This piece I wrote for submission in Story Circle Network's Journal themed contest on "storms."  Even though the story documents an early childhood incident, this piece is more of a personal narrative than a memoir. 

WEATHERING THE STORMS by Sara Etgen-Baker

            I stood on the front porch watching the storm brewing on the horizon.  “Can you feel that?” mother asked pacing back and forth.  “The hair’s standing up on the back of my neck.  A tornado’s coming.” 

Thunder screamed across the sky as the embattled clouds slapped into one another.    The sky darkened as threatening hues of grey, green, and black filled the sky; the wind began blowing, quickly turning from a soft breeze to churning gusts.  Suddenly a crack of lightening cut through the anvil-shaped green cloud that hovered over Garland.  Hail began to spit.  Day turned to night as a terrifying funnel dropped from the green cloud and began snaking its way back and forth through town.  Then I heard the screaming howl of a freight train. 

Time collapsed while I watched—mesmerized and frightened by the tornado’s destructive, chaotic power as it tossed things up in the air and flattened everything in its path.  I was just five when I witnessed the tornado that destroyed downtown Garland.  Although I survived the storm, I was never the same.   Those powerful images, buried deep within my subconscious, have stayed with me and occasionally surface in the surrealistic world of my night-time dreams.  

The dream is always the same.  I’m watching as a storm brews and churns on the horizon; the funnel drops from the clouds.  I hear the loud roar of a train in the distance.  Although frightened, I watch debris fly through the air all around me.  Entranced, I never attempt to hide from the chaos and destruction.  I wake up breathless feeling changed but safe, calm, and relieved that I survived the storm.

 

I often wondered what this reoccurring storm dream could teach me.  I discovered that my storm dream occurs when I’m in the midst of some type of change or personal upheaval.  The tornado represents the fear and uncertainty I must weather when faced with the chaotic but seemingly destructive power of impending change in my life.  Although I always survive the storm, I’m forever changed feeling safe, secure, calm, and comfortable with the new me.