Take the writing prompt WEATHER. First jot down 3-5 memories you have when weather had an impact, good or bad. Then choose one, set the timer for 15 minutes and just start writing.

Finding a post office in Minnesota

The sky was the side of metal. I watched it from the backseat of the car, my head turning as I set my eyes on one row of corn and watched it until the car zoom passed it. The radio was quietly playing, though no one was really paying attention. Suddenly a loud blast sounded from the speakers, bringing everyone’s attention to look at the radio as though a television.

From my seat behind the passenger side, I saw my mom’s hand grip the wheel tighter and heard the words ‘tornado’ and ‘stay indoors’. Her face took on a grim look as though she had just found us digging in her rose bushes. She uttered the word ‘lost’.

We had left the house to mail a package but we were all new to the area, having just moved from Alabama a few months before. There were no smart phones to guide her, no Google maps. She must have asked for directions from someone before we left, but those had fallen apart as the sky got darker.

“What do you do when you’re out in a tornado?” I asked from my seat.

My brother turned around from the front with a grin on his face. “You lie down in the ditch.”

Mom didn’t seem as enthusiastic as he did. I looked back out the window, imagining that must be why the ditches were so deep in Minnesota. In my eye I could see us lying on our stomachs as the wind blew our hair. Fat raindrops started to pound my window and suddenly the idea of lying in a ditch didn’t seem as much fun.

The road we were on stretched far in front of us. There were no other cars going in any direction. After muttering something unintelligible, mom turned the car hard to the left, squealed back in reverse and hit the gas driving the opposite direction. Lying down in a ditch was probably the scientific answer but she wasn’t about to do with with two small kids and a baby. She was the lying down in a ditch type, anyway.

She booked it home as my brother and I watched out for the tornado. Sirens were blaring all around. I wanted to ask a question, but mom’s knuckles were ice white. I didn’t dare speak. The radio was on, telling us to go home. Somehow we made it into our driveway. The rain kept pelting down on us, the wind was picking up hard. We ran inside. The baby and I went into the bathroom while mom run upstairs to crack open the window and my brother cracked open the ones on the first floor. I stood frozen, though slightly jealous that I didn’t get to run around doing important business.

In the bathroom we crammed. Flashlight. Baby. Kids. small radio.

I had to pee, which caused an outcry from my brother who claimed he’d risk it with the tornado rather than watch me pee. My mom made him turn around to face the wall. I watched his back, nervous he would turn around. He complained he could stil hear me peeing.

After what seemed like an eternity in a stuffy, tiny bathroom, the radio said the was probably gone, though we were still under warning. The sirens were still blaring but hunger was getting the better of us. Mom send my brother to grab graham crackers. Another important job given to him just because he was older. When she sent him for some cups of water it was too much for me to hold back. When I started to complain the tiny bathroom seemed to get even hotter, so mom opened the door.

The crack into the rest of the house broke her willpower. The baby needed changing and everyone was done. Cool wind and fat raindrops made their way into the house through the open windows. We crept out of the bathroom inch by inch until we were sat fully on the kitchen table. There we sat eating graham crackers, watching out the sliding door as a small tornado whirled down from the sky just a few miles away.