Freezing rain, gale-force winds, and fog reduced visibility in the dark night to extremely low levels.
Even with the high beams on, George could barely see the road ahead clearly.
However, relying on the obsession in his heart, he finally returned to his doorstep without any mishaps.
Because the strong wind had cut off the power lines, the Cooper house was pitch black at this moment. The standalone wooden cabin also appeared precarious in the heavy rain and gale.
"Mary! Mary!!!" George rushed into the house carrying a lantern, shouting loudly.
Several windows in the house were broken, leaking wind everywhere. Except for the roof blocking the rain, it wasn't much better than outdoors.
"George, is that you?"
Just as George was extremely anxious, his wife's response came to his ears.
Turning the lantern, he saw Mary, wrapped in a blanket, huddled in the corner of the living room, fear and helplessness visible on her face.
"Mary! Are you okay~" George went over to hug his wife, thoughtfully wiping the rainwater from her face.
"Thank God, it was so terrible. I thought I would never see you again!" Feeling the warm embrace, Mary couldn't hold back the tears in her eyes anymore.
George, on the other side, after briefly hugging his wife, felt the wind outside getting stronger and stronger, and the house was shaking slightly.
"We can't stay here anymore." George said decisively: "Can you still walk? Let's go to the garage to hide."
The previous fear had consumed too much of Mary's energy; at this moment, she even had difficulty standing up.
So, George half-supported and half-dragged his wife towards the outside.
After passing through the storm in the yard, the two arrived at the garage where Georgie lived.
Compared to the standalone wooden cabin on the ground, the garage, with more than half of its space underground, was in much better condition.
"Wipe the water off your body first; I'll figure out a way to get a pot of hot tea to warm you up..." George found a relatively clean towel and handed it to his wife.
Because Georgie lived here, the daily necessities in the garage were quite complete.
Towels, blankets, quilts, etc., were not lacking.
And because this place used to be Young Sheldon's toy storage room, there were many weird things piled in the corners.
Including an old generator.
Mary, re-wrapped in a warm quilt, watched her husband busy around, feeling inexplicably reassured in her heart.
More than ten minutes later, George successfully started the generator. Accompanied by a rumble, there was light in the garage.
"God!!!"
After the power was on, while breathing a sigh of relief, George also waved his arm excitedly.
You know, in the dark night, light is so precious. It can give people strength, courage, and confidence.
Another ten minutes later, George, having boiled a pot of hot tea with an electric kettle, brought the hot tea and some snacks found in the garage to Mary.
"You have a bad heart; rest for a while too~" Mary wiped the sweat from her husband's forehead and pulled him under the quilt.
Facing the increasingly severe weather outside, a rare warm scene appeared in the garage.
"It's so good that you could come back~" Under the quilt, Mary hugged her husband affectionately.
But before George could be happy for long, Mary whispered: "Actually, I saw it that day, you and Brenda hugged each other. God knows how sad I was at that time..."
"I promise, Brenda and I did nothing." George quickly explained, then changed the topic and said sourly: "What about you and Pastor Jeff? I also saw you hugging each other. Right in front of the church..."
"How could you think that? Pastor Jeff is a good man. That day I just borrowed his shoulder..." Mary explained the situation of that day in detail.
Braving the bad weather, the two in the garage unknowingly untied the knot between them while confiding in each other.
"George, do you want to now?" Stimulated by today's encounter, Mary had a different feeling.
As the two looked into each other's eyes, the temperature gradually rose.
"Of course, I've waited for this day for a long time..."
"Is your heart okay?"
"We'll know if we try..."
Outside, the storm continued to rage. Inside the garage, accompanied by the roar of the generator, bursts of applause could be faintly heard.
This sudden severe weather lasted for three days and three nights, sweeping through multiple areas including Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, etc.
It caused hundreds of casualties and immeasurable property damage.
Thus, this huge natural disaster received attention from all over America. Experts specially named this spring cold wave—"Adam."
Implying that this disaster was caused by human greed. It also warned that if environmental protection is not paid attention to, this natural disaster, rarely seen in sixty years, might just be the beginning.
While experts discussed the causes of this natural disaster, environmentalists everywhere also took the opportunity to emerge.
Their busy figures could be seen outside many factories and farms.
For a time, the environmental protection trend was making a rare ruckus all over America.
Fortunately, Medford was just a remote small town and was not affected by those "radicals."
At this time, after the disaster, residents of Medford began post-disaster home reconstruction work.
"Mike, have you noticed? George and Mary have been a bit weird these past few days." Missy, handing tools to Mike as an assistant, couldn't help complaining while looking at her parents being clingy not far away.
The harmonious married life made Mary's face rosy and radiant, and her temper was much restrained. And George Sr., having gotten his wish, also seemed to have a second spring, full of energy.
"Isn't this great? You don't have to worry about them divorcing anymore." Mike said with a smile.
"It is great, just feels weird..." Missy frowned, expressing confusion.
Obviously, public displays of affection are annoying at any time.
"Missy, do you want to know why your parents became like that?" Meemaw Connie aside mysteriously joined the topic.
"Why?" Sure enough, Meemaw Connie's words sparked the little girl Missy's curiosity.
"Well, you'll know when you grow up!" Meemaw Connie, successful with her prank, went aside laughing, leaving the little girl depressed on the spot.
Because they were standalone houses, compared to rows of residential buildings, the Cooper family and Meemaw Connie's wooden cabins suffered very serious damage in this storm.
Even with three able-bodied laborers—Mike, Georgie, and George Sr.—the house repair work lasted for nearly half a month.
On this day, after both wooden cabins were completely repaired, to celebrate the "new home," the Cooper family and Meemaw Connie's group held another dinner gathering.
"This should be veal; where did you get it?" George Sr., tasting the special roast meat, suddenly asked Mike.
For Meemaw's special roast meat recipe, the beef selected naturally the more tender the better.
But veal that hasn't grown up is usually not available for purchase.
This time, the Cooper family and Meemaw Connie's group also benefited from Mike.
"Lena sent it. You know their family's farm suffered quite serious damage this time." Mike explained.
When the strong wind blew before, thanks to Mike's warning, Lena and her family didn't have any problems. It was just that the herd on the mountain that hadn't been recalled in time was in a very unoptimistic situation.
After the disaster, Lena's family lost some cows, but more were crushed to death or seriously injured.
Therefore, her family had a large batch of raw beef to deal with.
Fortunately, Karen's father owned a beef burger factory, which needed a large supply of beef at any time.
Therefore, under Mike's matchmaking, the surplus beef from Lena's family also had a sales channel.
And in the Cooper family dining room, after Mike started, everyone's topic also came to the passing of the natural disaster.
As the saying goes: whenever there is a natural disaster, there must be evildoers.
At this time, more than half a month had passed since the natural disaster, and the power of environmentalists had also expanded rapidly. It is reported that the radicals among them were no longer satisfied with just closing factories. Because of the "cow farting" theory, some of them had begun to advocate eliminating cows in farms.
Then, a funny thing happened.
A group of animal lover societies, holding righteousness in hand, emerged at this moment.
In short, America was already in a mess because of these "awakened ones."