Jessie And The Tornado Ch 01

If you are looking for a story filled with sex, then you are probably in the wrong place. I don't write sex stories. I (hopefully) write interesting stories that contain sex. Someone once said that women need a reason to have sex, while men only need a place. Like most generalities, I think that is generally wrong. I think that people need to have a reason to have sex and that if they care for each other, then the love and sex will be even better. All the participants are at least 18.

The first chapter is, admittedly, short. This is to just introduce you to the two main characters, and give you some information about the dynamics between the two. The remaining chapters are longer.

Oh, and if you are looking for non-stop, continuous banging, then you will be disappointed, and probably don't even need to start. There are plenty of those stories available elsewhere. This is NOT a "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am," story.

While there may be some who question -- at least early in the story -- whether or not this is actually a "Romance," given some of what happens and some of the interaction between the two main characters, I hope you wait until the end of the story before you judge if this is the correct classification or not.

I would also be very remiss if I didn't thank BeachBaby179 for her suggestions, guidance and clarifications in making this story much better. She is an outstanding editor, and this story is much better for her hard work. Thank You Beach Baby!

*

"Oh God, please let her be alive! Please let her be safe and alive!" I said in a silent plea.

I immediately resumed digging through the shambles that was left of her parent's home.

It had only been a little over 30 minutes since I left my house, located next door to her parents. Just a quick trip to the post office to pick up a package I had to sign for since it was certified mail. The post office was supposed to close in less than an hour. If I didn't get the package today I would have to wait until Tuesday, since Monday was a holiday.

I had called Jessie before leaving to let her know I would be right back, and even offered to take her with me.

"I will be FINE, Sam," she stressed, "I've just got one more school paper I have to finish, and I will be FINE!

"Then we will have the rest of the long weekend . . . together."

Graduation from college was less than two weeks away, and I knew how important her school work was to Jessie. So against my better judgment, I listened to her.

CRAP -- Why the hell did I listen to her?

I mean it's not like our part of Georgia never had bad storms before, but this particular storm -- according to the weather prognosticators -- was supposed to be especially intense.

This line of storms had already produced tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama and other parts of Georgia, but who would have ever believed it could come so quickly -- and so savagely?

When I left the house, the sun was still shining on what was the warmest day of the year. In fact, The Weather Channel said it was the warmest day in May in over 50 years. Just a beautiful Saturday morning.

The post office was only about five minutes away, and there were only a few people in line, so I only had to wait about seven or eight minutes. Even so, when I walked back outside I could not believe how much conditions had changed.

Before I left my house, there were some strong wind gusts but the sun was still shining and it was HOT!

Now, some 10-15 minutes later, the difference was startling. The wind was blowing hard enough to rock my pickup truck where it stood, the temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees, and dark, angry clouds had obscured the sun.

I jumped in my truck and turned on the radio as I raced back to my house.

"Winds are gusting up to 50 to 60 miles per hour, folks, and this is becoming a major storm," I heard the weatherman say on the radio.

Then I heard the "beep-beep-beep" that signified an emergency bulletin.

Almost immediately, I heard the weatherman begin to report the "tornado watch" which we had been under for the last few hours has been upgraded to a "tornado warning." He again explained that tornado watch just meant that conditions were right to possibly generate a tornado, while tornado warning meant that a tornado has actually been spotted.

I was almost halfway back home when two things happened. First, it began raining so hard I could barely see 10 feet in front of me, and second my cell phone rang. It was Jessie.

Due to the wind and rain, I had to slow to a crawl while trying to talk to Jessie on the phone. The rain was pounding so hard on the outside of my truck that I had to struggle just to hear her.

"Sam, where are you Sam?" she cried out when I answered. I could hear the fear in her voice.

I explained I was only about a mile away, but was having to drive at a snail's pace because of the conditions.

"I'm scared, Sam. I mean, really scared," she blurted out. "I have never seen anything like this before."

Despite the conditions outside, I started driving a little faster.

She said the trees outside were bent nearly double, and that some of the wind gusts were actually rocking the two-story house her parents owned.

"Jessie, are you upstairs in your room?" I asked.

When she said, "yes" I had to start nearly screaming in order for her to hear me over the howling winds on both ends of the phone.

"Jessie, go downstairs NOW!" I told her.

She said she would, after grabbing her laptop.

"No, Jessie," I yelled, "Go NOW!"

It only took her about 30 seconds to reach the downstairs level, and she asked, "Now what?"

"Go to your parent's room, grab the blankets off the bed, jump into the tub in their bathroom and cover yourself up. NOW, Jessie, NOW!"

Since her parents didn't have a basement in their home, I knew this was probably the safest location left in the house.

By now, even as slow as I was driving I couldn't have been more than a half-mile from our two houses.

Abruptly, the wind and rain stopped. I could also hear over the phone that it must have stopped raining at Jessie's house as well.

The sky now turned a sickly yellowish-green in color.

Unbelievably, I heard Jessie laugh.

"Get in the tub?" she said, "I think you just want me to take my clothes off." I could hear the laughter in her voice.

I decided that humor was better than the fear I had been hearing, so I began to respond in kind.

I knew what the sudden cessation in wind and rain, and the yellowish-green tint to the sky meant. I had been through one tornado before, years earlier.

"Well, that would be one way to get you naked," I quipped.

"Anytime you want to get me naked," she said, only now I could hear how her voice had turned serious, "all you have to do is ask. I promise it won't be like last time."

I was just about to respond when I saw a car, about 100 feet in front of me, suddenly go airborne.

I never saw a funnel cloud, but one second the car was driving along, then it was flying about a foot off the ground. It dropped back onto all four wheels, but was now sideways across the shoulder of the road.

Seconds later, I actually felt my truck lift slightly off the ground, then drop back to the pavement. It couldn't have risen more than a few inches, but it was still enough to almost make me lose control.

At almost the same instant, I heard a loud roaring sound (like a freight train) coming over the phone, then a horrible crashing sound, along with Jessie's scream!

Then . . . nothing!

"JESSIE!" I yelled, over and over into the phone, but there was no response. No sound, no dial tone, nothing!

I frantically began hitting the redial button, but there was no ring, nothing at all.

Just a few seconds later, a large tree toppled onto the roadway, completely blocking it. Some of the limbs actually hit the hood of my truck before I could slam to a stop.

I continued trying to call Jessie over the cell phone, to no avail.

Finally, I just put the cell phone in my pocket, leaned over and took out a pair of leather gloves from the glove compartment, then opened the door and ran over to the other car. The driver assured me he was fine, just a little shaken up, so I started running to Jessie's house.

It had started raining again, but not nearly as hard as it had been. Even so, before I was halfway to Jessie's house I was soaked.

I continued running, trying to dodge downed trees and tree limbs, plus wreckage I knew was from other homes in our subdivision. Luckily the power lines and phone lines were buried underground, so at least I didn't have to worry about downed power lines.

I live in a four-bedroom, single-story ranch-style home with a separate two-car garage. A covered walkway about 10 feet long joins the house to the garage. My house, unlike Jessie's, also had a large basement.

Jessie's parents live in a large, four-bedroom, two-story house beside mine in a cul-de-sac. One other house shared the cul-de-sac with us, a single-story, like mine.

In the few seconds I stopped to look, it appeared the other house looked fine. I couldn't see any damage at all to it.

My house had a lot of the shingles ripped off, but the roof looked okay.

My garage was gone. I don't mean it was destroyed or demolished or just in a pile of rubble. I mean you could not tell there had ever been a garage there at all. My late wife's Mercedes and my riding lawn mower, both of which had been inside the garage, appeared unharmed. Amazingly, the covered walkway, which is just held up by some flimsy two-by-fours, appeared undamaged.

Jessie's house . . . Oh, God, Jessie's house!

The entire upper story was missing.

It was almost as if someone had taken a giant knife and sliced off the upper part of the house.

It seemed impossible to believe that anyone . . . anyone could have survived in what was left of the house. The destruction seemed so complete I was almost paralyzed with fear for several seconds before my training as both a former Marine and a present day fireman/EMT kicked in and I forced those thoughts deep inside.

I began running again until I reached her house then ignored splintered wood as I began frantically digging through the rubble that was all that remained. The entire front door and much of the wall around it was simply gone.

"Oh God, please let her be alive! Please let her be safe and alive!" I said in a silent plea.

I'm not sure how long it took to reach her parent's bathroom where I was hoping Jessie had managed to take cover. It probably only took 10 minutes, but it seemed like I was digging through rubble and tossing splintered wood aside for hours.

Within a few minutes my forearms were covered with numerous little cuts and scratches. Luckily, the gloves extended well past my wrists.

There was no floor left above what remained of the house. From the moment I entered the house, open sky was above me.

Finally I reached the door to the bathroom. Amazingly, the door opened although the wall nearly fell forward when I started to swing the door open. I grabbed the door jam and pulled it towards me, and the entire section of wall just collapsed. I barely ducked through the doorway before the wall fell.

The tub was completely covered with splintered wood, along with sheetrock from the missing ceiling.

I shoved all that aside until I could see a blanket covering something in the tub.

Praying that I would not find just a body, I gingerly pulled the blanket down some.

Jessie!

Her long blonde hair was almost completely covering her face, but I gently brushed the hair to the side until I could see her.

She had a bump on her head that was bleeding some, but I could clearly see her chest rising and falling as she was breathing.

I think I began crying in relief.

"Oh, Thank God, Jessie, you're alive," I said out loud.

At the sound of my voice, Jessie's eyes begin fluttering before they opened and she started looking around.

She leaned up and put her arms around my neck.

"Sam, I have never been so scared in my life! I thought I was going to die," she said.

Then she started looking up at the open sky immediately above us.

"How did I get outside?" she asked, very puzzled.

That was when I explained she wasn't outside. She was still inside her house, inside the bathtub in her parent's bathroom. Only the entire upper portion of the house had been ripped off.

"If you had still been in your room, you would have been killed," I said.

Jessie turned white as a sheet, then started saying, "You saved my life. By making me come down here, you saved my life."

Actually, that just made me feel worse. If I had been doing what her parents had asked me to do, I would have insisted Jessie go with me to the post office. Then she would not have been endangered . . . or nearly died.

I already had one death on my conscience, and the thought that another woman I was beginning to care so much for might have died . . . because of something I didn't do . . . was too horrible to even think about.

Jessie's parents had left the day before for a few days. Her mother's parents had been involved in a relatively minor traffic accident, and would probably need some assistance for a few days. So they drove to Valdosta in extreme South Georgia.

Jessie normally lived on campus at the college about three hours away. Usually she stayed there on weekends as well, but since this was a three-day weekend she decided to come home, arriving last night well after midnight.

Since college graduation was less than two weeks away, Jessie said she needed to stay and do some final school papers. Her parents had agreed -- but had asked me to look after Jessie until they were back. Not that she really needed anyone to look after her, since she had recently turned 22, but I had agreed.

And less than 24 hours later she could have been killed! Because I did not do what I said I would do.

To tell you the truth, thinking about Jessie made me both excited . . . and nervous. We met less than two months earlier, and were still exploring our relationship.

We began writing each other e-mails, and after a month we had a . . . well both of us were a little hesitant to call it a "date," but we did go out for dinner. Dinner went so wonderfully, we also went dancing that night.

What had begun as a wonderful time for both of us ended up . . . well disastrously is the only word that would apply.

Part of the reason -- a large part of the reason -- she decided to come home was so we could continue to explore and define our relationship. And hopefully take that relationship to the next step.

I was trying not to think about that, so I immediately reverted to my training as a fireman and Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic, and began questioning Jessie about how she felt or if she was hurt anywhere else.

Jessie kept insisting she was fine, other than the bump on her head and a rather bad headache, and I could not find any other indication of trauma.

"Can you stand up?" I asked.

Jessie got out of the tub with my help, but then I noticed she was barefoot. No shoes.

"I'm taking you to the hospital," I told her. She began complaining, saying she was fine, but I interrupted.

"Listen, young lady," I told her rather forcefully, "you have possible head trauma, so we are going to the hospital -- and I don't want to hear any complaints."

Jessie quieted down. For once.

At least until I reached down and picked her up in my arms.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

I explained that since she had no shoes and all her belongings were scattered probably across half of Georgia, I would have to carry her.

"The ground outside is covered with broken glass and thousands of splinters," I advised.

"You can't walk, so I am going to have to carry you."

Then she insisted I put her down for a moment so she could grab her laptop, which was still in the tub. I couldn't believe she had actually stopped long enough to grab it from her bedroom. Not with a tornado bearing down on her house. That, I thought, was typical Jessie!

Finally, Jessie was carrying the laptop, and I was carrying Jessie.

As we walked through the shambles of the subdivision, neither of us spoke at first. The sheer destruction was simply overwhelming. The next three houses, on the other side of Jessie's house were simply flattened, and several more were badly damaged until the last several houses simply had some shingles missing. It was obvious the tornado had only stayed on the ground for a short distance, before lifting off again.

While I was carrying her through the subdivision, Jessie explained that she had just gotten into the tub, when the tornado hit her house.

"If you hadn't yelled at me to go downstairs . . . I don't know what would have happened," she said.

Jessie's face then turned red, and she said, "Oh, crap!"

Thinking she might have another injury of some kind and I might be inadvertently hurting her, I stopped and asked what was wrong?

"Well . . . I was just thinking about what else we talked about on the phone, and I realized I wanted to do what you asked," she offered, with a big smile.

"What are you talking about? What did I ask?"

I didn't remember making a request.

"After I got in the tub, I had planned on taking all my clothes off," she smirked, then blushed again.

I think I said something about possible brain damage, but Jessie just smiled.

In just a few minutes we were back at my truck, and after putting Jessie in the cab, I grabbed my medical kit and began checking her blood pressure, respiration and other vital signs.

I just rolled my eyes at her when she offered to remove her shirt and bra so I could check her heartbeat!

Relieved that everything physical appeared within normal parameters, I got in on my side and we quickly made our way to the hospital.

But not before I informed Jessie that while there was no OBVIOUS signs of brain damage, I was still a little concerned!

She stuck her tongue out at me.

Once we arrived at the hospital, I carried Jessie inside despite her continued protests that she was fine and could now walk. I also had to tell Jessie we were NOT taking her laptop inside.

Because of my status as an EMT-Paramedic with the local fire department, I knew most of the hospital staff, including many of the doctors.

As soon as I walked in, the receptionist recognized me and buzzed me back to the emergency rooms where a nurse had me place Jessie on a gurney.

"What's up Sam?" she asked.

"Her home was destroyed in the tornado, Janice, and she was trapped inside," I explained. "It took me a while to dig her out, and as you can see, she was hit in the head by debris but all vitals appear to be fine."

"He saved my life," Jessie opined to Janice, "He saved my life, then dug me out of what was left of my parent's house."

Janice and I pushed the gurney into one of the examining rooms. Within just a minute or two a doctor (one I didn't know) joined us.

Janice introduced me as a Paramedic with the fire department. I introduced Jessie and gave the doctor her vitals, after explaining about her home being destroyed.

The doctor introduced himself to both Jessie and me, then added: "You know, of course, that unless you are family you can't stay here while I do the exam?"

Before I could even say that I would wait out in the hall, Jessie had to offer her two-cents worth.

"Really, it's okay Doctor," she began. "Sam isn't family yet, but he is my fiancé! We're going to be married!"

I think my jaw must have hit the floor.

Janice says, "Fiancé!? You didn't tell me that Sam! When are you getting married?"

I began shaking my head from side to side, then grabbed the doctor by one arm, and Janice by one arm, and sort of propelled them both out the door and a few steps down the hall.