his rental sedan onto the highway’s shoulder, being careful not to hit a pink bathtub that rested on its side in a nest of debris. He lowered his window, bracing his forearm on the vehicle’s frame to take in the tragic view. The early-May tornado had been damn near a mile wide, and it had razed everything in its seventeen-mile path.
When his dad called, asking him to help rebuild their ranch, Grady thought he’d exaggerated the degree of the storm’s damage, but if anything, Ben’s description had been inadequate. Grady’s brain knew that a hundred yards down the road was where the historic Flamingo Motel should be, along with a McDonald’s, an Arby’s, the First Baptist Church and the Dairy Barn, but all of it was just gone, as if God had swept His hand over it, wiping the slate clean. Only the resulting mess wasn’t clean. It was an unfathomable pile of concrete blocks and upended church pews and— Tears stung his eyes.
He wanted to blame those tears on dust from a passing National Guard convoy, but the truth was that all he seemed capable of focusing on was the fact that the last place he’d seen Jessie, held her hand, begged her to give him another chance, had been at the Dairy Barn. They’d sat in the back booth that always caught the afternoon sun. Her honey-gold hair had come alive in the glow, and he’d reverently skimmed the crown of her head, kissing the soft waves of her hair, inhaling the simple strawberry sweetness of her shampoo, because it hadn’t been enough to just touch her—he’d needed to breathe her in.
I don’t love you, she’d said. This...us... We’re just not going to happen.
An hour later, Grady had signed his recruitment papers down at the strip mall that was now also gone.
He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that physical proof of his memories—the only thing left of him and Jessie—had been erased.
His cell rang. The caller ID read Rose Matthews.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hey, yourself, sweetie. Where are you? Almost to town?”
“Yeah, I’m just sort of taking it in.”
“It’s a shock. Your dad and I have had a few days to get used to...well, everything.”
“Sure...”
“I do have some good news, which is why I’m calling. You remember Jessie’s parents, don’t you? Roger and Billy Sue?”
“Yes, ma’am...” He released a long, slow exhale.
“Well, they heard we’ve been staying at the shelter, and since they have that cute little guesthouse out by their pool, they asked if your dad and I would like to stay with them until our house is done.”
Grady leaned his head back and groaned. Seriously?
“Since the guesthouse is just the one room and the bathroom, Billy Sue said she’ll put you in one of their spare bedrooms.”
And Jessie? Because he could tell all the way from his current vantage that her downtown apartment building had been another of the storm’s victims. His pulse doubled just thinking her name.
“I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but your poor Jessie’s place—”
Could this day get any worse? “She’s not mine.”
“You know what I mean. Anyway, she’s staying with her parents, too, but the more the merrier, right? I know it’ll be fun for you two kids to catch up.”
* * *
JESSIE LONG RUBBED the aching small of her back.
She’d been out here for hours, sifting through the wreckage of her apartment in the hot sun. It’d rained that morning. The air was so thick with humidity and sediments from the debris that it felt hard to breathe. For the plastic tub filled with clothes and a few pictures, was this really worth it?
She knelt, tugging a taped-together plastic spoon from beneath bricks and dirt and the stainless-steel kitchen sink.
Standing, tears welling in her eyes, she held back a sob while cradling the spoon to her chest. Of all the things she could have found, this was the most precious.
The last time she’d seen Grady had been at the Dairy Barn.
They’d shared their favorite booth in the back, and though he’d ordered Frito chili pie for them to share, neither had taken a bite. As usual, he’d gotten a spoon for her and a fork for himself, but both utensils had remained unused.
After she’d broken up with him, she’d quietly cried against his chest, but he’d pushed her away, telling her that she didn’t get to use him for anything anymore. He’d fished her favorite pink Sharpie from her purse—the one she used for doodling when she got bored in class—and drew a messy heart in the bowl of her spoon.
See this? he’d said, waving it in front of her face, then snapping it in half. This is what you did to my heart. You just broke it. Like it doesn’t mean a thing. But it does, Jess. I freakin’ love you. I gave you a ring. I wanna get married and have a big family. You and me—we’ll build a house out by the catfish pond, and every night at dusk, we’ll sit on our front porch swing, watching the kids play while the sun goes down. What’s the matter with you? Why can’t you see everything as clear as me?
Stop, she’d begged, scooting off the bench’s smooth seat. I see everything, she’d said under her breath. Mostly, that you and me and all of your big dreams are never coming true. I don’t love you.
To prove it, she’d walked away—but not before taking the pieces of that spoon as one last souvenir of what might’ve been.
* * *
THE FAMILY RANCH was worse off than Grady ever could have feared. Once again, tears stung his eyes as he absorbed the full weight of what his parents had lost.
The four-bedroom home he’d grown up in was now no longer a home, but a jumbled pile of drywall, four-by-four studs and the shredded remains of the china cabinet his mom had dusted every Saturday morning.
The barn he’d done chin-ups in to prepare for basic? Gone. The chicken coop? Flattened. His dad’s workshop? A graveyard of tractor parts and mangled sheet metal.
The wreckage went on and on. It was so bad that he couldn’t really even take it all in.
Grady had seen a lot of horrible things overseas, but even the worst didn’t compare to this. Where the hell did they even start in making this right?
Hands on his hips, he released a long, slow exhale.
Off on the horizon, he spied his dad’s truck heading his way. When that storm hit, if Ben and Rose hadn’t been in Norman at a doctor’s appointment...
His stomach cramped just thinking about it.
And where were the horses?
Two chickens sat on the underbelly of an overturned car. He didn’t recognize it as belonging to either of his parents. Who knew how far it’d traveled?
A deep sense of loss overwhelmed him. He’d come home to help rebuild, but how long
