Morning all. I hope you are doing fabulously well on this Tuesday morning. Personally I could have used another couple of hours of sleep, but alas it is no to b. So let’s kick off the morning with a writing prompt and indulge in waking dreams if nothing else. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.,
I love he idea of the storm stirring something up and everyone having to deal with it. Not sure what, but something will be stirred.
Tuesday, May 12th: The storm broke.
The storm broke. It was seen coming a long way off. The sky over the sea darkened, the clouds grew thick and heavy. Lightning danced through them and thunder rumbled. The wind picked up and blew the storm straight towards them.
No one on the island thought it would miss them. They knew it would hit. The only question was how hard it would hit. Out of season storms like this either blew past fast and left little damage or hit hard and were devastating. Everyone prepared for the worst.
Any item not cemented into the ground was hauled into a garage or shed to avoid having it become a projectile. Animals were secured and even out door cats slink into barns and other shelters. Nothing living wanted to be outside when the storm broke. There was a moment of silence. When all the preparation was done. Everyone was hunkered down, Anything that could be locked down was.
Most ran through their checklist again and came up with nothing that needed to be added. New comers felt silly for all the preparation even if they joined the long time residents in their efforts. The older residents wondered if they had done enough.
Then the storm was upon them. It broke and the rain and wind howled around them in a deafening white noise while the thunder boomed and the lightning danced. They watched trees sway wildly, groaning as ancient roots broke ground. Some stayed upright, some tumbled.
They lost power an hour after landfall. Generators were switched on. The daylight was swallowed and the storm raged. All they could do was wait it out and see what the damage looked like when the storm cleared.
The storm lasted through what was left of the day and howled through the night. Come morning, it was still raining, the rain falling in sheets. The wind was gone so it came directly down. Some speculated there would be less damage without the wind. Others thought the storm would stall and stay longer without the wind to push it back out to sea.
In the end, the rains lasted five days. When the sun finally emerged the light was golden and glorious. It was close to sunlight so there was little time to enjoy it before crimson streamers decorated the sky and darkness returned. The quiet without the storm was eerie and because the storm turned the well known landscape into a strange and alien place, no one explored it in the darkness.
In the night they made plans and made lists of things to check.
When day light arrived, everyone came out of hiding. The stray cats went to the beach and feasted off the items the sea tossed up in the storm. Some went to check on downed powerlines and machinery to try to get the world back to running normally. Others stood in their yards, taking stock of damages. There was a lot to catalog.
Ten til Midnight 