The Tempest

I struggled to get the back on my earring and shook my head in exasperation as it slipped from my fingers. "I'm hurrying, Honey! Almost ready!" I called to my patiently waiting husband. I could see him fiddling with the remote as I snuck one last look in the mirror. My hair, which I had spent a good 20 minutes flat ironing, was already starting to curl ever so slightly in the increasing humidity. Some things couldn't be helped, I thought.

I was looking forward to going to dinner and a movie with him tonight, our date night carved out of our busy schedules. He grinned as I bustled through, finally ready. "I think we're about to get some rain, " he said as we passed the large picture window in the living room. He paused and I looked out, too. Dark clouds, unseen just an hour earlier, snuck onto the horizon in the northern sky.

Rain anytime in a drought stricken region is welcomed, but this also carried the promise of something more than just a downpour. Laden with moisture, these clouds took on the colors of a spectacular bruising, as if the storm was savagely battling, pummeling and kicking from within, straining for escape.

In between two heartbeats, the tempest heralded its fury with a lightening bolt so intense I could see only a livid white for an instant. The thunder blast just afterwards rocked even my breathing.

My husband looked at me, eyes widened and with a smile. Turning around from our intended path through the utility room and to the car, he touched the handle of the front door and held out his arm to me. I smiled, shook my head a little and set down my purse. We headed to the front porch and settled into the large Adirondak chairs for a front row view.

Rain punched its way through the clouds and fell so quickly that it overwhelmed the capacity of the earth to absorb it and pools formed. The sweet companion of the rain, the aroma, soothed apologetically for her blustering spouse.The streams flowed off the roof in torrents even as the clouds continued their struggle to contain the ferocious passion of the upheaval. Massive electrical currents within the clouds flashed red and then orange, until the skies ceded control and spat down small hailstones as well. The grass knelt down flat and the smaller trees swayed to the side in obesiance at the power.

Then, like a child recovering from a tantrum, it was over, save a few more hiccups of rain and an odd hailstone or two.

I looked over at my husband. "You ready to get to the movie?"

He winked. "I think we've already had the best show around, but let's go see what they've got."