Collages by Vanessa Saba. Source photograph of the northern Brook Road bridge by Gregory Funk, Connecticut Department of Transportation. Courtesy the author. Painting © David Findlay Jr. Fine Art, New York City, USA/Bridgeman Images
Before the flood came the tornado. It touched down out of a purple sky to the west, at around eight o’clock on a humid August morning last year. Barreling east along State Route 14, it veered slightly north at the chain-saw shop and then cut a swath through woods and fields, across Pinch Street, eventually lifting as it crossed Brook Road.…