A bright flash and the boom of thunder that rattled the windows made me sit straight up in bed. The echo was rolling on and there was a tingle in the air. I ran my hands over my face and up over my scalp. My hair was standing on end. I could feel the static electricity.
"Man, that had to be close!" I said out loud.
A glance at the clock across the room told me the power was off. No red numbers, no power. I sighed and rolled over to get up. I might as well. I was wide-awake. It was raining like hell and the wind was whining and moaning through the treetops. Just as I stood up, thunder crashed and lightening flashed outside the window next to my bed.
"Damn, that wasn't quite as close but close enough," I said aloud and then shook my head. I needed to quit talking to myself.
I live alone at the end of a dead-end road. It wasn't designed that way but the creek washing out the bridge a few hundred yards past my house made it a fact. I kind of liked the idea when it first happened but lately loneliness had slowly crept in. I do Internet research for several companies and work from home. The only reason for me to go to town is groceries and companionship.
I sighed as I went into the kitchen and found my flashlight. I would have laughed at the word companionship, if it hadn't hurt so much. Besides being a class "A" geek and a nerd, I wasn't exactly Adonis either. You can add four eyes and beanpole to the other two names. All four I had carried since high school like a flock of albatrosses around my neck.
You would think at thirty, it wouldn't hurt so much. Wrong! It always hurts. Well, except for when I was role-playing in one of my on-line personas. That's where the real me could shine, the person I was inside. The person I wouldn't dare show in real life because laughter was, by far, the worst pain of all.
I checked the clock on the kitchen wall. It showed ten after twelve. That first bolt of lightening must have been at exactly midnight. My body gave a shiver at that thought. I started for the spare bedroom/office and then stopped. I had the phone line and the electricity to my computer unplugged. I was glad I did as another bolt from the pitch black sky flashed through the kitchen window followed a second later by the crash of thunder.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I didn't need my only link with sanity to go up in smoke. It had happened once before. I had been without a computer and the Internet for six days. Six of the longest, loneliest days of my life. The last two I spent in town waiting on the parts to build a new unit. I had to have some kind of companionship.
There was that word again. I chuckled and shook my head as I headed back to bed. Weird looks, pitying looks, whispers, and shakes of the head. Those don't make anything but pain, even for someone who has skin as thick and tough as iron on the outside. That was me, a man of iron and steel on the outside but marshmallow cream on the inside.
With a sigh I went past the bed and headed for the bathroom. As I passed my bedroom window, I heard an odd whirring sound. It was like one whirring sound overlaid with another. I opened the blinds and looked toward the road. I couldn't see anything in the pitch black.
I hurried back to the living room and opened the front door. Rain whipping shrubs, cedars, and blackness were all that I could see, even with the flashlight. My house sits back off the road and is in a natural setting, which means I don't have any landscape except for the woods. I like it that way. The cedar siding and shake roof blend in beautifully. I have a big white mailbox out by the drive just so the UPS man can find the place.
I opened the glass door, the whirring got louder. I can tell that both sounds are rising and falling in unison. It's a vaguely familiar sound, one I've heard before but can't place. Then it hit me. It's the sound of a small engine and tires spinning in mud. Someone must be stuck in the ditch out by the driveway.
I backed away from the door quickly and hurried to the bedroom to find some clothes. Since there's never anyone around, I stay nude most of the time, weather permitting of course. Unlike most people, I like my tall lanky body. I keep it tanned and in the best shape I can for what I have to work with. Anyway, who needs laundry?
*****
Dressed in shorts and a tee shirt, I paused to wonder where my raincoat was. In the barn was the answer to that. Where was my umbrella? In my car outside, of course. I grabbed an old jacket and put it on as I headed out the front door with my flashlight in hand.
As I stepped off the front porch, I realized that I wasn't dressed nearly warm enough. The rain was cold, thick, and stinging, even here under the trees. The swirling, gusting wind made it feel even colder. I was about to turn back and find better clothes when I heard someone call for help. The voice was female, which brought out my shining coat of armor. I headed for the road as quickly as I could in the storm.
A small gray car was nose first into the mud and water filled ditch just past my driveway. I noticed my mailbox was missing and from the shattered windshield I could guess where it went. My teeth were chattering as I got to the car.
"Is anyone hurt?" I asked in a loud voice.
The driver's side window came down an inch or so. "No one is hurt but we're stuck," the female voice I had heard earlier said.
"Your front wheels are in mud and water and aren't going to get any traction. The car is bottomed out on the side of the ditch so there's no weight on them."
"Can you pull us out or push us out or something?" a second female voice asked.
"I could if my tractor was working but it's broken at the moment. I don't think my car will pull you as it's not much bigger than yours."
"Could you try?" the second voice asked. "We have a very important appointment and we can't be late."
I tilted my head and replied, "Where would you have an appointment down this road? There's nothing past my place except a washed out bridge."
"Don't mind her," the first voice said. "She gets flustered at the littlest thing and this isn't that little, if you know what I mean."
"You're both welcome to come inside. The electricity is off but it's warm and dry."
"We can't do that!" the second voice said.
The window came down half way and I was looking at the face of an angel. Her long blonde hair framed a heart-shaped face with large dark oval eyes and a small nose.
"Do you live alone out here?" She asked with a shy smile.
"Yes, I do but you'll be safe, I swear," I replied hastily.
There was a deep husky chuckle from the back seat and a deep female voice said, "Safety is not one of our concerns, believe me." Then she gave a deep sigh and added, "Our luck driving tonight sucks, which means we don't, so we might as well accept the man's offer."
I thought the comment was odd but laughter from the other two soothed my feelings. My first thought was three girls out clubbing and lost on the back roads. The two in the front sounded giddy and possibly high or drunk. That would explain them being in the ditch.
My thoughts were interrupted by the girl in the back saying, "Come on. Let's get out of the car and someplace dry. There's more rain coming in through that windshield than I care for."
"You won't melt, Maggie. You might float but you won't melt," the driver said with a grin.
"If I wanted any shit out of you, young lady, I'd squeeze it out," Maggie replied in her low rumbling voice. It sounded menacing, to say the least, but the blonde just kept grinning as she tried the door.
"It's stuck on this side. How about on your side, Mandy?" the blonde asked.
"This one won't open, either," Mandy replied.
"The car is sunk into the side of the ditch far enough to block the door," I told them, shining my light along the bottom of the door. "You'll have to climb out the window."
"Oh goodie! That should be fun in a tight skirt," Mandy said to no one in particular.
"Hey! I like looking at your legs, among other things," Maggie said with a laugh.
"Kiss my ass!" Mandy shot back at her.
"I'd love to, dear, but you wouldn't like the teeth marks."
"I said 'kiss', not bite."
