The last thing to go is always the first thing to stay. Or, so they say. I for one cannot be completely sure about such things. I'm not sure why I'm not sure, but I'm sure I'm not sure about being sure. What am I sure about? Well, a lot of things.

For one, I know I have a father. And another, I know I have a mother. I know I know my mother and I know I've met my father, but I don't really get either of them. Not get in the ownership sense, you see, but get in the understand kind of way. Ya know what I mean? I mean, I know my mother and father, but I don't know anything about them. Weird, don't ya think? The people who've literally created your existence share so little of their own experiences. Maybe that's just me.

It's not like I don't talk to my parents or anything like that, they're generally good people. It's just, well, they never say much, I mean, not really. Sure, they talk a lot about this and that and congress and education and gas prices and the housing market, but they never really talk about anything. But I guess that's not just them, huh? I suppose most people are like that. Going around blabbing about who knows what to who knows who whispering this gossip and that hot topic without really saying much of anything. A real travesty.

Not like I'm one to judge or anything like that. I mean, I'm just a kid. But, come on, at least try to have a conversation. At least give a little of something. Anything, really. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. Is that too much to ask for. Apparently.

It didn't use to always be this way. Back before, well, ya know, Daisy. Well I guess you don't know. I mean, not really. Sure I'm sure you've heard your rumors and gossip and all that good stuff, but you don't really. Not like I know. Not like I try to forget. It started with the rain.

The day was unusually warm for the time of year, say 40 when it should've been twenty, and the weather was fair. Rain was expected but us kids didn't really much give a damn. I was real young that day, say maybe twelve or thirteen, and Daisy was eight. Oh, but she was wise for an eight year old. Real wise. Wise in a way your kind of just born with. You know what I mean. Like, she just understood the world in the way none of the rest of us really did. Not even the grown ups. She just, well, she just knew things.

That morning, my good friend June knocked on the door. A real mans man, despite the girly name. A kid who loved his women almost as much as he loved his cigars. Which, to be honest, wasn't all that much. But he'd pretend the hell outta anything, especially when it came to impressing people. He didn't even smoke the cigars or anything. Just chewed them. I guess to feel more like his pops, I suppose. But how would he know, his pops ran away when he was just a few months old. A real scum bag that guy was. Or, at least, that's what my momma always said.

But I didn't much care either or so I just tried to stay outta the whole thing and just agree with whatever June said, which, most of the time, wasn't all too smart. It's not like he was dumb or anything, he was actually a real genius when it came to math. It's just, well, he had a way of not being able to talk to people. Always saying the wrong things at the wrong times and stuff like that. A real travesty.

But I always had his back. And I always knew what to say and when to say it. I may not of been no math whiz like he, but I could talk my ass right off, even if it meant a good straight beating the moment I got home. Not that my parents were abusive or anything. Like I said, their good people. I just meant that in a sort of non-literal kind a way. Ya know, when ya say something but ya mean something else. Kinda like that.

Anyways, he come around my place round ten am to see if I wanna go out to the woods a couple blocks away, and I'm all for it. Ya see, a couple weeks before, my dad bought me a whole bunch of Nerf guns, the kind with soft bullets and all that. And seeing that it was just past January, and this was the first warm day of the year, and dad not letting us shoot indoors and all that, I was all for it.

Of course, my little sis, Daisy, she wanna come too, seeing that she was the big 0-8 which meant she could go out and play on her own and all that. A pretty big deal if you ask anyone whose anybody. So she come trailing a long with a great big lollipop and real small gun, kind of kid like and all, unlike our big masculine manly guns which stretched half the state of Indiana. Not that we're a big state or anything. But still pretty big for a gun.

So we start walking and running and sprinting and shooting when all of the sudden we hear this real high pitch sort of thing. Then we start hearing screeching and yelling and a siren wooing around and around and around. Little sis and I know this sound like the back of our hands and we start running, real hard.

June, though a real athlete at heart, couldn't keep much up, and we kept having to stop and wait for him and all that. Of course sis is crying and whaling and all that and I keep telling her to hush up while also trying to stop June from wheezing and me from straight having an anxiety attack. That's when we start to hear the wind.

Ya see, hear in Indiana, there ain't a lot of shit that much scares us. Sure, you got your burglars and terrorists, and, if your my grandpa, the gays, but that's about it. Other than that, Indiana is a pretty great place to live. That is, except for the weather.

Ya see, for some reason or another, God decided it would be fun to play a trick on all the loyal Hoosiers and make them go through a rampant of seasons every year. And I'm not talking just your spring summer fall winter kind of deal either. I'm talking snow in April and swimming in December. Tornados on Monday and floods on Tuesday. It's the freaking revelations out in this part of the world. Yet people keep moving here.

Anyways, this particular siren was that of a tornado, and June and Daisy and I knew that all too well. So, as you expect, we weren't running just for nothing. And when the wind started to pick up. Well, that's when things really got scary.

Swollen leaves barraged with festering maleficence as snow began to scream in terrifying howls. Men, women, and children of all sizes began to run and pounce and pick little ones and big ones and escape to the ever distancing falling corridors.

The sky screeched a pussy yellow, oozing octagonal figures spasmodically across the barren fields. First one, then two, then three. All writhing with pent up rage and scolding venom. We were trapped. Doomed. Frankly, we were fucked.

That's when Officer Helen came crawling down the path. The faded baby blue piercing the dingy sky like an angel on wheel, hissing and spurting and suckling on the last few gallons of gas. Helen was young but crotchety, never cranky but always annoyed. Constantly rambling but never saying. A real something without nothing. And here she come, her blue spangled vehicle itching it's way ever closer to us.

"Need a ride?" Helen inquired soothingly.

"Nah, we'll be alright. It's just a couple more blocks, right June?" I could tell by June's desperate stare that those were blocks we'd never reach.

"I wanna go with Helen!" Daisy whined incessantly.

"I...I...I think it's best we go with her." June agree solemnly.

"You guys go along, I think I'll just walk."

"Are you sure? Those winds are getting mighty fierce."

"I'll be okay. But you guys go. I'll meet you back at home." At the time, I couldn't tell you why, but I really wanted to walk home. But sometimes, I wish I hadn't.

When I finally reached my humble abode some twenty minutes later, stopping ever so often to hide under a porch or sneak in a friend's basement, I felt that something was wrong. Where were Daisy and June?

The rain continue to spit as I walked in the door. I shuddered my rain coat and under coat and socks and shoes and shout out their names, but I heard no sound. At first I was worried, but I then I thought they must've just gone over to June's. I thought about going over there, but I was really tired, so I just went to my room and took a nap.

That night, I awoke to the sound of screeching parents. They were calling my name. Yelling, really. They asked a lot of questions. Too many questions. Whenever I tried to answer they'd just ask another.

Where's Daisy? Where's June? Why did you go outside? Why didn't you tell us? Who were they with? What does she look like? Yes, I remember her. No, I didn't think...Why I don't...I'm not...are you sure she...and that they...which way did they go...and this was when...

A couple of minutes later a real nice police officer asked me some more questions. His name was Steve, I think, or maybe Stephen. He said Helen was a transfer, from San Francisco or something like that. I didn't really take much interest. I didn't really see what all the hub bub was about.

"Why are you here?" I asked at some point during the night.

"I'm here to help you, sonny."

"Help me do what?" I asked innocently.

"You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"Maybe I should leave that to your parents."

"I know my parents no better than I know you. So why does it matter?"

The man seemed hurt by these words. "Son, let me tell you something. What's about to happen, well, what did happen, was a real cruel thing. Real cruel. And when you hear about it, you gonna be angry. Real angry. And that's okay. And then you gonna get sad. Real sad. But...can I tell you something."

"What?"

"Sadness ain't nothing to cry over. We all get sad, real sad sometimes. And sometimes, the saddest of things happen to us. But when we cry, when we give in to those feelings, we give up. And when we give up, we lose ourselves. Do you want to lose yourself?"

"No sir."

"Then don't cry, and don't even think about being sad, not even for a minute! What happened was a travesty and how it happened was even worse, but being sad ain't gonna change any of that." A long pause, "Another thing. You never go blaming yourself. You understand? What happened was a travesty no one could've predicted, especially you. Don't you ever think this, any of this, was your fault. You're a good man, I can tell. And if you let this thing eat at you, it'll eat ya whole, and I don't wanna see a good man like you eaten whole. Do you understand?"

I didn't. "Yes sir."

"Good. Now go get your nicest clothes on. And no bright colors either. Just blacks and grays."

"Yes Sir."

"A real travesty." Officer Steve mumbles. "A real travesty."