Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere (13 page)

The air. It was thick. Muggy. Heavy when I sucked it into my lungs. The skin on my arms turned wet with humidity. My hair tried to curl, even up inside my braids. Steam seeped off the blacktop of our road.

I looked up at the sky. There were cracks of the bluest blue I'd ever seen. But the clouds surrounding them patches of blue were strange and scary. Some clouds were big white, fluffy puffs and others were dark, almost black. I could tell just by the looks of them that they were filled with trouble. Some clouds moved to the right, and some moved around to the left. It was like I was standing there in the perfect center of a whirlwind.

An unexpected shiver made its way up the middle of my back. I stood there with myself soaking up the beauty of the mesmerizing sky. But then, without no kind of warning, the blue gave up and let the dark, thick clouds move back in. A soft rain started falling.

I seen the tree.

The tree lying across Daddy's truck was one of Mama's favorites—the big tree that shed a shadow as big as Texas across our whole front
yard, keeping the blistering sun out of the front of the house in the afternoons. Mama wasn't gonna be happy when she found out. I wondered if the clovers covering the ground under that tree would still be there for me and TayTay to pick through.

A big gust of wind came whooshing by, throwing hard bits of rain into my cheeks and all but knocking me off my own two feet. I threw my arm up and buried my face up in my armpit.

The wind settled back down and I lifted my head.

A bird's nest.

Up toward the top of that dying tree covering the entire top of my daddy's truck was a bird's nest.

The nest was somehow still resting between the branches that surrounded it. But the tiny bluish eggs inside were all cracked and broken. I stared at what had to be the little dead bodies of half-made baby birds poking out through the ruined shells.

The winds picked up again, blowing rain-needles sideways.

A beautiful blue and black bird circled in the dark sky above me. The bird swooped down and landed on the edge of Daddy's shattered truck mirror. It stood there, chirping and chirping, with its head moving in little jerks from one side to the next. Then it hopped across the scattered branches till it reached the tiny nest.

The bird touched one of the cracked eggs with its pointy beak, then turned and did the same thing to the next lifeless egg. The bird started squawking louder and faster, moving its head from side to side. And then it stopped. It just froze. And it looked straight at me.

Its solid black, watery eyes grabbed hold of my heart and started to pull, causing a heavy feeling up in my chest, like someone reached in
there and laid down a cinder block. Then the bird let out one last loud, squeaky caw sound that sent fast prickly bumps down my arms.

The bird leaped into the air and flew away. When I lifted my head to watch it fly off—disappearing into the dark sky—a dreadful feeling came over me.

“Armani!” Daddy hollered.

I about jumped out of them ugly, oversized boots at the sound of his bellowing voice. I wiped the back of my hand across my face, taking one last look at the nest holding the ruined bird family.

“I'm right here, Daddy,” I hollered back, turning away from his truck.

“Armani, I want you to get back in the house! It's too dangerous out here!”

“But Daddy, I wanna stay out here with you,” I shouted into the falling rain and gusts of wind.

“Go inside, Armani.”

I tilted my head up so I could look at him. Just past Daddy's shoulder, I seen that the roof on our neighbor's house was gone. It wasn't half off, or messed up. It was
gone
.

Mrs. Tilly, the ol' lady who lived in that house with her twelve cats, was running around between her yard and the road, crying and waving her arms up and down. Uncle T-Bone and Georgie were over there with a few other people.

I tore my eyes away from the poor lady gone crazy and looked back at Daddy. I noticed for the first time how different he looked without his glasses. The cut across his forehead was bleeding again. The blood was watery and thin on account of mixing with the rain washing over his face.

I was about to tell Daddy he was bleeding when Uncle T-Bone came running over.

My uncle pulled off his soaking wet shirt. He rolled it up, squeezed as tight as he could, wringing out rainwater.

“George,” Uncle T-Bone shouted, “your head's bleedin' real bad!”

Daddy took a wobbly step closer and tipped his head a little to the left. He pointed to his ear and stared at Uncle T-Bone.

“What?” Daddy hollered. The rain changed directions. The wind blew harder than ever, making me feel like I could be lifted up any minute and just swooped right off the face of the earth.

In one quick move, Uncle T-Bone ripped the shirt in half, like it was made of paper. He folded one half into a large square and then he used the other half to tie around Daddy's head.

“Your head,” he pointed, “it needs stitches.” He grabbed Daddy's hand and made him press it against the T-shirt bandage. “Keep pressure on it, George.”

“Thanks, T,” Daddy said, and did a thumbs-up.

Then everything stopped. It was like the storm had wore its own self out with all that huffing and puffing.

“Armani,” Uncle T-Bone said, taking a big breath, “go inside and tell Shug to come on.”

I turned to run inside. “Hang on, Armani,” Daddy said, and held his hand up. “Where're you going, T?”

“George, I gotta go home, man.” Uncle T-Bone's eyes were jumpy.

“I could use your help here, brother,” Daddy said, with sad sitting heavy in his eyes.

“I know.” The sadness was contagious, 'cause it filled my uncle's eyes too. “Look, I'm gonna go home and check on things. I'll be right back.”

Steam started rising out of the road again.

Sirens filled the air. They weren't close, but they were
everywhere
.

Daddy and Uncle T-Bone gave each other a look, like they were talking without words. I grabbed hold of Daddy's hand. He squeezed tight. I took hold of Uncle T-Bone's hand too.

We stood there, not saying a word. The wind, sirens, people shouting, rain dripping, the sight of Daddy's tore-up truck—right then the only thing for us to do was stand there and hold tight to each other.

A tree cracked somewhere over on the other side of the street. The three of us jumped and turned our heads.

“Georgie!” Daddy hollered. “Come on!”

My brother came running over, almost tripping over a mangled bicycle.

“Be careful, son,” Daddy said. “You need to be careful too,” he said, looking at Uncle T-Bone.

“I will,” my uncle said. “I just gotta go make sure my house is all right, George, but I'll be back.”

“I know,” Daddy said, giving Uncle T-Bone a handshake-hug.

“C'mon, Georgie,” I said, “let's go get Miss Shug.”

We turned to run inside when the old oak tree fell with a
crraacckk
and a
thunk
smack-dab into the middle of our road with poor Mrs. Tilly up underneath.

“Lord, have mercy,” Memaw said for the hundredth time in five minutes.

Poor Memaw. Her and Mrs. Tilly had been in choir together since before I was born. I sat on the floor next to where Memaw was collapsed in her chair. I hugged her hand, wishing I knew something I could say to help her feel better.

Daddy was outside trying to help move the huge tree. None of us talked about what had happened. But we all knew. I was thankful right then that we couldn't see through the trash bag covering the window. Upset fluttered around in my belly.

Mama wouldn't stop cleaning and wiping the little ones down with a wet rag. She passed out waters and told us to drink them, whether we were thirsty right then or not. She went on and on about staying hydrated and keeping our strength up. It didn't seem to me that we needed a whole lot of strength to stay put in the living room while the world got flipped on its head outside.

I hoped Mama was drinking water too.

Sealy sat on the floor in front of Memaw and went to reading out loud. Memaw rocked in her chair. Tears fell. She didn't wipe them
off. Me and Sealy did the best we could to help Memaw with her grieving—my sister with her reading and me with my hand hugging.

Daddy stood still as a statue, taking up most of the space inside the doorway, his hand held tight to the doorknob. The Heaven-like glow coming from behind him cast a shadow, making it impossible to see anything but the dark outline of his body. The way the light surrounded and held him all but took my breath away. It was the most beautiful I'd ever seen my daddy.

I ran to Daddy and wrapped my arms around his waist, grateful to have him back inside with us. As I hugged him, I could see that the outside world had took on an orangey-pink look. It was a color I ain't never seen in no crayon box before. It was beautiful. The half-gone trees, the sky, the beat-up houses, even the people I seen roaming around outside—
everything
had took on the swirly orangey-pink color. I stepped to the side of Daddy with my mouth wide open, just gazing at the sight of it all.

“Armani, get in here and shut that door!” Mama shouted.

“But Mama, it's so beautiful. Come see.” I couldn't tear my eyes from the sight.

Sealy and Georgie were at my side squeezing in to take a look. Both of them said, “Whoa . . .”

“It looks like Heaven,” Sealy said in her whispery voice.

I was fixin' to agree with her when Daddy stuck an arm in front of us and swooped us back so he could slam the door shut.

“Daddy . . .” we all whined, looking up into his face.

He looked down at us with watery eyes and crinkled eyebrows. “There's nothing
beautiful
about what's happening on the other side of that door.”

Daddy wouldn't sit still. He paced back and forth, pulling back a corner of the trash bag covering the front window and peeking out. Then he'd walk all quick to where the back screen door used to be and stare into the backyard.

Cricket took to whining so loud she'd wore down everyone's nerves. Daddy stopped his pacing. “Armani, please do something with that dog.”

“She probably needs to go outside to do her business like a real dog, right, Daddy?” Georgie jumped to his feet so fast he nearly fell right back down again. “I'll take her.”

When Daddy opened the door to let them out, everything outside was soft and quiet—all drippy and thick and
peaceful
.

“The storm's over,” Georgie said with a grin. “Looks like we dodged a bullet! Uncle T-Bone was right, Daddy—we didn't need to evacuate. It wasn't
even
the big one.” He smirked and walked out of the house with Cricket.

“Do you think the storm is really over, Armani?” Sealy asked, standing squished up against me.

“Looks like it is.” I just wished that Mama and Daddy or Memaw would smile or something, so my nerves could take a rest.

But then Georgie screamed at the top of his lungs from the front yard.

Sealy's fingers dug into my arm.

Memaw and Mama gave each other the most frightful look.

Daddy took off running.

We all jumped up and ran outside behind Daddy.

“What is it, son?” Daddy asked, out of breath. Georgie pointed. We all saw it. No one said a word. Everything was going in slow motion. The air sat in perfect stillness.

A wall of water. A black rumbling, swirling, groaning wall of water was crashing toward us.

I looked down where the tire shop sat, except it wasn't where it was supposed to be. It'd been knocked clean off its blocks and was floating sideways in the direction of the doughnut shop.

I could hear windows shattering, houses breaking, and people screaming.

The trees left standing fell like toothpicks, disappearing altogether.

The ground hummed and vibrated. The water rose as it rolled closer and closer.