Twist of fate

On a muggy summer day in 1968 my grandmother died suddenly with cerebral hemorrhage. A torrent under pressure was let loose in her brain without warning. We had traveled together to Kalamazoo, Michigan to visit her daughter. Only now I see the irony. Southern Michigan lies at the edge of Tornado Alley. A tornado warning had sounded the night before she was struck. I remember the wailing siren though a twister never touched down. Unfamiliar with the sound...I tried to hide my alarm.

In 1989 Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston, SC and was considered the second costliest Atlantic hurricane ever. My friend Joe had taken refuge with many others in the school gymnasium. The terrifying night was black with loss of power. Over the screaming wind you could hear a sound like popping popcorn which later was thought to be the snapping of hundreds of tree trunks.

Hurricanes start with a low pressure formed when heavy cool air falls into warm seas. Like a draining sink it spins according to the earth’s rotation. The storms begin off the coast of West Africa and are tossed at the Americas guided by the trade winds. Their paths are unpredictable. What if some enemy or wizard could salt the sky with heavily reducing agents to create the favorable conditions? I had this dream that aerosolized silver sprayed in the atmosphere off Cape Verde could create the quarter mile wide low pressure that started the pot boiling. Does fate determine who lies in the next path? Our coasts could be pelted as if brutish paper airplanes were thrown by some would-be agitator. 2004 saw 4 major tempests in Florida alone...I wonder--James