Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat  - Clara Wersterfer

June 9, 2007

Where's the Cow?
by Clara Wersterfer
Connie got up at her usual time of five
am. It was pouring rain along with a light show you wouldn't believe.
Thunder rolled and lightning split the black sky with jagged flashes
that lit the entire
earth below. Some storm, thought
Connie. Maybe it will stop before I have to go out. She made a pot
of coffee, fried bacon for Roy, her husband, and put bread in the
toaster. Setting the table, Connie looked out the window at the heavy
downpour. She was dragging her feet hoping the rain would let up.
She fried the eggs and still the rain poured. Guess I'll have to wade
water to the barn to milk the cow, she thought. She walked into the
bedroom, woke Roy, got a raincoat and pulled her rubber boots on.
Opening the
back door she was met with a virtual
waterfall. The strong wind almost pushed the petite Connie off her feet.
She would walk a few steps and the wind
would blow her back two steps. She debated returning to the house but
forged on, finally reaching her goal. Opening the barn door was a chore.
Connie found the light switch, got her stool and took a few minutes to
catch her breath and calm the
cow.
Old Bessie was moving about and mooing loudly, turning around in the
stall
while swishing her tail. Connie sat down and, reached for the cows'
udder and started the milking
process. The next
thing she knew, she was laying in an open field, rain pouring on her and
the side
she was laying on was hurting. Raising up on her elbow, she saw beneath
her, a crushed milk bucket. Standing up she realized both legs worked.
That was good.
The hurt she felt from the milk bucket had eased. The rain was pouring
and during flashes of lightning she looked around. Things looked
different. The barn was missing, so was the tool shed and tractor. We
must have had a small tornado, she thought, making her way to the house.
Staggering into the door, Roy was eating breakfast, unaware that
anything had
happened. "Where's the milk?" he asked her. "Must still be in the cow,"
Connie
replied. "Well, where's the cow?" About
this time Connie became hysterical. She started giggling and said "I
don't know.
Guess she's in the barn where ever it is." Roy jumped to his feet and
asked Connie
what she meant. After shouting the barn, shed and tractor were gone,
Connie began to cry, only then did Roy
believe her. "I heard the wind roaring, but never dreamed you were in a
tornado."
he told Connie. Holding her close for a
few minutes, she calmed down and told
him the entire story. An hour later, a gray light announced it was
daytime, the rain slowed and Connie and Roy checked the damage. Their
fence was totally gone for about seventy feet, a neighbor across the
street had lost his fence and barn too, the neighbor to the left had
lost his fence. There was no damage to other property around them. The
weather service came out and surveyed the damage, declaring it was
indeed a
mini tornado.
But where was the cow?
Roy and Connie searched for two days, on foot and in the truck,
looking for Bessie. Connie worried Bessie might be injured and needing
help. They finally
found the cow over four miles
down the road, unharmed and grazing peacefully in a neighbors fenced
pasture.
The tornado must have set her down
gently in the enclosed pasture.
No trace of the barn, shed or farm equipment was ever found. However
Connie was happy to have Bessie back.
She could now
answer the question "Where's the Cow?"

Clara Wersterfer

cbWEST@webtv.net