Years ago, when I was just a kid, my family lived for about four years in a big, old house that, among other peculiarities, was afraid of storms. How did I know? When a distant roll of thunder warned of a storm approaching, our house seemed to tighten up. My parents said it was my imagination, but it really wasn’t. I could feel that house pull closer into herself.
One night a big storm moved over us, and after a very loud roar of thunder, I woke up, and so did my younger brother. He ran into my room and jumped onto the bottom of my bed and tucked himself under the old quilt lying there. Another blast of thunder brought two more siblings jumping on my bed and tucking themselves under the quilt. The sister with whom I shared a room slept soundly, totally oblivious to the roaring thunder and pounding rain.
That storm seemed to last for hours, and we four siblings decided to crawl under the bed. When morning came, we woke up and pulled ourselves from under the bed and headed downstairs for breakfast. That’s when we learned that during the storm, lightning had hit a pear tree and split it in half. That pear tree grew right under the back window in our bedroom.
Admittedly, we were on the second floor, but that lightning strike was very close to our house. No wonder our poor house had cringed.
There was a positive outcome regarding the pear tree. Being hit by lightning had caused all the almost-ripe pears in that tree to be scattered all over the yard.
We kids ran out and picked up all those pears, some of which we managed to take up to our rooms and hide under our beds. That began our habit of hiding a few treats under our beds in case we needed to ride out another storm. Then we began to add flashlights and comic books to keep us busy as we waited out a storm.
That gathering of treats under our beds came to an end when my little, not-so-smart brother hid a carton of ice cream under his bed, which soon melted, spreading a chocolate pond across his floor. Our parents ended our storm plans, so when the next storm hit, we all ran into Mom and Dad's room and crawled under their bed.
The next morning our folks gave us flashlights, a big stack of comic books and a big box of cookies, and we were told to hide in our closets when the next storm scared us. So we did, and it worked!
Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.
