Cloud to Cloud Lightning

 

     I was in the bedroom reading before I fell asleep when my husband came in and said, "Come and see the lightning show to the south."  I actually glanced at the window to the north, hoping I could somehow see it from there and return to my book.  My love of reading is that obsessive, I have to make a conscious decision whether reality is worth laying my book down.  I decided it was and went out on the porch to take a look.
      The strong breeze of the early evening had dissipated;  it was warm and still in that crepuscular time before the darkness sets in.  The lightning was jumping from cloud to cloud across the entire southern sky, sometimes just lighting up a cloud from behind, sometimes crackling so fast it was hard to even capture the memory of it.  The lightning show continued for at least half an hour, with only the sound of crickets and an occasional swish of traffic as accompaniment.  It was spectacular.  I returned to the bedroom, turned my book over, switched off the light, and went to sleep.