Thunder in the Night

I had underestimated the rainy season.

It started around 7:30pm. I was in the community theater cornrowing my hair with a mirror I had borrowed from Odin´s son. It was getting too dark to see - odd for 7:30. It came in a hurry - rain, flash, and answer louder than a cannon. I jumped in my chair. Clutching the mirror to my side, I ran out, around, and up the stairs to the open dormitory I was to sleep in. I turned on the compact fluorescents hanging beneath the three Japanese lamps, told myself it would pass quickly, and started braiding once again.

It didn´t.

The thunder kept me jumping until 10:30, when I gave up hope of waiting for it to pass, donned my rain jacket, put my toothbrush, soap, and toilet paper in a plastic bag and made a mad dash to the dry toilet. Having only a fly screen between the pot and someone´s garden is an experience in itself, going in a thunderstorm was exhilarating to say the least. I needn't have bothered with the face soap - by the time I reached the toilet water was dripping from my chin and the outdoor sink seemed rather redundant. Deciding my teeth would forgive me, I dashed back up the stairs, my little flashlight illuminating the path when the lightening ceased and made it inside soaked through.

The storm continued well into the night. I could still see lightening flashes when I closed my eyes around one. When I woke this morning - to a rooster believe it or not - the sun shown on a lush green landscape. Rainy season indeed.