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"She ain't there, boss." George told him.
"What do you mean?" Lance questioned, his eyes darting to him.
"I think Chico can tell you best, let's get back now." George encouraged.
Lance wiped his tears, now a fear hit him like he'd never known. A tornado? The house was gone, and where was Trudy?
They rode quickly back to the ranch and Chico was sitting on what was left of the front porch. Around him was the shattered pieces of a good size ranch house.
Lance's jaw dropped, his eyes widened, and fear spread through him like a hot knife. He quickly dismounted and ran up to Chico, "Where is she?"
Chico's head dropped. "Boss, sit down, please…"
Lance sat on the piece of step beside Chico, eager to hear what had happened.
"It was about two weeks ago when it hit. I was in the barn as usual. Mark and Bill were checking the fence lines. Miss Trudy came out of the house and wondered why it was so dark. I tried to warn her. One of the horses stirred, and that's when it hit."
"She's—"
"I do not know. I looked around at the barn when I looked back, the house was gone, and she was too. We searched but we didn't find her."
"Gone?" Lance repeated. "Gone?" he stood up and jerked Chico up by the collar, "Where?"
"I do not know boss. Every day we've been out looking for her. Some of the neighbors saw we were hit and stopped off to help us look for her. We couldn't find her. We covered the whole ranch and found nothing. But she was there, I saw her. I talked to her just before—"
"You're telling me the tornado took her?" Lance's face screwed up in desperation. His voice faltered.
Lance sat down on the hot ground, tears fell, but he didn't realize it again.
He shook his head, "She can't— just be gone!"
Some of the boys gathered around him, but no one seemed to know what to say.
"Lance, you need to get some rest, you'll be able to think better in the morning." George told him.
"I can't believe she's gone—"
"I know, maybe we could put fliers up on the trees around, for anyone who might have seen her." George suggested.
Lance raised his head, his eyes staring into George's. "You think she survived this?"
"It's been known to happen." George told him.
"We won't find anything but her body, George." Lance said almost like a whispered prayer.
"Then, we'll bury her proper if that's all there is." George told him. He put his arm around him and walked with him to the barn. "Take my bunk in there and get some rest, I'll bunk with the boys." George told him.
Lance nodded woodenly. He was simply going through the motions.
How could he have been so happy, so in love, and have lost it so soon? It wasn't fair!
He laid down on George's bunk, closed his eyes and didn't know another thing until daylight.
The next few days were chaos. Marty and Bill along with Lance's men started rebuilding the house. Some of the towns people saw the flier on her and came to help. They formed a couple of search parties, but Marty and Joe was worried about Lance. No one had ever seen him like this. The tornado hadn't hurt many people, got a couple of barns, and everyone truly didn't know what to say to Lance. He was so torn up; he couldn't seem to talk straight.
Lance heard the preacher talking about Trudy. "Have y'all found her body yet?"
"No, nothing."
