Chapter Three

They drove along a dirt country road. Thunder rumbled, and the wall cloud let out a funnel. Jason watched it nervously. The funnel twisted down. It touched the ground and began to dance. Clara snapped a picture.  The twister headed for an abandoned barn! Jason finally began to calm down. “You were right Clara,” he said. Clara smiled. She knew in her heart that it would work.

          Afterwards, Jason started storm chasing again like he used to. Clara sometimes went along. It was always good wall clouds that never dropped anything or thin rope tornadoes that spun for only a few minutes. But it was good anyway.

          A few months later, it was the official start of hurricane season. Jason was thinking about going to chase a hurricane, but no hurricane got higher than a category two. He began to worry. But Agnes always had faith in things like this. Last summer, she just waited, telling Jason that one would come along soon. About a month later, a strong Category Three came.

          Clara finished up the school season, and now her days were spent in almost complete boredom. She missed Agnes and Willow. Clara’s birthday was on July 4^th, which was in a few weeks. This year hadn’t been a good year for the Wildewoods.

          One morning, Jason woke to a cloudy Monday morning. He walked over to his computer. As the compute turned on, he walked over to the counter and poured his coffee into his cup. The computer finally finished loading. Jason looked down towards Corpus Christi Texas. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

          Clara heard the phone ring. She dropped her spoon into her bowl, and walked over to the phone. Clara picked up the phone. “Hello?” she asked. “Clara!” exclaimed Jason. “There’s an awesome Category Three hurricane on the Gulf of Mexico, and it’s coming for Corpus Christi!” Clara was a bit confused. “Are you positive?” she asked. “Yes!” said Jason.

          According to future track, the hurricane was going to strengthen in a few days. By then, the hurricane would be a Category Four, and 12 hours away from Corpus Christi. Traveling plans were suddenly being arranged. All the Wildewoods and Jason would be going. The National Hurricane Center wanted Jason to perform a study in the heart of the hurricane.

          Jason had to have one whole pack just for his tools. Half of them were weather instruments. The other half consisted of one box of granola bars, 5 water bottles, twenty – five feet of rope, and other necessary tools. All of the others had a backpack filled with everything, but only one weather tool. Each one had a barometer.

          On Wednesday, Jason came over. The Wildewoods had just finished up eating. Jason loaded his pack into the truck. As they drove south on Interstate 135, Clara prayed that everything would go smoothly. Hopefully, they could just get in there, watch the hurricane, and go home.

          As they came close to Wichita, Clara and Jason at the same time began to feel strange. A little voice spoke into their ears. It sounded so familiar. It said, “Don’t be afraid. I will guide you on this deadly trip,” the strange voice then disappeared. Jason and Clara looked at each other; filled with confusion. 

Chapter Two

Clara ate lunch, and then went home. She had had a full morning. She sat down on the couch. Something felt wrong. Their German Shepherd Willow would normally come in. Clara ran down the basement stairs. She looked at Willow’s pallet. She was lying there, breathing heavily. Clara knelt down next to her. “Hey girl,” she said with a trembling voice.

          Willow looked up at her. There was a sad look in her eyes. Both of them knew that it was time. Willow was a little over 10 years old. Clara placed her hand on Willow. Jason came down to check on Clara. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Clara looked up at him. “It’s her time, Jason,” she said.

          Without Willow, life changed for the whole household. Clara was used to seeing a dog sleeping at the end of her bed. It became hard for her to sleep those first few nights. She had lost two loved ones in the last month. There had to be a reason for this.

          Over the course of the next month, friends were sending meals to the Wildewoods. Jason hadn’t storm chased since Agnes had died. Somehow, tornadoes made him feel sad. Every time a tornado showed up on either the Internet or TV, Jason tried to ignore it. If it happened on the computer, he shut down the Internet. On TV, he changed the channel. He blocked the Weather Channel on TV. Jason was obviously running away from something that he had loved yesterday.

          Clara’s friends at school tried to be helpful to her. Even the kids that hadn’t ever talked to her were now talking to her. Clara was now troubled by something other than Agnes’s tragic death. She was worried about Jason. She had seen his attitude towards tornadoes.

          Later at home, Clara talked to Dad. “You know that Jason is running from his fears,” said Clara, “and we need to fix it,” Dad nodded. “I suppose that we could do something,” he said. “Let’s wait until there’s a good chance for tornadoes in the area,” said Clara, “and we can take him on a storm chase without him knowing,”

          In about a week, another chance for storms showed up. The probability of a tornado was high. All they had to do now was lure Jason into the car. Clara called Jason. “We just wanna take you somewhere,” said Clara. Jason was obviously unsure. “Alright,” he finally said.

          He showed up. As they drove down the highway, Jason became more and more uneasy. It was the menacing clouds that were frightening him. Clara watched him closely. Dad drove deeper into the storm. When a wall cloud showed up, Jason reacted in a way that Clara had never seen him do. He buckled over, and began to cry. “Just take me back,” he begged.

          “I will,” said Clara,” but you first need to face a tornado,” Jason still cried. “I can’t,” he said. “You are running from your fears,” said Clara. Jason was still looking down. “I just feel so guilty,” he said. Clara pressed some more, “It wasn’t your fault,” Jason quit crying. “But I feel like I could have done something,” he said.