Brother and Sister_(4)

Brother and sister

As I look back at my life this seems like it happened three hundred years ago. My sister Shela and I lived in a nice little three bedroom house in a small town in east central Nebraska with mom. We had lost dad about the time I had turned ten. Mom worked long hours and double shifts in a retirement home. She would work extra shifts when she could just to make ends meet.


I was coming up on my nineteenth birthday and sis had just turned eighteen a couple of months ago. We always joked that mom and dad were part rabbit. We were born ten months apart.


Neither one of us was popular in school. We didn’t do sports, dances, or hang out with the rest of the crowd. Sis was five foot six and just a tiny bit heavy. Not fat, just not a twig. She weighed around130 pounds. Her jet black hair hung down to her shoulders. I was five foot seven and weighed about 135 pounds. My hair was short and light brown. We both wore glasses. Neither one of us would win a beauty contest.
We were just ordinary farm kids that had ended up in the city after dad died. We were both considered nerds and dwebs by everyone in school and everyone let us know it all the time despite the fact Shela was a straight “A” student.


Shela and I got home from school on a Friday afternoon about three thirty. It was the middle of January and the weather was colder than the middle of a glacier. It was already dark, the wind was blowing and the snow was starting to fall and be whipped and whirled around by the wind. The radio and television stations were telling everyone to get inside and stay there. This was going to be a blizzard to end all blizzards. Everyone was cautioned to have extra food, a second heat source, extra blankets, flashlight batteries, candles and anything else to protect themselves from this ugly storm. The weather man was calling for five to seven feet of snow with thirty to fifty mile an hour winds and a wind chill of ninety five plus below zero.


As soon as we walked in the door we sat about getting all the fire wood in that we could find a place for. The house was heated with an oil furnace but we used wood as much as we could to keep down the cost. Besides if the power went out there was no blower to circulate the heat. Shela sat out the oil lamps, and all the candles and flashlights she could find while I jumped into my car and made my way uptown to get more lamp oil, candles, batteries and food. We had found a note from mom saying that she might have to stay at work until the storm was over. She could fill in for someone that couldn’t make it into work if need be.


The driving was treacherous; the streets were slick and drifted with snow. The wind was blowing and drifting the snow so bad I couldn’t see where I was going half the time. Thankfully I only had to go about six blocks to the local grocery store.


I rushed into the store and grabbed anything I thought we might need, food, lamp fuel, candles, matches, snack food, soda, batteries two cartons of cigarettes, and more food. It only took me about thirty minutes in the store but when I came back out to head home I almost didn’t get my car out of the parking lot. Needless to say I hurried home as fast as I dared so I could get in out of the storm.


Sis had the wood stove going good and it was warm and cozy inside. We hurriedly got everything in out of the car and then I forced the car up onto the lawn so the snowplow wouldn’t hit it. We didn’t have a driveway so we had to park on the edge of the street. I shuddered at the thought of them ripping the whole side off my car with the blade of their plow. My car wasn’t much but it was mine, bought and paid for. I had worked my ass off last summer for a contractor to get it and I didn’t want it ruined.


We had just started to fix something to eat when the phone rang and Shela grabbed it. “Hello, oh hi mom did you get to work alright? Ya we’re fine big brother got brave and went uptown and brought back some more emergency supplies. Ya he’s home now, he parked his car clear up on the lawn. He said he didn’t want the snowplow hitting it. Nope, I’m just starting to fix dinner. I hope the electricity doesn’t go out for a while yet. They did? That means you’ll be there for a while. No we started the wood stove when we got home. Ya we’ll be fine, don’t worry about us just don’t you try to get home in this storm.


Mom, we’re big kids now and we can take care of ourselves. We have food, water, and half the living room is full of wood for the stove. I know it’ll be a mess but we wanted the wood inside so we wouldn’t have to go outside after it. Okay talk to you later, bye.”


“Mom says they want her to stay there all night if she can. Some people from the day shift that live outside of town stayed and almost everyone for the midnight shift has called in already. They’re hoping that they have enough people there to get by until this is over with and the roads are opened up again. She suggested we close off the bedrooms, nail a blanket over the doors, and sleep on the floor in the living room near the stove if the power goes out.”


We had just finished eating and putting the washed and dried dishes away when suddenly the lights blinked out. It was pitch black everywhere. Shela screamed as I instantly dug in my pocket for my lighter.


“Don’t panic, I’ll get the lamps lit, it’s no big deal” I said as I flicked my lighter open and thumbed the spark wheel to set fire to the wick. I lit the oil lamps in the kitchen and the living room. Then armed with a flashlight we moved our mattresses from our beds and onto the living room floor. As Shela spread sleeping bags over the mattress I closed the doors to all three bedrooms and the dining room. I hung a blanket over all the doors to help keep the heat in the area where we were. We had piled extra blankets and clothing on the floor nearby. It was crowded but cozy.


By nine o’clock the wind was shrieking and howling. The house would shudder from time to time from a particularly strong blast of wind. The snow had covered the bottom half of all the windows. Outside the windows it was pitch black.


Shela wouldn’t admit it but I think she was scared. Every hard gust of wind she would tense up with fear. Finally I moved around behind her and as a gust of wind hit I gently put my arms around her in a hug.


“Don’t worry sis it won’t get you in here, everything will be fine.” She tensed up for a second then melted into my arms.


“I’ve never seen a storm this bad. I hope the roof stays on the house and no trees fall on us.