The storm had picked up decent speed now and stopped growing in size. An eerie orange-and-white haze developed behind the storm which contrasted the towering electric blue and azure hues in the clouds above. The twister darkened and chugged ahead but appeared to be veering slightly to the south. Maybe the town won’t take a direct strike, John thought to himself. He wondered if Madeline would panic but he also knew he had no plan for dealing with it.
Madeline stared intensely out the window.
John slowed the truck again and then found a road just to the south of the damage track. It was a good thing, too, because if he kept driving on their current road, he would eventually have to navigate around the fallen power lines and tree branches. As he pressed on, the full scope of the town came into view.
“It’s going to hit it on the edge,” John said as he dropped his speed to twenty miles per hour. Another bolt of lightning slammed into the ground a quarter mile ahead.
“I don’t like this,” she said as she inhaled deeply. “I wish we could do something.”
John flipped on a weather radio on top of the dashboard and listened. He stopped the truck on the shoulder of the road and waited. As the tornado wobbled about like a drunkard, it kicked aside trees, sheet metal, and even a roof from a home.
When John was sure it cleared the town he moved back out onto the road and rolled down his window. The waterfall sound carried on as the storm moved east-northeast and in the distance he could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles. Suddenly, he pulled the truck over again and waited.
“Aren’t we going to help them?” Madeline said as her eyes pleaded with John.
“Not yet.”
“What? Why?”
“Look.” John pointed to another satellite tornado that developed just to the west of the first one. This twister took on a black-and-violet color and kicked up more dirt than the first one. It tore up new ground and whipped aside a grain silo like a crushed beer can. It then rolled a farm tractor several times like it was a die from a board game. This funnel spun faster than the first one, but the mid-levels whirled about chaotically as if it could not concentrate its energy into a single location.
John waited until he was sure both twisters had cleared the town before he rolled back onto the highway. The three of them remained silent for the remainder of the drive toward the town. When they reached the city limits, the devastation on the southern end of town was evident. Power lines arced on the ground like electrified snakes, street signs were twisted into unknown shapes, and a streetlight crashed to the ground like a toppled lamp in a hotel room. Black smoke poured out of a pizza restaurant down the block. The smoke drifted toward the storm and gave off the illusion that a third tornado was forming.
Madeline gasped as they turned onto River Drive.
“What is it?” John said.
She pointed to the right. “See that over there? That’s where the church plant was. Someone put a wooden cross up on top of the building a few weeks ago to make it look like a steeple. Now the roof is half gone and the cross is hanging upside down.”
John looked at the church but soon he fixed his gaze on the untouched buildings across the street. At once he picked up on a larger pattern. Despite the erratic nature of the first tornado, the storm had not turned south like he first speculated. Instead, it had taken a sharp turn to the northeast on top of where the church stood.
“What is it? Do you see something else?” She said.
“The damage path. It turned right as it passed over the church.”
Chapter Nine
John pulled the pickup truck over to the curb at the junction of River Drive and Maple Street and turned the engine off. By the looks of the damage, he estimated the tornado would probably end up being a mid-range EF-2. Once proud elm trees lay toppled, roofs were missing, and a car had been rolled onto its side. As the three of them descended from the truck, John watched in the distance as the first tornado tore its way through open country. It became rain-wrapped with time and he was sure the tornado would expend itself in the next ten to fifteen minutes. The satellite tornado rampaged through a series of farms before dissipating. Each building it hit generated another whirling cloud of debris. He gave Captain a knowing look.
The first scene they came upon was a house with a third of its roof missing. The outer wall on the west side of the house was completely sheared off and was nothing more than a twisted heap of two-by-fours, shredded insulation, and a spraying copper water pipe. House after house on this side of town had walls and parts of their roofs missing. The private inner sanctuaries of many lay open and vulnerable to the rain and curious onlookers. Lawns were littered with personal items such as books, clothes, children’s toys, and shattered picture frames full of loved ones. John winced more than once and watched Madeline’s reaction with acute awareness.
Madeline sped up her gait and sprinted across the lawn of a two-story home where the sounds of a baby crying came from inside. Several shingles were missing from the roof but it was the lack of windows around the perimeter that made John think there was broken glass strewn everywhere inside the home. Madeline ran up to the front doorstep and rapped hard on the remaining pane of glass on the door.
The door opened and a mother answered as she held her crying infant. The two talked a minute and then Madeline walked back toward John and Captain. “She’s fine. The baby’s just hungry.”
The three then walked on to the next house and stepped over multiple severed tree limbs along the way. John pointed out the various obstacles in their path including broken glass, a downed power line, and a piece of corrugated metal that was twisted like a rotini noodle. Up the street a fountain of water erupted from a fire hydrant that was bent over at a ninety-degree angle.
The house was a russet-colored rambler with a bashed-in garage door and a giant oak tree lying across one corner of the roof. The tree punctured the roof and it was not apparent if someone was trapped inside of the structure. Captain jetted across the lawn, dodging tree branches and toppled garden gnomes on the way. He ran up to a bedroom window and shouted inside.
A man’s voice responded. Captain waved Madeline and John over to help. “Give me a boost,” Captain said to John.
John stretched out his hands and lifted Captain up and through the window with an awkward crash. Captain dug his way through the debris and hurled aside books and a broken desk chair. John put his leg up onto the window sill and climbed inside, but gashed his hand in the process. Although he was in pain, he helped Captain lift a bookcase full of books off of the man, who was in his late sixties.
“Do you think you broke anything?” Captain asked.
“No, I’ll…I’ll be okay,” the man said. After they pushed the bookcase out of the way, they threw aside shirts, shoes, and plastic hangers caked with mud in order to clear a path back to the window. Then they helped the man to climb outside.
Madeline reached out to help him over the sill. John followed and Captain emerged last. As all four of them stood on the lawn, a neighbor came up and shouted at John and Captain.
“What are you two doing here? Go take your cameras somewhere else,” the woman said as she jabbed a finger into John’s face. She gave him a scowl and hurried the injured man over toward the driveway.
The woman was dressed in a teal-colored uniform and John guessed she was a nurse at a nearby medical facility. She gave John and Captain several nasty looks before turning her back on them.
John motioned for Madeline and Captain to leave the property and led them back out into the street. He clenched his teeth but tried his best to hide his irritation from the others.
“Has she seen you guys before?” Madeline asked.
“Oh, she’s seen us. We drove through another town before and she flipped out because she knew we were chasers,” John said.
Madeline looked down at John’s hand which bled enough to create a trickle of blood down to his elbow. She lifted it up and turned it over for him to see. “Is that from t
he window?”
“I’ll be alright,” he said. He bent down and picked up a white bed sheet lying on the grass. Using his teeth, he tore off the muddy part and wrapped the rest of it around his hand for a makeshift tourniquet. Then he picked out a tiny shard of glass embedded in his palm. “Let’s keep moving.”
A disinterested look came over Captain’s face. “Here comes another one.”
Another neighbor from across the street started to holler and point at Captain. The three of them hurried on back toward John’s pickup truck. Along the way, John kicked an empty plastic flowerpot to the curb in frustration. Just as they reached the truck, John stopped to listen. Amongst the sounds of hissing gas leaks, a gushing hydrant, and approaching sirens from emergency vehicles, he heard the faint crying of a woman.
He fought the urge to look back. Madeline stopped, stood by him, and stared into his eyes. He looked away.
The crying continued. Finally, he gave in and turned back to see a young brunette with curly hair staring at the remains of her home. Perhaps her home was one of the hardest-hit, with the entire roof missing, a water heater lying crumpled up on the lawn, and piles of debris in her front yard. A torn pale blue curtain fluttered in one of the windows like a flag of surrender.
As John reached the woman he could tell by the look in her eyes that she did not know where to begin. He also recognized her as Jacqueline Moser, the woman they met at the gas station hours ago. She said nothing as if she did not see him standing there.
“Was there anyone else inside?” He asked.
She shook her head no. “Except for Ernie.” Tears trickled down her cheek as she put a hand to her mouth.
“Where was the last place you saw him?” Madeline asked as she stood on the other side of Jacqueline.
“He was with me. He was the only pet I had. He’s a white Yorkshire terrier.”
John began to toss aside muddied books and canned goods and soon Captain and Madeline joined in. After a few minutes of searching, Madeline yelled and pointed to part of the debris pile. There, next to the crumpled remains of an electric stove and underneath a torn piece of drywall, John found Jacqueline’s dog struggling to break free from a tangle of electrical wires. He shoved the stove to the side with his back and legs as Captain wrenched a piece of drywall free. No one knew if the wires were live, so John pushed them aside with a piece of wood.
The dog leapt out, but Madeline caught it and carried it over to Jacqueline. Jacqueline thanked them and hugged her dog tight.
“Do you want us to help you go through everything?” Madeline said with concern in her eyes.
Jacqueline shook her head no. “My two brothers are on their way. I’ll…I’ll be okay. Thank you.”
As the three of them walked away, John spoke up in a low voice. “Wasn’t that the lady from the gas station?”
Madeline nodded. “Still think that was God speaking to her?”
“I don’t know.”
By the time they returned to the truck, a swarm of police cars and a pair of ambulances converged on the town. The air was heavy with the scent of freshly turned earth and wet cardboard. The grass on one lawn turned a sickly brown color as lightning snaked across the sky.
“I think we better move on,” John said as he returned to the driver’s seat. His voice was heavy with resignation.
“What about the rest of the townspeople?” Madeline said.
“There’s only so much we can do here before we get in the way. I hate to say it, but they’re on their own.”
More cumulonimbus towers shot up to the northwest of town and to the east. Out of curiosity he opened up his laptop computer and checked for a current radar image. New thunderstorm warnings popped up to the north and east and more tornado warnings appeared northeast of town. He doubted anyone had the stomach to track down the new storms.
“Does this mean your friend didn’t pray?” Captain said.
John could not tell if his friend was being sarcastic or not.
“I don’t know,” Madeline said. “I should call her and check up on her anyway.” She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Janet’s number.
“She’s not answering,” she said after leaving a voicemail. “Hope she’s okay.”
Chapter Ten
For days afterward, Madeline’s mind reeled with thoughts of the damage in Ingot as well as the search for Jacqueline’s dog. Although she never got to know the woman on a personal level, she hoped this particular event would not send Jacqueline emotionally over the edge.
With a heavy conscience, Madeline escorted her mother through the front doors of the Spirit of Grace Church. Attending this weeknight’s healing event was not her choice, but her mother talked it up for a week straight. Madeline knew that the only way she would hear the end of it was by going. Her mother was in her late forties, with wavy, black, shoulder-length hair, eager brown eyes, and ruddy cheeks.
As they passed through the narthex, all Madeline wanted to do was slip silently into the back of the sanctuary. Her mother had other plans and dragged her to an empty spot in the middle. Instead of pews there were wood-backed chairs that formed a semi-circular arc around the stage. The chairs were not full and she kept watch on Jared up in front. Jared rocked back and forth on his heels behind the podium and wore blue jeans and a black tee shirt with the words “Embrace the fire” on the front in bright orange lettering. The pastor of the church, Dennis Anbusch, paced across the stage and chatted on a cell phone. To Madeline, the two men looked like restless whirlwinds ready to tear into an unsuspecting community of believers.
Madeline did not see Jacqueline in the audience and she wondered if she would ever see her around here again. The crowd was split evenly between regular attendees of the church and curious people from the neighboring towns. In all, she saw two elderly men in wheelchairs, a woman walking with a limp and a cane, and another man with a walker. The walker was collapsed and propped up at the end of one of the rows.
The worship leader, Alicia Benning, stood on the far left side of the stage and began singing into the microphone as soon as the pastor left the area. Her voice was unique but beautiful, and when she sang she would often close her eyes and became very expressive with her hands. The first song she sang tonight would be one of several, and although it was upbeat, Madeline knew each song was picked to work the crowd into a particular mood. In time, the music slipped into more repetitive and slower moving songs as if to lull the crowd into a state of hypnosis.
As the songs progressed, many attendees raised their hands in the air. Madeline watched her mother join in, but she kept her own arms crossed for the entire set. It was a subtle act of defiance and it drew more than a few stares. She was used to the stares by now and she repaid their looks with a searing smile of her own. After all, in the vernacular of Jared’s world, she had been designated as being “hard to receive.” It meant she was unwilling or unable to receive the blessings and joy that would surely pour out from the fountain of grace that Jared would open with a sledgehammer in a few minutes.
The music nearly lulled her to sleep. According to Jared, the music opened one up to receive God’s blessings, but she knew it was a page straight out of a hypnosis book. As the last song ended, the crowd eased themselves back into their seats, the lights dimmed, and Jared paced the stage like a nervous lion waiting for his handlers to open his cage door. After a few introductory words from Pastor Anbusch, the lion pounced.
“I was sitting in my office earlier this week, struggling to put together a message for you tonight,” Jared said. “As I sat there, Sister Benning came to my office and said she had a word for me. I asked her what it was and she said wind. Wind? I thought to myself. I sat there a few minutes and then the scene of Acts 2 came to me. You remember the scene where the apostles are sitting around and the Holy Spirit comes upon them with a rush of wind and tongues of fire?”
Jared got an excited look in his eyes and a few people nodded their heads in affirmation. He studied their reactions
and paced the stage. “Wouldn’t it be great to have that here? So I started doing some reading. I started lookin’ at books of revivals. Lots of them. Know what they all had in common? Their leaders got outta the way. Think about it. Did Peter have all the words on Pentecost? Did Peter have all the power and then give it to everyone else? No. He gave a speech but only after he got outta the way. Who’s with me?”
He gazed out at the crowd again. “I bet you know where I’m going with this. Then another thought came to me. It was as if God said to me, Jared, why are you holding Me back? The people are ready.”
He paused for dramatic effect and with it came scattered applause. Madeline used the opportunity to open up a notebook and took furious notes. Her mother elbowed her in the side and sent her pen jetting across the page and onto the floor.
“And then it hit me,” Jared said. “I am holding back.” He paused for effect again and repeated the sentence in a hushed tone. He swept his hands out to the crowd. “I’m holding you back.” Then he pointed at the ceiling. “Worst of all, I’m holding Him back.”
Madeline picked up her pen and looked around. There seemed to be a palpable sense of urgency in his message and her mother leaned forward as if to hang on his every word.
“Then I said to myself, why am I doing this? Am I not supposed to open the doors of heaven? What if it is my job to open those doors and let the winds of heaven roar into this place? Who’s with me?”
He urged the crowd on by repeating the phrase again and more people nodded or said amen in agreement. In the background, Alicia wandered over to the keyboard and began to play some notes at a low volume. Jared’s hand gestures became more animated as his talk went on. He worked the crowd like nothing Madeline had ever seen. It was in that moment that she knew something else was at work in the room and it was anything but God.
Jared lifted up his hands toward the ceiling as if to plead for something. “Lord, these people came here tonight to hear from You. To see You. To receive a healing from You. But I’ve been holding You back. I’ve been the one putting You in a box. I’m the one who needs to get out of the way. Lord, let this crowd feel the full force of Your glory.”
Race the Sky Page 6
