“The drone in my ear, it’s like the tornado drill in elementary school, the hand-cranked siren that rang mercilessly, all of us hunched over on ourselves, facing the basement walls, heads tucked into our chests. Beth and me wedged tight, jeaned legs pressed against each other. The sounds of our own breathing. Before we all stopped believing a tornado, or anything, could touch us, ever”

“Our own star! Like the world's been made just for us! With the sunshine and the ocean. We have each other all to ourselves.”

“turns me on so loud it's like no sound, everybody yelling at me hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sound from the mouths. my sound soaks up all other sound.”

“I walk like I have tornadoes for legs. Let us make love like Kansas.”

“I was doing the new Summer Lady a favor, running down a roguestorm sylph. Got to go all over the place in those tornado-chasergeekmobiles. You should have seen the look on the driver's face when herealized that the tornado was chasing us.”

“He shook his head. "You didn't do anything. It'd be like blaming a tornado for ripping through a trailer park. The tornado's just minding its own business. It can't help what it is." A tornado. Something that destroyed everything in its path. A natural disaster. Me.”