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.