The game was a disaster. It was 17-0 at the half and things got worse after that. Ohio State won 45-7.
He watched the front move in during the 4
th
quarter. His living room window faced west and the lightning strikes had been getting closer for the last hour. Now you could hear the thunder. The time intervals indicated that the strikes were about three miles away.
As he was brushing his teeth, he heard the doorbell ring.
It's 10:30 at night; who could that be?
Opening the door in his pajama pants, toothbrush stuck in his mouth, he was surprised to see Britney standing there in her robe.
"I'm sorry to bother you. Can I come in?"
He removed his toothbrush before replying. "Sure, what's the problem?"
"The lightning, I'm scared of it. Can I just stay here until it passes?"
"Of course, go sit down. Let me finish brushing my teeth and I'll be with you."
She went over and pulled the drapes closed on the window before sitting down.
He put on a tee shirt before joining her, sitting down next to her. "There has to be a story behind this, either that or I'm irresistible."
Smiling, she said, "Cute, not irresistible. I had a bad experience with lightning when I was thirteen and being alone during a thunderstorm brings back those fears."
Just then, a bolt of lightning hit the building across the street. She grabbed his arm with amazing force.
"Ow!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to grab you like that."
Rubbing his arm, he said, "That's okay. Tell me the story."
She turned towards him and rubbed his arm. "It happened one night several years ago when my parents went out to a housewarming party. I told them I didn't need a babysitter; I could take care of myself. They were reluctant to leave me alone but relented when I invited a friend to stay over until they returned. She was a neighbor and they were friends with her parents so they didn't have a problem with that.
"Right after they left it really started raining hard. It poured and never let up. My friend hadn't showed up yet. I knew about lightning and telephone lines so I didn't call her to see if she was coming or not. After about an hour of steady rain a lightning strike hit the house. All the lights went out. It scared the shit out of me. So there I am, in this dark house, alone and scared to death.
"I finally found a flashlight. I shined it around and I saw the phone. I thought, lightning or no lightning, I've got to call someone. I picked up the phone; the line was dead. That rattled me more. Suddenly, something hit the house. That put me in a panic state. Then there's a knock on the door. I felt relieved; my friend must be at the door. I opened the door. No one was there. I closed the door and locked the deadbolt. Something else hit the house. I huddled in the corner.
"After a few minutes I calmed down and started thinking a little bit. I'm afraid to use the flashlight now, thinking that someone was outside the house. I went upstairs to my parent's bedroom and got my father's pistol. Then I got in their closet, closed the door and waited. I sat there for three hours until they returned, the longest three hours of my life.
"When my parents got home they started calling my name once they were inside the house. Good thing they did, I would have shot anyone that opened that closet door."
"I would've been scared too," Bruce said, "especially at that age. What damage did it do to the house?"
"It hit where the power lines come into the house," Britney said. "It cut them and fried all the breakers in the electrical box. It took three days to get the power back on."
"What hit the house?" Bruce asked.
"Branches from trees in the yard. The wind was bad. I didn't even think about that. We never did figure out what was knocking on the front door. It may have been my imagination."
"I bet your parents didn't leave you alone again."
"When they fixed the power my Dad had lightning rods placed on the roof. The guy that put them in explained to me exactly how they would handle any future strikes and assured me that I wouldn't have to worry about anything like that happening again. That made me feel a lot better."
"Yeah,' Bruce said, "People don't realize how dangerous lightning can be."
"I know, before I go into someone's house I always look at the roof to see if they have lightning rods," she said. "If they do I feel better."
"Does this building have them?" Bruce asked.
"Yes, I had to go up on the roof to find them, but it does."
"What about your dorm, did it have them?"
"No, it didn't, but there were always a lot of people around and that reassures me. Being completely alone tonight is what got me. I haven't been by myself during a thunderstorm since that happened. That was nine years ago."