Back in the days spinner racks were part of my life. Comic books were in my DNA, as you would know if you have done much reading on this site. My mom was a Kohl’s grocery shopper before Herb decided to go strictly retail. On a grocery trip one afternoon, I saw a spinner rack in the cooled foods section which was at the stores front as soon as you walked in, to the left.
But these were not comics.
Well, sort of. They were stiffly bound black and white hand drawn versions of classic novels. Flipping through a copy of Classics Illustrated Dracula, I fell in love with the condensed story and the top flight Nelson Rodondo artwork. Mom, I suppose glad it wasn’t Batman or Daredevil again, gladly purchased it.
The next day, I got up on a warm summer morning, grabbed my Dracula and a few other comics, and headed to the garage to pick up the lengthened lawn chair made of aluminum tubes and polypropylene straps. I walked all of this out to our Lichter Road front yard on a day where the sky was a vibrant pastel blue. It was a day so clear you could make out Lake Michigan's dark line on the horizon to the east.
As I lay there reading Stokers classic on a still late eerily silent morning, a wind gust came along. A blast of air powerful enough to pick the lawn chair up with me in it, and send it airborne to my left before dropping me hard to the ground on my side. Initially I feared a tornado, as I got up, spinning about to locate any twisters descending from the sky.
The sky was just as clear and azure blue as it was moments before, so I began chasing my comics around in a panic as the wind tossed them in a violent flurry about the yard.
Then it all stopped. The wind died. It was gone as quickly as it had arrived, and the stillness that was there was now back. No movement whatsoever.
Fuck that. I picked up my comics, Dracula included, and headed back to the house. I saw no dust, but I supposed it was warm enough for a “Dust Devil” and I had read about how strong they could get, and didn’t need thundercloud sourcing to appear and whip things about.
And I knew about the myths involving angry spirits manifesting themselves in this way.
I would read inside for the rest of the day.
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