This trip to the beach at least five years ago was different compared to all of our other beach trips; it started off on the completely wrong foot. The sky was blue, and the day was nice as we pulled up to the beach house our neighbor let us rent for the week. The house is on stilts, so you have to walk up a set of stairs to get into the house. All of the seating in the living room is made of white wicker and has dark blue cushions to match the light blue walls. Most of the chairs have a seashell design on them, while the couch only has dark blue coloring. There are two glass tables in the kitchen, both with four seats around them, meaning me, my brother, and my cousins sit at the bar when it comes to lunches and dinners. After we unpacked the cars, organized who was staying in which room, and took a moment to breathe in the salty ocean air, some of the adults went out for a quick grocery shopping trip, so the house was quieter than it usually was.

As the afternoon was starting to stretch into the evening, my family and I began to notice the darkening of the sky. At first, we thought nothing of it, as pop-up storms were a common occurrence at the beach. My grandpa had turned on the news to see how long the storm would last and to see if the weather would permit us a walk on the beach later. Not much longer after that, we heard the emergency alert sound go off from the television, telling us that there was a tornado warning for our area. At the time, I was fascinated by the weather, but when I knew it was bad, it made me nervous—instantly using my phone to open up a weather radar, wanting to look for myself instead of paying attention to the news. After we realized we needed to get everyone onto the lower floors, I went upstairs to the light pink bedroom where my father and stepmom were going to be sleeping to tell them that my grandparents wanted everyone downstairs. The best place we could find was the bathroom my brother and I shared with two of my cousins. It wasn’t that big, but it was able to fit me and my brother, four cousins, my stepmother, grandmother, and two of my aunts. My grandpa, two uncles, and father were all standing on the porch, looking at the sky to see if anything was happening. I remember feeling panicked not only because of the situation we were in, but also because we found out that my other aunt was stuck on the bridge getting onto Ocean Isle Beach in traffic. One of the things I remember hearing aside from the adults talking and the news playing in the back was my brother and oldest cousin laughing while I and all of the younger cousins were crying. During that moment, I also remember feeling one of my aunt’s arms around me while the other arm was around her youngest daughter. I also remember someone dragging the mattresses off of the three beds in the room I was sleeping in and putting them against the doors to add a “buffer” or “protection.” Thankfully, the warning only lasted through one cycle, so we were all huddled in the bathroom for about an hour.

List of Senses:

Sight
-The blue walls
-The old wicker beach style furniture
-The seashells hanging up on the wall
-The room I slept in with three beds
-The pink bedrooms upstairs with two beds
-The kitchen table at which the adults set and the bar where the children sat
-The bathroom in which we all had to hide in.
-My dad, grandpa, and uncles standing outside on the porch watching the sky
-The sky being blue on our way in but getting darker as the afternoon went on

Smell
-The salt in the air
-The smell of food when cooking
-The smell of cleaning materials when we first arrive

Touch
-My phone
-The grittiness of accidentally getting sand in the bedsheets.
-Walking around in flipflops with sand still on your feet
-The hot sand as soon as you step out onto the beach
-Picking up wet sand
-My aunt having her arms around my cousin and I

Sound
-The sound of the ocean
-The people in the houses around us
-My family talking
-My brother and my cousin laughing
-My other cousins and I crying
-The news in the background

Taste
-The bananas and mayonnaise sandwiches my brother and I used to love
-Eggo waffles before going to the beach
-SpaghettiOs
-Ocean water