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Waaaah!

Home alone. Rain pounding the earth so hard the sound was deafening. Lightening flared. I couldn’t hear the boom of the thunder but it was close. The house shook. I marveled at the power of the storm.

Water sprayed into the house. I ran from room to room securing windows. Some haven’t been closed since we moved in over a year ago. Snug and dry, I sat at my computer.

Lightening danced blue across the heavens. The lights flickered and went out. “Oh cra–” I didn’t get to finish my thought before they came back on. I sighed in gratitude — and was immediately plunged into darkness. Waaaah!

I was home alone. In pitch-black darkness. No moon. No stars. No street lights. I couldn’t see or hear. My world narrowed to the thunderous roar of the rain, and what I could touch with my hands.

Did I mention I was home alone? And have I ever mentioned that too much of my early childhood was spent locked in a pitch black closet? I am afraid of the dark.

40 Comments

  2. Oh Quilly, I’m so sorry. It’s raining right now over here on the Leeward side… and hard! I guess we need this. No lightning though.

        1. Ouch 🙁
          Hope she is in a very dark place now 🙁

          And hope your lights came back on soon after!
          I’m home alone right now. No candles, nor flashlight,….ugh 🙁

  4. And did you mention that it was for a mere what hour? LOL. Poor thing…are you okay now? I so know that your everybody cares whether or not my life is perfect” feeling has not been tarnished one iota…well at least I hope not… 🙂

  5. You must have felt awful with such childhood memories, some parents were really crazy, that makes me angry. I don’t like complete darkness either and I don’t like closed doors in my house. They are all open, except of course bathroom and toilet.

    1. Tony — I sat frozen in my chair until my eyes adjusted as much as they were going to, then I made my way carefully across the room to where I keep my purse, and I pulled my cellphone out. It is amazing how much light one can put out.

      I used the cellphone to find the flashlight, and the flashlight to find the candles. Then I put the candles on the dresser in front of the mirror and light up the whole bedroom. I probably suffered less than 10 minutes of actual dark.

  7. I´m so sorry. I can´t even imagine what that must feel like! I love thunder and lightning, but then again, I haven´t had any bad experiences with it. For me it means, life giving rain. But I do understand that those memories come alive in the dark. HOpe it wasn´t too long and that the lights went on again!

  8. I understand your fear of darkness. I was locked in a pitch dark attic in an old stone farm house as punishment for being a bit too annoying in my exuberance. I have many candles and lighters all over my house and carry a lighter even though I haven’t smoked in over 20 years.

    Flash 55 – Love

    1. Nessa — I always know where the flashlights, lighters, and candles are. And your cellphone will make a fair flashlight in a pinch.

  9. I wish I could have been there with you. We would have told silly jokes and laughed away the darkness, because we have Light within us.
    I’m sorry for your awful childhood experiences that produced such fear.

    1. Karen — just having someone here would have kept the fear away. The storm itself doesn’t frighten me. It is the feeling of being totally alone and helpless — and it doesn’t matter that I am NOT helpless because this fear is left over from childhood.

  10. It’s hard to imagine anyone could shut a little girl in a closet; I’m reminded of poor Jane Eyre suddenly. I’m glad you had your cell, and candles, and your own inner strength, and so sorry you were by yourself in that hour of all hours!

    Sometimes it terrifies me to think how dependent we all are on electricity: my whole social circle, my income, EVERYTHING, depends on this laptop. The food in my house, cooking it, washing clothes, even our water supply because we have a well…yikes. For some people, even oxygen or feeding equipment depends on it. It seems all a terrorist (or UFO invasion, random vandal whatever LOL) would have to do to is cut off our electricity supply and we’d be helpless in no time.

    Well that’s my cheery thought for the day!
    But wish I could have sent you some hugs when those lights went out (and a big old battery powered super-lamp!)

    1. Susan — I lived without plumbing or electricity for the better part of a year. It was actually a pretty relaxing life. I got plenty of sleep any way!

  11. How awful. I am afraid of the dark, but I can only imagine how much that would be magnified with such memories. You proved quite resourceful, though. I don’t think I would have thought of the cell phone’s light. We’re supposed to have all the flashlights in one place for emergencies, but, sigh, people don’t put them back where they belong….

    I agree with Susan about our dependence of electricity being scary. My microwave is suddenly not working, and I am in a quandary about dinner because we have an away game tonight, so I can’t plan on some quickly-nuked entree. But we’ll figure something out. I am glad, though. to live in an age of electricity — candles and hurricane lamps help, but I like the whole room flooded with light. Have you ever read Terri Blackstock’s Restoration trilogy? It’s about the whole world suddenly being without electricity all at once. I would definitely not want to have to deal with that, but they were good books.

    1. Barbara — one year a bunch of us were building the maze for the school carnival. We were in the cafeteria and the lights went out. There we were, surrounded by obstacles and unable to move without banging into things — in short, we’d never find our way out of the maze! Then one of the teachers grabbed her cell phone to make a call. When the light went on we all realized we could see — so we all pulled our phones out and lit up the room!

  12. Thunderstorms scare me, especially when they happen at night. When we get hit by one I end up hiding under the covers with my iPod, trying to drown out the storm with music.

  13. I don’t believe you HAVE ever mentioned that you spent time locked in dark closets…. That’s not good. At least the lightening brightend things from time to time? Did you have candles?

    I LOVE thunder and lightening storms – and hard HARD rain. I wish I had been there to keep you company. Or hug you.

  15. Oooh Quilly. I didn’t know. I wish I could hug the little one you were, and make it ok. What a wonderful neighbor that was – were you able to keep in touch, and thank her as an adult? I hope so.

    You know I don’t share your religious beliefs, but I’m open minded… if there is a hell or something like it, I really hope your truly evil stepmother is roasting in it.

    Big hugs to you!

  16. Panic and fear don’t know logic, and I’m so sorry that it was such a scary time for you. After hanging out through a couple hurricanes and numerous tornado warnings, I know that being hunkered down like that can be frightening experience, even without a trauma. I’m so glad that you were able to make a humorous post about it. 🙂

  17. What a scary situation for a child! Even now, I like to crawl under the blanket when rain and thunder come our way. It’s good to know that you have become a wonderful woman, Quilly.

  19. Everything has been said, so I’ll just tell you that I absolutely LOVE that WAAAAH picture you have posted!

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