"M-m-momma! Th-the w-w-waves got me!" Megan screamed.

"Momma won't let the waves get you anymore, Meggie." Tracy 's voice was calm compared to what was going on inside her. "Let's follow Danny and Richy."

"Richy is holding Mia." Megan observed, and her voice was a tad calmer than it had been when she thought about the waves.

"Yes, Richy won't lose Mia." They climbed a rather sharp incline and were hit in the face by a raging palm frond. Coconuts, like missiles, came hurtling from above and Richard shook his head. "We can't go th is way!" He started to back down, but then looked back out to where their plane had been. 

The water spout was there, thrashing what was left of the twisted metal of the plane. He didn't want to turn Tracy or the children to see that image, so he scrambled back up missile alley. He found himself praying out loud as he climbed, and the rain and salt spray lessened as they entered the shelter of the rocks.

Richard looked back once more and saw the last beam of light from the damaged plane be engulfed with water and smashed on the rocks below them. The sky around shone with an eerie green glow, the wind rose and ebbed, slashing rain, and then cutting tree leaves in their faces.

Tracy had started humming. A Primary song, she hadn't realized she was doing it until Megan picked it up and began singing it. I am a Child of God, and he has sent me here.

Why on earth would God send them here? Tracy wondered, her inner thoughts in a panicky chaos, as she struggled to heft her burdens up a slippery embankment. 

Why would God even consider giving her another-- No! That wasn't the way! She told herself firmly. What are you made of? You've got to get past this line of reasoning. Be strong. Quit feeling sorry for yourself Have faith. Things happen because of choices and for a reason. God works through our choices and for reasons we may not understand. lf this is our time to go-- But it's not! Endure to the end, and this isn't the end! keep enduring! What have I spent the last two years doing if not understanding faith? Am I going to have a break down now, and show him what I'm not made of? No! I 'm tougher than this. I'm going to have faith, I'm going to get through this, and my sacrifice isn't for nothing!

"Watch out!" Richard yelled and Tracy clung to a viney type plant as a wash of mud slipped and slid past her down to her right. lt splattered and splashed in her eyes and she wiped furiously at them just to be able to see. Richard turned to look at her and his own mask was hilarious. Tracy had to smile through it all. "You okay?" wasnhis white teeth flashed and she answered with a grimace as a droplet of mud slashed her.

If he'd had a free hand he'd have wiped her face, but as it stood, he had to keep moving. "You okay?" he repeated.

"Yeah!" she yelled.

"There seems to be a cave type thing, maybe a hole, whatever. I think we should dig in here!" Richard turned his light on the small opening in the rocks, searching for any apparent danger. There wasn't really large enough or protected enough...

A sudden sharp crack of thunder and the immediate flash of lightning showed Richard the finger of the twister already on the shore. He was out of time. He shoved Mel ia ahead of him onto the shelf and she instinctively scrambled into the opening. Danny followed eagerly, l ike a mountain goat, disappearing out of Richard 's view for a brief moment. Alternate darkness and a gray m isty light was their only source of illumination besides the tiny flashlight Richard had found in one of the bags. He took Megan from Tracy who was struggling to stay in one place behind him on the rather slippery incline. More mud clumped past, and the rest of it oozed and sucked at his feet. "Go, back by Danny." Richard instructed, glad he couldn't see the children. "Danny are you up against the back wall?"

"Yes, Richy." Came h is six year old voice, sensing the severity of their situation. ''Are the girls right next to you?"

"Yes."

He turned to Tracy. "Come past me, can you get a foot hold here? I know it's high , but if we take the duffel oft: and hoist you in..."he was doing it as he spoke, shoving the large duffel into the opening, and then hefting Tracy and the baby up on their sides, half laying, half dangling from the opening of the little shelter. He felt around the lip of the opening and found there were several places where rocks came together to form this small fissure. lf he wedged himself into the crack, he could use his body as a shield for Tracy and still find a place to hang on.

Tracy army crawled herself inch by inch further into the protection of the rocks when she heard the change in pitch as the twister hit the little ravine. The girls stopped crying and were listening too. Tracy couldn't see their faces, but a questing hand found all three children. Tracy lay, propped on a duffel and the baby's still form, both hands reaching in front of her to comfort, Richard pressing hard, painfully hard, against her back. One leg was bent awkwardly underneath her,the other dangling between. Ricard'.s , pelted by loose rocks and cold mud. For split seconds she would feel the pressure of the wmd lift Richard away from her and he would grasp the one arm he could clutch her with harder. She supposed that his other arm was wedged under the lip of the cave opening, because she could feel his trembl ing effort as he tried to hold them all in place, against the raging elements.

"Dear Heavenly Father..." Danny began, and Tracy heard Megan mimic him in the buffering stillness. He began to fervently pour out his whole heart. "Thankyou for this day. Please bless the wind to stop. Please bless our airplane not to crash. Please bless all those who are sick, that they caa get well again, and..." he stopped and searched for the right words. "Please bless all those who couldn 't be here today, that they can come next week."  Tracy said Amen and squeezed Danny's ankle, which was all she could touch of him. ''Thanks Danny." Tears of love and gratitude filled her eyes and she closed them against the rage and tempest outside. How long? She thought. How long could it last? Did she have the faith of a child? The faith to ask her father to stop the winds?

Richard 's chin jutted into her back and he grunted as something large hit him and forced him to readjust his hold on the rock. Tracy couldn 't turn to look at him, squashed against her stomach and trying not to squash the baby who was strapped to her front.

"Momma?" It was Melia, Tracy reached to touch her, and her hand came in contact with the little face, she cupped her palm and caressed the sweet features.

''It's gonna be okay, honey." 

"Rock hurts me." 

"Quished!" Megan said then.

"We're all squished, baby, just hang on a little longer." 

"Can't see." That was Melia again.

"Danny on my leg!" Megan said and Tracy felt a wriggle of movement as the children adjusted themselves, and Danny withdrew his leg from Tracy's reach. "I'm as far back as l can go, Mom." He said.

"Thanks, sweetheart." She answered, trying to remain as calm as she didn 't feel.

"There's no room." Melia announced and her slight form came back in contact with Tracy's face, and she was covered in mud. The caked dirt rubbed against Tracy's nose. But there was no use telling a squashed two year old to hold still. lt wasn't in their nature. Even in an emergency. Their whole life was a series of events, this was just one more.

Tracy felt the beat and tug as a sharp rock grazed her thigh and then a searing pain as it ripped her skin on it 's downward plumm et. She jolted in reflex and Richard tightened his hold pain fully. "Did it get you, baby?" he yelled against her back.

Tracy shuddered with the pain. She nodded, biting her lip to keep from crying out. Of course, Richard couldn't feel her nodding. So she answered with reassurance. "Not as bad as it m ust be getting.... you! Ow!" another rock smashed into her ankle.

"l have the big duffel on my back, it'sjust my legs that are sticking out too. It's getting harder to keep standing this way."

"Are you wedged in, then?" she yelled to be heard over the din and through their combined flesh, her face pressed against the cave floor, rock and dirt, and then she lifted it again, to keep from smothering the baby beneath her.

"It's really buffeting me." Richard gasped trying to keep touching the ledge where histoes had claim. Tracy felt Kylie move, knowing the baby was safe against her chest, but feel ing the tiny body under

her, and hoping that the baby wasn 't up against any protruding rocks. She hadn 't made any noticeable noise in awhile, But Tracy's hands were supporting her now, and unable to check the baby. If she let up, she put her full weight on her. The pressure of Richard against her in the small cramped space was their protection , but it forbid her movement.

"I guess if I had to be castaway on a deserted tropical island in the middie of a hurricane, I 'm glad it's with you."She said into Richard 's ear, which had moved closer with the last flinging he'd received. By turning her head she could actually manageto kiss his cheek.

There was a slight intake of breath and then a chuckle. "Right, I'm glad to be here with you too." His lips brushed hers. Then Danny, who was watching the exchange from his perch not too far away said, "I'd really like to be home watching a movie right now. With popcorn."

Tracy felt Richard's body lift from hers then and she screamed and reached for him frantically,

trying to hold on to him. Her fingers found his pant belt loops and she grabbed on. She scooted, slidingsemi across the baby and feeling her feet fly out from the face of the wall. "It can't have... you!" she screamed as Richard 's body slammed back against the rock wall, and a wash of thick mud rushed past them, almost tearing him once again away from her. "No, Richard! No!" she screamed and held him now with both her legs wrapped around his waist, and one hand firmly entrenched in his belt loop. Richard's arm bulged with the effort to keep himself at the cave open ing. All Tracy could envision right then was a movie scene she'd watched recently, of a man in a storm cellar, and a tornado outside, growling, trying to get in, and the man tom from his wife's arms as the storm took him. Twister, it was called Twister. What if... the twister took Richard and dashed him ... what if the mud she could feel oozing past them filled up the little crevice where they were sheltered. They would suffocate. Maybe they'd be found a thousand years later and be considered a religious suicide group, more likely they'd be fossils. People would wonder ... what could they be doing?

Richard grunted with effort as another rock dashed against his legs. His mind was clouded, he was

praying, but should he exercise his priesthood and command this storm to stop? By faith and the priesthood even Enoch moved a mountain. Be thou... what should he do?

His legs slammed back against the rocks with a horrible ripping feel and collided with Tracy's legs wrapped around his waist, cushioning him like a rubber tire. He lay against her and the baby in exhaustion. ''Tracy, the baby...."

*****