Hello again thanks for the reviews.
Lord Pata: Alright, I really was waiting for this sequel, I'm sure it's gonna be as good as Chasing the perfect storm is, keep it up!
xxnewmikexx: great story so far i love it ihope you update soon just finished reading the prequel to this story and i loved it.
Romance Man: Hi me again loving so much. Update soon.
Disclaimer Don't own Digimon or the painting "1991 Halloween Mega Storm" by Les C. Kouba
Ch. 3 Meal of Similarities
(2 days later)
Walking in form the parking lot early on Wednesday morning the air was crisp form a hard frost from the night before. Getting to the weather center of the station, TK noticed a note attached to his the side of the screen of the monitor. Pulling tightly, TK took the note and began reading it after it was off the monitor. The handwriting was barely legible chicken scratch. 'Hey TK sorry for blowing up on you on Monday, I guess that the little sleep and stress finally cracked me. Darren'
"I wonder when he got this in here." TK whispered to himself as he glanced at his watch, which was showing about 3:30am. Man I got here early this morning. How early did he get here this morning, if I remember right he took yesterday off. TK thought as slow footsteps began to come from behind him. Gradually the footsteps came to a stop a few feet away behind him. Slowly turning around TK saw Darren standing in front of him with a large mug of coffee. The coffee aroma filled the entire weather center along with a hint of hazelnut.
"Morning TK," Darren said in an exhausted and drawn out voice as he yawned.
"Morning to you to Darren," TK quickly replied before the contagious yawn got to him.
"You're in early for a chance." Darren stated as he took a few sips from the steaming coffee.
"I got to ask you a question." TK said somewhat amused.
"Shoot."
"Don't take offence to this, but do you ever sleep?"
"Looking up at he ceiling of the weather center Darren looked like he was trying to think of a reasonable answer. "Well…" he gave a subtle laugh. "In the last five days I think I've had about 5 hours of shut eye. Hey caffeine does wonders."
Blowing off Darren quick last comment TK just shook his head. "Come on Darren relax for a while, you don't need to run yourself into the ground with this weeks five-day fore…"
"No TK you don't understand," Darren said calmly as he shook his head with a small smile appearing on his face. "When I was a storm chaser and doing my own research, I had worse insomnia than this, much worse. A few months in a row I think I ran on only five hours of sleep, that's including the short one to two minutes naps."
"That's… That's impossible… how could you handle…"
With a smile still stretching across his face, he continued to shake his head. "You know what TK, why don't we talk about this a little later." Then pulling out a small planner he looked briefly at his schedule. "Are you doing anything tonight?"
"I don't think so… why?" TK replied a little confused.
"Just wondering of you and Kari and possibly you're…"
"Digimon?"
"Yea that's right. Digimon would like to come over for a dinner and possibly chat about some different things." Darren asked as he tossed his planner over to his station, while taking another sip from his mug.
"I can ask Kari if she's alright with it, but most likely she'll agree to come over." TK said as he got up and walked over to the break room for a coup of the coffee.
(Later that day)
Pulling up to Darren's house, TK quickly climbed out and opened the passenger side door for Kari. As soon as the door was a few inches open, Patamon and Gatomon quickly scampered out. Then with a somewhat cheesy English accent, TK said, "Help for the lady?" as he took Kari's hand and helped her out of the car.
"That will be all." Kari tried to reply with a similar accent, while trying to keep a straight face, as TK shut the door behind them.
Walking up to the door through a long cement sidewalk, the house was fairly good size, with a dark green aluminum siding. The entryway had a nice long and wide overhang that faced to the west. The size of it made it easy for a group of people to sit outside. Reaching the door one thing kept catching Kari's ear as a simple breeze blew. Looking around Kari finally found what was making the numerous little chimes and sounds. Wind chimes lined all around the side walk on the left side along with numerous random spots in the lawn.
"What's with all the different wind chimes?" Gatomon stated as she climbed up a pole to one of them and began batted at it.
"Gatomon!" TK said as he lifted her from the pole.
"I never knew that there were so many different types of wind chimes." Kari whispered into TK's ear as he rang the doorbell. Some shuffling and noise began coming from the house.
"Same here," TK answered as the door opened.
"O, hello TK, and Kari." Darren said as appeared in the doorway.
"A hum," Patamon and Gatomon coughed as they stood next each other a little behind TK and Kari.
"O sorry… hello Gatomon and Patamon." Darren replied after he noticed them. "Would you like to come in for a while?"
Nodding subtly, TK, Kari and the Digimon walked into the foyer of the house following Darren. The foyer area painted a light sky blue had a brilliant crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. On the walls hung many pictures including one that was a painting of a snowstorm. The scene showed a harvested cornfield with a deer grazing in the foreground. In the background was a barely visible house with a lighted jack O' lantern in the window and a road running between it and the field. Running parallel to the road was a set of wooden power line poles with one snapped off in the middle. In the distance was lighting striking the horizon. On the bottom was the caption '1991 Halloween Mega Storm' with a map of Minnesota including snow totals.
After breaking concentration with the painting TK turned to Darren who was still cleaning up parts of the house. "Where did you get this?" TK said as he pointed to the picture.
"That…? It was given to me when I graduated with my Bachelors degree, by my parents. They bought it a year after the Halloween snow storm of 1991." Darren replied as he finished up on hiding random papers in the upstairs.
"Was the storm really that fierce?" Kari asked as she glanced at the picture then back at Darren.
Shaking his head Darren replied, "It was worse than that." He replied with a composed face. Then glancing out the window above the door a faint light from the horizon still seeped in. "There was white out conditions; the snow plows were not prepped to tackle the amount of snow that fell in the short of amount of time. Six to ten foot drifts, with wind gusts blowing up to 50 plus miles per hour. Everyone in the state was in a stand still. Not a single forecast in the metro area let alone the state itself predicted snow. It took everyone by surprise, the public, state workers, and meteorologists. Duluth was hardest hit… with 36 inches, 3 feet total of snow from the 31st to the 2nd. I was younger when it struck but all the events of 1991 including a tornado earlier in the year near my house and that bizarre Halloween it mostly persuaded me into this career. Do you care for something to eat?"
"Food!" Patamon and Gatomon shouted as they charged upstairs past TK and Kari and into the dinning area where a table was set. Following they're Digimon TK and Kari slowly walked up the staircase and into the large upstairs of the house. Painted a similar color even more photos and paintings lined the walls. Most of the pictures consisted with some type of weather; from snow to rain and wind, almost every type of element dealing with meteorology was on the walls.
The dinning table was cover with different types of foods ranging in all different flavors and colors. After everyone sat down, Darren began serving everyone.
"What's with the wind chimes?" Gatomon bluntly asked after she finished the main course starting up a conversation after a mostly quite meal.
"Gatomon!" Kari exclaimed at Gatomon's sassy comment.
"Don't worry Kari, I get asked that all the time by my neighbors and other friends. For me it's a way for me to connect with nature and the weather besides looking at images on the screen of a computer. As the wind blows through the chimes, it makes subtle music to my ears. Anyway is anyone up for some homemade raspberry mango cheesecake?" Darren asked as he got up from the table.
"Sure." TK and the Digimon replied.
Then turning to Kari, Darren asked, "You want any?"
"No I'm fine, the food was excellent though." She replied wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"OK, three cheesecakes." He said as he walked back into the kitchen.
Tuning to Kari, TK whispered, "I can't believe this, he's got a masters, lives with almost no sleep, cooks like a professional chef and keeps this house in almost perfect shape. If I remember right, I think he's still single."
Kari just looked at him. "You're kidding?" She whispered back shocked to hear that.
Looking around the room a trophy was in the corner with a picture along side of it. "What's that?" TK whispered to Kari while pointing to the trophy as Darren walked back into the room.
"TK, you're wondering what that is." Darren asked as he set the three pieces of cheesecake on the table in front of Patamon, Gatomon and TK.
"Yea… what's the trophy from." Patamon squeaked before diving into the large piece of cheesecake in front of him.
"That's from a road bike race I entered in years back."
"You used to race bikes?" TK said stunned, as he looked surprised at he fellow coworker.
"I don't race anymore, but road bikes are still an active pastime of mine. Weather can't consume all of my life; it just consumes a fair majority of it." Darren stated as he took a sip from his water glass.
"I'm sorry for bring up work, but why are you predicting snow of Friday?" TK asked, as he tasted the orange and maroon colored cheesecake.
"The trends from 1991 are too similar to this year. It was an above normal August with a drought with it beginning to rain in September but temperatures stayed the same all the way through October. The leaves were still green around this time of year, like this year. There is a good chance that a cold front that could spawn another storm similar on the Atlantic in 1991 will creep down here again on Halloween or possibly tomorrow. What might help form the storm is this year is; a left over of a hurricane coming from the southeast. With warm humid air from the south; large and dry low cold front from Canada could trigger the exact conditions to recreate the 1991 Halloween blizzard." Darren replied as he got up from the table and picked up the empty dishes.
"You still remember all of those factors?" Gatomon said as she wolfed down the remaining piece of cheesecake.
"Most of them, I was young when it happened, but luckily some other people did take observations of what happened those days." He commented picking up the last few dishes on the table. "So TK did you hear anything about what's happening with the production of the set."
"All I heard is they are going to shoot the theater scene and the mall scene in a studio just to the east of the cities. That and they want the four of us to be there tomorrow."
"Sound good, at least they're starting somewhat early. Don't worry about someone covering at the station I can handle it. Go and have fun at the shoot, for what you all endured it should be a piece of cake." Darren commented while walking over to a small weather station mounted on the wall. Marking something on a piece of paper next to it, a serious look came over him for a moment before he walked back over to the table. "Good luck tomorrow, I hoped you liked the meal."
Then getting up from the table TK and Kari slowly made their way back to car. "The meal was excellent, thanks Darren." TK said as he opened the door and a warm blast of air filled the house.
I know this was a little random butthe info on the 1991 Halloween blizzardis based on what littlestatistics are out there on it and personal experience. Please Review.
FocusR.