The Dust Devil

​He walked through the field like he had done so many times before. But this year was different as there had been no rain for virtually the whole summer. The crops were going to fail and there nothing anybody could do about it. Even if the skies were to open up and rain buckets it would do little to help the cause. It would be a year of waste. But as Yarmaloy Yakimetz walked through the dusty fields of the dirty 1930s he became nervous as to what next year was going to bring. If they had a second year just like this he would be finished as a farmer and be forced to stand in the bread line. People would think he was a failure and he worried that the government would see him as a parasite and deport him back to the Ukraine. He no longer could look at his wife, thinking that he had disappointed her. His children did not understand what was going on and he knew deep down that misery lay ahead. 

​His train of thought was interrupted as out of nowhere came the wind. It started as a sweeping motion across the dusty field but then it started to swirl and soon it formed a spout and only seconds later it became a funnel of dust known as a dust devil. There was no time for Yarmaloy to react as the dust devil was only feet away and had caught him off guard. He tried to run but was sucked into the funnel. He screamed. Inside the funnel of dust he could see the inner ring of the dust devil. He spun around inside of it over and over as his life flashed in front of him. Then only seconds later he was spit out and thrown to the ground where he was knocked unconscious.

He laid there for nearly ten minutes before he came to it. He got up and started to walk in a daze, seemingly in complete confusion. He looked at the dusty field before him which seemed so unfamiliar but also oozed of so much potential and a future he had not known back home in the Ukraine. But Yarmaloy did not know what year it was and was lost walking through the field. His memory was hazy, he was not sure if he was in the Ukraine or if he was in this place called Canada. As he walked he noticed that there was a path that seemed to be cut out for him in the fields. He followed it hoping it would take him back to where he had come from and bring back his memory. But as he walked down the path he sensed that it was leading nowhere so he started thinking that something must have happened to his home and family but he didn't know what. He continued to walk when off in the distance he saw a massive dust devil which seemed to span the limitless expanse of the horizon. Little did Yarmeloy know that it was the same dust devil that had thrown him and knocked him unconscious. The dust devil had continued to grow and had turned into a monster with a base that was over half a kilometer long. Minutes later the dust devil disappeared and Yarmeloy continued to walk home when he saw pieces of wood littered throughout the field. His memory then came back to him as he continued walking in the field towards his farmhouse but when he got there it was gone and so was his family. He then felt something in behind him. He turned around and only feet away another dust devil had spouted.