Smote

The Monsoon season is upon us. Tonight we were hit with a severe thunderstorm that produced hail and severe lightning and wind.

Up until this point Jill had always thought that I was chicken to go out in the rain.

Then at dinner Aimee asked me if I had ever seen lightning strike before.

“Well sweetheart, I’ve seen it twice”

“How close were you?” she asked.

I pointed up to the ceiling where it met the wall about 9 feet away.

About 20 years ago I was at the US Army Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

I was just getting out of a taxi cab and walking next to a cyclone fence that secured the school’s generator.

I felt the hair on my arms and on the back of my neck stand up (I had my head shaved at the time).

CRRRRAAAAAACK!!! PIIING!

My left leg and arm went numb.

About a dozen people ran up to me screaming at me, asking if I was okay.

“Yeah….I guess, why?”

“Look”

I looked up to see that top of the cyclone fence pole was freshly sheared and blackened and was glowing cherry red with heat.

I gained a new respect for the sky that day.

A look of quiet discovery came over my wife’s face. “Now I know why you hesitate to go outside when it thunders”

I didn’t realize that after 13 years of marirage I had never told her that story.