The devil cracked his whip and made a few short charges across the twilit sky in his chariot, his nightmares stamping hooves and shaking their heads to rattle the chains and harness. He went up on one wheel around the corner of the sky and crashed back down in furious abandon, buckling the clouds, pounding out the rain.

The lightning blinded us and lit the room, the house, the retina burn making the sky look black and bruised. The dogs shiver and shake. We counted one-mississippi two-mississippi three-mississippi four-mississippi five-mississBOOOOOM!!! rumble rattle shake the tin roof on the woodshed and feel the sky breaking deep above, off the chariot rolled fast and hard away from the streak of twisting white electricity.

The rain came dropping heavy and fat, not cold but not warm either. The flowers bowed their heads and the rain hitting the leaves and petals made music to accompany the windchimes and tympani roll of thunder.