Tags
Joplin, Landboard, MO, Mountainboard, Power Kite, Schiffendecker
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. E. Abbey
Thinking back on yesterday I suppose we could have avoided this traumatic situation, but the words from my friend days earlier deterred me “you can’t let tornado’s control your life”. There was a throbbing headache behind my eyes and I was aware of my irritable mood, but I chalked it up as being wimpy due to the obvious pressure changes. Besides, just that morning several people said that the chance of a tornado was really low. Putting our three-year old monster tornado fears away we went out for a mountain boarding/kiting adventure! We began our journey out to the Schiffendecker Park, a field downtown about twenty minutes away from home, our car packed with our board and two kites.
The wind was whipping around as we walked out unto the field, the kite was like a wild horse bucking around in the wind as I tried to settle the material and straighten the strings. Flinging itself wildly around me I found myself several times becoming its prey as it strangled my neck in the strings. Once I was able to release the beast it took off into the sky with its wings full of wind, with a jerk it began to tow Ty on the mountain board. He attempted to control the kite, carving back and forth as they raced across the field leaving a cloud of dust. I could faintly hear his howls of joy and fear as he jumped and caught almost four feet of air! Again and again we relaunched and sprinted across the field, until the wind began to calm and he could no longer
hold his arms up.
As we began to untie the strings from the kite and fold it up, Ty looked into the sky noticing the low clouds and orange tint. With fear in his voice he ordered we work quicker, we still had to get back to the car a mile across the field. The air around us had a strange but familiar energy, it was the kind of complete stillness that makes one’s hairs stand up on end. As I grabbed the bar to reel in the strings, he spoke again but this time with urgency ” forget it, just carry it and RUN”! The force and desperation of his request made my stomach flip, I grabbed my pack and the bar, whistled for my dog and charged across the field towards our car. The humidity made my jeans cling to legs making it difficult to open my stride, the air was heavy creating it hard to breathe, my backpack felt heavy and the long strings were trailing behind me. All of a sudden I was living out a nightmare I’ve had so many times growing up. Being chased by a storm but not being able to get away because it felt like I was running in quicksand. The realization made me sick and I slowed to a walk and looked behind. He was just about caught up and yelled “faster”! Jumping back into my sprint I whistled again for my little dog to keep up and then set my sights on the car, it felt like miles away. Suddenly I hear the sad wailing of tornado sirens and both my body and mind goes numb. As we approach the car I yell for him to get out the keys as I unsuccessfully try to wind up the string. We all clamber in, with me in the backseat tangled in string and Ty and the dog up front. We spin out on the gravel road and charge for the main black top. The cars were moving too slow and our hearts were racing in panic as we approached an intersection and blared our horn. Dont they see the skies?! Dont they remember what happened three years ago? We get out to the main road and speed off towards a shelter that we had scouted out earlier that day. Looking out the back window towards the orange skies, I see a grey/purple funnel. A long skinny tail that quickly becoming longer and wider, gasping I yell for him to drive faster and forget the shelter. We would get cut off if we tried to go there. Our phones were loud and consistent with texts from worried friends and alerts from the weather radar to take shelter. It began to rain as we picked up speed, laying on the horn, going through red lights and weaving through traffic. Were we actually trying to outrun this thing? Eyes glued on the road and knuckles white on the steering wheel, he skillfully maneuvers us through town. We get into our neighborhood and there is state patrol on the roadsides and we can see people scurrying to their home or shelters. One woman is holding open her cellar door yelling in a panicked voice for her dog. As we approach our home I grab our phones and dog, I bolt to the door and we both make it inside hysterically running for the basement as the sirens are still blaring. Grabbing our boulder pads we huddle under our climbing wall, awaiting for impact. Sitting there in silence I feel the fear come out of me in the form of a sob and uncontrollable tears, the amount of emotion locked inside me could not be restrained. I cried out of fear, for destruction, for the loss of life and for once again escaping the wrath of a tornado. The sirens persist for another hour as we sit numbly on the cold basement floor responding to loved ones that yes indeed we were ok. The sirens subsided and as we walked outside into the sunshine, we saw a beautiful rainbow. I took it as a sign a promise from God that we were going to be ok. We praised the Lord for life and protecting our family once again.