Content warning:
This is another of those chapters where I can't make a detailed warning without spoiling the whole chapter, how to do...
Warning about more incoming disasters and stress, I'd say.
From Petra's diary
Hope: Yeah, it's standing!
Hope: Hi, mom Emy, mom Petra and I just made a sand castle shaped like a fish!
Emma: Wow, can I see it later?
Petra: Well, I'm afraid that won't be possible. Nacho jumped on it to try to catch a butterfly, you know.
Emma: That cat has been so energetic these last few weeks! But at least he's not jumping on the computer keyboard when no one is looking anymore...
Hope: Instead, I wanted to ask you something…
Emma: Sure, what's worrying you?
Hope: The sky looks a little strange today. There won't be another tornado, right? The TV was talking about it too...
Hope doesn't ask questions like that often but, when it happens, we always take a few moments to decide what to answer. She's known since she was old enough to understand it that she was adopted, and little by little we explained to her that her birth parents were victims of the tornado that hit this province about five years ago. She isn't afraid of many things, but tornadoes are definitely one of them.
Petra: The news channel has to transmit a warning every time the odds get a little higher than usual, but it's still very unlikely that there'll actually be another tornado.
Hope: But what if it does happen?
Petra: At worst, we have a basement with really thick walls, and nothing can happen down there even if a tornado passes right over our heads!
Hope: ...
Seeing that my tactic wasn't effective at all, Emy immediately came to my rescue:
Emma: Why don't we take advantage of the bad weather to go on a trip somewhere else instead? For example, it seems like we haven't visited your uncles in Henford for ages, why don't we go now?
Hope: Oh, we can really go? Great!
I planned to work for most of the afternoon on a slightly different new prototype with Techna, but it's not like I could say no at that point.
And so it was decreed that all three of us would spend the afternoon in Henford, knowing that on a Saturday my siblings were for sure at the central square busy with some local fair.
Hope: Hi! Are you a neighbour of uncle Alec?
We immediately found Alec, he was hanging around the square with his neighbours. It took a bit longer to locate Nico instead, apparently he was asked to be the judge for some giant-vegetable contest and was busy discussing with some participants. Honestly, he didn't seem to be doing too well.
Petra: No way, did they really appoint you to be a judge?
Nico: (worried) Yes. But I don't know anything about pumpkins!
Petra: C'mon, what's the problem? The bigger they are, the better, right?
Nico: In theory, yes. But let's hope for the best, people here always start fights during these competitions…
In the end, a pumpkin of truly remarkable size won, it took two farmers and a big wheelbarrow to transport it back to its owner's place. It's nice to see that in places like this they still manage to grow such amazing products despite the hail becoming more and more frequent; tomorrow they will certainly all celebrate with an equally mammoth pumpkin pie.
So at the end of the day, tired and with bellies full of fruit and vegetables, we teleported back home.
Hope: Those glasses are so cool, can't you do the same to mine, mom Petra?
Petra: …
Hope: Hey, mom, are you listening?
Petra: … Sorry, I got distracted for a moment.
All day we had avoided talking about the current weather alert to keep Hope calm, but that doesn't mean I had stopped keeping an eye on the situation.
So, pretending nothing had happened, I checked the website of the regional meteorological agency. And I didn't like what I saw at all.
Petra: (tense) It's getting late, do you want to go downstairs and hear a story before bed, Hope?
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Emy must have understood what I meant. So, doing her best not to appear alarmed, she went downstairs with us, picking the thickest stories book we have at home along the way.
Hope's bedroom was the same room we had taken refuge in during the last tornado, even in the worst-case scenario everything would have been fine.
Hope didn't seem entirely convinced by our explanations, but she tried to play along anyway. Or at least that was the case until the town sirens started to sound.
Hope: There, can you hear it? The sirens have gone off too!
Emma: Oh no, it's just a precaution. It's happened a few times already, but there hasn't always been a real tornado.
Hope: But I think I can hear the wind. And then why is Techna taking shelter here too?
Techna: (rational) The teleportation network's targeting systems went down twenty minutes ago, and this is the safest place we could be.
If I'm a bit tactless sometimes, Techna can be really brutal. I'm sure they knew the reaction they were about to trigger, it's just the way they are.
Hope: Now, you see I was right! There really is an emergency!
Emma: Well... it might be dangerous to stay upstairs, but we got down here in time. Techna is right.
Hope: But… but Nacho? Did he remain outside instead?
Emma: Um…
C'mon, as if the situation wasn't bad enough already. I had simply been too busy to think about Nacho, usually he's smart enough to follow us without anyone telling him. Where could he have gone this time instead? Emy is right, recently he's been behaving in a very weird way...
Hope: (with teary eyes) We can't leave him outside, he could get hurt, right?
Techna: (resigned) I can go look for him. But I can't guarantee that we'll find him, in case he's hiding in some weird place.
Petra: (whispering) You aren't obliged to.
Techna: (whispering) My metal cover should be sturdy enough to hold a few stray fragments, it's the most reasonable thing to do.
Honestly, the wind seemed very strong at that point... Was Techna right to go outside?
Techna: Stupid, strange cat, where did he go this time? But I can't go back without him, especially in this bad weather... NACHO, CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Nacho: Meow, MEOW!
Techna: Oh, there you are... Don't try to run away again, okay?
Techna: I have to repeat myself: you really are a strange cat. How can you be so calm in a situation like this?
Techna: Here is the cat.
Nacho: Meow!
Petra: Nacho! Where have you been?
Nacho: Mh...
Petra: As if he could answer back... Anyway, thank you very much Techna, really.
Emma: Don't worry, as you can see Nacho is here too, safe and sound.
Hope: Um.
We've done our best to stay optimistic, really. But more often than not, optimism isn't really useful in changing a situation.
There's a saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Nonsense, I say. Anyone who knows a little about statistics and atmospheric dynamics is well aware that natural disasters tend to repeat themselves more frequently in the same areas instead.
And so a tornado hit us again. To be precise, this time we found ourselves much closer to its path than the last one.
Now I don't have time to write more, my dear diary, we'll have to work twice as hard as before for a while, I fear...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Six months later…
Petra: Hey, Techna, do you think we can move this whole wreck this time? With this suit, I should be as strong as you, bringing it in the matter recomposer room should be easy!
Techna: For the moment, I'd rather retrieve some of that metal and reassemble it into a plate to add to the roof.
Petra: The Smiths, down the street, need a new roof too. Why don't we just recompose it whole?
Techna: Today the wind is very weak, we don't have a sufficient electricity output at the moment.
Petra: That's so frustrating...
It will definitely take a while before we can return to normal, that's for sure...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
§HermioneSims§ corner
I know, I know, another tough chapter... and I can't say much for a while too, the plot is quite complicated at this point. Have I said already that the end is approaching?
I opened this corner to say that most of the buildings in that last screenshot were taken from the gallery, but I lost the references, sorry! I rebuilt the Millers' house myself instead, more details in the following chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Non-registered readers can also comment. All comments are subject to manual approval by me, so don't worry if your comment doesn't immediately show up ;)