As of May 22, exactly nine years ago, the city of Joplin, Missouri suffered a devastating EF5 tornado that left in its aftermath damaged residential neighborhoods and commercial buildings. Worst of all, it killed 158 people and injured thousands more. In the days after that event, severe storms would plague Joplin, killing several more people, leaving a total of 161 people. I think that this is an event that we often forget about. So I dedicate the following story to the 161 victims of the Joplin tornado.
BLOWN AWAY
It was a peaceful evening on Seaside Island, and as the sun was setting, waves from the ocean were crashing peacefully onto the beach. Trees and bushes were swaying calmly in the wonderful cool breezes of the wind. However, in Hedgehog Village, the townspeople were unusually silent as they were reflecting on a horrible event in history, and sure enough, they knew what happened on this particular day in the month of May. Today, nobody seemed to not want to talk to anyone about anything more than the fact that on this one day exactly nine years ago, the city of Joplin, Missouri was struck by a horrifying EF5 tornado.
Team Sonic was nowhere to be found, which was to the villagers, a little bit odd. They would always count on the team to protect and save them from Dr. Eggman and his robots and not let Eggman destroy the village. And on this day, not even Dr. Eggman himself didn't seem to want to attack and terrify the townspeople, which was also unusual for the village. In fact Eggman was at his Island Fortress sitting in silence,as he too was also reflecting on this one day in particular. He knew that if he attacked the village, that would have been rude and offensive of him. So out of respect and remembrance, Dr. Eggman decided to remain in his lair and reflect on what had happened to Joplin on this day, nine years ago.
Elsewhere, in Amy's house, four friends were just setting down on a couch also reflecting on all that had to Joplin nine years ago. On the couch sitting down were; a blue hedgehog, a red echidna, and a two-tailed yellow fox. And of course, both you and I know who these familiar characters were; Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. Sonic had done nothing other than just take a short run through the jungle. Knuckles didn't seem to want to work out, as that was one of his favorite hobbies. Tails, on the other hand, was not feeling at all like his normal enthusiastic self. Earlier that morning he had woken up only to look at his calendar and see today's date, he knew that the month was May, but when he looked at the date on the calendar, he saw that it was May 22, he wept only to have Sonic come over to his house and comfort him.
But now that it was evening, the three boys had promised Amy that they would spend the rest of the day with her. Sticks, on the other hand, hadn't been seen by either the team nor by the villagers. She had went to the other side of the island to work on a special project. And that project was laying down 161 rocks in a certain order in remembrance of the 161 victims of the Joplin tornado. But now, she had just came back to Amy's house and as she walked in the door she noticed that she smelled food cooking in the kitchen. Amy immediately greeted Sticks. "Did you get your project done the way you wanted it?" Amy asked. "Yeah I did, you all should maybe come on out and take a look at it this evening when you all get the chance," Sticks said, "and where's Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles at?" Amy told Sticks where the boys were at, so Sticks went to greet her fellow teammates.
Later that evening...
Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were back at Amy's house and were surprised to see Sticks with Amy, who just got done with cooking dinner for the team. "So how was your day, Sonic?" Amy asked. "Well, first, I noticed that the Lightning Bolt Society didn't want to do anything bad today. Maybe this day got to them as well? Just my theory or something." Sonic replied. "Then I had Tails take both him and I over to Eggman's lair. I knocked on the door about five times, it's like he didn't even answer the door." Amy was a little bit surprised to know that both Eggman and the Lightning Bolt Society didn't even seem to want to attack Team Sonic or terrorize Hedgehog Village. "I wonder how today has took a hold of Shadow?" Tails asked, "then again, I haven't even seen him in weeks." Sonic had thought about that almost all day as well, and for sure, he probably didn't want to find out. "I wouldn't be surprised if he came to this part of the island." Knuckles said, however at that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Who's there?" Amy asked, and for a answer, the person at the door replied, "it's Shadow." Everybody jumped up in dismay at the fact that Shadow was that person. "Well... come on...in..I...guess." Amy said as she opened the door for Shadow.
"Sorry about the disturbance. I know that you all probably didn't want to see me today." Shadow said.
"Actually you're wrong about that," Sonic said, "Tails just got done telling us that he was wondering if today took a toll on you."
"So what are you implying?" The dark-colored hedgehog asked.
"What are you infuring?" Sonic asked Shadow.
"That you all expected me to come over after all." Shadow said.
"Well... that's not exactly the case...uh..I mean that...do you even know what day it is?" Tails said.
"It's Friday, May, 22 to be exact." Shadow replied.
"And do you know what happened on this day nine years ago?" Tails asked.
"Probably something to do with you and Sonic?"
"No! If you don't remember, the city of Joplin, Missouri got hit by a devastating tornado...!" Tails yelled, with a little bit of emotion in his voice.
Sonic and the rest of the team looked at Tails in total dismay. The fox had a tear roll down his face as he looked up at his friends.
"Well, I'm sorry if today took a heavy toll on you." Shadow said, " totally forgot about that."
"It's ok, sorry for yelling at you. Ever since the day I found out about the fact that Joplin was hit by that tornado, I've been a little emotional about this day in particular." Tails said as another tear rolled down his face.
"Fact is, it's like my heart goes out to the families of the 161 victims of the disaster, and every year, especially on this day, it takes a heavy toll on me emotionally."
Sonic got up from where he was sitting at and walked over to Tails was sitting at and wrapped a arm around his little fox brother.
"This day gets to me too." The blue hedgehog said. "I remember the first time I found out about the tornado hitting Joplin. At first, I was in total disbelief that it even happened."
"I gonna ask you this one question," Shadow said, "who was the first one to find out about that?"
"Actually surprisingly, it was Knuckles." Amy replied, "but at first, everyone thought that he was being senseless as usual."
Shadow took his gaze off of Amy and looked at Knuckles, "I'm actually surprised about that," he said.
"I wonder what time it is?" Knuckles said.
Sticks looked up at the clock. The time read 5:34 PM, "eh, you wanna know what time it is?" She asked.
"What does the clock say what time it is?" Amy said.
"It's 5:34 PM." Sticks replied. And as soon as Sticks had said that, Tails looked up at the clock and seen what time it was. As soon as he took his gaze off the clock, he looked at her. Sticks thought that she seen another tear roll down the fox's face.
"That's the time wh.. the tornado formed and touched down..." Tails said, and with that, the fox started to cry.
"Oh, didn't think about that," Knuckles said as he seen his young friend crying, the echidna got up out of his seat and sat where Sonic and Tails were sitting at.
"Every single year ever since that day, you all have been reflecting on this particular date, huh?" Shadow asked. Amy answered his question, "it's like a little traditional thing, yeah."
Tails continued crying as Sonic leaned the fox's head into his chest. "I'm gonna get us something to eat." Amy said as she got out of her seat. The pink hedgehog left the room and went into the kitchen. The real reason she left the room was because every time she seen Tails crying over something terrible like what had happened to Joplin, that made her feel like she also wanted to cry, not that she didn't blame Tails or anything, in fact, on days like today, the two-tailed fox had every right to. Amy still heard the fox crying as she put two loaves of bread onto a tray and put it in the oven. She was about to leave the kitchen when she heard a knock on the back door. Amy quickly rushed to the door and opened it. The person who was right there was none other than Zooey. Right behind the yellow vixen was a light purple bandicoot.
"Well girls, you all are more than welcome to come in," Amy said.
"We appreciate the offer." Perci said, "Our coming over was actually Zooey's idea."
"We thought that the rest of your friends were over here too." Zooey said.
"You got that right," Amy said.
"Let me guess, Tails is here too, right?" Zooey asked.
"He's here," Amy answered, "but he's a little shaken up."
"Oh, I know what you mean," Perci said, "is that him crying?"
Amy didn't say anything at first but rather looked toward the direction of her living room, "yeah, that's him crying."
"This day really gets to him, doesn't it?" Perci asked Amy.
"The day that we found out about this tragic event, Tails totally went emotional." Amy replied to Perci's question.
The oven ticked, indicating that Amy's bread loaves were done.
"You guys came just in time for some delicious garlic parmesan bread." Amy said as she pulled the tray full of bread out of her oven.
She grabbed out a bread knife and started cutting the bread into slices. At that moment, Sonic entered the kitchen and was surprised to see that both Zooey and Perci were here.
"Totally didn't expect you all to be here," Sonic said, "but then again, I'm glad you all showed up."
"Can I go and see Tails? Or is he still in his...well... emotional state?" Zooey asked.
"Eh, well, actually, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks just left for the jungle," Sonic said, "Sticks said that they were leaving to go see some project that she worked on earlier today."
Amy knew immediately what Sonic was talking about, for Sticks had told her.
"Well they left, then we all could join up with them." Amy said.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Perci said.
"Not trying to be rude or anything, but I couldn't help but notice that Shadow was here too, is that right?" Zooey asked.
"Yeah, he was here, but he said that when he left, he wasn't going to be with us for Sticks' little project'," Sonic said, "he told me that on his way here he took a look at her project and said that it actually was pretty impressive."
"Wait, Shadow actually said that Sticks' project was impressive?" Amy said, "that is unusual for him to say something like that."
That night...
Sonic, Amy, Zooey, and Perci joined up with Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks in the jungle to take a look at what Sticks had been doing most of the day. Tails was shocked to see Zooey, and she was as shocked as he was to see him. Zooey could tell that Tails had been crying most of the time that he was here. Sonic couldn't help but notice that his little fox brother had been crying too.
"Oh, about him crying, it wasn't that bad," Knuckles told the blue hedgehog.
Tails looked up at Knuckles and gave him a weak smile. Sonic walked over to the 8-year-old fox and gave him a hug, "I don't blame you, it's been a tough day for us all." Sonic whispered into Tails's ear. The hedgehog continued hugging Tails.
"You guys ready to see my project," Sticks asked, " I wouldn't say that it isn't the best looking thing, but I thought that it was worth it."
"Well then, what are we waiting for, let's go." Amy said.
Sticks led her friends to where her project was at. As soon as they got there, the team was blown away by the fact that her project was actually pretty impressive. There were rocks piled on top of each other, like the biggest rocks were at the bottom of each pile. And as if for the small ones, they were at the top of each pile. There were a total of 161 rock piles. But that wasn't the most impressive thing about her project, for in the middle of the piles of rocks was a little round water hole which shone like a clear crystal, and there were little lines which led to the rock piles, and inside these lines were the crystal clear water.
"You said that this wasn't the best looking thing," Tails said, "this is totally worth all the time and effort you put into it!"
Sticks looked at him and gave him a smile, "so glad you see it that way," she told him.
"Let me guess, the 161 rock piles are supposed to represent the 161 victims of the Joplin tornado?," Sonic asked Sticks.
"You got that right," the badger replied. Sonic took a look at Tails, who now had tears rolling down his face. Sticks glanced at the fox and noticed the tears too.
"I hope that I didn't do anything that made you cry...eh.. you know what I mean, right?" Sticks asked.
"No, this is just... beautiful.. what... you...did, you totally went out of your way to make this happen. It's beautiful and that's the reason why I'm crying." Tails said as tears continued to roll down his face. "161 rock piles and 161 victims, totally makes sense."
Sticks smiled again and noticed that she had a tear roll down her face. Amy, Zooey, and Perci started placing flowers on top of the piles of rocks and as they did so, tears started rolling down their faces too. Soon the boys started doing the same thing, but it wasn't flowers that they were putting on top of the piles, rather instead, it was pieces of a shattered crystal that Shadow gave Knuckles while they were back at Amy's house.
As soon as they got done with doing that, the team sat down on the ground looked up at the project that Sticks worked on.
"Gotta admit, me crying as placed my share of the shattered crystal totally got the emotion out of me," Tails said as he gave his friends a smile, "maybe I was thinking that we could spend the night out here, if you all don't mind?"
"That sounds like a good idea to me." Knuckles said.
"For once, you actually made sense Knuckles," Perci said, "I was just thinking the same thing that Tails was thinking."
"Then what are we waiting for, let's get some rest." Sonic said.
And they did exactly that. Today might of gone a little emotional for everyone, but at the end of the day, everyone was happy with Sticks's project that she so took the time for to work on.
But before everybody went to sleep, Sonic and Tails had them listen to a song that was actually one of Tails's favorite songs.
It was called, "I Have This Hope" by Tenth Avenue North...
"I Have This Hope"
As I walk this great unknown
Questions come and questions go
Was there purpose for the pain?
Did I cry these tears in vain?
I don't want to live in fear
I want to trust that You are near
Trust Your grace can be seen
In both triumph and tragedy
I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go
But sometimes my faith feels thin
Like the night will never end
Will You catch every tear
Or will You just leave me here?
But I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go
[x2]
So, whatever happens I will not be afraid
Cause You are closer than this breath that I take
You calm the storm when I hear You call my name
I still believe that one day I'll see Your face
And I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me
I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go
[x2]
Let us not forget about what happened to Joplin, Missouri as of May 22 (which is this Friday), may we remember the 161 victims whose lives were lost that day.
And by the way, I do not own the rights to the song, "I Have This Hope" by Tenth Avenue North.
Publishing:|© 2016 No Alibis Publishing (adm. by Fun Attic Music, LLC) (SESAC)/Fellow Ships Music (SESAC)/So Essential Tunes (SESAC) (adm. at )/LMNOPublishing (adm. by Fun Attic Music, LLC) (SESAC)
Writer(s): | Mike Donehey, Jason Ingram, Jeff Owen