#I have several stories from that summer all surrounding the various traumatizing experiences that stemmed from those storms

[izzy-mc-fizzy]

When my middle brother was 7 my dad decided it was a brilliant idea to let him watch twister which in turn sparked an almost decade long phobia of thunderstorms. This was exacerbated by the fact that the same summer we were hit with a series of the WORST thunderstorms I have experienced in my life

At the same time that this phobia was at its most intense my brother had an unrelated habit of crawling into my parents bed nightly. My parents believing he was at the age where he should be sleeping independently through the night heavily discouraged this behavior before ultimately telling him he was not allowed to sleep in their bed and that there would be consequences if there was. (This wasn’t to be mean of course, they just wanted to encourage independence and health sleep habits. His doctor recommended they do this so what followed was by no means their fault)

unfortunately, the night after they set that boundary a severe thunderstorm that was meant to skirt just north of us changed directions and hit us dead on late into the night. At that age (around 13) I slept like the dead especially through thunderstorms so I had no idea about the storm until I was violently shaken awake at 2am by my dad frantically whispering, “get up! Lukas missing!!”

I blinked up at him wide eyed but still groggy and asked “…what?!”

He still very panicked and now also a little annoyed replied, “Lukas missing I need you to help us look for him!”

It was at this moment that a flash of lightning momentarily lit up my dark room and with absolute horror it dawned on me that it was storming. Bad. I immediately shot out of bed and continued to help my parents look, being careful not to wake my sleeping sister on the bunk above me.

I combed the upstairs, which didn’t take long considering it was only 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Nothing. I popped my head out of the bathroom to inform my parents and from the top of the stairs watched my dad fling the front door open and run out into the rain, screaming my brothers name. More lighting and another horrific realization that our house was surrounded by several acres of woods and over a dozen gigantic and very unstable trees.

My mom was now on the phone with 911 and was thus unable to keep searching. It was up to me to continue the hunt. I thought of all of the places he could possibly be no matter how illogical when an idea popped in my head. I bolted back to my room and flung on the lights, waking up my sister in the process. I basically threw myself to the ground and lifted up the skirt of my bed.

There, curled up in a little ball, clutching his blankie for dear life, was my sleeping little brother.

“Oh my god!” I shouted, waking him up. I stood up and ran to the top of the stairs and shouted down to my mom, “I found him! He was under my bed!” My mom shouted for my now soaking wet dad to come inside and we all raced up to my room. Luka by that point had woken up to the commotion and crawled out from under the bed. My mom was practically squishing him with how hard she hugged him before both of my parents began to frantically ask WHY on earth he did that. To which my poor sweet little brother tearfully replied,

“I was scared of the storm but didn’t want to get in trouble by crawling into your bed :(“

They felt terrible and explained that if he was scared of a storm he was of course was allowed to sleep in their bed, he just wasn’t allowed to do it every night. They also told him he could’ve woken me or my sister up and we would’ve comforted him. Overall though my parents just told him they were so glad he was safe.

Luka slept with my parents the rest of that night, honestly mostly because my mother did not want to let him out of her sight. I got up to happily turn out the light and go back to bed when I hear a voice from above me ask, “what… just happened???”

I blinked, my exhausted and now adrenaline crashing brain struggling to form coherent thoughts.

“Go back to bed, Ryleigh. I’ll tell you in the morning.”

She did so without any complaint.