No Longer Just A Fan

Problem

Katy's POV:
The more the wind howled outside, the more of a nervous wreck I became. I had never been worried about storms before, even tornadoes. In fact, I have always been fascinated by them. I loved watching lightning dance across the sky and then counting the seconds until the clap of thunder would follow behind, or even the way the wind would swirl the rain around.

But there was nothing to be fascinated by with this storm. I believe it is even safe to say this is the first storm that's made my nerves shot. I would be fine if I was on my own, like almost every other storm I've gone through in my life, but this time I have five girls and a dog with me. Kepling stays calm during storms though so he's not necessarily a problem per say. It's really just the girls I'm worried about I guess. I feel terrible that they have to go through a tornado without their family or even in their own house for the first time.

Rumbles of thunder are almost continuous now. Every one of them seems to shake the house a little more each time. This causes Camila to crawl into my lap while the other four girls make their way onto the bottom bunk and huddle against me. They barely have enough time to huddle against me before the sound of a freight train is heard.

I can hear things being thrown around outside and trees being snapped in half. Everyone sits in silence as we wait for the storm to finish running its course. It only lasts for a few minutes, but listening to the dreadful noises outside make it seem like hours instead. We hear the storm finally fade into the distance, but I tell the girls we need to wait at least five minutes before we go upstairs and check out the damage. As expected, none of them argue. After we wait five minutes, I get up from the bottom bunk and walk over to the stairs. Kepling follows me, then the girls. I pick Kepling up, carry him up the ladder, and then set him on the ground. After I take care of him, I hop back down into the cellar and help each girl climb up as well. When they're done, I crawl up and close the door.

"Everyone good?" I ask. They all shake their heads without saying a word. "Well I'm gonna go check on my neighbors and see if there's any major damage around here. You guys can come with me if you want or you can stay in the house. It's up to you." None of them move or say a word. I turn around to walk to the front door, but I feel a hand grab me by the arm. I turn my head to see the hand belongs to a very shaky Camila. "Don't leave me." She says barely above a whisper. "I'm not leaving you. I'm just going to check on my neighbors and scope out the damage, okay?" "I'm coming with you then." She says now holding my hand. I look down at our hands and smile sadly down at them before I walk us out the front door. Kepling soon joins us.

I notice my neighbors are already outside with their flashlights investigating. "Oh Katy! Thank goodness you're okay! You're normally the first one outside after a storm. We were starting to worry." One of my neighbors, Mrs. Samuels, says coming over to us. "Good to see you're okay too Mrs. Samuels. I actually have some company with me tonight so I decided to wait about five minutes before coming out here. This is Camila by the way." I say introducing them. "It's a pleasure to meet you dear." Mrs. Samuels says extending her hand for Camila to shake. Camila smiles and returns the hand. "It's very nice to meet you too."

"So has anyone found a lot of damage so far?" I ask. "There's a lot of trees that have been pulled out of the ground, and the Johnson's car got flipped on its side. Other than that our part of town is good." Mrs. Samuels says. "It sounds like we had an EF1 then. Have you heard anything on the news?" "Yes I have. They said we should be fine tonight. There wont be anymore storms until tomorrow afternoon." Mrs. Samuels explains, then turns her head to look at Camila. "So you had Katy looking after you tonight?" "I did." Camila says while smiling and squeezing my hand. "She's a good one for sure. Well if you ladies will excuse me, I'm gonna go round up my husband and head inside for the night. I'm glad you guys are okay, and again it was very nice to meet you, Camila." Mrs. Samuels says. We bid her goodbye and then head back inside my house.