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Show Twisters . . . 96 took off again. He was going to see more of me than ever in the days ahead, but neither of us knew it then. In no time at all we were back in Minnie Mouse's Dodge Dart en route to K Mart. I kept my fingers crossed all the way to Highway 34, then nearly died when the National Guard patrol wouldn't let us pass. Only after Minetti produced her official I.D. did he wave us on around the other traffic trying to enter the city. "Approaching from this direction," she told me, "we might just make it." When we got to South Locust, when we saw what loomed ahead of us in that early light, we changed our minds. The street was jammed with bulldozers, trucks, emergency vehicles, National Guardsmen on foot. An ambulance was trying to get through behind a piece of heavy equipment, wailing and wailing without making any headway. The familiar skyline was gone. Once-sturdy buildings were now so many layers of rubble. The sight of those groaning bulldozers pushing the debris into piles made me sick to my stomach. I remembered that my dad would come in this way from Phillips. If_ he came in . . . What would he think seeing all this? What would he think had happened to us? We tried another way, had to turn back because of downed wires and water. The next two streets were blockaded as well. Finally, Mrs. Minetti pulled to the curb and parked. She looked at me a long time, shaking her head. I knew what she was going to say. "I know you don't want to, but you'll have to come home with me . . . or let me take you back to the armory. Believe me, your mother |