Through the storm

Ferb Fletcher was having a wonderful dream. He was driving a race car very, very fast through the streets of Danville. Only it wasn't just a race car, it was a spaceship! He flew it up, up, up through the clouds, until he was surrounded by stars. He must have been going a hundred thousand miles an hour as he flew his space car past all the planets he knew, then turned around and went zipping back to Earth. He zoomed all around Danville again, going so fast the buildings were just streaks of color, then he flew straight to the Sun. It was very bright, thought Ferb, as the light flashed in his eyes. Then he was heading toward home again, going faster and faster, until his engine began to make a loud, rumbling sound. The rumble ended in a loud BOOOM and Ferb's eyes flew wide open. The space car was gone, he was lying in his bed, and the explosion that had put an end to his dream was still dying out in a long, rolling echo of rumblebumblegrumble. Another flash of light – not from the sun – lit the dark room, and this time when the rumbling came and went again, it left behind a rhythm of wet splatters on the window. Rain. And thunder, and lightning. Ferb sat up. It was storming.

The rubber soles of his pajama feet hit the floor as he slid down from the bed and padded to the window. Thunderstorms had been one of his most fascinating discoveries in America. Oh, they had had storms in England, but not like this. American storms were huge and loud, with great bolts of lightning and waves of thunder that shook the house. Sometimes balls of ice fell from the sky and piled in the yard. Once, a couple of months ago, before his Dad and Mum had been married and Ferb and his father were still living in their flat, the big sirens had gone off. Dad had wrapped Ferb in a blanket, and they had sat together in the bathtub with no water, and listened to the radio. Men with scratchy, crackling voices had been driving around in the storm and talking about a big funnel of wind that came from the clouds and blew down trees and a barn. "Don't worry, son," his father had said, holding him tight and stroking his hair. "It's south of Danville, and going away from us. There's nothing to be afraid of." But Ferb hadn't been afraid. He wished he could have seen that funnel of wind – a tornado, they called it.

Tonight, there were no sirens. Ferb pressed his nose and palms to the dripping window pane and watched the clouds light up in flashes, and listened to the roars of thunder. The booms and rumbles grew stronger, and the light and the sound came closer together. Looking over his shoulder at his brother's bed, Ferb was amazed that Phineas could still be asleep at a time like this. But even the biggest flash and crackle only made the red-headed boy turn over and mumble faintly in his dreams.

Ferb heard a door open in the hall, and footsteps run past their room. Then voices. Candace, and Mum. He couldn't make out words, but he could distinguish the shrill, high-pitched tones of his sister, and Mum's lower, calmer voice. As they passed the door, going in the other direction, Mum said, "Candace, you're a big girl, nine years old. It's only a little thunder. Go back to bed."

"But, Mom…" Candace wailed pitifully.

"Hush," said Mum, "you'll wake your brothers. Honey, you'll be just fine. Nothing's going to happen."

The voices retreated into Candace's room, then in a minute, her door closed, and Mum's footsteps went back down the hall and another door closed, and everyone was back in bed. Eyes drooping, Ferb leaned against the window and watched the storm again. He was just thinking about crawling back into his own bed when a sudden bolt of lightning sizzled somewhere nearby, and a simultaneous crash shook the house. All right, thought Ferb, looking over his shoulder again, Phineas could not possibly sleep through that! But his brother just gave a little snort and a wheeze and a grumble and burrowed under the blanket. Hm, thought Ferb. Perhaps he could.

As the crash echoed through the clouds, Ferb heard the door across the way open again, and heard Candace's feet pattering swiftly through the hall and down the stairs. Curious, he slipped out of the room and crept down after her.

He found his sister sitting on the couch in front of the television. A small, pink blanket was draped around her shoulders. A flashlight and a radio were tossed on the table in front of her, and she had both arms wrapped tight around her big, plush Ducky Momo. On the television was a map of the Tri-State Area, with blobby shapes of green, yellow and red splashed across it. Candace heard him approach, and looked at him with wide, anxious eyes.

"Where's Phineas?"

Ferb pointed upward, then closed his eyes and lopped his head over.

"Augh," Candace groaned, "he sleeps through everything! Well, at least you're here." She loosened her grip on the plush duck enough to rest it on the couch beside her. "Come sit down. You can hold on to Ducky Momo, too."

Instead, Ferb walked around the coffee table and climbed up onto the couch on the other side of Candace. Looking up at her, he took her hand in both of his and stroked it calmly.

"Oh, Ferb, you're scared," Candace decided, although he wasn't afraid in the least. "It's okay." Taking a moment to settle Ducky Momo so he wouldn't fall over, she put an arm around Ferb's shoulders and pulled him close. He could feel Candace shaking as he nestled against her, and another loud crack of thunder made her jump and whimper. "It's okay," she said again, in a trembling voice, as she squeezed him a little tighter than he liked. "See," she pointed at the telly. "It shows where the storms are. That's Danville, right in the middle, and the middle of the A – that's our house. We're in the yellow, that's not as bad as the red. The red is under the D in Danville, so I don't think that's going to get us."

Ferb nodded his understanding of this. Wiggling a bit, he persuaded his sister to relax her iron grip enough to let him breathe, and rested his head on her shoulder. They watched the television together quietly. Candace would shudder at each flash of lightning and roll of thunder, and Ferb would pat her in a way meant to be comforting. He could feel her shaking more, however, as the thunder came nearer, and it was apparent that the red blob was growing bigger and getting closer to the center of the A. He squirmed again and got his arms around her, and tried rubbing her back. Having his back rubbed always made Ferb feel better.

Candace stared intently at the map and murmured, "Storms are bad. They kill people. A storm killed my Daddy – my real Daddy," she explained.

It made Ferb feel a little sad, that Candace didn't think of his father as her Daddy yet, especially since Ferb already thought of Candace's mother as his Mum. Of course, she had known her own father, and loved him, whereas Ferb had never even known what it was like to have a mother before now. Phineas had told Ferb what he knew about his first Dad, and had explained why he and Candace were still called Flynn and not Fletcher. It made Ferb more sad, however, to see how sad Candace was when she talked about it, and to feel how frightened she was of the thunder, and he gazed up at her as he softly said, "I'm sorry."

She looked surprised that he had spoken and, after he laid his head on her shoulder again, she finally said, "What happened to your mom?"

Ferb buried his face against her and shrugged. He didn't want to talk about that. And, besides, he wasn't even supposed to know. Luckily, a sudden rumble of thunder put an end to this conversation and drew Candace's attention back to the telly. He peeked open an eye, and said, "The red's getting smaller."

"A little," Candace agreed. "Maybe it won't get here after all."

Ferb yawned. The red and yellow and green storms on the screen began to blur and run together as his eyelids drooped and finally closed. Sleepily, he went on rubbing Candace's back, until he could no longer hear her heartbeat, or the thunder, or anything else…

The next thing Ferb knew, he was being lifted into the tender embrace of his mom. Peering over her shoulder at the television, he could see that the reds and yellows had nearly been consumed by the green, and all the rain had moved far to the east of Danville. "Ferb was scared of the storms," Candace was saying. "I sat up with him so he wouldn't be afraid. I showed him how the radar works."

"That's nice, Candace," Mum answered. "Why don't you take Ducky Momo and go back upstairs? I'll come tuck you in as soon as I get Ferb settled."

As Candace pattered off, Ferb wanted to tell his Mum that he wasn't afraid at all – but when he raised his head, Mum smiled at him and kissed his cheek, and he knew he didn't have to tell her anything. "Thank you, Ferb," she said, in a quiet voice meant just for him, "for looking after your sister."