The darkness didn’t go away at sunrise but seemed to stay a
shade of gray for the third day now. Flowering bushes stayed without color
craving the sunlight but getting none. Childrens faces pressed against the
window glass were bored and anxious to go outside watching their swingset
without movement and other toys sit unattended.
About noon on the sixth-day silent ash began to fall from
the sky. It came to rest on everything leaving the outside world looking like
one giant landscape of gray. Ugly and for what purpose? Was it a weapon of mass
destruction some wondered, while others said it was a sign from God but again,
for what purpose?
On the tenth day, the skies were the blackest of black so
much so lights couldn’t penetrate it and some feared the end was upon them.
Without warning, the rain began to fall. It poured down so hard the noise was
almost unbearable as children clasped their hands over their ears and adults
were shaken to the core. With the rain came a cleansing that washed away the
ash creating flowing rivers of gray soon followed by clear raging rivers that
emptied into the vast ocean.
The eleventh day brought back the sunlight to the joy of
children and parents alike. Swingsets and toy tractors were back in operation
as were hanging the laundry outside and the roar of lawnmowers. Grills were
fired up and the smells of summer filled the air. Life went on but the feelings
of the ten days of darkness lingered on for a long time. No one could explain
it although many speculations ran amock creating conversation at picnics and
pool parties.
Some say high upon the highest of mountains God wanted to
get our attention so he cried tears on a campfire spewing ash to all below.
Some say he left the ash and the darkness for ten days as a reminder we can not
take anything for granted, that life as we know it is not guaranteed. Some say
he reached into the heavens and squeezed a thousand rain clouds on the eleventh
day to wash away the darkness, and life returned to normal. Some say it will
never be normal again.
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