… we were watching a movie called Sky High when all of a sudden the electricity blinked then went off. Well we were a little disappointed but that was life. Father had said there was a high chance that we would have some extreme weather that evening.

He ascended the stairs and went out the door that was right ahead of you when you reach the top of the stair way. I was right behind him. As I went out the door I noticed very large storm clouds covering the beautiful sun that was setting in the distance. At first I thought it was the most wonderful sight, the sun cascading color through the sky.

But the fact that the color was being blotted out by the rapidly growing storm clouds made me forget the beauty and worry just a little. How was I to sleep at night with thunder crackling and lightning lighting up our entire room? I sleep with my sister Jaelyn.

I must explain now that our family has grown accustom to sleeping at night with a fan. So when the electricity goes off… it creates problems with our sleeping routine. And that was nothing to look forward to in my mind. I pushed that thought away and went inside. There had to be better things to do then stand there worrying.

As I went through the door I heard my sister whimpering. I assured her that it was just another bad storm and tornados and such normally do not accompany the storms we normally have. That theory did not appear to working the way I had planned.

Apparently she had not thought of the storm producing tornados and now that she had thought of it she started sniffling even more than before.

“Oh boy…” I sighed to myself.

Very soon the clouds that had looked to be far away in the distance had made it dark both in and out of the house. I went outside starting to worry even more, when I had gotten to my father who looked more worried than I had.

I asked, “What’s the matter?”

He looked me solemnly in the face, “Katelyn I don’t mean to scare you but… the Metamora tornado sirens are going off.”

I stood stock still. I always worry when there is a bad storm but never before had I thought there really would be a tornado. Father told me to go back inside and tell Mom to go to the basement. For a moment I hesitated, looking into the distance to see if I could catch a glimpse of the terror in the night.

(to be continued next week)

(original and unedited)