************************************************************************
 CHAPTER FIVE - GOIN' TO KANSAS CITY



 "So how do your parents like Vegas?"

 "Okay, I guess.  They're still getting used to the heat."

 "Now, they moved out there your sophomore year, right?"

 "Yeah."

 "You visit them often?"

 "Oh yeah.  Play way too much blackjack."

 "Right on."

 "We should meet there sometime.  We'll have a place to stay."

 "Yeah.  I'll see if I can get some time off.  When's a good time to come?"

 "Probably like in September or October.  It cools off a bit by then, and all 
 the tourists are gone."

 "Cool."

 The waitress walked up, and placed a plate in front of each of us.

 "Ketchup?" she asked.

 "No thanks," I responded.

 "I'll take some," said Devon.

 I bit into the massive burger, sauce dribbling down my chin.  I wiped it out 
 of the hairs of my goatee.

 "You're stylin' with that goatee," said Devon, pointing with a pickle.

 "Serena doesn't like the facial hair," I said.  "Now's my only chance."

 Devon chuckled.  "You're whipped, dude."

 "Yeah.  I need to call her."

 Devon glanced over his shoulder.  "Hey, check it out.  There's a phone booth 
 out there.  Do all these greasy diners have phone booths in the parking lot 
 like that?"  He once again pointed with his now half-eaten pickle.  

 I snickered.  The waitress looked in our direction.

 "I think she just gave you the stink-eye, Dev.  You shouldn't use such 
 derogatory language when referring to greasy diners."

 "Shit."

 I took another bite.  

 "Looks like a good storm building up," said Devon, pointing with the pickle 
 once again.  It dripped on the floor.

 "Dude.  Quit using the pickle as a pointer."

 "What?  You got a problem with my pickle?"  Devon said, a little too loud.

 The waitress looked towards us again.
         
 "Oh, you really got it this time," I said, chuckling.

 "Excuse me?"  Devon leaned slightly over the counter.  "Could I get another 
 pickle, please?"

 The waitress came over with a jar, opened it, and pulled one out. 

 "Thank you," said Devon with a fake smile.

 Taking the pickle, Devon began to gesture out the window of the diner and 
 babble about cold fronts.  I looked down and grabbed a french fry.

 "Oh shit!" Devon suddenly jumped from his stool.

 "What?!"

 "A radar truck and a convoy of minivans are going by!" He said, peering out 
 the front window.

 Looking over my shoulder, I saw the last of a number of matching black 
 Plymouth minivans pass in front of the diner.

 "Let's go," I said, tossing a twenty on the counter.

 Devon was already halfway out the door as I picked up a couple of more fries 
 and got up from my stool.

 "Keep the change," I yelled to the waitress behind the counter as I raced out 
 the door.


 ******


 "Where are you?" I asked.

 "Somewhere in northern Oklahoma.  We're joining up with a group of researchers 
 from K-State and the National Weather Service."

 "K-State?"

 "Kansas State University."

 "Oh.  So, they're letting you follow them around?"

 "Yeah, we saw them pass by a place we were eating at, and we caught up with 
 them.  They've got all kinds of radar and stuff.  Right now, we're headed 
 north towards a pretty good looking storm."

 "Well, be careful, Cal."

 "Okay, I'll call you tonight."

 "Alright.  Love you."

 "Love you too."

 I hung up the phone, then walked back into the bedroom.  Flopping on the bed, 
 I leaned over and grabbed the book I had been reading.  


 ******


 I opened the door to the phone booth and jogged across the truck stop parking 
 lot.  A cold wind was blowing in from the north, where a massive storm was 
 forming.  

 "The temperature's dropped about 15 degrees," said one of the K-State guys, 
 consulting a laptop computer.

 "What's the windspeed?" asked Devon.

 "About 40 miles per hour."

 "We ready?" I asked.

 "Yep.  Let's roll," said Devon.

 We walked over to the Bronco.  Devon climbed over the tailgate.

 "I'm gonna set up the tripod now," he said.

 "Good idea.  I'll plug in the computer."

 After setting up the tripod and retrieving the camcorder from the large 
 metal truck-bed box, Devon wriggled his way back into the cab.

 "I'm glad you convinced me about this Bronco idea," he said, getting in the 
 passenger seat.  "I never realized just how convenient this would be." 

 "I just wasn't expecting to spend that much for the damn thing," I said, 
 motioning to the fiberglass door assembly that separated the cab of the Bronco 
 from where the back seat used to reside.  "Hundred bucks for that, then 
 another hundred for the box."

 "Well, you can't exactly leave all of our stuff back there to get hailed on."


 ******


 Another flash of lightning illuminated the room.  A crash of thunder followed 
 several seconds later.  The light patter of the rain on the window had turned 
 into a full-fledged roar.  I peeked through the slats of the window blind.  
 The tree in front of the building was lit up by another lightning bolt.  I 
 settled back into the bed and wished Cal was here to keep me warm.  

 The phone rang.  I picked it up after the second ring.

 "Hello?"

 "Hey kiddo."

 "Hi," I said, with a note of relief in my voice.  "You're missing out on quite 
 a storm here, bucko.  I need someone to protect me."

 "You don't even know."

 "About what?"

 "About storms," Cal continued.  I noticed he was slightly out of breath.

 "What does that mean?  Did you guys see a tornado today?"  I asked, getting 
 excited.

 "Holy shit.  I've got to sit down."

 "Okay."

 "I saw the most amazing thing today.  I mean, I've heard about it and seen it 
 on TV and stuff, but I never thought I'd see it in person."

 "What?" I said, impatiently.

 "Hold on.  Damn.  We just got here.  I'm at a truck stop south of Topeka.  We 
 just got out of the storm like 15 minutes ago.  The Bronco's all trashed.  We 
 got some serious hail damage.  I'm glad I didn't buy anything expensive."

 "Does it still run?"

 "Oh yeah, it's only dents and stuff, but anyway.  They were the size of 
 baseballs."

 "You're kidding."

 "No.  We got some great pictures with the video camera.  I hope my film will 
 come out, though.  It was kind of dark when it hit."

 "When did this happen?"

 "About 6:00.  We met up with the K-State people at about 1:30, and followed 
 them north into this massive storm.  We didn't see much, and it looked like we 
 weren't going to see anything, so we stopped somewhere to get something to eat 
 around 5:30.  Anyway, there's about twelve of us, and we're all in this 
 Denny's by the freeway when one of the guys literally jumps up out of his seat 
 and points."

 "Yeah."

 "Well, we all look, and there's a whole shitload of cars parked under the 
 freeway overpass.  It was starting to hail.  So Dev and I headed out to the 
 Bronco to grab the videocamera and stuff, and all the K-State guys were 
 freaking out about the radar unit.  They jumped into the radar truck and moved 
 it under a gas station canopy, and we all gathered under it.  I'm taking 
 pictures and Dev's using the videocamera when someone asks, `what's that 
 sound?'  We all got quiet, then the wind shifted and we could hear it 
 clearly."

 "What was it?"

 "A tornado siren.  This woman starts screaming at us from the Denny's to come 
 inside.  The K-State guys want to start up the radar, but no one knows where 
 the damn thing is, so we all took off across the parking lot.  About this 
 time, the hail really started to come down.  I've got bruises all up and down 
 my back from the stuff.  By the time we got to the front door at Denny's, 
 they're about the size of golf balls, and they're starting to shred the gas 
 station canopy."

 "Oh my god."

 "We're hanging out under the front porch of the Denny's and this woman keeps 
 screaming at us to come into their shelter, but we were all looking for the 
 tornado."

 "Jesus, Cal, you're gonna get killed."

 "All the lights went out, and it was pitch black.  The siren went off, 
 but we weren't sure if it was because the power was out, or what, so we 
 decided to go inside.  They crammed everybody into a meat locker, and we hung 
 out in the dark in there for about 15 minutes before we decided to go check 
 things out.  Anyway, we went back outside, and there was blue sky off to the 
 west, and the sun had started to come out, but the thing was, the ground was 
 covered by hail - it looked like it had snowed - and there were some the size 
 of baseballs."

 "Wow.  Did the radar truck survive?"

 "Yeah.  The canopy kept most of it away, but the trim on it got all torn off. 
 All the cars in the lot were smashed up.  Some people's windows were smashed, 
 but ours survived."

 "That's good."

 "I think it's because the windshield is almost straight up and down.  That 
 thing has the aerodynamics of a barn.  So anyway, we took a bunch of pictures, 
 and then took off after the storm."

 "Why?  Do you have a death wish or something?"

 "No.  I just want to see a tornado."

 "Crazy."

 "Anyway, we were driving east, and we could see some trees down in the 
 distance.  It was way across this field.  Finally, we found a road that took 
 us toward the trees, and we came up to this part of the road that was 
 completely stripped of pavement."

 "So?  Road construction?"

 "No.  That's where the tornado went through."

 "Really?"

 "Yeah.  There was a path through the field, and it took a bunch of trees, 
 passed over the road, and went down a hill through some more fields."

 "It didn't get any houses or anything?"

 "We didn't see any.  We drove around and took some pictures, I think we got 
 most of the path, and we didn't see any other damage."

 "Wow."

 "Yeah, so that's what I did today.  Anything exciting happen back home?"


 ******


 "Dude!  That one's gone!"

 "Man, it's coming right at us!"  I stood up and glanced around.  Most of the 
 bleacher bums were headed our way. I climbed up onto my seat and jumped.  
 "Shit."  I fell over backwards as the ball came within mere inches my 
 outstretched fingers.  Two rows back, a burly man wearing a Chiefs t-shirt 
 caught me.  

 "Almost," he said.

 I looked to my left to see the proud owner of a Ken Griffey-delivered home run 
 ball.  He was about six.

 "Nice catch," I said, rubbing his head, "to both of you," I turned to the man 
 in the Chiefs shirt.

 "Not a problem."

 "Damn," I said, returning to my seat. "Almost had it."

 Taking a sip of his beer, Devon nodded his head.  The crowd settled back in, 
 the home team now down by six.  

 "I think we're a jinx," he said.  



 ******


  
 I flopped down on the couch.  "Damn.  I need some sleep."

 "I feel ya, man.  I could sleep for a week," said Devon.  He reached for the 
 remote and turned on the TV.  "So, how do you like the place?" he asked, 
 waving the remote like a pointer.

 "Nice.  I especially like the entertainment center." I said, referring to the 
 massive wall unit that contained a 32 inch television and a myriad of stereo 
 equipment.  The phone rang.

 Devon answered.  "Hello?"

 "Just got back this morning.  We went and watched a Royals game.  Not tonight. 
  We're beat.  Tomorrow?  Let me ask."

 "You want to go to a party tomorrow?" he asked.

 "Who is it?"

 "Jennifer."

 "Jennifer Grant?"

 Devon nodded.

 "Sure," I said enthusiastically.  Jennifer Grant was the hottest girl that had 
 ever shown any interest in me.  Unfortunately, I left for college before 
 anything could happen.  

 "Okay, we'll be there," Devon said into the phone.  "Later."

 "Jennifer Grant.  Excellent," I said, doing my best Montgomery Burns.

 Devon grinned.  "Anything happen between you two?"

 "No.  I wish."

 "I think I would have skipped college for her.  Go to Longview or something."

 "Yeah, well you think with the wrong part of your anatomy."

 "So?  She's hot."

 "Yeah." I sighed.