The Nor'easter

The Nor'easter

" Some weather for Thanksgiving, eh Kevin?" Grandma said, her voice seeming to break the ice in the freezing living room. It was silent except for three sounds: the creaking of the house straining against the wind, the whick, whick of Grandma's knife as she whittled another of her wooden dwarfs, and Kevin's teeth chattering.

" Not a good night for people to be out, " she murmured, almost to herself. Kevin and his parents had left their apartment in Boston extra early that morning, because it was beginning to sleet. By the time they got on the highway, it was nearly a blizzard, cars fishtailing everywhere until the whole highway slowed to thirty-five miles an hour. The two-hour trip to Cape Cod ended up taking six, and they assumed they would be the last to arrive. But as soon as they stepped into Grandma's wonderful- smelling but chilly entryway, she called from the kitchen: " Uncle Bob and his new wife are stuck in a ditch out on the turnpike, and the tow truck's so busy it can't get to them for an hour. They asked if you'd pick them up in your four- wheel drive. " " You stay here, Kevin, " his father had instructed, and Kevin groaned. Without his cousins around, the only thing to do at Grandma's house was listen to another one of her stories.

" Not a good night at all, " she muttered, the knife scratching as she etched the dwarf's beard. “ When I was a girl we had a Nor'easter like this right around the holidays, must've been twice as bad as this one. You hear that wind groanin', Kevin? Well, that isn't the worst of it. " As if disagreeing with her, the wind suddenly gusted against the house, pounding like an enormous fist on all the windows. Outside, Kevin could see the snow sweeping through the single cone-shaped beam of light from the streetlamp.

" There's something called the storm swell that happens when the air pressure drops at the center of the storm, " Grandma continued. " It sucks up a huge dome of water, like God was holding a giant vacuum cleaner over the ocean. Comes in at high tide and you've got flooding like you can't imagine. " " This storm swell came in at evening tide, " she continued. “ My father herded us all upstairs where we watched the ocean from the big bay windows in Mother and Father's bedroom. First the spray came across the road and began to wet the paint on our neighbors', the MacIntoshes', house. Then the water came up to the top of their foundation, and the waves were creeping up our front walk. Then we heard them slap, slapping against the house; sometimes a big one came along, and whoosh! we'd hear it drumming against the walls. " The wind seemed to be listening, for it echoed the noise of the waves. Kevin gasped and looked quickly out the window, imagining for a moment that the blowing snow was the white fringe of a wave crashing against the house.

" The waves kept rising, and one by one we heard our windows smash out. Front door busted open and the water poured into the living room; we could hear our furniture bumping into things as it bobbed around, hear the water slopping up the stairs.