The roof that Dean Tucker had just installed was gone, completely ripped off. Siena worried about the weather pouring into the building.
A wall on the anchor end of the block looked gone, just totally missing.
Siding on one façade had blown clean off. What once looked neglected now looked almost bombed out.
Where did Aunt Libby go from here? And was she okay? Siena had no idea what mess the twister had caused outside of downtown.
Siena’s eyes wandered down to the end of the street. She gasped. It almost made her dizzy. The landscape was so altered it made her question her own vision.
The grocery store was leveled. Not the roof, not broken glass, just leveled. There was debris everywhere, but the building had been obliterated.
“Oh my God, Barton’s,” Hope said. She quickly got out her phone.
“Greg.” Her boyfriend Greg was the only law enforcement in town.
“Yeah, I’m okay, but there’s major damage downtown. No, I’m okay, I promise. Yes, of course.”
Hope ended the call and turned to them. “We’re supposed to be careful. Watch out for downed lines, don’t touch anything.”
“But what if someone was in the store?” Siena said.
“Yeah, let’s get over there and see if we can help, see anything.”
They heard a different kind of siren now. The wail of the tornado siren was continuous. The scream of emergency vehicles pulsed over the top of it.
“Where’s Dean?” Hope said.
Siena’s memory raced to where she’d seen him last. “He was in this morning. Before all this, he was always the first one down here.” Siena had gotten used to the greeting from Dean Tucker.
“HairDo or Dye,” Viv said. And they all turned their focus from one end of the street to another. The salon was there, unlike the total decimation of the grocery store.
J.J. worked at HairDo or Dye. She had likely already been in for the morning. Siena tried to recreate who she had seen before she went into the store. Were people missing? As she processed, Viv, Hope, and Tag headed toward the salon.
“There, there’s J.J.,” Viv yelled. And J.J. emerged with the owner, Shelly. J.J. supported the older woman.
“Oh, my goodness, are you okay?” Hope asked.
J.J. nodded. Shelly looked shocked.
“The store is destroyed,” she mumbled.
“No, no, it’s okay,” Siena said. Siena was lying. She looked back toward the salon, and it was standing. But it looked, off, as though it was lifted and set back. It was in the same place, but it was a fun house, somehow.
The sirens in the distance got closer.
Hope and Viv circled J.J. She hugged them. Siena tried to assess and orient herself. The dark sky had cleared in almost an instant.
The tornado was gone, or it was gone from their line of sight.
Was it landing somewhere else? Where had it landed before it cut through downtown?
And then the numb feeling ended. It ended with a question. It ended with the sound of Aunt J.J.’s voice.
“Dean, where’s Dean?”
J.J. tried to pull away from them and head back to the wreck of the salon.
“What do you mean?” Hope and Viv held J.J.’s hands as she tried to explain. Words tumbled from her mouth.
