As I write prairie, weather sometimes becomes a character with as much effect on human outcomes as my imagined people. The GirlieOnTheEdge six-sentence blog challenge word this week is atmosphere.
When he’s done yelling and screaming, he trundles off to bed and I stalk the house.
I feel the atmospheric pressure change; the screaming wind stills suddenly and I know what that means.
In the dark, I step outside to watch seething clouds above the house, where they swarm and churn.
I wish myself part of them, lifted out over the prairie, a swirling of atoms.
A spiral sorts itself out—a little, black tongue drops and recedes, moving to the northeast, dropping again, and I know someone not far away will lose something tonight.
In this house, for the first time, I’m allowing myself to recognize that it’s already lost.
I came back to find your story. Good one!
Here in New England our catastrophic weather is usually confined to hurricanes and blizzards. (Although the last few years the weather-disaster marketing complex has been floating the idea that we’re at risk for tornados too. Still not much traction.)
I, for one, would prefer the gigantic and impersonal weather events over the all-too-focused tornado.
Good Six
Actually, I prefer tornadoes if I have to have disasters. At least you can go down the basement.
Yes, I’ve been seeing tornadoes far outside the usual boundaries of tornado alley. Can’t count on anything anymore.
Sad and tragic. Just as with literal storms, recovery may take longer than expected depending on the magnitude of damage.
A most excellent 6, Faith.
Yes. Recovery takes MUCH longer that expected.
Great six! The acceptance of awareness is half the battle.
The second half is finding a way to protect the step-kids that you can’t legally keep away from their father.
Brilliant last line!
Thanks. this comes out of a much longer short story without that last line and my readers kept complaining that I hadn’t finished the story. I guess it’s done now and didn’t need the other 2000 or so words.