Awesome
by Rob Cummins
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey
kids,
The word 'awesome' is one that, in my opinion, is overused. By it's very nature, the word is supposed to convey something that has provoked a feeling of awe in the user, of sit down, shut-up-and-think-about-it spiritual or philiosophical silence.
I saw something awesome today.
It was about 7 o'clock and I was teaching a lesson. I was sitting by the window. It started to rain. No, sorry, it started to RAIN. I mean, nothing and then bang, pelting down as hard as you've ever seen it. It was already dark by this stage, but you could see it easily, sheets of rain hammering down. And the noise, like the constant hiss of a thousand T.V. sets tuned to static outside the window.
There was a boom.
It sounded like a bomb had gone off. I looked out the window, and saw a flash in the sky. Lightning. Moments later there was another boom. Then another flash, then another boom. The lightning sped up. Soon there was at least one flash every second, usually more than one. The booms started to roll in, one after the other. Soon, one was starting before the other had even started to die away. It was just a constant roll or recurring sky-shaking explosions. Like God revving his hot-rod.
The storm actually came closer, even though this seemed impossible. It passed right over us. My wondow looked out across the street, across a short courtyard to Ebisu train station. you could just make out the station through the sheets of hammering rain. Beside the courtyard is a police box. As I watched a forked tongue of lightning shot down and grounded itself right in the middle of that courtyard. Luckily no one was stupid enough to be out in the deluge, and no one was hurt.
This continued for about fifteen minutes, the sky flickering
with lightning, like a photographer's studio. Once
a second in the quieter
moments, usually more. The thunder a continuous, unending
barrel-roll.
Then it stopped.
Just like that, no warning, no nothing. Like a tap had been turned off, a switch thrown. No thunder, no lightning, no rain. All finished at the same time. Gone.
And the realy odd thing is that it's hot in Japan at the moment. So hot, that water evaporates really quickly, even without the sun. So when I left work two hours later, the streets were dry. No evidence, nothing.
I swear, I've never seen anything like it.
In awe,
The Right Reverend Freeman Robin Hedley "John Boy" Cummins
Esq. B.A.