News

I woke up at 1:00 AM with a roll of thunder that shook the house. One window shaking thunder roll I could have gone back to sleep after, but not concussion after concussion. It sounded like the damn storm was parked over the house. By 3:00 I was just trying not to toss and turn enough to wake Jon. He was sleeping just fine. I guess it’s fair, the last round of storms woke him. I guess we’re taking turns being on watch. By 4:00 I promised myself that if I was still wide awake at 5:00 I’d get up. I spent the next forty-five minutes planning the quietest way to get dressed and ready to go downstairs. The last fifteen minutes was spent waiting for the clock to hit the hour. Then, finally, it was time. I could get up.

I’m downstairs now. I managed to get dressed without waking Jon, so he can sleep until the alarm goes off. No reason for both of us to watch the sky lighten to blue. I started to write, no reason for both of us to watch dawn stretch across the sky, but that’s not what’s happening. The sky is growing blue, as if the black of night fades to blue. It’s not like night leaves and day comes, but simply the light grows, and color steals back into the world.

The only positive note I can find in all this, is that I have the house to myself. Except for the dogs, who seemed puzzled that it was still dark when I took them outside. Even Phouka seemed more disoriented than normal, and I know it’s not the darkness, since she’s now completely blind. It’s probably the rain from the storm. Darla and I decided a few months back that it washes away scent trails that Phouka must use to find her way around.

I can see the road now. It’s shiny and black, almost liquid with the remains of the storm. The grass and trees are that vivid swimming green that says you’ve either just had a storm, or you’re going to. The sky has skipped blue, and looks white. The world looks washed clean by the storm. Right now, I feel sort of bright-eyed and ahead of the day. Sometime today that feeling will begin to fade like the color of the sky as darkness will find it and begin to suck the color away.
Bright-eyed will turn to bleary-eyed, and my body will wonder where all that sleep I didn’t get has gone. But until then . . . I’m going to eat breakfast and hit the office early.