Devonne Brown

“The lightning webbed and arced across the black sky. Thunder of a thousand sonic booms shook the whole house. It did it again and again and again. “I got it on my camera, look. It’s phenomenal. I bet it goes viral. “What do you think?” asked Sadie. “Look, here it comes again. James Weldon Johnson’s got nothing on this storm. And the light that was left from making the sun God gathered it up in a shining ball And flung it against the darkness, Spangling the night with the moon and stars,”she quoted from The Creation.

“Sadie, get a grip. It’s just a storm,” said Alphonso trying not to sound scared. He hated storms. They scared the shit out of him. Especially big thunder boomers like this one. Sadie was a maniac when it came to these massive storms. Surrounded by the woods where she lived the lightning was likely to strike a tree and catch the house with them in it on fire. He was terrified.

The forest lit up. It was winter and the snow hung heavy on the branches and blue deep on the ground. Nothing had ever looked so beautiful. It was as if God set the stage for a walk about. The lightning’s fingers reached down between the trees and the thunder growled in slow catlike quakes, flickering through the trees from the bottom of the hill to the top of the ridge where the house sat. Sadie felt blessed to witness such magic. Alphonzo froze in terror and took Sadie’s hand. “Maybe we should get out of here. All these windows, we could get struck by the lightning. I don’t want to be a headline.”

Sadie yanked her hand away. “Alphonzo, you wus. Go to bed if it’ll make you feel better. Go do anything. I’m staying right here and watching the power of God. It is right here. If he wants to kill me now, I’ll die happy in his hands. No go.” A crack of thunder punctuated her sentence. Alphonso ran to the basement to hide with the dogs. 

The backyard forest lit up again. Fingers of lightning curled around the trees and wrapped them like Christmas lights. A robed figure towered between the oaks for a second. When Sadie blinked; he was gone. The thunder cracked loud and then went far away. The storm was over. 

Sadie inhaled deeply. She had seen the mighty works of  God first hand, now to get rid of Alphonzo.