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Show Twisters . . . 71 a dry throat. That meant there wouldn't be any lights at the K Mart, either. "Where are your parents?" the policeman shouted back, startling me. Stacey leaned forward and explained. When she finished, well, that's when I tried to ask about the tornado sighted near Phillips, but I guess he couldn't hear my voice over everything else. "Keep your fingers crossed," he said over his shoulder a minute later, "we'll try for the K Mart, but we may not get through." "How come?" Arthur asked. Officer Kelly removed his hat, shook off the drops, stuck it back on. For a minute I thought he hadn't heard Arthur, either. "South Locust is gone," he said finally. "Wiped out around 10:30." Stacey's hands flew to cover her mouth. Arthur shot forward on the back seat. "Taco John's?" he squeaked. "Taco John's and everything else," he said, "both sides of the street." I couldn't believe it. All those stores and restaurants? Dreisbach's? Holiday Inn? The supermarket? South Locust was the main drag at our end of Grand Island, a big, broad street with buildings strong as fortresses. He went on. "The place looks like a bombing range. Somehow, K Mart escaped the worst of it." Arthur and I grabbed hands over Stacey. What time was it when Mom and Ryan left on the bus? An ambulance screamed past us going the other way, its blue cross and orange stripe a blur in the rain, its wail dying on the wind. "There was a bus going to K Mart!" I cried, plunging forward against the front seat. "My mom was on it! They'd be driving right down South Locustl" |