The Tornado

Westphalia, a city in Germany, a teenage girl had all her life clutched to a straw. In a dimly lit room of a rundown orphanage, Sarah, sat huddled in a corner trembling beneath the weight of her frameless body in sorrow. Her bright eyes were clouded with tears and her cheeks too were stained with the tracks of silent anguish.

Her world was shuttered the day fate dealt its cruel hand, snatching away her parents in a heart-wrenching tornado accident. Each day dawned with heavy burden as she had to face the reality. The once happy home now felt empty as every corner and the creaks of the floorboards only seemed to whisper reminders of her mum and dad.

"Daddy!" That was the last word she could recall. They were travelling home from upcountry and were chatting happily as they drove along. "The food was very delicious," mum said. Mother kept the conversation very lively as daddy just nodded in agreement with what mum said.

Hardly had we diverted from the main highway when we saw a wispy of clouds begin to gather, swirling and dancing like delicate ballerinas in the off-shore breeze. The air then grows with heavy anticipation making the atmosphere charged with a lot of energy. Suddenly a gust of wind rushes across the road stirring up dust and debris in its wake.

Dad, intrigued by this phenomenon, he drove even faster but the wind was stronger. The once gentle breeze transformed into a raging tempest, as the winds whip around faster and faster, gathering strength with each passing moment making it difficult to navigate through.

Soon, all hell broke lose as daddy couldn't withstand the outside pressure. Inside the car, the atmosphere was thick with tension as the driver pressed down the accelerator making the vehicle hurtle forward through the desolate landscape making it even more closer to the heart of the storm.

Raindrops lashes against the windshield with a deafening roar, revealing the view a head in a torrential downpour. But still, daddy still presses on, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the road ahead with a steely determination. He navigates through with a skill born of necessity, weaving between the fallen branches and shattered debris with precision of a tightrope walker. The winds buffet the car from side to side, threatening to tip it over with each gust.

In the amidst of all these, a once stately tree is uprooted from the earth with a thunderous roar, torn from its moorings as if plucked from the ground by an angry giant. The tree then moves in the air with terrifying speed and precision, its branches thrashing wildly like the arms of a desperate creature reaching out for salvation.

The driver, who was my father, still had his hands gripped on the steering wheel focused unaware of the pending calamity that was about to befall on us. Suddenly, with a sickening thud, the tree collides with the car, the impact shaking the vehicle like a rag doll in the jaws of a beast. Metals groan and glass shutters as the car is engulfed by the sheer force of collision.

I was helped out of the car by two heavy built gigantic men. The scene outside was heart-thickening as the pristine car was now a twisted wreck of mangled metal and shuttered glass.