Pip couldn't believe how hard this trip into town had been. She had made the mistake of going with Spot and Calyx. The two of them had spent the entire trip to town and back fighting. Or rather Spot had attempted to flirt with Calyx and she had responded with biting remarks about his parentage among other things. Pip had just wanted to kill both of them by the time she had stepped into the house.
Calyx had seemed to be tired out from the trip and had gone to take a nap. Pip decided avoiding her sister in law was the best course of action and had gone to the kitchen in search of something quick to eat. She was surprised to find Trish and Helen in the kitchen laughing about something. "Afternoon girls." Pip said as ask began rummaging in the pantry for something to eat.
"Hello Pip you have a good trip to town?" Helen asked.
"As good of a trip as one would expect with Spot and Calyx for company." Pip shrugged.
Trish gave her a sympathetic look, "Did they fight the entire time?"
"The entire time and them some, I wish they would just either divorce or start being married." Pi p said fervently. "They are very annoying. So what happened around here while we were gone?"
"Well Deputy Davis came by, he was looking for you I think." Helen said casually.
Pip's head whipped around, "Why was he looking for me?"
"He didn't say, but he was disappointed to hear you were in town, I guess he had just come from there." Helen said with a shrug.
"Oh and the one of the guys left some milk on the porch again, in a mug. It made Anne blush." Trish said with a smile.
"That reminds me, we had some letters in the post. Trish got one, and so did you Helen." Pip reached into her waistband and pulled out the letters. "There is also one for Anne. You know where she is?"
"I think she said something about the garden earlier." Helen said distractedly as she opened her letter and began reading.
Pip nodded and went out the door, "Thanks, enjoy your letters." She said over her shoulder.
She walked toward the door before it hit her, "Where are the guys?"
"Well when Deputy Davis came by he mentioned he was going to need some help around his ranch tomorrow so the guys are getting their stuff together. He said he would be back by after dinner to see who all was going to be coming over. The guys were all pretty excited." Trish said as looked up from her letter.
"Alright I guess I'll go get cleaned up, what was the plan for dinner anyway?"
"Well depends on what you brought back from town." Helen said as she put her letter away.
"Some of the staples, coffee, flour, sugar that sort and some tomato soup, it looked interesting and a nice change from what we usually eat."
"Tomato soup? Who would eat tomato soup, tomatoes are gross." Trish said wrinkling her nose.
"Well it is what we're having for dinner I'll cut some meat into it and there is some bread left from yesterday it will be better than you think." Helen said with a smile, "Or we could always make more mush."
Trish blushed and shook her head, "No I guess tomato soup is fine." She left the kitchen hurriedly.
Pip watched her go amazed, "What was that about?"
"Oh she just has a not so tiny crush on Mush. You didn't notice?" Helen asked with a laugh.
"No I guess not," Pip smiled slightly.
"I am not surprised, your head is in the clouds because of that Deputy." Helen teased.
"Oh and who has got you all starry eyed." Pip teased back.
"No one around here that is for sure." Helen said dismissively. "I am still planning to take the first train out of here that I can afford."
"You know we would miss you around here." Pip said causally. "Especially Skittery."
"Why would I care," Helen said a bit flustered.
Pip just smirked, "I can't think of one reason why." She said as she left the kitchen and went up to lay down on her bed, suddenly she felt like she could really use a nap.
It was a beautiful day, Trish couldn't help but appreciate that as she walked in the general direction of Deputy Davis's ranch. She hadn't told Helen or Pip she was going but they could have figured that out on their own. She just needed some time to herself, time to sort out the things that had been going on the last few weeks. First off there was the teasing she had been receiving ever since she had stood up for the guys at the beginning of the prank war. Oh they weren't mean about it but every so often a comment would slip out. It was a different guy every week and most of the time Trish prided herself on being about to laugh off the other girls comments. But this week they had hit a bit too close to home.
She really didn't have a problem with any of the guys to be honest. She had answered the advertisement with her eyes wide open. Yes she might have been a bit idealistic but really who isn't when they are thinking about getting married. But she hadn't really clicked with the guy who had written her. Bumlets was okay as a friend, he was nice enough to her she guessed but she had fallen hard for Mush Jenkins instead. He was adorable and he was so positive, which was a definite change from most of the guys who seemed to be quite cynical about life in general. Mush always seemed to find the best in a situation.
She thought about to right after the prank war ended she had made the mistake of going into the barn to collect eggs earlier than usual. Her first tip that she shouldn't have been there was the fact that most of the guys were still snoring away. The key being most for Mush had been standing with his back to her, getting dressed. Trish had tried to get out of the barn as quietly as possible, but had ended up tripping over her own to feet. Her falling had made Mush turn quickly and Trish didn't think she could have been more embarrassed if she had tried. She had been caught staring, but Mush made her feel less awkward by helping her up and offering to help her gather eggs.
He didn't tease her about the situation like the other girls had after she came in blushing as red as possible. He was always around to help her if she needed and well he was cute, very cute. Trish smiled to herself, and he was very nice looking even with his shirt off. A crack of thunder caused Trish to look around her. The sky had grown very dark and stormy since she had left the farm. The ominous grey/black clouds that seemed to occur anytime a storm rolled through had replaced the blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
As Trish turned to start back to the farm it dawned on her she had no clue where she was. The seemingly flat grassland stretched on with no familiar landmarks visible. She couldn't see either the farmhouse or the bigger barn anywhere. She had wandered a lot further than she had realized. A bolt of lightening flashed from cloud to cloud, causing Trish to look up. These clouds looked different some how from previous storms. They were moving in all directions, almost as if they were a boiling pot of water. They would race one direction of less then a minute then turn around and race the other.
The air around her seemed almost stiff, suffocating. There wasn't a sound being made besides the wind rustling the tall grass. Not a cow's moo or a single bird song or even the incessant whine of flies. There was something very wrong and Trish began to get very nervous. She started walking quickly back the way she had come hoping that the house or barn would appear on the horizon if she walked long enough.
A rumble of thunder made Trish run, her nerves starting to get the best of her. What if Pip or Helen hadn't noticed she was gone? What if they assumed that she had gone to the barn and was in the hayloft or in an empty stall pouting? Would anyone have noticed she was missing? Or was she going to be destined to be lost in this storm?
Rain began falling hard and fast, and in no time Trish was soaked to the skin. It made running difficult but as lightening continued to strike Trish kept running, hoping against hope that she would make it home before she got hurt, or worse killed by the lightening. One lightening bolt hit particularly close causing Trish's arm hair to stand on end and her to scream. She dropped down to the ground and huddled up into a ball. She was truly scared now this entire situation was worse than she had thought. She hated rain and she hated storms even more and now she was caught outside in the middle of an especially evil one.
Trish didn't know how long she sat crouched in a ball but the wind change caused her to look up. Immediately she began wishing she hadn't, the sky had turned a sickly green color and the air had become even more still, as the rain had stopped falling. She heard a voice yelling her name and stood up. "I'm over here." She yelled as loud as possible.
Mush came up behind her and pulled her down to the ground. "Get down." He yelled pulling her under his body. Trish was speechless as the ground began to shake. A noise like a train rumble was getting closer and Trish could feel Mush's heart beginning to race. As the train came even closer the wind began whipping around the two as they couched in a shallow gully. Trish could hear Mush mumbling under his breath but she couldn't figure out what he was saying. Suddenly the train was almost on top of them, Trish felt like she was being lifted up, though she was right on the ground with Mush on top of her. Just as suddenly the train moved on and all was still.
The two of them lay there a few minutes longer. Trish tried to wiggle out from under Mush but he hissed, "Stop you don't know it ain't gonna come back."
"What's gonna come back?" Trish asked irritability, for Mush outweighed her by quite a bit and he was getting heavy.
"The twister." Mush said simply. He was silent for a minute then rolled off Trish and sat up.
Trish sat up also and looked at him curiously. "What's a twister?"
"The thing that almost sucked us up into the air. That's a twister." Mush said as he stood up to survey the damage. He reached out a hand to help Trish stand.
She blinked in surprise at the scene; there was no grass for almost a quarter mile to her right and left. In front and behind her was a path of dirt that seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. "What caused all the grass to be torn up?" She asked.
"The twister, come on we better get back to the farm. See what kind of damage they got." Mush began walking off in a direction that Trish knew didn't lead to the farm.
"The farm's in that direction." She said pointed to where she knew it to be.
"No you got lost. The farm is this way and the way you were headed would have landed you in Mexico if you had kept going." Mush said simply.
"I wasn't lost. I knew exactly where I was." Trish said angrily as she followed Mush.
"You were really lost, we got back to the farm not long before the storm started. Pip and Helen were frantic because you weren't with us. So everyone started looking for you. Which reminds me." Mush stopped and took out a gun from behind his back. He shot one bullet into the air. Trish looked at him confused. And Mush answered her unvoiced question, "I had to let everyone know you've been found. Let's get going."
"What if you had found me hurt?" Trish asked after they had been walking for a few minutes.
Mush shrugged, "I would have fired twice and then waited for someone else to show up. Then we would have taken you back to the house and done our best to get you better."
"Oh" They walked in silence until the farmhouse was in sight. Trish stopped and Mush halted a few feet in front of her. "Now what?"
Trish shrugged then gave Mush a quick hug. "Thanks for coming to look for me."
Mush wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "You're welcome. I'm just glad I found you in one piece."
Trish nodded, "Me too." They broke apart and continued their walk to the house. Trish was soon surrounded by the girls who ushered her into the house and talked a mile a minute about having to huddle in the cellar and listening to the tornado pass by the farm by less than a mile. No one seemed to notice that Trish wasn't really talking. And soon she was in bed and fast asleep.
The guys on the other hand took Mush to the barn and sat around waiting for him to tell them what had happened. "I found her about a mile west of here, just before the tornado hit. I'm lucky I found her. She was headed south thinking she could get back here that way." Mush explained.
"She could have ended up walking all the way to Mexico if she had been going, never seeing a homestead between here and there." Sam Davis said disbelievingly.
"I know." Mush said simply.
"How close was the twister?" Jack asked.
Mush rubbed his hand over his hair. "Went right over us. I hope I never have to be out in another one of those storms. I thought we were goners."
"We thought so too when you went running off like that." Race commented. "Didn't think you had the save the world complex that Davis here has."
"I don't, just figured I should have found her before she got herself hurt." Mush said with a shrug. The other guys exchanged looks and fell silent.
Chaney finally broke the awkward moment. "So anyone got anything to drink in honor of our hero?" Race pulled out a bottle of beer he had stashed away. The guys each took a swig and passed it around in honor of Mush and his heroic save. They would all tease him about it later, after the fear of the moment had passed. Who could pass up moment to tease a guy about rushing off to save a girl? Especially when it was a girl that if you teased him about her, his ears turned red. But the teasing could wait they were all going to drink to celebrate that they had all made it though a tornado alive.
A/N: Well I have done a small re-write, uploaded the corrected document and figured no one is going to notice what I changed besides adding back in the "girls" that were missing. It was pointed out that only a mile from the homestead Trish would have been able to see the house, I guess I goofed but I'll just say it was raining really hard in the direction of the farm and the falling rain blocked her visiblity that way. I do know that it rains awful hard around where I live so that you can't see the first parking stalls from the doors of the mall so it's possible. Just go with me here please?
