Night of the Twisters

On that June day, Dan and Arthur sunbathe at Mormon Island after a swim. Dan asks Arthur if he plans to continue going to crafts class, but he can see that Arthur, whom he considers a smart, observant person, is looking at the sky thinking about something. He asks Arthur if he likes crafts class, to which Arthur replies that he doesn’t really. Arthur reminds Dan that it was only that morning that Aunt Goldie hadn’t liked Arthur’s Indigenous American craft because he’d made a bull-roarer. Dan explains she was probably thinking of something more conventional when she suggested the idea of an Indian craft and most likely hadn’t heard of a bull-roarer, which Arthur describes as a toy that Indigenous American children once made. Dan begins laughing remembering how Arthur swung it around until it hit the lightbulb, which landed on the Ping-Pong table. He reassuringly tells Arthur that his Aunt Goldie is a “flake” (10) and won’t remember what she said, plus she’ll probably give up on Indigenous American crafts now that everybody wants to make bull-roarers. Dan says only enrolls in her summer classes because she’s divorced and struggles to support herself, although he and Arthur enjoyed last summer when they played Dungeons and Dragons after she injured herself teaching them boys’ ballet.

Dan notices the weather changing and is suddenly cold. Everyone on the beach begins to dissipate in a hurry and Dan decides they should leave. However, he and Arthur are first approached by Arthur’s two sisters: “beautiful” (11) 14-year-old Stacey, whom Dan has a crush on, and 10-year-old Ronnie Vae. Stacey asks if they can ride on the boy’s bikes with them to the gas station, where they can call their mom for a ride before it rains. Arthur declines to ride with Ronnie Vae, so the girls end up walking together to the gas station, leaving Dan disappointed not to have Stacey sitting behind him as he shows off his “great cycling skills” (13). The sky is getting cloudier, and the wind is picking up, but Dan still thinks it only means more rain.

As Dan and Arthur cycle the half hour it takes to get to Dan’s house, the wind gets worse. When they turn onto Dan’s street, there are newspapers scattered everywhere. Dan thinks how it’s funny that people remember “all the crummy little details” (14) of black-letter days, like his parents’ memories of John F. Kennedy’s assassination or his older neighbor Belle Smiley’s on Pearl Harbor Day. Dan remembers all the details of that day, like the look of the sky, how the wind felt, and what he and Arthur had for dinner. He even remembers the smell of his mom’s chocolate meringue pie fresh out of the oven.

When Dan and Arthur get back to Dan’s house, Dan’s mom asks him to set the table and tells him his dad must run out right after dinner. She also tells him that his baby brother, Ryan, is finally napping after a day of teething. Before Ryan was born, she referred to Dan and Arthur as twins because they “were practically inseparable” (18). Despite difference in their personalities and physical appearance, Dan and Arthur consider each other “blood relatives” (18). Dan asks if Arthur can stay for dinner, to which his mom responds that Arthur must check with his parents. When she gives Dan a look of frustration that he hasn’t checked with her ahead of time, Dan remembers that his mom was “jolly” (19) before Ryan was born. Last year she would dress up for work at the beauty salon with her hair done, but now “her nerves were frazzled” (19). Dan frowns as he remembers that they’d been a “small happy family” of three before Ryan was born.

While Arthur is on the phone with his mom, she asks to talk to Dan’s mom. The two moms converse, and Dan asks his mom if she can see if Arthur can stay and watch TV after. She doesn’t ask and when she hangs up, she tells Dan not to be so rude when she’s on the phone. The baby starts crying and her face immediately looks like Dan feels, “having just been scolded” (20). Dan’s father then comes home, joking about Arthur being there again, but shifts into a serious tone to scold Dan about leaving his bike outside in the weather. He tells them that hail can destroy a racing bike.

As they all eat dinner, Dan remembers how meals used to be more “peaceful” (22) before Ryan was born. He misses when his good news didn’t come second to Ryan’s “cutesy” (22) new noises and they would have real conversations. They would each share stories about their day, including his mom, who at the time was working at Carol’s Boutique. If Arthur was over, he would be included. Dan’s dad would make Arthur recite the names of his six sisters, trying not to laugh as he pretended to memorize them. Dan notices that now even Arthur is cooing at the baby. As Dan bitterly eats the last of his food, Ryan starts screaming.

Dan asks his dad if he’s going out to the farm where Dan’s grandparents live, to which his dad replies yes, he must because the tractor stopped working two days ago. His dad is a mechanic and has an old 1953 Corvette in the garage that he’s been working on. Before he leaves, he tells Dan to do the dishes. When Dan groans that he has a friend over, his dad sternly tells him to help his mother out. He suggests that Dan could also sometimes babysit his little brother, saying as he leaves “The sun doesn’t rise and set on you!” (26).

Dan and Arthur do dishes and fold diapers in silence. Dan is distracted because he’s thinking about what his father said to him. When he carries the diapers to his mom, she winks at him, indicating she knows how bad he feels. Later, when Dan and Arthur are trying to decide what to do, Aunt Goldie shows up. She asks Dan where his mom is. He explains she’s trying to get Ryan to sleep after a difficult day. His aunt then hugs him, telling him she knows it can be hard to have a baby in the house. He’s glad to have someone understand. When she goes to check on the baby and immediately comes back, saying his mom is busy, Dan tells her he’s going on a bike ride with Arthur. He doesn’t necessarily want to spend the night sitting around talking with her. When Aunt Goldie hears they’re leaving, she tells them she just stopped over to borrow his mom’s bowling ball for bowling night. As she heads out, she kisses Dan on the head and tells them to be careful of the wind.

Once on their bike ride, Dan suggests to Arthur that they should go to Arthur’s house. Arthur says he could probably spend the night at Dan’s, so they agree to do that after going back to Arthur’s. Dan notices how beautiful the street looks with the trees swaying in the wind and the low clouds moving overhead. Arthur then tells Dan he wants to show him something. They cycle past the neighbors, one of whom tells them to get home before the big storm and end up at Belle Smiley’s house. Arthur goes onto the front porch and asks Dan if he notices anything different. Dan looks at the old, slightly spooky house and doesn’t see anything. Arthur tries the doorbell, and they wait for Belle Smiley to come answer the door. When she answers, she and Arthur explain to Dan that she has a fancy new door that doesn’t slam or squeak. It’s a major improvement over the old screen door, which had patches all over it.

When they leave Mrs. Smiley’s, Arthur tells Dan he has the old door because he considers it “a work of art” (34). They head to Arthur’s where everything is “chaotic” (35) as it normally is. Dan searches for Stacey but doesn’t see her. He figures she’s with her friend Evelyn, with whom she spends most of her time. Mr. Darlington is absent as usual since he works two jobs and is only home on Sundays. Mrs. Darlington, who Dan says is kind to everyone, is at the kitchen table pushing her youngest daughter around in the stroller. Dan asks her about the new romance novel she’s reading, and she tells him she’s not happy with it because nothing’s happened yet. Dan feels her statement summarizes how they all felt that day—that they “were all waiting for something to happen” (37), but no one could have imagined “what was about to take place” (37). As Arthur and Dan ride back to Dan’s house, televisions inside neighborhood houses announce tornado sightings.