Poor baby doesn’t want to hit his head. Probably a good thing, too. As thick as his noggin is, he’d put a dent in the roof.
“Makes you feel like you’re on a roller coaster ride, doesn’t it?” Isabella said when the SUV set down with a thud after sailing over another of the rolling hills on the road they’d taken a few minutes earlier.
“I would not know. I have never ridden on one of the contraptions.” Galvin’s voice took on the formal tone Isabella knew indicated his irritation.
“We’ll have to take care of that soon, won’t we?” She threw a grin his way and enjoyed his scowled response.
“Isabella. Isabella.” Sandy’s excited voice broke in intermittently over the static of the 2-way radio clenched in one of Galvin’s large hands.
“What’s up?” She hoped her voice patched through to the van better than the reception she and Galvin received in their vehicle.
“We’re picking up a super cell! The probe is going crazy in collecting data and radar looks like a paint ball war with all the colors exploding. You should see something when you crest the next hill.”
Chiding herself for being more absorbed in the man in the passenger seat next to her than keeping an eye on the clouds, Isabella cast a seasoned eye to the sky. When were the high, thin Cirrus streaks replaced by the puffy white cotton ball Cumulus clouds?
They crested another hill and the bottom of the marshmallow forms in the sky came into view, reflecting dark and ominous below the fluffy caps.
“Do we have rotation?” Isabella yelled into the walkie-talkie Galvin held for her. She couldn’t detect rotation or a wall cloud at the base of the monstrous storm formation covering the sky in front of them.
“Yes. Rotation is occurring. There’s strong upper level winds and swirling lower.” Sandy’s voice held the same excitement that flowed through Isabella.
“What do you think?” Galvin’s passenger seat view put him in better position to get the full effect as they progressed toward the dark clouds since she needed to concentrate on the road.
“I think we should turn around and forget this storm chase.” Galvin eyes stayed focused on the sky.
Was he nuts? She’d never come this close to a super cell, not even during the summer she’d spent in Tornado Alley her junior year of college. Just her luck it was a relatively quiet summer for storm activity and a few insignificant thunderstorms were the best that experienced produced. She’d spent her senior year moaning to her professors about what a waste of time the trip had been.
“No way. We’re here to report on storms and that’s what we’re going to do.” She snatched the walkie-talkie from Galvin’s hand. Meteorologists didn’t run from their dream come true.
Splats of rain hit the windshield. She downshifted to drop the speed of the SUV and peered at the darkening skyline.
“Galvin, use the camera. Since we’re lead vehicle maybe, we can get some shots the cameraman in the van won’t. I’m going to pull over and we’ll do a live feed.”
A look of disbelief passed over his face before Galvin pointed the small video camera in front of him, not saying a word.
Braking quickly, Isabella barked into the radio, “Stopping here for a live feed. Be ready to roll.” She jumped from the SUV as soon as the vehicle came to a halt.
“Let’s get your microphone on,” Sandy yelled as she bounced out of the van.
Wired, Isabella faced the cameraman fighting to keep the hair out of her face.
“Change positions,” Sandy directed. “We can’t see you, just a curtain of hair.” Her screamed commands could barely be heard over the howling wind. “Here, let’s tie your hair back with this.” A rubber band fluttered in her hand and she pulled the swirling mass of curls behind Isabella’s ears and secured them.
“This is Isabella Girardi, coming to you from outside the city. What you see in the distance is a major super cell. This storm has all the ingredients to produce a tornado which is not an element of nature we see very often in this area.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Galvin standing with his feet apart and directly facing the storm. He appeared intent on the horizon; the wind whipped his clothes, molding them to his body. The lock of hair she always wanted to brush back now slicked against his head by a raging blast of air.
Suddenly, things became still. The wind disappeared and the dark sky began to lighten.
“What the—” the cameraman didn’t finish his statement, only shook his head in disbelief.
“Storms around here are really unpredictable, aren’t they?” Galvin had joined the small group and they all stared at what were now ominous-looking, bubble-shaped clouds.
To the untrained eye, these could look frightening, but Isabella and Sandy exchanged knowing glances. They may get a strong thunderstorm from the Mammatus clouds, but the danger of a tornado was over for now.
“Looks like we’re in for rain,” Galvin observed with a chuckle. “Shall we call it a day?”
Isabella studied the rumbling clouds before responding. “Let’s check out radar, Sandy.” The two women headed for the van, neither responding to Galvin’s suggestion to head back to the city. She left the door open and half-listened to the conversation outside.
“Good thing we didn’t get the live feed to the station she wanted,” the cameraman banged the tripod as he folded it down enough to pack with his other equipment.
“If we didn’t have a feed why were you filming?” Galvin asked.
“The station was taping us to air later, or if we did pick up a funnel cloud they would have interrupted the soap opera in progress. Man, cutting in on one of the soaps isn’t something you do without good reason. The switchboard lights up like a Fourth of July fireworks show with pissed off viewers. I tell you those women are addicted to their smut.”
“Amazing.” Galvin shook his head and turned to watch them as she and Sandy approached.
“We’ll cruise around for a while,” Isabella’s tone of voice left no room for argument. “This storm is passing through quickly and I want to see if anything else develops.”
Climbing back into the vehicle she didn’t speak to Galvin for several miles. “You know, strange things happen with the weather when you’re around. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’re some kind of weather shaman or something.” She bit back the nervous laugh that accompanied the statement. Yes, she meant the remark as a joke, but deep down a part of her wondered.
The scientific part of her brain refuted where the dreamer portion of her mind wanted to go. She was a scientist for crying out loud, not some silly schoolgirl who lived in fantasy land. Get your head out of your ass, girl.
“Not me.” Galvin leaned toward her and grinned. “You must have me confused with Thor, the Thunder God.”
“Something like that.” Thor, one of the Nordic mythological gods. Sure, he existed and pigs could fly, too. One thing that did exist though was her lack of knowledge on Galvin Haldor’s background. “You’ve never told me where you went to school. Do you have a degree in meteorology?”
“I’ve gone to many different schools and studied various things.” He smiled at her. “No, I don’t have a piece of paper that says I’m a meteorologist. I know weather though. You could say I trained at my father’s knee.”
The “I know weather” answer drove her crazy. If she stopped the car, she’d lose the battle with herself and give into the urge to strangle him. The part about his father was new though. Maybe a little more digging on her part and he’d expand on that. She cast a hopeful glance in Galvin’s direction. “Your father is a meteorologist?”
“He doesn’t have a degree on the subject either. You could say weather’s a gift he has and chose to share with me.”
Interrupted from a response by a squawk from the radio Galvin held, Isabella grabbed the two-way and responded. “Yeah.”
She came across abrupt in her one word acknowledgement to Sandy’s attempt to reach them, but excused her rudeness because th
e man beside drove her insane with his cryptic answers to her inquiries. Come to think of it, he drove her crazy on all fronts, but the insanity that possessed her when they allowed their passion to explode fell into a different category.
“Thought you’d want to know we’re picking up action again.” Sandy lost the last coin toss and was now back to watching radar. Instead of relaying information being fed to her by one of the team, she now reported what she saw on the screen. “I’m pinpointing the direction now.”
Isabella heard the rustle of paper and knew Sandy was checking her map. “Take a left at the next intersection and go about a mile then take the first right. If the storm pattern doesn’t change, that route will take us in the needed direction.”
Isabella sensed Galvin withdraw into himself as soon as she started to follow Sandy’s directions. She didn’t have time for his moodiness and turned her attention to the weather ahead of them. The puffy Cumulus clouds once again built high into the sky, soft and white in their towering mountains while the bottom layer darkened.
“Oh shit.” Rotation was visible to the naked eye. Isabella couldn’t pull her gaze away from the sky view as a wall cloud formed on the bottom, swirling down through the base of the thunderstorm.
“Man, this is like the mother of super cells,” Sandy spluttered from the radio. “Damn, there’s nothing but red and yellows reflecting on the radar screen.”
The raging wind, that only a moment before rocked the SUV, suddenly stilled. “Fuck, here we go again,” Isabella yelled to Sandy. The wind died suddenly, but the stillness was different this time though. Her skin crawled in the eerie light around them, as everything grew quiet.
“Don’t think we’re in for a fun time on this one,” Sandy’s voice quivered.
The rain they encountered only minutes earlier now turned to pea-sized hail. The greenish clouds had replaced the black ones and boiled like a kettle of water on high heat. Isabella kicked the windshield wipers up to high when the hail increased in size. A quick glance at Galvin told her he was useless again. So help me, this is the last time I bring him on a storm chase. In fact, she needed to confront Moultar on letting him go. It was obvious he wasn’t a weather man and maybe if they weren’t constantly fighting over the main subject of their contention, they could work on a real relationship.
“Look to your left.” Sandy screamed through the static of the communication device. “Oh my God, look to your left.”
A funnel dropped out of the sky and golf ball hailstones slammed the windshield. Isabella juggled the radio in her efforts to hold the steering wheel with both hand and keep them on the road.
Galvin wrenched the walkie-talkie from her and started shouting out instructions to Sandy. “Take the turn we just missed. Back off and get out of here. This is going to get nasty.”
“What about you?” Sandy crackled back.
“We will take care of ourselves. I do not need to worry about you, too.”
Isabella heard him slip into the formal speech pattern and knew he was agitated. Who the hell did he think he was shouting out instructions to her crew? There were too many other things on her plate to worry about who was in charge right now. Should she attempt to turn around? Too late. Another funnel appeared and the two swirling masses of debris drifted toward each other, and began to move in their direction. The noise level made her want to cover her ears instead of attempting to keep the SUV on the road.
“There’s a bridge up ahead,” she screamed at Galvin above the roar. “I’ll turn around or try and get us under bridge for cover.” The structure would at least buffer them from the pounding hail.
“Are you completely insane?” He pressed his mouth against her ear and shouted. “Stop the car and get out. We don’t have time to turn around and the last place we want to go is under the bridge.”
She stepped on the gas, determined to make it to shelter when Galvin flung his leg across hers and stomped on the brake, stalling the vehicle.
“Damn you all to hell.” She turned on him, teeth bared, a caged wildcat ready to attack.
“You’re always so damned concerned about a meteorology degree. Didn’t they teach you in any of those classes about where not to be in a tornado?” He reached across her and pushed on the door, which resisted.
The reality of his statement hit home. In her adrenalin rush, she’d forgotten the training drilled into her years ago. The last place they wanted was under a bridge or a tree.
She threw her shoulder into the resistance and with their combined efforts, they managed to force the door open. A gust of wind ripped door from the hinges. Her mouth dropped open as the heavy metal flew upward into the darkened sky.
Debris assailed them. “Stay close to the ground. With any luck, there will be a culvert near the bridge. If not, lie down and stay flat. Follow me.” Galvin grabbed her hand in his and hunched over they made their way along the ditch.
Luck was with them. The culvert stood high enough they could stoop and work their way into its dark opening. Isabella found herself glad she’d decided to wear sneakers for storm chasing, instead of the fashionable high heels she normally wore to work. If she’d had to lose the heels, the balls of her feet would have been shredded from all the scatter glass.
Galvin pushed her head down and shoved her into the opening where she made her way through the years of accumulated litter and dirt, which the storm turned to mud. Crouched in the mire, she maneuvered around to face the entrance and discovered Galvin wasn’t behind her. Scooting back toward the opening, she screamed out his name, only to have the words pushed back down her throat by the roaring wind. The jet engines out on the tarmac the time she did a broadcast from La Guardia Airport weren’t this loud.
Tears from the dirt the wind carried stung her eyes and blinded her. The ability to breathe seemed to have left, the air sucked out of her lungs. Did the atmospheric change create this or the fear that thundered through her heart because Galvin didn’t respond? Did the storm carry him away? No, please God, no.
Suddenly, Galvin appeared and pulled her into his arms and she didn’t care that their knees sank into the muck. “It’s okay,” he crooned and stroked her back.
The tears that flowed weren’t from the eye irritation caused by the storm. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed out the horror she’d felt at the thought of losing him.
The kisses he rained down on her face were softer than a spring breeze’s caress and her body’s response raged in conjunction with the storm outside. Only the two of them existed in their need for each other. If she could figure out how to get out of her jeans in this cramped environment, she’d add culvert to her growing list of unusual places for sex.
“Listen,” Galvin whispered against her neck.
Silence surrounded them and she pressed her cheek against his.
“Did you hear that?” He cocked an ear toward the opening.
“It sounds like someone is calling us? I think it’s Sandy.” Isabella’s face burned in humiliation. Once again, she’d become caught up in her passion for Galvin and forgotten the rest of the crew.
“Come on.” Galvin took her hand.
Isabella adjusted her eyes to the blinding sunlight that greeted them.
Sandy, arms extended, rushed toward her and gathered her boss in a crushing hug. “Holy crap, I thought we’d lost you guys.”
The blonde intern turned her attention to Galvin. “We got at least an F5 reading when the two funnels merged. I can’t believe you survived a tornado with winds over two hundred and sixty miles an hour. That’ll be a story to tell your grandchildren.”
A stab of jealously flared in Isabella when Sandy planted a kiss on the lips of the man she now considered hers. They weren’t to the point of thinking about children, much less grandchildren. But, maybe it was time to take this man home to meet her family.
“Most definitely. We all will.” Galvin winked at Isabella.
“Actually we were pretty safe. We didn’t even get close since y
ou told us to take the turn you’d already passed. Storms of this type are really interesting.” Sandy’s excitement bubbled over. “One minute they’re creating mass destruction and the next they’re sucked back up into the clouds and the sun comes out. If it weren’t for the damage left in their wake, you’d never know they’d occurred.”
“Let’s hope we don’t experience any place where the damage is more than trees and a bridge. Thank heavens we were in the middle of nowhere.” Isabella’s glance fell where the bridge once stood and followed the path of destruction, taking in the uprooted twisted trees along the edge of the meadow. She still didn’t believe all of her training evaporated when faced with the chaos brought on by the storm. Instead her natural instinct to seek shelter of any form had kicked in and if they hadn’t, they’d both probably be dead now. Thank goodness Galvin at least knew enough to stop her.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say you guys will be riding back with us.” Sandy pointed in the direction of where they’d abandoned the SUV. There was no vehicle.
“Can we go home, now?” Galvin asked, sounding like a petulant child.
Moultar will have to get the van detailed and file an insurance claim on the SUV, Isabella thought as she looked down at her mud crusted shoes and clothing. She pulled the blood soaked denim stuck to her right knee away from the skin. When did she cut her knee and what on? Given the mire in the covert, there was no way to tell. A little first aid administration would be in order once she got home. A slip of a dull knife three years ago resulted in a tetanus shot, so she didn’t have to worry about that.
She longed to touch the outline of Galvin’s face in the fading light as the crew made their way back to the station. He seemed once again lost in thought.
How fragile life could be. One minute you have eternity stretching before you and with the bat of an eye or one good breath, your life could be snuffed out. Maybe there were more important things than climbing the career ladder.
With that revelation Isabella Girardi came to the conclusion family, even her crazy family, was more important than she wanted to admit and that someday she’d like to have children of her own.
Nordic Heat Page 12
