Dark clouds roll across the sky, squashing out the happy blue to leave an angry deep gray sky above. The clouds crash together which causes huge droplets of water to fall to the earth below, pounding the ground, plant life, animals (of land, sea, and air alike), and humans without a care in the world. Lightning races across the sky several times, lighting up the nasty gray clouds in a brilliant yellow, before the boom of thunder shakes the houses below and causes cars to scream out in surprise from the sudden force of sound.

Two figures step out from their home and sit on a chair under the safety of their covered porch, the wind having picked up but not daring to spray the two with the cool rain droplets. The first, a tall woman, sits on the bouncy porch chair then pulls the second smaller figure, a little girl, onto her lap. The mother points up at the dark sky, showing her young daughter that the storm isn’t so scary if you face it head on. Thunder booms again causing her child to squeal in terror, cover her ears, and push her face into the safety of her mother’s chest.

The girl’s mother smiles down at her as she rubs her back gently, telling her again that there is nothing to fear, that the thunder is only the sounds of the sky’s stomach rumbling because it is angry with hunger. She brushes her daughter’s light blonde hair back from her little face as she hears a small giggle and points back out at the rainy world, telling her to look again. Wide yet little blueish-green eyes turn up to the sky as she twists to face away from her mother in time to see lightning as it streaks down to the ground, showing its brilliance more that just in a quick random flash of light. It allows the girl to see that it is made up of a fascinating and bright squiggly line that reaches down its bolt in order to brush the ground. Amazement soon replaces fear as she sits up in her mom’s lap, pointing out another bolt as it races down from the clump of clouds to its destination somewhere to the west of them.

They sit together for a bit longer, snuggled close, as the storm continues to rage on around them. The little girl watches bravely as the lightning soars through the sky and the rain plummets to the ground and listens without covering her ears as the thunder loudly shouts out to let everyone know that it’s still there, not striking fear in her little heart this time and not setting off the annoying car alarms. The deep gray clouds move together as one as the storm moves, pushing the rain this way and that but never towards the mother and daughter pair sitting on their porch. Each cloud lightens up as it throws bolt after bolt around as if playing some mad game of volleyball then sends it leaping down to the earth.

Finally tiring of the storm watching, the two stand, stick their hands out into the rain to allow the rain to kiss their palms a few times, and retires back into their house, the door closing out the site of the storm but not the sounds. Inside, they enjoy drinks of cold water, a few games, and other fun playtime before it is time for mom to make dinner before dad came home from work, all the while the storm begins to lesson and the sounds begin to grow quiet. The little girl peers out of the closed window feeling proud of herself for she has overcome her fears of thunderstorms.


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