I don’t want to be a hurricane Spirit anymore.
I thought I could handle this, especially after Helene, but no. A new group of Hurricane Hunters has begun investigating me, but I can’t get that single crew member’s traumatized face out of my mind. I also don’t know what happened; that same team had been with me for a while, and they handled me fine. My only guess is that the pilot had a medical episode, and it was too late for the co-pilot to save them from that lightning strike.
I never intended to hurt them, so to prevent making that mistake again, I’ve spent the past few days at the end of my spiral, avoiding the Hunters. The weather is unpredictable here—sometimes it pours, then slows down, and then it pours again.
While the waves are large and the current is strong, they don’t compare to my eyewall. Heck, I even see a pod of dolphins further ahead, braving me.
They leap out of the ocean one at a time, softening my aching heart. There’s also a calf, who at one point pokes her head out of the water and watches my dark clouds. She’s another reminder that there are humans who care. She’s free and with her family—a bittersweet sight after everything that’s happened.
The dolphins swim away from me toward land, so that tells me they’re moving south.
Wait, south? Does this mean I’m moving north, away from the Caribbean and Florida? Has Mother Nature finally heard my plea? I sure hope so because as soon as my reign here is over, I’m finding something else to be a Spirit of. I’m considering returning to the South Pacific and finding the remainder of my island, if it’s still there.
“Why are we going to the Atlantic?” I remember asking Mom shortly after we became Elemental Spirits. “I want to stay here near Tuvalu.”
Mom smacked me on the back of my head. “We’re going because cyclones hit land more often in the Atlantic. People need to suffer.”
Mom was out for revenge, and I didn’t stand up to her when I should have. Maybe I could’ve saved those 252 people she killed. That’s in the past, though; this is the future. I’m not going to be Mom. I’m going to turn north and give the humans another chance. There is just as much good in the world as there is evil.
With this in mind, I check the ocean one last time and begin my journey back to my eyewall. The replacement should be complete now, and while I’m still a powerful, destructive storm, I’ve weakened a bit.
I hope I’ll keep weakening, but I still need to be cautious because Helene was only a tropical storm when she devastated North and South Carolina. The least I can do is veer out to sea—and hope that my wind field isn’t large enough to hit the East Coast.
However, I’m unsure if that’s possible.
ns216.73.216.174da2
and then Add to home screen.