tornadoquakes and earthdrawers

we are at a tori concert. it's been pretty good so far and i enjoyed myself thoroughly, but i'm older now and it all kind of sounds the same so i don't feel like sitting through the encore. she has two pianos on the stage and saradevil comes out and starts playing sister janet and belting out lyrics. "master shaman, i have come." i smile at her confidence, happy that she has this moment for herself and go down to the basement.

i sit in a leather cushy chair with my feet on the coffee table next to my friend. he is not particularly attractive, a little heavy, hair mussed, rather plain looking in his balck t-shirt and dirty baggy jeans. but he's nice to me and he listens to me and this is just fine for now. i practice flirting with him. i tell him that there are about 400 songs on my playlist and i chose the specific order of each song but really i wanted to put all of the megadeth songs at the top of the list. he lip syncs along with dave mustane and i am sincerely impressed by this boy. i tell him that i need to call his friend to see if he wants to hang with me. he seems a little hurt that i want to leave him and i brush it off like the arrogant teenager i am. i just want to be around more people is all. i call but he doesn't pick up. i shrug and continue to listen to music with him in this concert hall basement which has windows that look out into the depths of a muted sea. fish swim by silently and we don't even think to look at them we are so used to it.

my mother is working at the marina again and my friends and i really want cookies. but then i remember that we don't have butter. we are wandering around outside deciding to go to the store when we fall. grabbing the grass i look up and point to a place in the sky. i don't really know why i'm pointing there but we all look and soon can make out a tornado. it's big but going away from us. however, it's still strong enough to cause the earth below us to rise upward and expand. when the tornado is gone i look below me and see a perfect raised square about a foot higher than the rest of the ground. about 6 inches high is an extension, another rectangle. as if the earth was raising up secret dressers and pulling out ancient drawers. they are everywhere. houses have towers of earth that have smashed through them up to their roofs and dirt and belongings are pooring out of their doors and windows with curtains fluttering outside in the the breeze of a calm and sunny day. i think that i am glad i didn't go to the basement and it's stupid for us to think it is a safe place. i could have been smashed into the ceiling.

i call my mother and tell her of the earth drawers. she laughs and asks me if i honestly have never seen them. i'm a little hurt that she thinks me so naive, but i admit that i have never seen them in my life. she tells me that she used see them all the time just by laying on the ground on her stomach and saying through cupped hands directly into the earth "hello, hello, hellloooooooo."

we decide that we don't want to make cookies anymore. we'll just buy a box of pre-made brownies that just have to be greased and cut.