A slight change and you knew what was coming—it wasn't hard, even if it wasn't your thing, living in the tornado alley did that to people this time of year. One minute and everything could change, for the worse, in this case.

But, while things seemed normal, people had to live with it. You heard things this morning while serving breakfast at the diner, a tornado in the neighboring town, nothing too strong, just... scary as hell. As it should be.

The scar on your thigh hurt just thinking about it. How many times would people have to go through this to learn that a tornado isn't a merry-go-round? Yeah, you learned that the hard way. That was why your scar had to remind you of that every day.

“There's little you can do to stop a tornado, a hurricane, or a cancer diagnosis from changing your life in an instant.” That's what your mom said the last time you saw her, maybe it was time to stop feeling sorry for yourself, but how could you? Maybe the guilt would eat you to death, sooner or later.

Before you could run all the facts through your mind one more time, the diner's door opened again—nothing unusual, it was lunch time, if it weren't for the type of car parked in the parking lot. Tornado wranglers, you knew right away.

If there was ever an indication of a problem, this was it—or, maybe, you should just ignore it and get on with what you were doing.

“Hey, afternoon. Have you chosen what you're gonna order?” You approached the table where some of them had already sat down. A weak smile on your face, trying to be a little friendly.

One of them looked you up and down, Dodge Mason, you didn't know him, but he could have sworn he knew you. Something about you... He almost had a memory of seeing you on the news five years ago or so, around the same time he decided to chase tornadoes.

“I just want a... Cheese sandwich, some fries and a soda. Please.” He coughed, still looking at you out of the corner of his eye. His stupid curiosity was gonna kill him one of these days, literally.