Our small white mini van drove with the sound of a drum. Every second we wasted was to kill time. At least that’s what we had said. But after diving from a bustling city of San Francisco to a rural countryside in the middle of nowhere, even Mama, the most optimistic person I had known, was starting to have her doubts.

Abby had been staring out the window for nearly an hour so I had a feeling she was dozing off. Three year old Michal was kicking his toddler feet on the seat in front, where Corrie was shrieking for him to stop. That made him want to do it even more.

As I sat in the very back, squished in the middle of two kids younger than five, I was staring off into space. Probably thinking about the awesome summer I could have been having if it weren’t for my mother. She had always wanted to visit cool new places. Cool as in stupid car rides that took us to the middle of nowhere. It meant a plastic bag for vomiting in, screaming kids, and even that bright ball of fire in the sky beating down on us as we drove.

Sweat trickled down my forehead. I squinted out the window, praying for one tree. Moments passed. Only bushes, bushes, rocky dirt road, and no mountains.

Up ahead, I saw clouds and I got all excited, even Mama. But soon we realized that there was no way for us to be excited. Those clouds we bad clouds. They were the clouds that meant storms. “Mama, turn the car around!” Corrie cried.

Mom did not turn it around. We headed straight into the storm. Soon our car was not filled with noxious heat and light that hurt your eyes. Soon, there was only rain pouring down from the heavens in anger. Abby had roused and rubbed her eyes while string out the window, actively mesmerized by the storm we had entered. “Tornado!” She squealed. Though it sounded more like “nado.” She was giggling now but the rest of us were not.

Papa gave Mama a look that said, “Corrie was right, we should have turned around.” Mama gave him a look back.

“Do you want to drive?”

Papa shook his head sheepishly. “I’ll pass.”

Michal had stopped kicking the seat and he too was looked out the window “Mom, the heavens are crying.”