When Lightning Strikes

This post is another story of an event in my life that I truly treasure and would like to share. This is one of my favorite pictures of me and my brother that I have wanted to write about for a long time. I also thought that it is apropriate for the season (even to go along with my Gray Day post). So, enjoy!


(Approximately from the year 2000) - Finally we're teenagers! Finally we've begun to see beyond our differences only to find that we really do love each other after all. Finally we can have the house to ourselves because Mom and Dad finally trust us to take care of the house so they could go away for the weekend. Sure, we'll miss them, but we're going to make the most of this time without them here! This is our time!
The night was so dark. The heavy clouds stood between us and the stars above. Inside the house, we are warm. And we are bored! So we went out to play on the trampoline in the dark. Do you remember? It was very comfortable to just lay out there and relax after using all of our energy in jumping. The air is humid, not very cold, so we keep our tee-shirts on without needing a jacket or sweater. We grab this shabby, ugly blanket from the closet and giggle at our silly selves for attempting to weather the storm that we knew was to come. The weatherman told us to watch for lightning, so we are anticipating this natural phenomenon excitedly. We bounce playfully on the huge trampoline, laughing at ourselves and each other. Up and down. You flip and spring and do your daring stunts without worry or fear. I sit back and admire how talented you have become in this graceful show of yours. My favorite part is when you jump really hard on it while I am still sitting, causing me to fly back up to a standing position. That was fun! "Do it again, PJ!" I am having so much fun.
Whew! Sweat gleams on our foreheads from the physical exertion. Exhausted, we lay out that ugly old blanket, and Ker-Plunk! We fall flat to lay on our backs. We're gonna wait for the show to begin, now that we've been worn out. For a while, there is not much to see, so we run inside to get a disposable camera, hoping against hope that we will get a shot of an actual bolt of lightning. And then it begins! It starts as a low rumble of thunder coming from the hills behind our house. Then we see the sky light up in the distance with a glow when the lightning strikes. Amazing! We can hear, we can feel it coming closer. The air is feeling more and more moist. But we pay no attention. We're determined to get a good picture. "Look, Jess, over there!" You point. I look. "WoW!" We both say in unison. "Oh! PJ, look, look, look!" I point. You look. This is so incredible!
But what's this? Something just landed on my cheek. My nose! My head! It's RAINING! We look at each other and immediately decide what must be done at this point: time find those snowboarding goggles! Ahh!! We are just cracking up, so thrilled to have come up with such a novel idea that will allow us to continue in our quest to capture lightning in a photo! You run to your room and I run to mine. We are rushing like crazy because we know that the storm will soon pass. Found them! Let's go!
We plop down again in our same spots. For a while, it seems like the storm may have already passed us. But the rain trickles down still, landing on our goggles and rolling off in small streams. The storm is far from over. So where has the thunder and lightning gone? It's here! It's over there! We didn't miss it all! Snap, Click, Snap. Well, let's hope at least one of these turns out! We can't wait for the surprise of going through the freshly developed film after I take in this funky little camera. The roll of film is now complete. And so is our evening of brother-sister bonding on the trampoline in the rain. I will never forget this storm!

Success! We caught one after all! It's just so amazing, isn't it? (Please forgive the poor picture quality! Disposable cameras should not be depended on for important events! Just thought I'd share that.)