Page 35 of Day of the Storm

When it had pushed itself away

To some remotest Plain

A coming as of Hosts was heard

It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools

It warbled in the Road --

It pulled the spigot from the Hills

And let the Floods abroad --

It loosened acres, lifted seas

The sites of Centres stirred

Then like Elijah rode away

Upon a Wheel of Cloud.

LIKE RAIN IT SOUNDED TILL IT CURVED

Emily Dickinson

CHAPTER 1

Houston Evers had been waitingfor this night for as long as he could remember. With trepidation. He knew statistics, and while this area of Texas wasn’tnormallythis wet and rainy, this year had been the worst in more than a century.

He had been the one to see those statistics and make those statements on air. All his life, he hadknownthe storm of the century would probably hit the Finley Creek area.

It had just been a matter of time.

He checked his chart—and then buzzed his producer. That little irritant had to be around somewhere.

Houston had never intended to go into radio, but over time his internship at the college radio station’s weather department, as small as it had been at the time, had just grown into where he was now. He enjoyed broadcast.

He enjoyed teaching meteorology at the campus, as well. But fifteen hours a week, he delivered the weather, and did one Finley Creek themed talk show each Friday.

He had been at the radio station since he was twenty-one years old, ten years ago. He’d seen plenty of assistant station managers come and go.

None had irritated him as much as little Brooke Jacobs. Of course, she had the job. Her father had bought the station from the college and privatized it six months ago. And then there Brooke was, supposedly to learn the ropes.

More likely, Wade Jacobs had given her the job to keep her out of his hair.

But shewasthere.

And she got right beneath Houston’s skin. He was used to precision. Brooke was used to smiling at a man and getting her way.

There should have been three or four people besides him, and Hoby the station engineer, and Brooke.

But there was no one.

He headed down the hall toward the back offices. Dwight Hoby should be back there somewhere.

And Brooke. That woman had to be around somewhere.

Thunder shook the building, causing him to pause for a moment. This storm was just a freak storm no one could have ever predicted.