Heck, Kristi

12/16/98

writing - 6

Scary Story -

AHH! Real Twisters!

North Platte, Nebraska

5:03 p.m.

            "You can't catch me!  I'm faster and smarter than you are!" a lady bug yelled to a raven who was desperately trying to catch him.

            "Ah yes you are!  But I have friends and I can make all of my brothers come after you!"the raven cried defensively.

            The lady bug laughed and sped away.  The raven landed in a patch of dandelions and cursed the ladybug.  He looked up at the sky and shuddered.

          A icy wind blew from the north but it was still warm.  It was sometime early in August the raven knew.  For the piercing sun was at it's peak a while ago.  But he wasn't sure since no one ever keeps track of dates.  He also felt the warmth of the southerly wind increasing.  Together the two winds made a chilling reminder to the raven.

Somewhere north but near to the Platte River

5 minutes later

            When the worn out ladybug landed at his home his mother rushed out of the burrow and greeted,"My son!  you've returned and you're okay!  You must be hungry and your Uncle Fleater is here!"

            "Oh boy." Lucky thought as he went down into the tunnels made by termites some time ago.  "Uncle Fleater always had these silly notions like the world was indeed round.  Everyone knows the world is flat!" he continued thinking.

            Uncle Fleater, who was talking to his sister Falina, stopped abruptly and showed a big toothy grin at his nephew.  Uncle Fleater was short and squat.  He also had a deep voice.

            "Lucky! How's it been?" he said and held out his arms.

            "Not long enough," Lucky said with a half forced smile.

            Meanwhile, Lucky's younger siblings rushed in and pounced upon their uncle.

            "Tell us a story!" begged Lucil, the youngest ladybug.

            "Yeah!  A scary one too!" chided Lolami.

            "Okay, okay!"laughed the uncle.  He cleared his throat and began, "No other ladybug but me has seen the Black Winds of Death before."

            "Black Winds of Death?"laughed Lucky.  A glare from his mom signaled him to be silent.

            "Anyhow.  The Black Winds of Death come from the north and the south.  Whenever it's hot out and a storm gathers a lesser appears.  Though it isn't black it's still deadly."

            "Why it was last year when I was up at ol' Chipau Creek a stormed gathered.  It was a hot day I tell ya.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Then, in a matter of time a storm brewed.  It rained and poured.  It also hailed the size of our mound!  Then, the winds rose and a black whirling thing came out of the sky!  It touched down and roared right into us!  It killed four other ladybugs instantly!"Uncle Fleater concluded. 

            A loud crash came.  Lucky jumped into the air sqealling.  Lucil and Lolami screamed.

            "Sorry, I didn't mean to cause an avalanche of dishes," Falina apologized.  Lucil and Lolami were huddled in a corner.

            Lucky, who had returned to his dignified self pretended to be asleep.  Lucky grinned and walked out saying,"I wasn't scared. And there's no such thing as a Black Wind of Death, Uncle."

5 miles north of the Platte River

28 minutes later

            Lucky had decided to fly over to a new series of crop circles made by a U.F.O.

            Upon arriving he saw his best friends buzzing around the outer edge of the biggest circle.  Lucky quickly flew to them.

            The bigger ladybug spoke in a booming voice, "The sky is bluer than I have ever seen!"

            Lucky glanced up."Yeah,"he agreed.  A bird chirped a ways off and dusk was beginning to fall on the vast plains.

            "Look over yonder!" a short ladybug announced." It looks like a storm is approaching!"

            All heads swivelled to look.  The sky was beginning to get cloudy and the storm was getting to be black and showing signs of bubbling.  Lightning flashed a while away.  The thunder bounced off the rolling hills.  A shadow fell over the threesome, quietly stalking them as they talked.

            Meanwhile a black monster had snuck upon them.  It was solid black except for the beak and the orange feet that held dagger like claws.  Just as it was about to ambush them  a middle aged man and a middle aged lady approached the circles. 

            "I think here's your proof Scully that extraterrestrial life does exist," he told her.

            "Mulder, this could have been man made for publicity!"Scully insisted.  As they argued Lucky buzzed around.  Mulder swatted at Lucky and missed.  Lucky smiled and made a face but was back handed into the monster.

            Lucky was dazed as he staggered up.  He faced two red, and evil eyes glaring at him and screamed.  He quickly took flight just barely missing getting eaten by the monster.   The monster gave chase.

            If only Lucky could have heard Scully talking about the storm.

Lucky's mound

6:09 p.m.

            Meanwhile, Uncle Fleater nervously paced around.  A blinding light lit up the mound and was followed by a deafening rumble of thunder.  The mound shook and parts of the mound crumbled in.

            When the earth shook with a tremendous jolt he dashed outside and to his horror he saw a tan swirling motion of air coming directly at him.

            "Tan winds of death!"he mumbled and dashed into the mound as it came closer and closer.

4 miles north of the Platte River

7 minutes latter

            Lucky desperately tried to get away from the crow but it was useless.  He saw a clump of weeds and he hid in them.  He was glad when the crow passed over head taking no notice.

            "Hello." said a voice in a Scottish accent.

            Lucky gave a yell but was quiet when he saw it was only another ladybug.  He replied, "Hello.  I'm Lucky."

            "I'm Fletcher and this is Vortex,"Fletcher explained.  He sounded like a auctioner when he talked.  A million words a second!  "Vortex was named after a type of tornado.  See,  a vortex is where there's several tornados connected to one tornado, or funnel that never touched down, "he further explained.

            Lucky didn't know whether to laugh or to scream at Fletcher when he said that.  "You sound just like my Uncle Fleater.  He's a ninny and is full of crap.  A tornado, yeah right!  Whoever heard of such a thing?"

            Fletcher looked distressed.  "I'm shocked that you don't believe me.  As a matter of a fact, I can prove it to you."

            Lucky snickered.

            "Look over to the east, or if you don't know what that means, look over there and tell me what you see."

            "It's a dumb whirl thing."

            "Correction.  That is a tornado.  And a tornado is formed when the cold air from the north rushes south and the warm air from the south rushes north.  This causes a supercell, or storm, and when forces are bad, will make a tornado."

            "How do you know this?"Lucky wanted to know.

"Well, for one thing I hung around a human's house for a while and learned on a weather station that a tornado is just moving air!  Moving air!  And it's all because the warm air is rising but is locked in between the cold air rushing down.  This sends the warm air spiraling upwards and that's why tornados spin."

            "Aye yie yie!" Lucky screeched.  He was quite upset at how educated they were.  Lucky glanced at Vortex. 

            Vortex was a smaller version of his older brother.  He too had the Scottish accent.  They both were acute on their listening and were quite excited over the new, so - called 'tornado.'  Suddenly Vortex grew very grim.  He turned to Fletcher.

            Vortex tapped Fletcher and whisper,"There's a crow.  What should we do?"

            Fletcher looked and turned to Lucky,"Say ol' chap.  I'm kind of hungry and I know someone who is also hungry."

            "Who?"

            "Oh, just that nice, big, raven ready to attack us over there!  And a nice ol' gardener snake as well,"he replied.

            "Ha, ha, very funny you bunch of science dummies!"Lucky laughed but he saw the crow comming in behind Fletcher and Vortex.  He turned around to see the snake slithering with its tounge flicking in and out with every advance.

            The snake's scales were an olive green drab mixed with tan and gray colors.  His red tounge flicked in and out as he inched closer to Lucky.  The snake resembled a Spitfighter minus the wings.

            Fletcher and Vortex stood stiff as the crow creeped closer.  They saw it's beady red eyes flash angrily at them as if they were going to zap them at any moment.

            "Lets run!"Lucky suddenly shouted.  The sudden outburst was like someone blowing a foghorn in the library and it made the crow jump.  Lightning flashed overhead as they raced away with their pursuers hot on their heels.

            When the crow realized a snake in hot pursuit of his prize the crow turned its aggression onto the snake.

            The crow pounced upon the snake who was taken by surprise by the sudden ambush by the crow.  The snake hissed and the crow pecked at him.  Then it was a hissing and a squawking mess as the two went head to head.

            Lucky came to an abrupt halt that sent Vortex and Fletcher crashing into him.  Lucky hovered above a white daisy that was swaying gently in the ever so increasing wind.  From there they watched the crow doing a hilarious dance as he tried to kill the snake.  It reminded him of the time Lucil put ice cubes in his wings and he did an outrageous dance to get them out.

            With a quick movement the crow snatched the snake's throat and was just about to kill it when it surveyed the terrain.  He released the snake and flew off in a  hurry.  The snake shook itself and looked directly at the trio taking refuge on the daisy.  The snake looked in horror as if they would be distasteful and soon was gone and into a burrow.

            Vortex thought the snake wasn't, couldn't be afraid of them and saw much to his pleasure, a dark brownish, blackish air rushing towards them.

            "Mon ami!  There's a tornado coming Fletcher!  We're close to our labatory!  I'm going to head there and set up our canister!" Vortex hollered above the roaring noise.

            Fletcher nodded in acknowledgment.  He turned to Lucky and said,"Sounds like a freight train doesn't it?"

            "What?" came Lucky's reply.

            "The tornado's roar, it sounds like a freight train."

            "Tornados aren't real and what on earth is a freight train?"

            "It's a, aw, never mind.  I'm leaving!" Fletcher replied and took off to his labatory.

            "You're nuts!  Afraid of thunder!  It's not dangerous!" Lucky screamed at him.  Either Fletcher didn't hear or he didn't care but he didn't slow down.

Lucky's mound

6:19 p.m.

            Hail the size of their mound pelted them.  It sounded like some bombers doing an air raid over enemy territory as it smashed all the tunnels in the mound.  Lucil and Lolami were the only survivors of the pulverized termite mound.

            The hail ceased and the winds picked up even more.  The moaning of an

incoming phemenon had sideswiped the mound and was headed towards a bigger and blacker tornado.  Lucil and Lolami flew torwards the east.

Fletcher and Vortex's Science Lab due east of Lucky's mound

6:23 p.m.

            Fletcher and Vortex had just finished propping up a small canister filled with little censors to get readings off the tornado and was checking his readings on his computer.

            "It's amazing how much people know about science!  Lucky for us we met up with a designer for Microsoft!" Vortex announced eyeing their blueprint of a computer above the doorway.

            "Yes.  Oh look, wind speed increasing to a hundred and forty-five knots.  And it looks to be heading this . . ."Fletcher said, stopping midway.

            "Yes?"

            "This way!" Fletcher replied.

            Suddenly Lucil and Lolami raced into the door way.

            "The twister, it's here!" Lolami cried.

Back at the white daisy

2 minutes before

            Lucky watched with awe as the two tornados combined, making one colossal tornado.  It was rapidly approaching and before he knew it he was airborne.

            "I'm dead.  I'm dead," Lucky thought abou what Uncle Fleater had said about 'The Black Winds of Death' and moaned as he whipped around the tornado at high speeds.

            "Why couldn't I have been a U.F.O?" Lucky cried out in disapear.

            "That's an interesting question!"a voice bellowed above him.  Lucky gazed up and whimpered as he saw a cow hovering over him.

            "It's all right little guy!  I've been in several tornados and haven't died yet!" the cow laughed.

            Soon they spun right into Fletcher, Vortex, Lucil, and Lolami.  Soon there was five lady bugs and a cow in the tornado.  The cow started to sing, "Jingle Bell Rock" and was joined by the other ladybugs.  The cow thought this song was appropriate.

            "It's like winter!  So, you have got to sing a winter song!" the cow explained.  It was clear that the cow never had proper english classes.

            "It's the summer Mr. Cow!"Fletcher hollerd over the roar.  The cow just laughed.  Meanwhile Lucky was in deep thought.  Then one question puzzeled him.

            "How do we get down?"Lucky asked.

            "Well," Fletcher said, 'When the tornado dissipates, or disappears, we will do a free fall or unless we hit something."

            Just then they went over a river.  They were catapulted into the water at a great force.  They landed with a terrific splash.

            Lucky pulled Lucil and Lolami to the surface but saw no signs of Fletcher and Vortex.  "Had they drowned?  Killed on impact?  Or were they still in the tornado?"  Lucky suddenly thought.  Even though they annoyed him with their theories he was begining to like them.  "What if they're dead?  How do I keep Lucil and Lolami calm after when several members of our family has been killed?" Lucky further thought as he kept the two smaller ladybugs floating on a leaf.

            "We were begining to wonder where you were!" a voice called to them nearby.  Lucky looked and was relived to see Fletcher and Vortex gliding to them on a leaf.  The wind of the tornado pushed them to the shore.  All of them were glad that they all were safe.

            Soon the five some was back on the shore.  Their wings were wet and they couldn't fly.  To the east they saw the tornado in a very tight and thin shape.  Then it was gone.

            "Wow, that was cool!"shrieked Lucil and Lolami in usion.

            "That was the darndest thing I've ever seen!" Vortex exclaimed.

            Just then a blinding light flashed followed by a huge tremor and the noise that followed was a humongous BOOM!

            The grass lit up in a orange and yellow color as it burst into flames.  It rapidly approached the ladybugs who tried desperately to fly away.  Soon the heat, color, and the wall of flames circled around them.  There was hardly any way out, except up.

            The fire crept closer and closer.  Lucky's scream echoed off the hills as a clear patch cleared from the clouds.  Nobody could help him now.

Or can they?