Short Story: Lightning Struck, Part One

By Sebastiaan

I'm as much a poet as I am a writer, so here's a short story for you. It's not based on real events, it's just an exercise in writing. I will be posting it in a few parts.


Lightning Struck, Part One

It all began with the thunder that night, a bolt of lightning striking down mere meters away from us. You shivered, I put my arm around you, lightly caressing your arm, but you shook my hand off.
"What's wrong?" I asked you.
"Nothing..." you said under your breath. Then lightning struck again, and I decided we should hurry towards the car, which was nearby.
Once we had entered the car, I asked once more: "Please, darling, what's wrong?".
"It's just the weather," you replied, looking away.

In retrospect, I should have known. And I guess I secretly knew all along things would never be the same again. Just not exactly how bad it was.

It actually didn't start with the lightning; it started a few months earlier, with, of all objects, a carrot. Such a small and simple vegetable, orange, mostly, with a little bit of green on the top. The dinner you made me was wonderful, but for one small, seemingly harmless thing. You put carrot in the salad.

To any outsider, this would have meant nothing. But even though you knew I hated carrots, you put them in the salad. I didn't mention it to you. Perhaps I should have, but I guess, in the end, it wouldn't have mattered. This time, I couldn't save you, me, or us.

Lightning struck again, you shivered in the car, once more. I noticed you glancing outside. I said: "It's okay, you're safe in here, there's no need to go outside." You looked at me and smiled. A smile I had not seen before. It wasn't your smile... and the glance, it wasn't your glance, yet it told me everything.

You had every reason to go outside. Yet I didn't know it yet.

To be continued...