This short story was added to the SHORT STORY PROMPT LINK PARTY 4 in April 2019. Today, I am republishing the story.
Ready? Here’s the prompt: She closed the book she was reading and turned out the…
Now, here’s my version: THE SNOWSTORM AND TORNADO
She closed the book she was reading and turned out the light. It had been a long day and Susan was tired. She had studied all weekend. She’d missed out on all of the activities the other college students were involved with but she knew it was more important for her future to study than to party.
The alarm went off the next morning and woke a very drowsy but studious young woman. She felt like she’d just fallen asleep. She wondered how she could have possibly been asleep for six hours!
As she got out of bed and looked out the window, she couldn’t believe what she saw. There was at least three feet of snow outside!
Susan blinked her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “I must be dreaming,” she said out loud to herself.
But as she stared at the snow, she knew she wasn’t dreaming. It was snowing! In September! In Alabama!
Susan walked over and turned on the TV to see the weather report but there was no signal. She then grabbed her cell phone but again no signal.
About that time someone knocked on the door to her apartment.
She went to the door and looked through the peephole. She saw no one. She looked out the window by the door. Again, no one!
At that moment her cell phone began ringing. She ran back to her bedroom, grabbed it, looked at the number and said, “Hello.”
There was lots of static. Someone was trying to talk to her but she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She had no idea who it was as she didn’t recognize the number.
She lost signal and the call ended. At the same time the electricity went out!
Susan quickly grabbed some warm clothes and got dressed. She was going to have to venture out into the deep snow and try to figure out what was going on.
As she opened the front door, icy cold air hit her face!
Susan looked around the apartment complex but saw no one. It was eerily still and quiet.
As she stood there just staring at the snow and stillness, in the distance she could hear a humming sound. It began to get louder then quickly turned into a deafening roar! Then she saw it, a tornado funnel!
She ran back inside the apartment and closed the door. She knew she had only moments to get to safety.
What on earth was going on with the weather? Snow in September and now a tornado!! Her being alone, feeling deserted! It was too much to comprehend.
The roaring was now louder than ever and Susan knelt down in a corner of the closet in her bedroom. She grabbed a bike helmet and quickly put it on and fastened it.
As soon as she had secured the helmet, she heard glass shattering in her bedroom. The tornado was right on top of the apartment building! She could feel the floor and walls shaking from the violent force of the tornado!
All at once the closet door was ripped off of its hinges as a lamp came flying toward Susan. It hit her and knocked her out.
When Susan came to it was dark and cold. She was shivering from the cold temperature and her head was hurting. She had a bloody gash on her chin.
As she stood up to try to make her way out of the jumbled closet, she got dizzy and fell backwards as she passed out.
Susan woke to find herself in a hospital room hooked up to an IV. She was still cold, and her head was still hurting.
“Oh honey, you’re awake,” said a familiar voice as Susan looked over to see her mother sitting by the hospital bed.
“Mom.”
“Shh, it’s ok, don’t try to talk.”
“But the snow, the tornado, I don’t understand. How long have I been here?”
“Dear, they found you at the apartment. You’ve been in a diabetic coma now for three days. Thank goodness you’re going to be ok!”
“But the snow then the tornado, I just don’t understand!”
“There’s no snow, you know it rarely snows in Alabama and certainly not in September. And thank goodness there was no tornado!”
The end.
*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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