The Column

“What’s wrong?”

Elly didn’t respond.  She was staring at the newspaper.  She slowly placed her fork on her plate and picked up the paper.  There was an article on the page opposite her column.  The heading was MIRACLE AT THE TRAILER PARK.  Elly scanned the article.  Apparently a tornado had blown through a trailer park yesterday near Lake Mary.  It had decimated all of the homes save one, which seemed untouched.  There was a picture of a smiling couple with their two small children in front of their intact home, amid the twisted and mangled mess of the rest of the trailer park.

“You must be kidding me,” she said quietly, more to herself than to her friend.  How had she missed this article when she was reading the paper this morning?  She handed the paper to Miranda and pointed at the article.  “Read that.  Isn’t that weird?”

Miranda quickly read the article.  She seemed confused for a minute and then a look of understanding spread across her face. 

“You said something about a mobile home surviving a direct hit from a tornado in your column, didn’t you?” she asked, frowning as her eyes moved up to Elly’s column.  “Yes, here it is.  ‘A mobile home in a trailer park has a better chance of surviving a direct hit from a tornado than a marriage has of lasting a lifetime.’”

Miranda raised an eyebrow at Elly.  “Hmmm.  Interesting.” 

“Yeah, strange coincidence, right?”

“Elly, there is no such thing as coincidence.  This is curious though.”  Miranda smiled at her as she took a bite of her salad.

Elly snatched the paper out of Miranda’s hands and shoved it in her bag.

“That’s my paper, you know,” Miranda gently chided. 

Elly ignored her.  “Of course it is a coincidence.  What else would it be?”

Miranda shrugged her shoulders without even looking at her friend.  Elly narrowed her eyes at her and continued to eat her lunch.