Free to Write

The tornado sirens sound every Wednesday at precisely 3:30. I use them to set my watch. They wail for a minute and then fade away for at least fifteen more seconds. I usually hear them and check the time, remember that it's Wednesday, and go back to what I'm doing. I only worry about the sirens when they linger longer, or sound at midnight. They've been especially active, which means long nights on the couch with the television on to the weather caster who sounds entirely too eager as he points out the red polygons springing up all over the viewing area as though they were some kind of poisonous flower. Sometimes I worry about missing an actual tornado, of sleeping through a siren. But they usually wake me up.