Twister on Tuesday

Eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister, Annie, live near the woods of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, where they have access to a magic tree house belonging to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from Camelot, the legendary kingdom of King Arthur. By pointing to a picture in a book and wishing to go there, the siblings can travel to any place and time. Morgan has asked them to find four special kinds of writing to help save Camelot: "something to follow," "something to send," "something to learn," and "something to lend" (5). They have already collected the first two on previous adventures: a list from the Civil War and a letter from the Revolutionary War.

Jack wakes on a Tuesday morning remembering that Morgan's note told him and Annie to return to the tree house today. The siblings rush to the woods, climb into the tree house, and find a book titled Life on the Prairie. It shows the Kansas prairie during the 1870s, after pioneers arrived. Jack points to a picture of a train crossing the prairie, wishes to go there, and the tree house spins them back in time.

They land in a small grove of trees near a creek under a cloudy, chilly sky. Jack and Annie now wear pioneer-era clothing. They watch a steam engine puff across the open prairie and spot a distant line of covered wagons, which Jack reads were sometimes called "prairie schooners" because their white coverings made them look like sailing ships. After the train and wagons disappear, the landscape seems empty until Annie notices a rusty pipe with black smoke rising from a small hill.

They discover the pipe is a stovepipe coming out of a wooden roof built into the hillside. Jack reads in the research book that pioneers made houses from sod bricks, blocks of earth cut from the prairie, because trees were scarce. A house dug into a hillside was called a "dugout." The book also notes that many dugouts had storm cellars below ground, the safest places to be during a tornado. Annie realizes a school is the ideal place to find their third special writing, "something to learn." She knocks on the door, and a girl who looks no older than 16 or 17 opens it. She introduces herself as Miss Neely, their teacher, and tells them they are late.

Inside the warm, lamplit schoolhouse, Jack and Annie meet the only three students: Will, a small boy about Annie's age; his younger sister, Kate; and Jeb, a tall, tough-looking older boy sitting alone on a separate bench. Miss Neely explains it is the school's very first day in the dugout, which was vacated by a family that left for California a week earlier. When she asks where Jack and Annie live, Annie improvises, saying they are just passing through. Miss Neely assumes they must be from the wagon train she saw that morning, and Annie nods.

Miss Neely asks Jack to begin the first reading lesson using the school's only textbook, a McGuffey Reader. Jack reads two lines of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and passes the book to Jeb, who stares at the page but cannot read. When Will gently suggests Jeb might not know how, Jeb's face turns red and he tells Will to shut up. Jack tries to whisper the next line, but Jeb angrily rejects his help. Miss Neely tells Jack not to give others the answers and sends everyone outside for their noon meal.

Outside, the sky grows darker with approaching storm clouds. Will and Kate share cold sweet potatoes with Jack and Annie. Jack notices Jeb sitting alone with no lunch and offers him his potato, but Jeb takes the gesture as mockery and threatens to fight him. Annie calls Jeb a bully, but Jeb laughs and walks back inside. Will and Kate explain that Jeb has never been to school because he works in the fields and walked five miles to get there. His hostility, they suggest, stems from embarrassment rather than true meanness.

Back inside, Miss Neely conducts a writing lesson using small slate boards and chalk pens. She asks everyone to copy a poem from the McGuffey Reader: "'Tis a lesson you should heed, / Try, try again; / If at first you don't succeed, / Try, try again" (38). Loud thumping on the roof startles everyone. Kate and Will scream about a grasshopper attack, recalling a terrifying event from the previous spring when millions of grasshoppers descended on the prairie, destroying crops and belongings. Miss Neely opens the door and discovers the noise is only hailstones. She encourages the children to hold on to good memories of how the community replanted and helped one another, and to let go of the bad ones.

Jack finishes copying the poem first, deliberately slowing down so as not to embarrass Jeb. Annie declares that the poem is their third special writing, the "something to learn" Morgan asked them to find. Jack asks Miss Neely if he can take his slate, and she agrees. Jack and Annie say goodbye. Jack tries one last time to be friendly to Jeb, but the older boy will not look at him.

Outside, the sky has turned an ominous greenish color, with clouds moving in different directions. Jack and Annie run toward the tree house, but when they look back, they see twisting black clouds form into a funnel, a twister tearing across the prairie. Jack's first instinct is to use the magic tree house to escape, but Annie insists they must go back to warn the others about the storm cellar. She points out that it is only the school's first day in the dugout and a rug covers the cellar door, so the others may not know the cellar exists. Jack agrees, and they run back as the roaring twister closes in.

The wind throws them to the ground, but they reach the dugout. The door blows off its hinges, and Jack pulls Annie inside, where benches are overturned, Miss Neely clings to Kate against the dirt wall, and Jeb holds on to Will. Jack shouts to get in the cellar. He and Annie pull the rug off the floor and uncover the cellar door, but the wind is too strong for them to open it. Jeb steps in and wrenches the door open. Everyone climbs down, with Jeb descending last and closing the door behind them. The twister roars overhead, then the noise dies away. Annie whispers, asking if they are still alive, and everyone laughs in relief.

Jeb pushes open the cellar door, and they climb out to find the twister has torn off the roof and emptied the dugout. A wide path of destruction cuts across the prairie, but the twister is shrinking on the horizon. Miss Neely thanks Jack and Annie for saving their lives. Jack gives credit to Jeb for opening the cellar door. Miss Neely vows to rebuild the school, echoing the poem's lesson. She tells Jack that teaching is a job that lasts forever, because whatever you teach children today travels with them far into the future.

As Jack and Annie head back toward the tree house, Jeb runs after them. He asks why they came back, and Jack explains they wanted to warn the others about the storm cellar, which they learned about from their research book. Jeb stares at the book and says he aims to read someday. He reveals his parents were too poor to attend school and want him to go, but he feels he is starting very late. Jack and Annie assure him it is never too late. Jeb smiles, thanks them for the rescue, and says he reckons they would all be good friends if Jack and Annie could stay. He then runs back to join the others.

The sun breaks through the clouds. Jack and Annie return to the tree house and use their Pennsylvania book to wish themselves home. Back in Frog Creek, Jack pulls out the small slate with the copied poem, their third writing, and adds it to their collection. Annie observes that Jack lived out the poem's lesson by repeatedly trying to befriend Jeb and finally succeeding. They find a note instructing them to return early Wednesday morning for their fourth and final mission. Jack reflects on Miss Neely's advice to hold on to good memories and let go of bad ones, thinking that the kindness of Will and Kate, making friends with Jeb, and the courage of Miss Neely are memories he will never forget.