Teaser Tuesday: Lighting Up the Sky

(c) Joseph Matthews, 1980

In my spare time lately, I've been playing around with a drabble I wrote for a dear friend. I can't post it all here for various reasons, but I decided I would post a little teaser for all of you. The story is called Lighting Up the Sky, and is about my second least favorite thing: storms in the South.

If you've ever spent any time in the South during storm season, you can probably sympathize with my abject hatred of the entire institution. I'm absolutely terrified of storms, so I tend to spend most of the Spring in a state of nervous anticipation and outright panic. It's not pretty.  

Luckily though, The Husbinator is pretty great at keeping me sane, and I could not be any more appreciative. My dear friend Melanie and I have spent a lot of time talking about the sweet things our husbands do to help us overcome or deal with our fears, and this story came about as a result of those discussions.

My goal is to post a little teaser of current projects or drabbles for you on Tuesdays as often as possible. I hope you enjoy this little peek of life in the South for our very first Teaser Tuesday!

Lighting Up the Sky

Dark clouds loomed in the sky like angry gray blotches in starless black. Lightning shot through in the distance, backlighting the ominous roil with silver flashes and distant claps of sound. The thunder that followed rumbled like a charging bull, rippling in echoes that seemed to shake the city spread out like a spider web as far as Alec could see.

The storm was going to slam the city. The television was already beeping its warnings from the house behind him. Another emergency alert. They were as endless as the storms anymore, screeching through the house until he dreamed them.

So did his wife.

Ilaria had jerked awake twice last night and grabbed for him, certain she'd heard tornado sirens. Her little body had trembled against him as he pulled her into his chest and tried to soothe her. She was terrified of the storms, and they just kept coming.

Alec sighed heavily and rolled his head on his neck, too tired to even bother wishing this one would go around them. It wouldn't. They never did. It was mid-April in the South, and the latest round of storms was pounding St. Louis like a nail. They had been merciless, hitting the city from all sides for weeks.

Tornadoes and flash floods had become the norm for the city, and this latest system promised more of the same. Alec could smell it in the air. Rain, wood, and the bitter stench of electrified air tasted like metal on his tongue, and felt like little shocks in his veins.

He wouldn't be sleeping tonight, he knew.