mvolski: My historical narrative

It takes place during the dust bowl

please comment if it's bad ;-;

The Last Storm

Peggy cried into mama’s shoulder. Ron wrapped his arm around me. I shook papa’s hand, wishing him farewell. And then we stood there. We stood there long after we watched the skinny, hungry man slam the door of his car and rumble off down route 66. We stood there long after he left on a journey in search of work. He was running into the storm and there was no turning back, in hopes to find anything that would keep our family from starving. Yet, we just stood there. Memories already started to swarm my mind. Mama waved. Papa waved, as he put on his goggles. Mama wrapped the wet towel around his mouth. They hugged. Hearts were broken. He promised to come back. He kissed Peggy on the forehead. He hugged Ron, and then me. He promised to come back…

I cupped my hand over my mouth to stifle my cries. ‘Please, papa please!’. I prayed with all my heart, for it seemed so long ago. But yet, only several years passed since the day we flourished with our farming success. Then, we didn’t realize what was yet to come. Now, we are cautious of everything, from savoring every crust of bread we get, to predicting when the next storm begins.

Finally, the groan of the car engine filled our ears, as we watched. Mama prayed him a blessing. We stood there.

A while after we went inside, the agony still didn’t leave the household. It lurked in every corner, whether it was his plate, or his cup, or his reading glasses. Suddenly, I heard something rattle. It wasn’t just me. Ron started to frantically look around and looked at me in panic. We started to run around the house, for there it was. Papa’s cup was shaking. Seconds later, the wind was howling. My eyes grew wide. It was coming. The storm was coming!

“Quick!” Ron yelled, and together we crammed wet towels between spaces below doors and windows. Mama cared for Peggy who was crying loudly, for she was the first to realize- Papa was out there.

Time was frozen. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks- they all stopped for me then. For there was nothing I can do.

I slammed my fists on the door, falling to my knees. I screamed and yelled. Nobody could stop me. I was about to run out, but Ron held me back. I looked him in the eye, and saw that there was a single tear running down his cheek.

Quickly, he brushed it off with the heel of his hand,, and whimpered, “He promised he will come back. He’s okay, he’ll come back, we just cannot lose hope.” But for all I knew, he was dead.

I’m telling you, that was my worst nightmare. Just remembering that day makes me wake up all sweaty in tears. We could’ve told him to go the next day, we could’ve said goodbye a bit longer! “The past cannot be changed now,” mama always said. “Our future is determined by the actions of our present.” But for me there is no future, no past, nor present. My time was frozen in ice, and there was nothing I could do.

The next day Ron and I went to check what was left of the cattle. In hopes of food, we cut them open, smell filling the air. In fact, the smell was pretty treacherous, like rotten fish, but even worse, the stomachs were filled with only sand.

I got up and looked around. And I saw it. Dust. Twigs. Broken cars. Covered homes. I began to run forward.

“Wait!” Ron yelled. It was too late. A twig snapped underneath my foot. I looked down. It wasn’t a twig at all. It was a bone, and I did not want to know from whom. I looked around my whole foot. It was a decaying skeleton of a bird. I felt something warm in my mouth, and ran home, slamming the front door.

Everyday we lived in fear and caution. Is it coming? When will it be here? The only thing that kept me going was Ron.

Our family is not very complicated. We are a very loving family, and always really depended on each other in times like this. We had papa and mama. They taught us that love is what binds us together. There is my little sister Peggy. She’s adorable even when her face is covered in dust. Sadly, she cries a lot, but I feel like if I was her I would cry a lot too. Then there was Ron. When papa left us, Ron, being the oldest man in the family, took on to the hard chores, and was like a father to me, just like he was a brother. But most of all, he was my best friend.

My story is like those of our neighbors and friends. It’s really not that much different. But the pain and agony I felt sometimes made me feel so alone, as if no one could make me happy ever again.

I had a day like this. Months passed after papa gone on his road trip. Ron always seemed so strong to me. He was my inspiration. That day he told me he was fine, nothing was going to happen.

At first it was just a cough. Ron didn’t say anything and continued to do his chores. Mama was too busy with baby Peggy to notice the first days of the condition. But it got worse. Ron started wheezing. It was loud, and we put him in bed, telling him he couldn’t help us in this condition. But Ron was strong hearted and stubborn. So stubborn he risked his health to help us rebuild outdoor furniture and take attempts to dig in the ground. Mama was not happy with this. In fact she was furious when Ron started to feel chest pain. She said conditions like this don’t go away on their own. She was right. The condition eventually took control of him and forced him to lay in bed, for he got the fever. I tended to him at night with wet rags on his forehead. The condition kept getting worse. The next day we found he lost the feeling in his legs, septic shock. Slowly his organs stopped working, one by one.

The day came.

I was putting a wet rag on his forehead when a strong hand clasped itself on my wrist. A weak, hoarse voice started to speak.

“I’m...okay... “ He coughed. “ Just take g...good care of mama… and Peggy… and yourse-”.

A cool air surrounded Ron. I felt his soul leave his body as I screamed my heart out. Not Ron, not my brother, not my friend! It couldn’t be! Why me?

It was that night, on March 12, Ron died of dust pneumonia.

Mama told me it would pass. Soon the pain would become memories. She was the most hopeful in the household. It was hard without Ron, and although she tried to cover it up, I knew she felt it too.

I tried to help mama with whatever I could. Laundry, Peggy, clean up. Papa’s and Ron’s plates remained on the table so we can still have our meals with them, but for reasons, seeing the empty chairs only grinded more holes in my heart.

Years passed. Peggy grew old enough to help us with chores. I taught her everything I knew for school was no longer every day, only when there weren’t storms, and this year they were becoming more and more common. But the thing with Peggy, she’s extremely curious. At first I was able to answer her questions, but then she either asked ones mama and I couldn’t answer, or she would ask about “Ronny” and “Pappy” who burned my heart to remember, most of all talk about.

These were hard times for us. We started to take more precautions. To leave the house to just go outside, we tied ourselves with ropes to the table in the kitchen, or what we had left of one. Peggy forgot to cover one of the holes between the window and the window still once, so, instead of a kitchen, It was a pile of dust at that moment. Right. We still had to clean that one.

We helped our neighbors quite the bunch, and they helped us a lot in return. I was glad, because with lack of family company, I still had friends. Miranda, Mary, Jordan, Chansey. It was the Peterson family, and they lived right next door. Our mothers often visited each other for moral support, because just like us, the Petersons lost their father too.

Miranda was in my class, Jordan and Silla were twins in Ron’s class, Mary was two years younger than me, and Chansey was only a year old.

The storm didn’t strike for a couple of days now. Our families decided it would be safe to go to school. Peggy put on her dirty school dress, a coat, her goggles. Mama helped her with the towel around her mouth. I helped her with her pack. I quickly pulled on my trousers, checked my hair in the mirror incase Miranda would notice, although I highly doubted it, ruined it with my hat, goggles, and wrapped the wet towel around my mouth. We met up with the Petersons and started off on the walk. Because of the extra precautions, we didn’t really see them that much lately, so it was fun.

In fact, It was a nice walk. I enjoyed leaving the house to walk further out for once in a long while. That day in school was mostly reviewing. I’ll admit- nobody in my class found the time to do the writing homework from three weeks ago. The final bell rang. I started to pack my bag when a voice came up from behind me.

“Lets walk home together.” I turned around. It was Miranda. My cheeks started to burn, so I quickly wrapped my mouth with a newly soaking towel.

“S..sure” I stammered. Ugh! Why did I do that? I should’ve answered without the towel covering my mouth. We each took Peggy by the hand in between us, which made me feel a bit less embarrassed, and casually walked home.

“What about Jordan, Silla, and Mary?” I asked

“Look behind you”

Jordan and Silla waved and smiled. They were identical. Trust me, I have known them for a while and I still cannot tell them apart.

Mary was holding Silla’s hand. She merely inclined her head for she didn’t know me as well, but did smile just a bit.

I felt embarrassed all over again. I guess all of my attention on Miranda caused me to not notice them at all.

Willie focus!

Suddenly Peggy said she felt the wind get faster.

“We’re not taking any risks, let’s hurry up.” I announced. Although it was not very audible through the towel on my mouth, without thinking I grabbed both girls hand’s beside me and started to run. It didn’t make much difference because they dragged themselves behind me, and I didn’t want Peggy to trip and fall on the twigs. I heard a howl. I kept running. It was getting louder. From curiosity, I turned around to face Miranda’s sisters, and behind them a wall of gray winds. Oh, the dust was gaining on us. We weren't going to make it home. We kept running. Behind me, I heard, “My hat!” and saw Silla’s upset face as she watched her hat fly away in the mess that was right behind her. It turned dark. Peggy screamed.

A door opened to my right as a familiar woman, covering her face with her arms stood and started to shove us into her house. I helped all of the girls get inside, helping Peggy first, who was crying, to get in. Once all were safe, I used my final efforts with Mrs. Peterson to slam the door closed, that kept yanking open from the force of the wind. We quickly shoved two wet towels beneath it and all was good.

I look around me to find my mother, who was unsurprisingly visiting, and all of the girls astonished by how we made it out.

That day we slept at the Peterson house. I slept on the floor next to Miranda, and had good dreams. I hoped to never hear Peggy scream again. It made my heart stop.

At night, the storm finally passed, and Peggy, mama, and I tied ourselves to our neighbors house and walked outside and looked at what happened to our family home.

I was pure luck that nothing happened to us the night before. To me, this moment was in slow motion. First we held hands. Without saying anything, we watched. A tractor meant to clean up the twig mess knocked down our family home. The roof collapsed, and I heard glass breaking. The tractor quickly rumbled away. Slowly, the Petersons came up from behind us and embraced us in a group hug.

“You can stay with us until we rebuild a new one”.

My mother had no words. She lived in that house her whole life. I bet her pain was unspoken of. The dust storms continued.

She didn’t talk for the next couple of days, ate very little, and soon grew sick. Both families cared for her, tended for her, but like for Ron, the condition worsened.

The day I closed her eyes was the day the storms stopped for good.

The sun shined through the clouds and the fear slowly left us.

I wished Papa knew that it was over, and but Peggy and I- we were happy. Homeless, hungry, but happy. Each night we prayed to our gone family, but we knew we had each other, and our friends. For Mama always knew everything was going to be okay. I just never believed her. Perhaps one day Papa will return. One day.
Thanks so much for reading!