Detritus Night Page 4 of 4
Jerking awake, he laid in the darkness, settling his labored breathing. Outside his barren shelter, metal clanged and he knew it was a repeat of the noise that had awakened him. Sitting up, he hugged his knees to his chest. He could feel the outline of his ribs against his too small shirt. Around him, the whirling wind whistled in the broken, missing chinks of the sod and stone.
All day they had walked in the wind. It had been almost a battle to continue moving forward, bowing their heads against the spattering debris that the wind had pried up in its travels; it seemed only to heave at them. Finding the abandoned homestead had felt like a godsend. Just to be able to step into shelter, to leave the buffeting gale outside, to be free for a time, from its battering caress. Around dusk, the wind had even died down to a normal speed but now here it was ripping, tearing, walloping across the prairie again.
Jed sat perfectly still, his chin resting on his knees, listening to the tortured howls outside. As it circled the building, it sounded like a beast desiring to break in. He wanted to wake Hannibal. Looking over he could make out the curled up lump of his cousin. He knew he only had to speak and Hannibal would wake, 'No, he's tired and I'm too old to be hanging on him.'
The clanging metal slammed again, interrupting the monotony of the wind, and Jed sighed, 'leaving the orphanage was the right choice, but what's gonna become of us? I'm still too little to get decent work and Hannibal can't because of me.' He felt a tear trickle down his cheek and scuffed it away angrily. 'It's not fair! It's just not fair!' He felt another one escape. Standing up, he rubbed brutally at his eyes, 'I ain't gonna sit here and cry like a scared baby.' He crept to the empty doorway, the wind pulling greedily at him as he stepped from the shelter. Leaning against the outside of the stone soddy, he looked up at the clouds rushing by. They were bright silver against the dark sky. Their speedy flight made him feel like he was underwater and, watching them, he thought, 'If only I would grow, Han's so much taller than me. If I was his size, we could both get good jobs. We'd have food and somewhere warm to sleep."
A loud boom of thunder made him jump. Moving from the old house, he spun looking at the sky, 'there ain't a thunderhead out there.' Another blast rumbled around him, but still he could see no building storm only the ghostly, streaking clouds; when all at once an enormous flash of lightening filled the sky. It lit up the prairie and Jed as bright as day. Squinching his eyes closed, he could see white spots dance across his eyelids and as he stood there with the wind ripping at him, he heard the clang once more. 'What is that?'
Coming around the building, a gust hit him as he emerged, causing him to stumble. "Damn Kansas wind," he growled, picking himself up. Behind the building was rusty trash, broken farm implements, a couple of barrel rings, half of a rotting wagon wheel; each item casting a fluttering shadow in the light of the full moon playing peek-a-boo with the sea of rippling clouds. To his right, he heard the clang, which had awakened him and brought him out walking in the dark. Spinning to his right, he felt he was near. The sky lit up again, causing him to jump, but he saw the cause of the noise, "It's only an old cellar door."
Striding over, he saw the rotted wood had given way to the strength of the wind and now each time it lifted high enough, it would fall back its metal latch clanging on the frame of the lock. "It's just a door," he whispered to himself, feeling gooseflesh rise on his arms as the temperature dropped. The wind swirling about him abruptly felt cold and the thunder more constant, surrounding him, enveloping him with its drumbeat. That was when he noticed how the tall buffalo grass was spread out like a giant was blowing on it from above. Seeing it so made him feel anxious, but, then the wind shifted directions coming back to hit him straight in the face as lightening erupted so near, that he felt his hair rise up.
Breaking into a trot, he headed back to the sheltering stone soddy he'd emerged from, the wind changing again, blowing straight down on him. Small pellets of ice dumped from the sky like an upturned bucket. Darting into the shelter, he saw his cousin was proving how tired he was, by sleeping through all-of-the racket around him. Cold, Jed wrapped his skinny arms about his body. Shivering, he watched the hail pelt down; a crease deepening in his forehead as he did. 'What a strange storm.' But then the wind stopped, stopped like God had turned off a valve in sky. He stepped out, the hail had stopped, the clouds were there, but the wind was gone and then he could hear his parents speaking about a storm like this, he could hear them in his mind as clearly as if they were beside him, and he inhaled deeply. "HAN, wake up!"
Hannibal leapt from the ground instantly as if he had never been asleep, his stance saying to the world he was ready to battle. Seeing no one, he turned on Jed, a snarl rising to his lip, "What the hell?"
Rushing over, Jed latched hold of his arm. "TWISTER! Come On!"
"What? Where?" Hannibal yelped, but he was already running, following Jed into the still night that was crackling with energy. Lightening lit up their world, he could clearly see where Jed was taking them, and he layed on the brakes.
"Han?"
Hannibal pulled free. A breeze was rippling the grass, growing in strength. It crawled up his legs, billowing his shirt and looking up himself, he saw the clouds being devoured by one large, ever-expanding misshapened cloud. He turned to see, Jed's curls being whipped every which way. Small detritus was swirling, twisting upward around the pair of them. He knew they should dive into the cellar but not without their gear. 'I've worked too hard to attain what little we have and even if we survive this storm, we won't survive without our gear afterwards.' Shaking his head at Jed, Hannibal spun sprinting for all he was worth for the squat building. He could hear Jed behind him, wanted to tell him to get to cover but there was no time. Swinging into the vacant stone soddy, he snagged up his gun belt, their hats, and the poke sack. He saw Jed grabbing the canteens and blankets. Then they were barreling back into the over-charged night, a roar like a stampede deafening them. Hannibal saw Jed turn and veered toward him screaming, "Don't look – RUN!" Sticks, clods of dirt, bits of rotted wood were rolling, twirling, flying past them. "Damn it Kid, run…RUN."
Jed was ahead of him, outdistancing him, and throwing back the broken cellar door, one blanket escaping his grip, to fly away, flapping grotesquely in the air like some broken animal, hovering above Jed before whipping upwards, disappearing into the roaring demon over them.
"Come on, Han!" Jed wailed even as Hannibal leapt forward throwing both of them rolling, falling into the gaping abyss to tangle together with their belongings; landing in a jarring heap at the bottom.
The door was whacking back in forth, the clanging metal sparking from the intensity of the blows like some insane blacksmith at work. Above, the leviathan, stretching across the sky screamed primordially, ripping the stone soddy apart, sucking the rotten wagon wheel into its gullet. The twister was cutting furrows in the abandon yard as it writhed here and there, inhaling the grass and trees before moving on across the open prairie; taking its deafening, howling cry with it and leaving behind a blanket of rain to cover its destruction. The cellar door fell closed causing the rain to deluge down in roiling waterfalls.
"Damnation," Jed gasped.
Hannibal smiled, "You can say that again."
"Damnation," Jed responded, more firmly.
Hannibal's laugh filled the hole they sat in. Pulling himself free, he stood to climb tentatively up the angled ladder. Shoving the heavy door open, he felt grateful the door was no longer new, for even now it was awfully heavy. He felt twice as impressed that Jed had been able to throw it open so easily. The rain poured in on them, and climbing out, he could see the faint glow of dawn's light on the eastern horizon. Walking out a few steps, he stumbled over a clump of mud. Bewildered, he looked closer and then backed up realizing it was what little remained of the stone soddy that had been sheltering them.
"Good God Almighty."
Hearing Jed, Hannibal ran back to him grabbing him in a huge bear hug. "You saved us, partner, you did it." Letting him go, he punched Jed in the shoulder.
Jed Curry's smile was so large that his blue eyes all but disappeared.
Hannibal walked along one of the deep scars dug into the landscape as the purple light of dawn illuminated the destruction left behind. "Kid, we'd be dead, if not for you."
"You would have done the same."
"Course I would've, but I was asleep. Thankfully, you were on guard." He dropped an arm about his cousin's narrow shoulder. "Sure am glad though that we two were the only ones cowering in that cellar."
"What's cowering mean?"
"Uhm. . . to hunker down all scared."
"Oh," Jed quirked a grin, "I'm happy we were alone, too. But when you tell this story. . . later," he pulled out from under Hannibal's arm to look him square in the eyes, "you make sure to remember you were cowering, too."
Hannibal's smile increased. "Hell, Kid, I was planning on making both of us sound real brave, but if you prefer us scared and all, I suppose, I can manage that, too."
An easy smile played at the corners of Jed's mouth. "No, Han, I like your version better."
"Well, anything you say partner, seeing as how you saved us both. Now let's get our gear and clear out of here." He looked up, his dark eyes blinking into the brightening sky; "Seems the rain is moving on too."
Jed searched the area around them, "So where too?"
"On to Colorado just like we've been heading. Remember there is gold in them hills and I aim to find us some; especially since I don't plan on spending very many more nights like this one, ever again."
Jed laughed. "Agreed Han, agreed."