She sucked in her breath through her teeth. “It does seem like it could be bigger than forecast.”
“And it’s farther south than you thought,” Mrs. Laughton said.
Esperanza nodded silently, and Javi noticed she was completely tense again. “It is, and farther east.”
“Isn’t that…?” Mrs. Laughton started to ask.
Javi nodded, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. “Broken Wheel.”
CHAPTER9
Espy had to scoot the seat up a lot when she took over driving so Javi could make his phone calls to the department, to friends and family. A tornado was heading straight for them. She could hear the desperation in Javi’s voice as he relayed the information to who she presumed was the dispatcher, and then tried to call his mom, but apparently couldn’t get through because he left her a voicemail. Espy didn’t want to tell him that the storm might be interfering with his signal. He probably knew, since the same thing had happened to her and Angelica during the hailstorm.
She listened as he called his friends, left messages for them.
“Austin, thank God, someone who actually has service!” Javi’s voice was higher pitched than normal. “Listen, I got through to dispatch but I can’t reach my mom, and this storm is heading straight for town. We can see a wall cloud from where we are, and it’s moving southeast. Yeah, I’m—I’m with the storm chasers. Maybe since you have a landline you can ge better service and you can call around and let people know? I can’t reach my mom though. I told her yesterday to go to my house, or to come to you, and she refused, but now—“ He paused, listened. “Okay. Thank you. Thank you, man. We’re—we’re on our way.”
“Holy—!” Mr. Laughton exclaimed from the backseat, leaning all the way forward and pointing through the grate. “There it is.”
And there it was indeed, the massive wall cloud turning, dropping little scud clouds like they were doing one of those old fashioned circle dances.
“Is that four tornados?” Mr. Laughton asked, so loud Javi had to put his hand over his ear to listen to his phone.
“No, they’ll form into one.” More than anything, Espy wanted to stop and take photos. When she looked in the rearview mirror, she saw Angelica’s van was slowing, probably to do just that from a safe distance.
But Javi was clearly desperate to get to his mom, so she wasn’t going to stop, wasn’t going to slow. She hoped the Laughtons understood as well. She did hear the occasional click of a phone camera behind her, but she knew from experience they wouldn’t be good pictures. She’d gift them a photo book based on pictures the others were taking, to thank them for being good sports as they tried to get Javi home.
“There it is,” she said, her voice tight as the scud clouds joined, their rotation intensifying, and even from this distance she could see the plants and dust the tornado was kicking up. Ordinarily watching a tornado form from a cloud this huge would thrill her, but knowing people were in its path, a town, in its path, she just felt fear. She only hoped Javi had been able to give them enough warning.
Maybe it wouldn’t hold together long enough to get to Broken Wheel, but she was afraid it was big enough and strong enough to cover the distance.
She really hoped his mom would be okay, and all the people in her trailer park, too.
The tornado was now straight ahead and tearing up brush and dirt. Espy could see it, swirling around, along with some sheet metal and probably fence posts. She’d never actually been this close, always stopped farther back from the storm and admired it from a distance. They were getting into dangerous territory, and she was responsible for the Laughtons. Her sister had stopped a while back. Espy should have, too, and dropped off the Laughtons as she took Javi home.
Now she lifted her foot off the accelerator.
“What are you doing?” Javi jabbed a finger at the speedometer. “Are you slowing down? My mom is up there.”
She shook her head, her heart aching for him. His desperation was palpable from across the van. “We’re not going to beat it. And it won’t do any good putting us in danger. We’ve done what we could.”
She glanced over at him, saw the tension etched in his face, but she couldn’t put them all at risk when they wouldn’t be able to help until it was over. She searched for a flat place to pull over. She settled on a driveway leading up to one of the ranches, and, grabbing her camera, hopped out of the vehicle, opening the back door so the Laughtons could get out, as well.
The breeze from the north was cool, sending goosebumps along her skin, the tornado black and wicked in front of them, but far enough away that the sound was carried away by the wind out of the north. She held her breath as she recognized trees being uprooted, joined by fence posts and other debris as it moved closer to town.
Javi stayed in the passenger seat, fairly vibrating with frustration, his gaze riveted to the storm, his fingers gripping the dashboard.
She felt terrible taking photos of a tornado that could be destroying Javi’s friends’ homes, hurting people he loved, but it was part of her job.
When the tornado played out, pulled itself back up into the cloud, Espy was shaking. She climbed back into the driver seat and looked over at Javi’s stricken face. “You ready to go?”
He nodded. “You can go as fast as you want, now. We need to be there to help people.”
She fastened her seatbelt and pressed the gas.
Javi’s heartpounded as Esperanza turned the van into the town square. The rain was still hammering the vehicle, and everyone in the vehicle was silent. Javi leaned forward as if he could see through the buildings to the damage ahead.
Esperanza drove past the mural he’d told her about and turned onto the street in front of the grocery store. Javi let out a long breath. No real damage in town. Maybe the tornado broke up before it reached Broken Wheel. Maybe it just tore up the ranch land. That would be aggravating, but not devastating.
