"What do you mean?" I asked.
Ida said, "Look at the sky! My goodness, I think that we're really in for somethin' again!"
Both Jan and I looked out the window at that point, our expressions changed from happy and contented to anxious and concerned as we looked at the steadily darkening skies.
The wind was also still pretty strong, coming out of the west-southwest as we watched.
Right at this moment the weathermen broke in, saying that the area was placed under a tornado watch until later that evening.
Jan then stood next to me, shuddering and clung to my arm as Ida said, "I have a pretty good-sized basement, and it's pretty well-furnished...in case they blow the whistles, we can always go down there if we have to."
"Why don't we go now?" Jan asked, still shuddering.
Ida replied, "Okay," as she turned off the TV...we then followed her back down the hall to a door that led down to the basement area.
When I'd been out in the past she'd showed me the basement, it was a full basement, complete with another waterbed, a large-screen plasma TV mounted on the east wall, a pool table, another refrigerator, comfortable chairs, another long leather couch, a coffee table that had a remote on it, a telephone on a nightstand next to the bed, and shelves full of books and music, this actually was where we'd had our first encounter months ago. She also had big windows on two sides.
I noticed that a footlocker was next to the bed that hadn't been there before.
We walked down the thick-carpeted steps, I was in front this time, Jan followed, and Ida then shut the door. She then came down the steps, smiling.
"When the whistles have blown before I was out here alone so many times, I'm not scared of storms, never have been...but I admit that it's good to have somebody out here with me," Ida replied as we were walking towards the couch.
"I feel more comfortable down here," Jan said, not shuddering as much...she then came over to Ida and they hugged briefly.
We then sat on the couch--this time, Ida and Jan were next to each other...and Ida reached over to grab the remote and activate the TV.
Ida turned to the same station that was on upstairs, and the weatherman was saying that the area needed to buckle down because this storm was going to be worse than the one before, tornadoes had already been spotted in several nearby communities to the west of us.
Shuddering some again, Jan said, "This is the only thing that I don't like about bein' in Tornado Alley. This bad weather.
But," she continued, smiling at both Ida and I, "I'm glad to be safe, warm and protected by both of you. I love you both." She then leaned closer to Ida and put her head on the woman's shoulder.
"I love you too, Jan," Ida sighed, running her fingers through Jan's hair again.
"And you know I do," I said gently.
"Ida," I then asked, "please let me use your phone to call home and see how everyone there is doin'."
"Sure," Ida said as I got up off of the couch and did so. Everyone at home also was okay, they too had seen the bulletins and were prepared to go down to our own basement in case of a tornado warning.
My back was turned to the two women as I spoke to one of our family members, and when I hung up and turned around, Ida and Jan were kissing gently, looking fondly into the other's eyes.
As I walked back to the couch and sat back down, I asked, "Ida, did that repairwoman ever fix your dryer? And what about your car?"
Ida then broke away from the kissing to tell us the story about her dryer. Jan sat up too.
