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Everything in evolutionary biology and psychology suggests that humanity evolved partially because we learned how to run away from danger. But there’s always been people running towards danger across the years. Towards a smoking mountain, receding shoreline, grey wall of clouds on the horizon. Towards a grey funnel of angry wind and dirt and whatever else it’s picked up along the way.
Yeah, people that chased tornadoes were crazy. But upon further inspection, following these strange specimens around, it began to appear that people that chased tornadoes were some of the happiest people on the planet, maybe.
Dr. Carter’s field research was about halfway through. Data collection with the Twisterz Trackerz started at the beginning of March, where they picked her up from New Orleans. They snaked their way up north bringing them to June, long summer days under an impossibly bright sun.
Carter’s original plan saw her going home for a week at the end of the month. Her brother and sister back home (along with one adorable niece) wanted to celebrate her 35th at their grandfather’s estate in Downham. The thought of reuniting with family was appealing but… that life seemed so distant from the one she was living right now. Endless days, late nights by the fire, and most importantly, high speed and high stakes chases. She pondered both halves of her life as she hovered over the flight’s cancel button.
-
It was another sunrise at 5am kind of day, somewhere in the messy junction of Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. Javi, Boone, and Tyler voted to spend the day bowling, while Lily, Dani, and Kate put their rocks in for minigolf. After a little bickering, they agreed on minigolf before the sun hit full overhead. Bowling would follow in a nice (hopefully empty) small town air-conditioned alley.
The course was nice, green, right by a lake. They were the only humans in a one mile radius besides the couple that ran the joint, two sweet elders that regaled them with tales of tornadoes past. The woman wore a blue and white blouse that resembled fine china, while her husband managed to wear full sleeves of flannel somehow. Kate spared one of her dwindling polaroids on a selfie of the team, a little gift for the strangers. She carefully inked the date on the reverse: June 26, 2025. Shook it vigorously before handing it back, even though these days they say you’re not supposed to do that.
“So… boys against girls?” Boone asked, leaning forward on his putter.
“How about cowards versus cowboys?” Lily bounced back.
The team snickered besides Boone, who pouted. “Listen, I ran away ONE time, one time and you all still hold it against me.”
“We could just go for each person for themself?” Kate supplied hopefully. That’s how her psych lab at home played, quite a cutthroat group of people.
Javi put his finger up to reply. “That’s not really how we-”
Tyler cut him off. “Let’s try it. New team member, why not do something new? Especially today.”
Dani shrugged. “Gives me another chance to beat you all. I’m not complaining.”
The game was surprisingly fun. Kate was by far the worst, but nobody made fun of her for taking four or five swings per hole. She didn’t even have to explain that her first game of minigolf was played at 25. Tyler and Dani seemed like naturals vying for first while the other three battled for third place.
They reached the final hole a little before ten, sun starting to warm their bones as they sweated off their misses and the heat. It was entirely on the dock, a maze on uneven turf glued to planks warped with time. The course was walled in, preventing any chance of the ball making it into the lake.
Unless you were Kate, minigolf extraordinaire. Her fourth swing hit surprisingly hard and sent her orange ball off into the murky lake below. She groaned and facepalmed, already spouting apologies.
Dani was at her back instantly, reassuring her that it was OK. Balls always get lost at these joints, she said, and yeah that did sound true.
Boone, for some reason, felt the need to add, “Well, let’s hope that five dollar ball loss fee comes from your research budget.”
“No fee if we just walk out of here before they can count the balls,” Lily snickered.
“Let me get it,” Tyler offered, eyeing the side of the dock. “I can probably grab a whole handful of them, take some back to the truck for us to keep.”
Before anyone could argue with him, he’d hopped over the edge. And right into just a few inches of brown water. “Ow,” he called out, doubling over in pain, bringing him to his knees. “Goddammit, fuck, my god, so shallow, FUCK.” The white hat that was practically glued to his head even fell off, floating upside down.
A phantom pain ran through Kate’s ankle at the sight of it. They all rushed to meet him at the artificially sanded shore as he trudged out slowly, wincing with each step.
“Great idea, genius,” Dani very helpfully supplied.
Tyler grimaced. “No sympathy for the poor hurt man, I see how it is.”
Javi and Boone took up his shoulders and walked (limped) him back to the van. The husband set off for their house to fetch some ice while the wife put away their putters, wiping them down with care. She’s quiet at first, apologetic for the accident before Dani volunteered the story for how it happened. They were all giggling about how boys are by the time her dear husband returned with two plastic bags full of ice. Despite being in the west proper, the chasers were given a true midwestern goodbye, complete with instructions to the nearest doctor and recommendations for their lunch, dinner, and tomorrow’s breakfast. Their son operated a motel down the road, he’d be happy to give them a discount and let them take all the ice they need from the machine there. Kate watched behind as they drove away, briefly imaging her life in their place.
Back in the van, Tyler staunchly refused medical treatment. According to him, the swollen heat surrounding the joint wasn’t a cause for concern as long as he could still rotate it. That didn’t sit right with Kate but the others seemed relatively unbothered. Logically she knew that injuries were more commonplace in storm chasing circles than a white collar office. It was actually surprising that Kate hadn’t already witnessed one with the team, Lily told her.
So they booked two rooms at the motel, opting for the cushy digs for the night. They generally preferred to camp (mostly because it was cheap) but the team were able to bully Tyler into accepting one night next to running water and an ice machine.
They loaded him into the boys room and loaded a week of laundry into the machines normally used for linens. The plan was still to go bowling, minus one Tyler. Kate was originally planning on going bowling. And then she thought about poor Tyler alone in his room while they all had fun without him. This was definitely not the first time the group split for an injury, because the healthy members weren’t remotely phased at the thought of leaving him behind. Kate felt her foot pulse with empathy as she watched him settle into bed. She wouldn’t be able to help much besides replace his ice and give him a little company. But she’d feel better staying.
Lily raised an eyebrow at her when she said she’d stay back to get some work done. Kate only felt a little guilty. The two of them had been getting closer, and if she could pick any team member to spend one-on-one time with it would definitely be her. Not just because she was gorgeous, Kate wasn’t that shallow. Lily had been the first to open up to her outside of the required interviews. Hopefully they’d have time to catch up tonight, Kate did have something she wanted to share later.
The others all tried to convince her to bowl. Even Tyler wanted to get rid of her. They gave up when they realized she was more stubborn than all of them combined.
She waved them off cheerfully, then darted back inside for the AC. It was a little past noon and heat was rising off the pavement, making mini mirages on the road and the lot. It was at least 32, but it felt like 35 under the unrelenting sun.
His eyes tracked her on the way in. “Thanks for sticking with me, Kate.” He was genuine, like always. One of the hardest parts of psychology research was getting subjects to communicate truthfully. That had never been a problem with Tyler, unless he had been lying about everything effortlessly this whole time. It didn’t seem likely, though, and it made her job so much easier.
The others were pretty truthful also. Javi and Boone were a bit evasive, but she quickly figured that they were evasive together and well, that information wasn’t important for her research anyways. Lily was hiding something too(a crush maybe?) but again, not ‘nader related. They were all great research subjects at the end of the day, Tyler especially. Sometimes he’d talk too much but that’s preferable to too little talking. It wouldn’t hurt for him to tone down the cheekiness, but scientific beggars can’t be choosers.
Tyler was looking at her expectantly.
“Youre welc- well, I’m not just here for you, you know.” She wrung her hands together. “I want to get a headstart on our one-on-one interview for the week. I’m curious about what this injury means to you, and what injuries mean to chasers in general.”
Tyler chuckled. “Should’ve known it was business, eh Dr. Carter.”
The name didn’t get on her nerves exactly, but the joke was starting to get old. She still smiled at it when it came from him. “Always, Mr. Owens.” Two could play at that game.
Kate stepped further into the room and wrinkled her nose. What was that smell?
“Yeah um… lake water… sorry about that…” Tyler trailed off. “I should’ve asked one of the boys to get me in the shower before they left.” He’s red with embarrassment, his usual cockiness wiped away.
“It’s not that bad, really.” Which was true. She hadn’t noticed it until the room was empty. “I can help get you over there, make sure you don’t fall.” The offer left her mouth before she could really consider it. But it made sense. She could at least help him out a bit if she was going to stay behind like that. Whatever was in that stagnant manmade lake wouldn’t be good for his skin.
“Thank you, but no thank you,” he replied immediately. “I can go by myself.”
“Just like you got to that bed by yourself?” She fired back.
“Well, I mean, I can limp in there, and then limp back out. I promise I won’t fall and die. Scout’s honor.”
Sigh. Boys. “I’m going to wait outside the door and if I even hear you lean back too much I’m coming in for the rescue. Chop chop.” The joke may have crossed the line with other members of the team, but it had started to be their way of communication lately.
“Deal. Grab my clothes? Not sure I can bend over.”
It took some self restraint for Kate to not reach out and steady Tyler as he moved to stand. He watched over as she pulled an old green tee and some running shorts from his suitcase. She didn’t ask before picking a nicer pair of dark grey boxer briefs and pushing the bundle of clothes into his hands.
The shower was quick, ten minutes at most. Kate was glad there were no incidents. It would’ve been funny if she had to rescue him, though. She’d love to tell a funny story like that to the group, have one of her own inside jokes like that.
Tyler stepped out in a cloud of steam, clean brown hair flopping down against his forehead. He was overdue for a cut, they all were, but it was hard to make time for a barber visit on the road.
He made it back to bed on his own, sitting down with a loud groan. Kate moved to get him all propped up again, putting a pillow under his foot and placing the Walmart bag full of ice on top of it. He hissed at the contact.
“Still hurt?”
“Yeah,” he breathed out. “And before you ask, I don’t take painkillers.”
Sigh. Boys. “Ok tough guy, I won’t push any pills on you. But I will ask you why you feel so strongly about rejecting medical intervention. On the record. In a second, let me get my notebook.” She turned towards her own bags, propped against the far wall.
“Heyyyy,” he started. “Quick question. Can I ask for a small favor first?”
She turned back around. “How small exactly?”
“So you know how girls are really good at taking stains out of things?”
“...Yes?” Was he about to ask her to help hide a body?
“Like even blood, girls are scary good at taking blood out of clothes.”
“Yeah, we are…” So it could be murder. She had been wondering how they had as much money as they did, given the whole team’s lack of stable employment.
“Can you rinse my cowboy hat off? Maybe use a bit of soap? It would mean a lot to me, I know it gets dusty all the time and rained on but that water was really gross and it’s probably overdue for a cleaning anyways. You know I’ve had that hat for a while now and it means a lot to me so really thank you I’dappreciateitalot.” He wasn’t even looking at her, the request too hard to make head on.
He was such a daft cow sometimes. “Of course I’ll clean it off, you should’ve just asked!”
“Thank you so much Kate. That’s very kind of you.”
She could only laugh. He was so silly. “So me staying back to take care of you is no big deal, but washing your hat makes me the most important person in the world to you?”
“Well, I didn’t want you to stay back to take care of me. You should’ve been cel– enjoying the day off with the team.”
Kate had to ignore the first part of that, that he didn’t want her to be here. Whatever, Tyler, next time she’d be leaving him the dust. She had to get some solo time with Lily to make up for this experience. She snatched up the hat and took it to the small bathroom.
Upon further inspection, the team really did try to get her to go with them. They even used a little physical force, Dani and Lily taking turns trying to get behind her to push her out the door. Maybe they all knew that Tyler didn’t like her. She could ruin his hat in retaliation.
She shook the thought away. Not a rational way to respond. The hat’s surface wasn’t terrible, just a little water combined with sand and algae and whatever else. Tyler definitely could’ve handled it on his own. The hand soap seemed a bit harsh so she just rinsed it off and patted it dry gently. She’d toss it on the van’s antenna when the others returned.
There wasn’t even a moment of peace before he began speaking again. “Thank you again Kate, I really mean it.”
“No worries man, I would’ve done it for anyone.”
“Exactly, you would’ve helped anyone, that’s so kind.”
Anyone would’ve done the same, but whatever. “And would a kind person make a poor injured man talk about his pain for research? I don’t think so. Time to get to work.”
“Yes ma’am.” And he was blissfully silent while she set up the recorder and notebook log. Normally they’d sit across from each other at a table or in a field so the mic would pick both of them up equally. The beds were a bit too far for that.
So she set up at the foot of the bed, about diagonal from where Tyler’s head was. The little mic fell over on the covers a few times before the tripod cooperated.
“On a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain, and ten being excruciating pain, how much pain are you in right now?”
He leaned forward a bit to reply. “Well, on a scale of zero to five I’d say it’s like a… one.”
Ok. So it was going to be one of those interviews. Of course he’d make things difficult after practically saying he didn’t want her around.
“On a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain, and ten being excruciating pain, how much pain are you in right now?”
He cracked a small smile. “Well, I wouldn’t say my pain is on that scale, but if it had to be for science, it would probably be a one.”
It’s kind of what she would expect from him. The completely unconscious need to hide pain reminded her unexpectedly of her late husband. One day he’d come home from the lab with a full shard of glass in his arm, calmly asking her to remove it. She’d driven him to the A&E and scolded him the whole time.
“Based on the severity of your injury and the symptoms you’re experiencing, I think you may have misunderstood the pain scale and given me the wrong number. Zero is no pain, and ten would be the worst pain imaginable, so something in between the two would be closer to a five.”
“Well I guess it’s a two because it hurts.”
Alright. The resistance to answering properly and acknowledging pain is what she had to dig into. “As a chaser, how do you feel about talking to others regarding your injuries and the pain they may cause?”
He took a second to think it over. “I don’t think it has anything to do with being a chaser, I just don’t think my ankle hurts much honestly.”
“Ok, what sorts of other feelings come up when you think about disclosing injuries to others?”
“I don’t think this really matters. It doesn’t hurt that bad.” He paused, clenching his fists. “What research are you doing on us anyways?”
The tension in his body was so clear. “Your resistance to answering shows me that it matters to you.”
“Well, all these questions asking about our families and childhoods are starting to get suspicious. Are you trying to figure out what’s wrong with us?” What a baseless accusation, he had no idea what important work she was doing.
“I’m just trying to understand why someone would drive towards a tornado when they have someone to go home to!”
He froze, then started speaking softly. “None of us have people at home to go to, besides our parents and brothers and sisters, I guess.” He was sitting on the edge of something, ready to speak, but still holding back. He opened and closed and opened his mouth again. “We’d been wondering about you ever since we realized how much you knew about weather events. We started looking you up.”
So they’d been cyberstalking her. Those daft pricks. It’s something her sister had warned about, that Kate wouldn’t be able to hide behind her research for long. If they hadn’t dug too deep, maybe they wouldn’t have found it all. “And what did you all need to know so strongly that you couldn’t just bloody ask me?”
“Well first, Lily wanted to know about that ring you wear. We figured you weren’t married because you never talked about having a spouse, but she was convinced you had a secret wife you were nervous to tell us about.”
…Ok? Kate nodded, not sure how to even respond to that.
“And then she found a picture in some small town British paper, a little article about how ‘childhood sweethearts Kate and Edward’ were married in town square surrounded by friends and family.”
So that’s where it was going. Always back to him, no matter how fast she tried to run from it. Nature would always catch up, and so would the memories of them together.
“Lily was inconsolable, she said it was a waste of um… excuse my language, her words not mine… such a pretty face.”
She knew where this was going, but she spoke anyway. Her research would be over, they’d kick her from the team, and she’d be sent back empty handed with half a conclusion to present from her whole research semester off. “Can we get to the point any faster?”
“We thought Javi was insane at first when he said he recognized your husband. But he was right. He’d met him before, at the annual Iowa chasers convention. He was a quirky British meteorologist that would talk to anyone about weather, and basically answer any question, even from kids.”
That was her Eddy alright. Tears came to her eyes along with memories of his indiscriminate kindness. It’s what made them best friends in primary school and kept them together through years of university and moves throughout the country. “I remember that, yeah, his annual trip.”
“And I don’t think I need to tell you the rest. His obituary was listed on the same chaser sites we check almost every day for severe weather reports. Usually families list funeral information, or addresses to send cards and condolences to. His was a blank space, no picture because they don’t like to post them without permission.”
“I know,” she said, choked up. “I didn’t want all of that.”
“None of us blame you. We understand how hard it must have been to lose him from so far away. And there’s another thing--“
The door burst open. Kate turned around to see streams of confetti shot through with a loud bang.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” The team yelled at the top of their lungs. They filed in quickly, Javi with the party popper, Lily with balloons, Dani with a cake, and Boone with two large paper bags.
They all froze once they processed the sight in front of them - Kate and Tyler on the bed, tears in both their eyes.
“Are we… interrupting anything?” Javi had the gall to ask first.
“Not at all,” Kate said, wiping her face with the back of a hand. “I’ve just found out that you bloody lot have been cyberstalking me, isn’t that some kind of crime?”
“Hacking you would be illegal, but we were just looking, I swear.” Lily immediately jumped to defend herself. “And I’m sorry, we probably should have just talked to you.”
“Yeah, you really should have.” Kate’s voice wavered. “Is that how you all knew it was my birthday?”
Tyler spoke from behind her. “Actually your um… sister back home reached out to us on our Facebook page. She was a little worried that you were working too hard basically. So she sent, like a hundred British dollars over for us to make sure you had a good party.” He added sheepishly, “She didn’t say it had to be a surprise, but we wanted it to be special and fun for you.”
“Yeah, but you insisted on sitting here with busted up Tyler instead of hitting the lanes with us!” Dani added. “We had it all planned out from start to finish.”
The weird day suddenly started to make a lot of sense.
“Your sister did ask for one thing, though, and that was for a few birthday pictures to make sure you’re still alive and somewhat happy. Apparently you’ve barely been talking to her?” Guilty as charged, unfortunately. Kate knew her sister and brother-in-law would ask what it was like being in her late husband’s favorite country. She wasn’t ready to answer those questions yet.
“The birthday party doesn’t excuse the cyberstalking, by the way, we will be talking about that later. But for now get in here, let’s get one on my polaroid first– HEY I’m not wearing one of those hats.” Kate swatted the sparkly cone out of Lily’s outstretched hands. “Team meeting tomorrow for sure, but party tonight.”