Breaking Elmore Leonard's Rules

Note: Elmore Leonard has rules for fiction, so I decided to write a story in which I break all of them. See if you can figure out what his rules are through reading this- without looking them up, that is! :) I had great fun writing this:

Breaking all of Elmore Leonard’s Rules

Prologue

This is the story of a Texas family. Billy Bob met Florence when they both visited the sites in New York City. He was 20, and she was almost 16. They married shortly thereafter and moved to a small farm in Billy Bob’s home state where they began to raise their family together. It is now ten years and six children later.



Suddenly all hell broke loose as a twister appeared ominously in the sky above! Billy Bob yelled anxiously, “Everyone, quick, git in the barn!” “Y’all move it! Sally Mae, Precious Lou, Bobby Bill, Millie Jo, Farley Menard- all y’all, faster, faster! Inside the barn was an underground shelter Billy Bob had put in for this very reason. Tornadoes were not common occurrences, but the people in this small Texas town had enough experience with them to know the damage they could do, so they prepared.

The twister spun as if in slow motion toward them. Billy Bob’s wife, Flo, was from Maine and though she’d been in Texas going on ten years, this was her first tornado. She stood, as if in a trance, the baby still in her arms, looking up. The wind blew furiously, whipping her hair against her face. She could see the other children running, her husband coming toward her, but she couldn’t move. She looked over at the field, remembering the first time she’d seen it. It was beautiful. Flowers dotted the landscape: bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. There were morning glories and yellow flowers she’d forgotten the names for. The grass was tall and willowy, and the trees were short and squatty but had a certain character about them. Children had long ago carefully built a tree house in the branches of one of them. Her own children would eventually take it over, and Flo worried constantly that one or another would suddenly fall through the floor one day.

When Flo married Billy Bob, she was only 16 and had a lovely innocent quality about her. Thin, with blonde hair flowing to her waist, she came to this rather barren land with high expectations and much excitement. But life and so many children had hardened her somewhat. Her hair began to gray, and she wore it in a tight chignon at the nape of her neck. She carried her weight in her belly and on her hips, but sometimes that old innocence still shone on her face like it did now.

The tornado roared toward them. Billy Bob was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him. She felt him take the baby from her, but still she didn’t move. Billy handed the baby off to Farley, instructing him to “Git to the barn,” and Farley took off.

“Come on, Flo-we gotta go now. Ya caint stay out here!”

He tried grabbing her arm and steering her toward the one safe place on the property, but she wouldn’t budge. A smile crossed her face and then laughter. She laughed until rivulets formed where tears and rain mixed together. Flo held out her arms and turned in circles, looking up at the sky.

“Whatsa matter witya, Flo? Ya gonna die…” he trailed off. Small bits of hail began pounding the ground around them, striking them as Billy Bob tried one more time to bring Flo to her senses. Flo laughed all the louder, refusing to budge.

He ran to the barn and into the shelter beneath it, yelling, “Come on Flo, come on, gal!”

Just as he closed the trapdoor, the twister dipped down, picking Flo up, it’s circles matching hers. It spun her up and around, taking her high above the tree tops. Billy Bob could swear he heard her still laughing as she spun off into the clouds.