Beauty and the Beaast

Amber: The Storm

            “Can you believe this storm?” Julie drawled in her Georgian accent. Nervously, she brushed her long, red nails through her choppy blonde pixie cut.

            Darcy lifted his head from the basement floor and whined. He always hated it when anyone was upset. Even as a puppy he’d hide under the bed for an hour if Amber so much as scolded him.

            “It’s alright, boy.” She reached down from where she sprawled on the cushy futon and stroked him. “Surely you’ve seen worse. You’ve lived here longer than I have and Jimmy said that things got pretty bad last year about this time.”

            Thunder shook the house, followed by what sounded like a gigantic hand slamming against the side of the building. She imagined a giant using the heavy-duty Victorian house for batting practice and smiled at her own ridiculousness. Darcy gave a yelp and fairly flew under the futon. He was much too big and only ended up wedging his head underneath it. Oh well. Maybe that would help him feel better, at least.

            “Amber, sugar, you don’t know much about storms, do you? Why, that cute news agent said that this was the worst storm that Ohio has seen in fifty years!” Her carefully maintained eyebrows creased her forehead until Amber was sure there’d be a permanent mark.

            Amused, she tried to suppress a smile. “Storms don’t scare me. My Jesus is the master of the wind and the waves.”

            Julie huffed. “Again with the religion. Don’t you ever get tired of preaching?”

            “I don’t preach!”

           “Well…,” her friend cocked her head, studying her. “You certainly aren’t as obnoxious about it as my brother. Every time I visit somehow Charlie brings up damnation and brimstone.”

            Amber felt sorry for Julie’s brother. If only he knew that the only thing he was accomplishing with his Bible-bashing was to push his sister further away from the Truth.

            In the few months that she had known Julie she had only broached the subject a handful of times and usually it was by accident when she forgot in whose company she was. It didn’t help that her friend had grown up churched and knew the gospel backwards and forwards. Whenever any mention of Christ or the Bible was made, Julie instantly shut it down. Amber only hoped that, if nothing else, her life was a bigger testimony than the words she’d been trying to say. Lord, open her eyes that she might see.

            The storm shook the house right down to the finished basement around them. Flickering, the lights suddenly died and they were plunged into darkness. Darcy howled and they shrieked in surprise. Amber collapsed in a fit of giggles. “Oh, we’re just like a bunch of school girls listening to a ghost story.”

            Julie chuckled nervously. “I thought you weren’t afraid of storms.”

            “I’m not. But that certainly took me by surprise. Do you think the store lost power, too?”

            “Probably. Maybe we won’t have to go into work tomorrow.”

            “As if! Backup generators, remember?”

            Her friend’s groan sounded loud in the darkness. “I guess we should at least try to get some sleep, then. Do you mind if I keep the couch?”

            “Go ahead. I’m comfortable here, and it’s not like we can see to do much else anyway.”

            “Okay. Good night.”

             Surprisingly, in about five minutes Julie’s breathing grew shallow. She was asleep. Amber snuggled down into the futon and pulled a fleece throw blanket around herself. But even though she was exhausted, her brain wouldn’t shut down. Images of the storm and concern for her friend’s spiritual well-being whirled in an endless loop to the rhythm of Darcy’s snoring. And, to top it all off, she couldn’t get her favorite Britt Nicole song out of her head….