"Tornado Warning!" is yet another true episode in the sexual story of my life. I am purging my soul. Telling of my past "sins" is part of my repentance.
I am deathly afraid of tornadoes. For good reason. I am not afraid of a little blowing, but get real! Tornadoes are just too damn frightening.
A few years back, on one afternoon in May, twelve people were killed by a tornado in the little community where I grew up. I knew two of the people who died quite well. One was a young boy I had babysat on occasion. The other was a girlfriend. The tornado tossed her car several hundred feet into the air. A car is the worst place to be in a tornado. A septic tank is the best place to be.
Houses were reduced to total rubble and it took the National Guard a month to open the town. I happened to be away at college when the tornado struck but I rushed home when I heard the news. We lived several miles south of the center of the town and our home was spared.
Later that summer there were numerous tornado "watches" and "warnings." There had been very little advance warning of the killer tornado and now everyone was overly cautious.
On a hot and humid day in mid-July that summer my father asked that I stay home and await the arrival of the septic man. My father wanted the tank cleaned, for reasons of preventative maintenance, and someone had to be home.
"Honey, all you have to do is show the guy where the septic tank is," my father instructed. "And pay him when he's finished."
"OK, daddy dearest, but he better not take all day. I want to go water skiing on the lake with my friends."
"The weather report says severe storms later today, Honey. I don't want you going out on the lake if it looks nasty."
"I hear you, daddy dearest."
We had a pool and I was skimming the surface with the net because I don't like to share the water with bugs. I wanted to float on a raft and read my book. I heard the big truck pull into the driveway. It had a big "SSS" on it and as I got closer I could see the wording underneath, "Shorty's Septic Service."
The guy who got out of the truck was huge. I like to watch wrestling, it's just so much more exciting than other sports, and this guy reminded me of a particular wrestler. Except this dude was clean-shaven and he was so strikingly handsome, he was almost pretty like a woman.
"Hi. My father asked me to show you where the septic tank is. What's your name? No, let me guess. I bet your name is Shorty."
"Yes, ma'am, that it is. How did you know? Have you heard about me?"
"No, I haven't heard about you, whatever that means. Just a woman's intuition. What are you, about six-seven?"
"Actually, ma'am, I'm six foot, eight and one-quarter inch. And eleven and one-eighth inch."
"Huh? Well, why do they call you Shorty then?"
"OK, young lady, I forgive you. You're blond. It's a long, very long, story. Never mind. You don't want to know, really. I'm just a septic tank cleaner. What are you, a model or something?"
"Yeah, right. I'm starting to like you already. No, I'm not a model. I'm the brainy blonde type. You know, like Sharon Stone. So she forgot her panties once. All us blondes have temporary memory lapses. I suppose you cleaned Sharon Stone's septic tank. She used to live just down the road."
"Yes, I surely did clean Sharon's tank," he said with a wink and a smirk. "Now, where's yours? But first, can I use your bathroom?"
"Sure," I responded and took him inside and pointed the way.
When he was finished I went in the bathroom to wash my hands. Shorty got grease or something on my hand when we shook.
"Hey, dipshit, you left the toilet seat up," I screamed at Shorty. "Do you know how the septic tank cleaner broke his back? He was getting a drink of water and a girl slammed the toilet seat on his head. Get the message, dude?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry. It won't happen again."
"Damn right it won't happen again. You can take a piss outside if you have to go again."
I took Shorty to the backyard and pointed to the spot my father had marked.
"Young lady," Shorty growled, "You have to dig."
"Dig? Dig what?"
"You have to dig around the top. The top is probably six inches under the ground and has to come off. That's how I get the big hose in. Get it?"
"Yeah, I get it. The top comes off. Like this?" I was wearing jean cut-offs and a blue racerback bra that looks like a bikini top so I didn't bother with something over it. I undid the front close.