"What's with the MSI?" Cassandra teased from the worn-out driver's side of the Ford. "No more Thinkpads?" The visual of previous memories came to mind, his fingertip bustling across the red TrackPoint while yammering on about everything and nothing at all. Oh, how times changed. The cloud of youth lapsed in a blink and now the two of them sat in the same cabin with hardly an hour's worth of conversation between them in years.
"Leveled up. Team perk. " The military paid well, sure, but videos provided much-needed tax write-off opportunities. "You could get one too, you know. You still play the Sims? This could beast out on that," Javi grinned to rub in the somewhat embarrassing revelation.
Green eyes curved to meet his profile, glancing from the side without adjusting her facial position from the road. " The Sims? " She snorted. "No. I have a 401k and an IRA." Not to mention the third one made her computer sound like a NASA launch. "Got bored of making people swim to death, I guess."
Javi shook his head, catching the distant sight of a truck behind them. Sweet mercy, they were pulling up ahead of schedule. "Sounds like you…" He trailed off, now half in and half out of the conversation.
Trees in the distance oscillated in song along the skyline. A flurry of painted green against darkening blue hues.
9 minutes later Cassandra's eyes kept a clear visual through the windshield. Somehow the years that spanned in their time apart hadn't resulted in a thick valley between them. Looking at him then, it was almost as if no time had passed.
Javier sat in the passenger side, laptop open in preparation for Cassie's mark. "Wind's up to 40," he noted and let his eyes dial in. "What's our speed?"
Her focus flickered to the speedometer. "60 miles and perfectly on the line." Leaning forward, the female counterpart let her head turn to take in the upper layer of the sky above. "We got plumes coming in from the west." Could indicate a change in course, or a position where the rotation would eventually form. "AACP." They had approximately ten minutes by her own interpretation. Hopefully, winds would settle rather than turn into anything with larger chances of destruction. "We'll keep going straight for now bu-" Shifting back up, her irises caught a truck in the rearview mirror barreling closer.
"Oh fuck…" The blonde muttered, grinding her teeth at the witness of unwanted familiarity as it approached and swerved to take up the adjacent lane.
"Well helloooo gorgeous." Tyler chattered out theatrically, head nodding toward the darkening sky. "She's a beauty, ain't she?" Hazel eyes flashed down, noting the tires covered in dust. "You're not too good at takin' advice, are ya, Corporate?" He yelled across to her. Half bald tires still. Rookie mistake. It made him grimace on the inside.
Cassandra, trying her best to keep her cool and maintain keen focus, ignored his initial baiting. The continued prompting by him, however, did manage to weasel under thick skin and bring out a short reply. "My mother told me never to talk to strangers," she gave a blatantly annoyed smile and rolled the window up inch by inch, cutting him off at the source.
"Strangers? Hell, we're practically family now!" Tyler yelled from the driver's side through the open passenger window and Boone, grinning wide with an expression akin to a madman on steroids, flushed himself back into the seat to offer eye contact between the two. "Don't you ever smile? You look as though someone forced ya' to eat raccoon! What, too much gristle for ya' now that you're in the heat of it?" He called and pressed their vehicles closer, his bumper an inch or two away from kissin' her mud flaps.
Catching the sight of the sealed window, calloused fingers ripped up the CB with a wry grin. "You havin' a good time, Javi? Or do you need rescuin' from your kidnapper? Nod three times if you need help."
Cassandra groaned, lips pressing into disgusted lines as the truck cruised forward. Beeps travelled out of the laptop. "What's that me—" She began, only to be cut off by Javi sinking his sordid thumb down on the push-to-talk.
"AACP coming in hot! Funnel's beginning. We got 50 miles on the uptake," Javi sounded into the handheld.
Green eyes blinked in shock, mouth agape at the blatant treachery of his previous promise.
"Wooo!" Tyler shone from the perfect response. "We're enterin' the Bear's Cage boys!" He shouted with enthusiasm, palm splashing against the roof in a few virtuous taps before glancing back at the others as they joined their little convoy. His large hand gave a tighter grip on the wheel, the other one coming down to offer a joyful response. "Breaker 1-9, we are prepped for tornado landin'." The red highlight from a dashcam simmered until it smoothed out in indication that they were now being recorded.
And right on schedule rain splattered down, pelting the two trucks while they drove side-by-side. The wind grew stronger, gull streaming large lines of precipitation across the windshields.
"Mesocyclone's starting. 600 yards out," Javi spoke as the MSI dinged with further information.
"Javi!" Cassandra barked out, awakened from her stilled state and agitated. "You said no team!" Thin fingers laced around the steering wheel, whitening in concern of keeping control over the Ford. The ring on her nondominant hand pressed into aware skin.
"They're already here," he persuaded. "No team, just sharing data for safety." The computer dinged again. "We have twins. Twin swivels taking the ground!"
"Now I reckon today's a good day to take on a whole pile' a baby 'nados, don't you, Boone?" Tyler grinned across the console to his better half and nodded in front of them.
"I think so, Ty. You want the nursery to be blue or pink?" Boone exclaimed, tongue shooting out while his head shook back and forth and they pushed faster into the descending funnels that appeared to walk the land.
"I'm not much of a bettin' man, but I think they're gonna be girls this time!" Tyler roared and the two of them broke out into excited laughter.
Boone nodded and made his way atop the passenger side window, letting the rain soak his t-shirt as he whipped out powder cannons to shove in the firework shooters at the back window. "Girls it is, boss!"
Noting the way the Wranglers pushed forward with aggression, Cassandra let a bit of steam off the gas and fell behind. "What are they doing?" She inquired. "Javi!" She shouted.
"What? Sorry." Javi glanced up from the swirling rotation on the screen.
"What's that one doing? The guy." Her thumb jetted to point at Boone as he hung out the truck, wind crumpling his thin shirt.
Javi peered across her body and out the driver's side window. "Boone?" He questioned. "He's setting up the fanfare." A dismissive hand was waved in the air between them, born from years of the same witness over and over.
"Fanfa– Shit!" She was about to inquire further when Boone sank back into the neighbouring Dodge and Tyler swerved to take the lead in front of her truck. Cassandra ripped the steering wheel to the right, forcing the two of them into the field while the convoy whizzed past them.
Her tires ground in the mud, sending watered-down dirt and grass spraying back behind the bed. She gave a few more revs but the battle was lost, the twisters played together far ahead as they moved into the horizon and sunshine replaced the darkened sky.
"Damnit!" Forceful hands slammed down onto the wheel before navigating up at her temples, rubbing into the hair and scratching at her scalp. "Great. That's great."
Javi, considering himself to be at least somewhat knowledgeable on women, kept his mouth closed and nodded.
As the Wranglers closed in on the dancing funnels, she opened her truck door and stood outside on the gravel road, one hand up at her eyes to conceal them from the newfound sunshine.
"Now for you miniatures at home, this here is PG-13! Don't go tryin' this without parental supervision. Leave it to the pros!" Tyler called as they entered the dragon's den. "Say Boone, what kinda shower were we havin'?"
"A baby shower!" He replied with gusto.
"Damn right a baby shower, let's get this girl born!" Tyler boasted. "You know what to put in the comments — Pull the trigger, Boonster!"
Canisters shot into the sky at a .45 degree angle. The walking legs ingested, and then, in a strangely beautiful display of man-made art, layers of pink smoke erupted at the sides in wispy plumes.
Cassandra's eyebrows shot up. "Are you fucking kidding me?" They were deranged. Two grown men entering the suck zone without any sense of care or concern. The truck darted out and drove circles around the small swells. It was like watching two teenagers pretending to drag race in a Walmart parking lot at 9pm on a Tuesday.
Carelessness, right down to the bitter core of human natural selection. Her eyes turned into defiant slits. "Fanfare?" Pearly teeth gritted down in contemplation. "Disgusting."
Minutes later the Dodge came bundling down Third Line Road. Tyler caught sight of Javi and Cassandra standing by their lonesome, whomever would have thought such an ending could occur? Certainly not him only an hour prior. "Corporate!" He stopped and hung his arm out of the driver's side, lining himself up to be directly in front of her. "What are ya' doin' over here? Tornadoes are miles back there now!" His hand tapped the faded red paint of the side door. "Need a lift? Could tow both of you's back to Discount Tire? On me."
Satisfied with his own 'I told you so', Tyler turned to peer through the other truck and look at Javi. "You wanna hop in?"
Javi shook his head no and tried his best to suppress a grin. "I'll stay here with Cassie!" He called back.
"Suit yourself, high roller. Not my first bet." Tyler shook his head, clicking his tongue against his teeth. Seconds later the Dodge roared off down the road.
Cassie. Cassandra's mind became entangled in Javi's proclamation. The word tasted vile on her tongue and sounded inauspicious upon entering peaked ears.
Her hands ran over her face and Cassandra turned to climb back into the truck.
INSURANCE DENIALS RISE AMIDST ENVIRONMENTAL CALL-TO-ACTION
The eye-catching headline swayed idly in exhausted hands. Praying the next day would grant her own gas tank full, even with delayed sleep involved, Cassandra sat at a rusted-out picnic bench outside the local motel. By the time the two of them found their way back into the nearest town (after pushing her Ford out of the mud) the hour proved late enough to grant a night away from home.
Splashed out over the worn-down flats of wood lay-alike publications, all rendered across the past two years. Collected on eBay, sent by her mother to the city, paid for in random gas stations…
Each paper maintained the same focus. Growing outrage with miniscule change. Public opinion from 2025 appeared no different than 2027. The only adjustment? Weight. Anger grew with each added instance of destruction. Earthquakes, fires, hurricanes — all disasters hosted one common denominator. The sinner of sir. Capitalism, where the peasants lost and the kings swam in riches built over the dead and the poor.
"Brought you some sweet tea." Javier approached with drinks in hand. "You still drink it, right?" He took a seat across from her, feeling the bench creak beneath his body.
Cassandra looked up, a yellow highlighter flicking absentmindedly onto the opened page in front of her. "Yeah, sometimes," she noted with a pause and reached out to accept the gift. "San Francisco doesn't really… It's not much of a thing there. Not like here." Originally she had gone out of her way on more than one occasion to get the hint of home. Eventually though… all things from Oklahoma sort of… swam away. The instances of her old life were forfeited for new experiences. A transition. A new identity .
"Thanks, Javi," she gave a slight smile and turned back to the articles on the table.
"What are you… reading?" Not that any of it looked much like reading at all. Nah, the layout gave off an 'I'm a detective on a crime scene show' vibe. Things were circled, underlined, and highlighted. Cassie may as well have asked for some red string, would have completed the visual.
"Researching," she fixed. "Sorry… It's… I'm not reading." Her description brought a confused expression across Javi's features and Cassandra sighed.
"Okay, see these two papers?" Exact hands thrust the examples forward to rest beneath his eye line, index finger tapping the left-sided one. "This one is from New Jersey—," she began before the aforementioned digit navigated to the right-hand option. "But this one, this one is from West Virginia." The stationary was repositioned in her hand and the dates were circled to guide his focus. "See that? Same date. The day after Arlington in February last year." Texas, a sobering witness to many.
"New Jersey focuses on the hardship after. West Virginia showcases the month. Nothing about anything else. In fact, barely any info at all." Citizens deserved to be educated, to see the truth behind layers of red tape!
"Red and blue," he hesitated in the conversation, considering they'd hardly talked since she arrived back home. He took a long sip of Dr. Pepper to fill the growing unease inside of him.
"Blue and red," Cassandra confirmed. "These people… they get nothing. " Soft and malleable to the distinct trauma of losing everything, she let out a wavering sigh. "They lose and then… no one talks about it. We're on to the next… big thing, disaster."
"Yeah…" Javi nodded along, taking a closer read of the 'research'. "Desensitized."
She nodded along with him, joining the sombre micro-expressions that he presented. "Desensitized."
"How's it research, though, Cass?" He leaned in, noticing that she hadn't yet taken a sip of her sweet tea. Back in the day, she'd have chugged it before finishing the first sentence. Was she not thirsty? Would Nestea have been better? Or a coffee?
She sighed and glanced off toward the motel for a long moment. "These things matter, Javi. Everything matters. It's proof. It's how the papers get pushed." Her hand tugged the cup up to her lips, throat swallowing a large gulp. "And it's monotonous. But it's what we have. This kinda shit is the only thing we have." Did the truth matter, though? Fat chance. Maybe before the layoffs, the cuts, the lack of care from policy handlers and leaders…
"They don't care about us. Someone has to." She ended and chugged down the liquid, throat expanding to accept a shivering taste of anxious-swallowed sweet tea.
So she did still choke down sugary drinks as if they were going to disappear! A short rise bid of pride entered Javier's stomach until the gravity of the conversation lurched the sensation. "I… don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. It's nice to have someone listen," Cassandra admitted and sat back on the bench, head tilting up to the star-littered evening. They were beautiful. A fool could look up at the constellations and allow themselves to believe that, even for a brief moment, things would get better. The path of no longer having earth could be arranged. That hope distanced itself with each year.
"The tea's good," she eventually offered. The prior topic was dark, she knew. Still, it needed to be said. Change never came from silence.
Javi softened. There she was, in front of him, opening up for the first time since… The best friend in him, the one that ran through swamps and climbed trees with her felt serene. Cassie looked like before aside from a few new wrinkles here and there. Even then, Harding's held an air of warmth.
"I'm glad you came today," he whispered. "I missed you, Cass," he confessed and tried his hardest to catch her gaze.
Cassandra sucked in a harsh breath and attempted to change her gaze, but Javier wiggled himself into her eyeline at every adjustment. "Javi…" Her voice trailed away. "I missed you too, bu–"
"Don't say but, please." Javi piped up, though his timbre remained low and unthreatening. "I haven't gotten to hear that in a long time. Don't say but," he doubled down on the request.
"Okay." Cassandra nodded, understanding the underlying emotion in his eyes.
"I want you to join our team. You did a good job today," he insisted and pointed down to the newspapers. "We need someone that can do this, asks the questions and makes the viewers… aware of the rest. Of the remnants."
"We talked about this…" Her head moved to the tune of a firm 'no', shaking from side to side.
"I know we talked about it, but…" He looked away for a moment before turning back. "Is it because of Tyler and Boone? I'll talk to them I—"
"No, Javi. It's not because of… them."
"Look, I'm sorry for CBing them today. We're just a tight-knit group. I know they don't seem as though they care about safety, but they do and—"
"Javi! Stop!" Cassandra came down with the hammer. "I said no! No team, no… none of that. Today should not have happened. You promised!"
"I know. I know I promised." He agreed, lips pursing while his once dry palms began to sweat in anticipation of what may happen. He could feel it coming in around the bend. She was going to pick up and leave again, their calls would become less and less, and soon they'd be out of each other's lives completely with this as their last hurrah, and he ruined it. "Guess I messed it up, didn't I?"
She finally met his full watch and sincere guilt burrowed below her rubs, etching into a harrowed heart. The fence she built didn't have a chance at keeping out homeward-bound dogs.
"It's okay. It was… an accident. Safety first."
"Won't forget that your friend ran me into a ditch to prove a point, though." She joked and smiled, then broke eye contact to stare back down at the publications below.
Midnight leapt over the two while they sat in common quiet, both enjoying the following notes of conversation until they agreed to head to bed.
The following day Cassandra vented in the living room to her mother.
"Well, did you replace the tires?" Jo spoke, carrying plates out of the dishwasher and placing them into the cupboard.
"Did I replace the tires? Before driving hours to a Flying J in the middle of nowhere?" Cassandra groaned, voice sarcastic in retaliation to her mother.
"Woah, someone's heated," Jo prompted with a grin. "This guy really got under your skin, huh Honey?" A mother's daughter. Both of them had that in common, trouble with men. In fact. Jo stayed single after the loss of Bill. It pained her that they fought directly before his passing. That memory never left. Yelling at him. That was the last thing he experienced from their spousehood. Fighting.
Cassandra's teeth gritted. "No. He was an asshole. They have a habit of… I don't know… making everything stink. " Sure the insult was immature, kind of childish. So what? He drove her off the fucking road! Then sent gender-reveal smoke into a goddamn natural disaster! One of the things didn't exactly equate to the other.
"Mhm…" Jo smiled to herself from the kitchen, listening as her daughter rustled about in the living room. Probably organizing out of frustration. Old habits died hard. "Why don't you take the Dodge with you next time?"
"The Dodge?" Cassandra stopped reorganizing and stood up straight, the dust on the mantle catching her focus. Dad's . "Doesn't it need a new battery?" She called back.
"Replaced it last year. It's up to 'snuff. New tires ." 2007 Dodge Ram. At the time it was brand new when they started building the house, despite advice from their financial specialist. These days it sat in the barn, touched solely on occasions when Jo missed her late husband and climbed into the driver's side again. She'd flip the radio on to old musical relics from their previous life together and stare in the rearview mirror, damaged by the what-ifs. Her therapist called the act 'exposure'. Frankly, Jo didn't care what it was called, all that mattered was the feeling of being close to him again.
Hesitation bred inside of Cassandra. No. No, the Dodge wouldn't work. It… it was old. "The Ford is fine," she replied quickly.
"Cassandra! The Ford damn well isn't fine. I'm takin' the truck for new tires, and you're driving the Dodge 'till then. Not gonna have you gettin' in an accident on the backroads!" Jo snapped from the entryway, hands on her hips, watching her daughter's back tighten to the sound.
The 'what I say goes' voice. No backing down from that. Once her mother gave the final say, that was it. Considering Cassandra was living rent-free with only chores to perform, she hushed up and kept sweet. "Okay, I'll drive the Ram."
Success! Jo grinned to herself. "Alright, now get out there and take it out of the barn."
The barn.
A horrible setting. Reminders everywhere. Cleaning it meant shoving things into corners that Cassandra had no interest in approaching. Memories were a weakness, a tug at heartstrings that were far too frayed.
Metal keys dangled from tense fingers. The barn door released an echoing sound upon entering and a deep, sinking feeling to take flight pulled at sensitive muscles. Beneath the haze of a swinging orange light sat the car in question.
"Point A to Point B," she instilled in herself as the truck came into regretful view. Faded maroon paint held scratches from rocks on gravel roads. And, sitting atop it all in the deck of heartbreak, sat the queen.
Dorothy.
A prototype stayed with the Dodge for local education. Growing up, Cassandra sat in the audience while her mom gave speeches at the school on tornado safety, and the implementation of internal scanning. Technology advanced, yet her father got to witness microscopic versions of it. Twenty years of history rendered to a hunk of junk in a barn.
Size 7 and a half feet scooted toward the beacon until the driver's side door rested mere inches away from her restless hands. The light gave just enough vibrancy to see herself in the window. Her reflection. Ribs created pain under a light blue halter top. The scent of expired gasoline that sat in retired jugs caused her nostrils to flare.
Daddy!
Did everyone see their nightmares in third person perspective? Hovering over their own childhood body? You live and the things around you are still there, and you can't forget. The fear follows, the loneliness. San Francisco gave miles and miles of distance, but the nights still left her staring up at the ceiling after sheet metal tore into his body and he left.
And it was her fault.
