Sometimes you go out looking for trouble. Sometimes you are lying on a bed after a 12-hour shift, 90 degrees outside, and not enough fans in the world to cool you down. The one aimed at your feet feels like you have opened the door to a fucking blast furnace. And sometimes trouble has long legs […]
A Texas tornado — chasingperi
Thirty or so years ago, I stood in my bedroom in Cypress, Texas and I called Grand Mommy. I dialed her number 713-734-1234, let the phone ring 5 times, hang up and then dial her again 713-734-1234. Then she knew it was family calling and she would answer the phone. That’s my Grand Mommy. She was a Saint. She was a Terror. I only knew the Saint part. When I had questions. I called her. She was smart. She was a survivor. She was smart. She was patient. She was kind. She was haunted. She knew many things and one of those things was all about Texas Tornadoes. Grand Mommy lived lower than sea level and I was in the high lands but I called her anyway. Why?
Well, the sun was going down and whereas the sky would normally be gray it was pea green. I had never seen that before. I saw skunks scurrying across my front lawn. She told me to listen for trains and if I heard a train approaching get into the bathtub and stay there until everything went quiet, then listen for rainfall or winds blowing.
She talked to me over the phone about tornadoes she had lived through. Ones that funneled down during school days or summer days. Ones that hit at night as she and her family slept through the night only alerted by guinea fowls far out in rural Harris County when there were no street lights on indoor plumbing. That was this century.
I can still hear Grand Mommy’s voice speaking to me over phone lines connecting our homes from Houston to Cypress and back. I can hear the ebb and flow of her voice. I can hear how her voice would rise when she spoke of exciting things that happened when she was a girl. I could tell she was years and years away, a young person experiencing life including surviving tornadoes. I can hear her laughter right now and see how the corners of her eyes crinkle with joy. She used to laugh so much tears would come from her eyes and she would wipe them away and continue to laugh joyfully. There was nothing insincere about Grand Mommy. When I think of Texas Tornadoes, I think of the times I spent with my Grand Mommy just talking and laughing.
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