It shook full grown trees like little twigs.  It tore apart houses like they were nothing.  Everything in its path was completely mutilated.  No one or nothing stood a chance up to it.  It being the storm of the century.
   My house shook violently from left to wright.  Quinn screamed at the top of her lungs.  I tried to calm her down by stroking her hair, but she just screamed even louder.  I thought, Forget it, nothing could calm this girl down.  I, myself, was freaking out as much as she was.  We were huddled in the tiny corner of our basement.  We being Quinn (my little sister), Mama, and Dad.  I also have a dog his name is...Oh crap! I thought.  Baggins was still outside!  I leaped up from the cold basement floor and started sprinting up the stairs that lead into the kitchen.  
   I heard Mama screech, “Oliverrrrr!!!!!!!” from the damp basement, but I ignored her anyways.  
   I just wanted my dog with me.  Baggins was a large St. Bernard who was acted like a big teddy bear.  Even if someone didn’t like dogs, they would instantly fall in love with Baggins.  I heard him scratching on the front door and let him in, along with a blast of hot summer air and herd of leaves flying into my face.  We ran towards the basement door, Dad waiting for us at the first step.
   “Don’t ever scare your mother like that again, ya hear?” he roared over the thunder.
   “Okay...”  I said my voice trailing off because I figured he couldn’t hear me anyways.
   We scampered back into the basement and cozied up to each other.  I kept trying to think of things of things that were worse than this moment, but nothing came to mind.  Baggins cried as the wind whistled outside.  Rain spattered from the gray clouds and tap danced on the rooftop of our yellow, two story home.  I just wished that this horrible mess of storm would just go away.  I tried to think of happy memories from my past years.  Like when my family and I went to visit my cousins in Louisiana during Mardi Gras, or Shannon, the prettiest girl in my class.  I had a big crush on her.  Whenever I tried talking to her my mind would get all fuzzy and my words came out like a waterfall spattering out randomness.  How is Shannon? Is she safe? I thought to myself.  What if she isn’t?  I tried to shake that ungodly thought out of my head.  But it was stuck in there like glue.  And I hated thinking about that.  What is my own family didn’t make it through this?  Our house could be completely destroyed in seconds.  I decided I should pray to God:
    Dear God, I want to live.  Scratch that, I need to live.  I need my family to live.  I need Shannon to live.  I need Shannon’s family to live.  I need my friends to live.  I need my friend’s families to live.  I need the whole town of Council Grove to live.  I need Kansas to live.  Amen.  Love, Oliver.
    I thought that was pretty good.  The only prayer I know (which is probably not even a prayer) is “Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub.  Amen.”  Which I find weird because my family and I go to church every Sunday.  
    So much was going through my mind.  I kept wondering if I would wake up to a tomorrow.  If not, at least I’ll be somewhere with my family.  Mama decided to read us a story from the old book case in the basement.  Our selection for the horrid evening was “Goodnight Moon”.  A short, classic tale of animals going to bed on a boat.  I always thought that the boat they were on was Noah’s Ark.  Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t.  I’ve always hoped that I was right.  It’d be pretty cool if I was right.  
    The rain started to lighten up.  It was already 1:27, but I was the only one up.  I just couldn’t sleep.  The wind still blew like crazy and rattled the bushes along side the house.  Quinn woke up and looked dazed, but fell back to sleep with the drop of a hat.  Now she was sleeping with a snake eye.  I hated it that.  I never knew if she was awake or not.  Sometimes she scared me when she slept like that.  
    I ignored her creepy sleeping and laid my head on Baggins stomach.  I felt his chest go up and down.  His coat was so warm and soft.  I looked up at the blank, wooden ceiling, trying to make shapes out of the wood grain.  I found a dog-ish looking figure, a snake (obviously), a lion, and eyeball (also obvious).  I wanted to sleep, but I thought that if for just one moment I shut my eyes, that our house would be swooped up into the air and we’d land in Transylvania.  And I did not like vampires all that much.  Especially the cheesy ones from that girlie movie series that everyone talks about.  Those ones annoyed me.  A lot.
	I tried to close my eyes, but when I did alls I saw was a horrible image of the main vampire in the movies.  I immediately opened my eyes to see Quinn sitting up from where she was sleeping.
	“Whatsa matter?” I asked her gently.
	“The thunder and lightning scare me.” she replied soft and quiet as could be.
	Quinn, only being four was pretty much scared of anything any little four year old would be scared of.  Especially clowns, she hated those so bad, one time we went to the county fair and a Mr. Happy-pants walked up to her, smiled, and asked her if she wanted a balloon animal.  Her response was a loud yell and she ran towards the bouncy house.
	“C’mere Quinnie, I’ll keep ya safe.” I said.
	“Okay Ollie.” she said, with a little grin.
	I cradled her, my arms wrapped around her like rice around raw fish (a.k.a. sushi).  She looked so innocent and helpless.  I just wanted this menacing storm to be over.  I’m sure everyone did too.  No one liked being scared out of their minds and freaked out about whether they’re going to see tomorrow.  The thought scared me, so I looked a Quinn, who was now asleep in my arms, and I felt better.  Just looking at someone you love can make you feel happier, even at the worst of times.  As I stared at her, I grew more and more sleepy and dozed off into sleep up against the concrete wall.  The wall was surprisingly comfortable, although I don’t know how.  Quinn was still on my lap, she was holding my hands so I couldn’t scratch my nose.  That was not a good thing considering my nose itched really bad.  So I did the smart thing only a twelve year old boy would do.  I scratched it on the wall.  It itched even more.  I tried to ignore it, so I went back to sleep.  
	I woke up.  My watch read 9:47.  My parents were nowhere to be seen.  Quinn wasn’t in my arms.  What the hell happened to them?  I was scared.  Baggins was still asleep, so i let him be and wandered upstairs.  I walked into the kitchen, but they weren’t there.  I checked the living room, no one was there.  I began to shout their names.
	“Mama! Dad! Quinn!  Where are you?!” I shouted.
	No response.  Baggins must have heard me and he trotted upstairs.  He sniffed around the house, up and down.  Nothing.  I ran in to my bedroom, threw on a raggedy tee and a pair of old, musty jeans my dad lent to me for working outside.  I shoved my feet into my sneakers and scrambled outside.  Baggins ran out in front of me, and I trailed behind like the slowpoke I was.  It was sunny outside, but debris was scattered about the yard.  I looked up at my house and saw that some siding had fallen off.  Dad and I would fix that later, as soon as I found him, Mama, and Quinnie.  I shouted their names once again, but this time someone returned the call.  It was my dad!
	“Oliver!! Over here, son!”  he hollered.
	Baggins got to him before I could, and jumped on him and licked his face to death.  I laughed, walked over to Dad, and gave him a hard squeeze.  Dad, Mama, and Quinn were in our neighbor’s yard, the Haffners, a couple blocks down from our house.  Mama kissed me one the cheek, I kissed her back.  I kissed Quinnie on the head, and she gave me a warm hug.  I felt so rejoiced.  
	“We wanted to check out the neighbors, we didn’t want to wake you and Baggins up so we just left.  Sorry hunny for giving you a scare.”  Mama said, her voice partially trembling.  
	“Me?  Scared? Puh-lease.”  I chuckled.
	Mama smiled and hugged me tight.  We said our goodbyes to the Haffners, and walked back to our little yellow house.  It didn’t look the same, but not for long.  Dad and I got straight to work stapling the siding back where they belonged.  Mama and Quinnie picked up trash from our yard and brought flower plants into the greenhouse in the back.  Baggins would sniff the ground and take a dump where he sniffed, so there was my job.  Although I didn’t mind, I was just glad my little family was safe and sound.  I hoped nothing as horrid as last night would never, ever happened again for as long as I lived.

	


	Thank you for accepting my entry late, due to the tornado in Dexter. :)
				
The Storm  6-8  p.1