The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County: A Novel

48. Aftermath

190 Aftermath 48 Historical society members and representatives from the high school nature club stood in the rain, numb, staring at the destruction of the Link Lake Supper Club. In less than five minutes they heard the wail of sirens and soon the two Link Lake fire trucks appeared, followed by the squad car. “Is anyone injured?” yelled Fire Chief Henry Watkins. “Is anyone hurt?” “I . . . I don’t believe so, Henry,” answered Emily. “We’re shaken a bit. But I believe beyond being soaked to our skins, we’re okay.” Volunteer firefighters soon began dragging huge tarps from one of the trucks and with the assistance of historical society members and nature club students they began spreading the tarps over the exposed parts of the supper club, which was most of it, as the entire roof had been blown off. Watkins walked over to where Marilyn Jones stood staring at the destruction. “Are you okay, Miss Jones?” asked Watkins as he placed a spare firefighter ’s jacket around her shoulders. “Everything is gone . . . all gone. Years of work . . . gone. Just like that, gone.” Tears mixed with raindrops ran down Marilyn’s face. “I’m sorry,” said Watkins. “The supper club took the worst of the storm; a few trees are down here and there around town and the power is out. But it looks like the tornado hit your building straight on and then skipped across the lake and disappeared. That’s how these storms work.” “But we’re all safe,” said Marilyn. “I can’t image how many of us would have been hurt if we’d stayed in the building.” 191 Aftermath “Where’d you go?” asked Watkins, not aware of any secure shelter nearby. “See over there?” Marilyn pointed to a huge wild berry patch that seemed to have the middle torn out of it. “In that berry patch is an iron door leading to an old storm shelter that Emily Higgins knew about. Emily is the reason none of us was hurt.” “Well, you don’t say,” said Watkins, knowing full well, as did everyone in Link Lake, that Marilyn Jones had never had anything good to say about Emily Higgins. As quickly as the storm arrived, it departed. The clouds cleared and the sun came out. The firefighters, historical society members, and the students worked for a couple hours, creating a temporary roof over the dining room with blue tarps. “Thank you all so much,” said Marilyn as everyone began drifting off toward their cars—the parking lot had not been touched by the tornado. After everyone had left, Marilyn, not knowing what to do, went back to the storm shelter, pulled open the trap door, and left it open, which provided a little light in the cramped space where everyone had sat out the tornado. She climbed down the stairs and with the added light of her cell phone looked around. On a little shelf in the back she spotted a metal box, covered with dust. She picked it up and once outside, she opened it. She took out photos of when she and her sister Gloria were little girls. There were early photos of the supper club, and there were photos of her parents, wedding photos they appeared to be, taken in front of the Trail Marker Oak. She also found a newspaper clipping, with a wedding photo, and the caption, “Fred and Barbara Jones, longtime visitors to Link Lake from Chicago, were married this past Saturday in front of the Trail Marker Oak at Increase Joseph Community Park in Link Lake. This old tree has become a popular place for young couples to marry, as some believe that the tree, which was a guidepost for earlier travelers, would point the way toward a happy marriage as well.” Marilyn thought, My parents knew about this storm shelter. They must have carried this box into the shelter before another storm. And they were married in front of the Trail Marker Oak—I never knew that. I can’t let 192 Aftermath anybody see this. I did not know my parents had such a connection to that old Trail Marker Oak. I just can’t believe it. Ambrose Adler started walking toward his farm. He remembered another tornado that had torn through the north side of Link Lake back in the 1970s, uprooting many trees and destroying three cattle barns just out...