We both get out of the truck, and I lock it before we jog down the way May went. My heart thuds double-time at the fear of what’s in store, more so about what May might have found. My fingers twitch, hands shaky, but my body is put at ease when Jordan and I catch sight of May and her parents in a shared embrace, standing outside what’s left of their home. It’s a miracle that the first floor of the house is still quite intact. Much of what’s around it – the fencing in the ranch, the barns, the stables, weren’t so fortunate. And then there’s the field. Our lacrosse field. My mouth goes dry when I see it in the distance, grass all torn up, goalposts ripped apart, netting in pieces, covered in shards of wood from the fences.

‘Oh, thank God,’ Jordan sighs.

‘You took the words right out my mouth.’

‘Lord.’ She kicks a piece of wood, glancing up at the parts that still stick up from the ground like fingers of a hand reaching up to the sky. ‘This is completely …’

‘Yeah.’ I crouch down and pick up a shattered photo frame, inside which is a news clipping of May, the calling card of exceptionally proud parents. UOKC RESEARCH AIMS TO PUT THE ‘EARLY’ IN EARLY DETECTION. A group of five people, May among them in a Johnny Cash T-shirt and jean shorts, poses beside one of the dated tornado sirens down in Prosperity.

‘Clean-up’s going to be an all-week affair.’ Jordan nudges me. ‘Red Cross will be here soon, but we’d better get a start on it now. C’mon.’

The house is still in a treacherous condition, so we wait on a couple of the Velascos’ construction-savvy friends to come over and help get inside so they can look around and grab what valuables they can find. Later on, the Red Cross arrive, joined by teams from the county, to assess the damage. I hear Mr Velasco mention that they’re fully insured, against floods and tornadoes, which is a very slight source of relief among all the chaos. The house is obviously their biggest concern, but then there’s the ranch – all the grazing land, the fences, the barns. And importantly, the animals, including May’s barrel-racing horse and the Velascos’ prize cattle, which Mrs Velasco assures May the ranch hands took to the evacuation barn, a town over, the second the tornado watch came on.

‘That’s good, at least.’ May sighs, wiping dirt off her hands on her sweatpants. ‘Rocky’s safe?’

‘Rocky’s safe, May, but where will we put him?’

‘We can take ’em all up to Tía’s, right? She’s got room on her farm.’

‘May.’ Mrs Velasco takes her daughter’s hand. ‘We are lucky. We can’t push it. We’ll take this a step at a time.’