2:30 A.M.
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Silent lightning common to the high plains in the summer fills the northern sky with reptetive, strobe-like flashes. Without the usual threatening soundtrack, the storm is beautiful but restrained, as if the jagged bolts were caged or holding back for another early morning.
I find this private show waiting for me after raising the curtains to investigate. About 2:15, the activity in the window caught my attention. Something outside was so brilliant and seemed so close, I had to check. What I thought might be a police car stopped up the block with its emergency lights on turned out to be lighting strikes shocking the living room with sudden light.
The storm is maybe 20 miles off and harmless where I’m standing even if the noise was turned on. These quiet flashes are a natural phenomenon that occur on July and August nights over the farm houses and wheat fields. Here it can be seen just above the treeline and rooftops. Segments of the sky fill with stuttering white light. Then another place in the sky has its turn to flash.
How the dogs know to be frightened is remarkable. Sounds only they can hear apparently has sent them to stirring in the garage. Whatever it was must have drawn me awake, too.
After watching a short time, I decide to go to bed and let the storm run its course. While I sleep, the beauty can dance around the bedposts and I can wake up, late maybe, to a soft rain.
