It was a peaceful morning, on this warm, spring, Sunday. Everyone was gathered together on the front porch at my aunt’s house in the meadow. We are all gathered for the annual family reunion, which usually always happens here. Birds were chirping, sounds of crickets and grasshoppers filled the air, and the slight rumble of thunder in the distance.

“Hmm, I wonder if we will get rained on this year, like we do every year.” said Grandma jokingly.
“Wouldn’t that just be great?” I beamed sarcastically.
It was pretty warm today, except for the slight breeze that came from the what seemed to be thunderstorm approaching the house. The rest of our family was starting to arrive and I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen today. It didn’t look like we could leave the house, or even the front porch because of the dark clouds that were hovering over us ready to pour out rain at any time. My mother and two of my other aunts were in the kitchen getting everything ready for the gathering and everyone else was either inside in the family room or outside sitting on the porch hoping for the clouds to pass. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong. From what I could tell everyone had grins on their faces that spread out for miles.
“Everyone come inside to get some lunch before it gets too cold.” my mother exclaimed
“Okay mother, we are coming!” I said, motioning for everyone to come inside.
After we all had finished our lunch, everyone went back outside. However, I was still inside staring outside the window looking straight up at the sky. So many more clouds had formed and seemed to be taking over the entire sky, minute by minute.
“Don’t you think that everyone should come back inside, Mom?” I said a little worried.
“No, it’s fine, it doesn’t seem like it will start to rain too soon,” my mother said “And everyone would come in anyway if it was bothering them.”
“ I really don’t have a good feeling about this, I really think that we need to get everyone inside.” I said, again, even more worried.
“You worry too much, you need to stop.” my mother said again.
I didn’t understand why my mother didn’t care about the own safety of our family. Who knows, a tornado could drop down on us, a massive thunderstorm could happen, maybe even a hurricane.
“Whatever.” I said in an annoyed tone as I shrugged.
Later, I stepped outside again and I decided to check on everybody.It seemed fine at first, but then I noticed something quite terrifying. The deepest, darkest group of clouds I have ever seen in my life had just appeared right in front of my eyes. Winds started to pick up, very fast. Chairs were flying, leaves circling by the end of the driveway, following up to the porch. Thunder rumbling, lighting flashing, it was all happening so sudden.
“Everyone inside, everyone inside, everybody inside now.” I shrieked at the top of my lungs. “We have to get to the basement now.”
   “Hurry, everybody, get downstairs now.” my mother yelled.
The porch creaked the loudest it has ever, as everyone was rushing to get downstairs. I knew this would happen. I knew that there was something wrong. It seemed too peaceful and nice, I just knew something was wrong.
As everybody got to the basement, and my mother checked to make sure that everybody was downstairs, we closed the door as hard as we could because of the strong winds that were forcing it to stay open. One of my uncles was trying to “board” up the door with chairs, yeah, like that was going to work.
“Mom, seriously, how could you have not seen the clouds, I literally told you that something bad was going to happen, I could sense it.” I said
“I didn’t think much of it at the time, I was busy in the kitchen.” my mother replied back.
We didn’t know if the tornado had passed or not, there were no windows because we were in the basement and we did not want to go back stairs just yet. Everyone was lying on the floor with blankets and it was starting to near the evening now. It seemed like hours that we had been down there. I decided to walk up the basement stairs slowly, trying to be careful, and I pressed my ear up against the door. I didn’t hear anything, so I motioned for everyone to come to the door. I turned the knob on the door and slowly pried it open. What I saw was a disaster.
“Oh my gosh, it is a disaster in here!” my grandma cried.
Tables were flipped, my aunt’s china glasses were shattered, chair legs were broken, so many things were fractured. My aunt seemed to be almost in tears. Her house was a wreck. We didn’t even save anything because we were in such a rush to get to safety. What I thought was going to be such a nice, peaceful day turned out to be a massive disaster.
“Although everything is destroyed, our family bond is not. And what is important is that we saved ourselves, and that is all that matters, right?” my aunt exclaimed.
She was correct. Nothing could ever break our family bond, nothing, even a tornado.
As the “lovely” spring day seemed to be coming to an end, and the night had already rolled in, it was time to end this annual family reunion, until next year. Let’s see what awaits us.