A Short Stories Collection

Cyclone

Ms. Laura Smith could hear the whistling and feel the suction through the open door. The tornado was less than eight minutes away, and above the whipping wind she could hear her elevated heartbeat as she herded eleven children out the door.
Like a whistling train, winds of two hundred miles an hour caused the smaller cars and debris on the street to whip up into the air.
Laura kept her arms stretched over her small group of students, and after reminding them to get buckled once in her car, she loaded them into her 2018 Ford Transit. She had just enough seats in the car to fit them all plus one other teacher from across the hall; Mrs. Marsh. Laura started the car and hit the pedal to the floor in a blurred burst of adrenaline.
The students were screaming and crying in the back, Mrs. Marsh saying a prayer on repeat.
Laura navigated through the worst of the debris, heading in the opposite direction of the tornado. She did her best to stay focused as she swirled around the streets; her passenger's lives were in her hands.
Two weeks later, she thought about the incident as she sat in her hospital bed.
As Laura had continued driving, her van had been bombarded by shingles from a nearby house's roof being ripped off its walls. The windshield of her van had busted open, and she had been hit in the head by flying debris. With Laura knocked out and bleeding, Mrs. Marsh reached over to the steering wheel from the passenger seat, desperately trying to gain control. The van crashed in a nearby parking garage, Mrs. Marsh managing to veer them down into an underground level. They waited out the storm, and after a rescue crew saved them, they rushed Laura to a hospital, the rest of the van's passengers being uninjured.
Laura was still recuperating, and with all of this time on her hands she began to notice all of the little miracles that occurred that day.
To start, the Porsche that she usually drove to school was having some engine problems, and so she had not been able to drive it to work.
Also, that morning there had been a traffic jam at the front of the school, causing her to take a back route and park much closer to her classroom, and the nearest exit.
Later, three children had been signed out of school early, and one had been absent for the whole day.
On the panicked rush to her car, Laura had the sense to make sure and tell the children to buckle up, a safety reminder amid the panic.
When she had been knocked out by the debris, the teacher from across the hall took over driving.
All of these things caused everyone in the van, and from Laura's class, to live.
Had her Porsche not been having trouble, Laura would have driven it, and therefore wouldn't have had room to save her students. If the four students who were not at school had been present, Laura wouldn't have had room to safely drive all of them. If she had parked in the front parking lot where she usually did, she would've had to go towards the tornado and through the already demolished front of the school. If she had not had a moment of clarity to remind her students to buckle, they likely would've gone flying when the van crashed down in the parking garage. When Laura was no longer conscious and the second teacher took control, she drove into the underground concrete garage, a place Laura never would've thought to go; Laura would've likely kept driving away from the storm, but still been outrun and vacuumed into the air.
Chills went down Laura's spine as she realized how much God had done to save her. To save her students, and the poor teacher from across the hall. She said a thankful prayer, and for the first time rested peacefully in her hospital bed.