Laura crossed her arms. She had washed all of the blood off of her shoulders and legs, and her hair had been conditioned for a good five minutes. She closed her eyes and imagined herself far away from Sioux Falls. She tried to drift far away from her time with the Weatherman. She yearned for a place in her life before the army. Her mind reached back beyond her tomboyish years in high school, her parent’s divorce, and her always stronger kid brother always getting the best of her. She unfolded her arms and shut the water off. She could never go back far enough.
While she was toweling off, she noticed her answering machine blinking. It wasn’t blinking before she had gotten in the shower. She pressed play, then started pulling on her underwear.
“Laura, we need to talk. I believe you know the number to reach me at. You still have that Nokia, right? If not, I may need your number.”
Laura frowned. She knew the voice on the other end. She walked over to her entertainment center, and pulled out a VHS copy of Twister. The videotape slid out of the cardboard box, and she gripped the sides of the tape. It popped apart, and the Nokia inside popped out and landed on the floor. She put the tape back together, and then she found the battery powered phone charger. The phone charged while she fastened her bra and pulled on a black tank-top. She flipped open the phone and found “weather” in her contacts list. After pressing send, she had to only wait for one ring to hear that familiar voice.
“Laura, I’m so glad you beat the storm.”
“It wasn’t easy. I’ll tell you that.”
“I’m afraid more bad weather is heading your way. It’s really a shame. No one in Sioux Falls expected cop on cop violence.”
“Wait…what?” Laura’s tone was much less calm, and the Weatherman took notice.
“Easy, easy. Laura Black is the problem. Laura Blake, on the other hand, has a good opportunity in Houston.”
“Houston?”
“It is a bit near tornado alley, but I think the skies are much calmer there.”
“Listen here, I’ve done everything for you and your group. You’re hanging me out to dry, and you expect me to get out of this town with the F.B.I. and the locals on my tail? I have to take a fall now too? How is that fair? And where is Mokoto right now anyway?”
“She…is off the grid. She’ll turn up when we need her.”
“You…I was with you long before she came aboard. I’ve given over a decade to you. Now you’re letting this rouge make her own hours?”
“She is hard to control. Much like the weather, she is not often easy to predict, but she always has a good extended forecast.”
“Let me guess, I’m more day to day?” Laura’s voice was getting louder every time she spoke.
“Your skills are not in question, but your judgements are like correctly picking the path of a hurricane.”
“Let me guess, I should be glad Jeremiah and Jebediah left me to rot then blew up their damn car?!?”
“Those two are like the thunder and lightning that-”
“AHHH!!!! SCREW YOU AND YOUR DAMN WEATHER METAPHORS!!! TRY AND PREDICT THIS!!!” Laura closed the phone and threw it into the living room. She was huffing and puffing, and she had the urge to take a baseball bat to everything in her apartment. She took a deep breath, then walked to the living room, where the breeze from her broken patio window was quite pleasant. She picked up the phone and played with a few commands. She soon had a map, and a blip that was flashing.
“Well weatherman, your ‘thunder and lighting’ are on my doppler. After them, we’ll see about shortening your extended forecast.”
Laura smiled for the first time in hours.
