A Heavenly Recollection

By:
Remy G.


Today was without a doubt the unquestionable worst day of my life. It all started when I woke up to find the power had gone out and I had over slept the 6 AM alarm by an hour. Today I had to be at work on time or I would lose my job, and I was supposed to be there at 6:40 AM. As the realization that I was likely unemployed now sunk in I decided maybe if I pleaded my case I could keep my job so I rushed to get up and my foot got caught in my blanket. I promptly face planted on the hard wood floor of my room and got a bloody nose for my trouble. Furious because of this I thrashed my legs at the blanket and stubbed my toe on the bed frame and let loose a few choice words which apparently aren't tolerated in the household.
Not more than five seconds after my outburst my mom was standing in my doorway shouting at me and telling me I was wasting my life. Real good advice for an impressionable teen, don't you think? She apparently couldn't be bothered to maybe wake me up because the power was out?! Once I regained my footing I slammed the door in her face and went to take a shower. The one thing I liked about my room was that it had its own bathroom. The only thing it could've used, however, is its own water heater. Without testing the water I turned on the shower, undressed, and jumped in and paid for my hastiness with a nice torrent of freezing cold water. Hopping back out and turning off the water I could hear my brother in the hallway laughing to mom that he had just used the last of the hot water. While getting dressed I cursed him for his smug attitude and wished for his death.  
I settled for just brushing my teeth and wearing a hat for the day and left my room. On the way down the stairs our cat Jackie ran past me and for some reason turned around and bit my ankle hard enough to draw blood through my sock. I lost my footing and barely caught myself as I began to fall, but when I turned to face the cat she vanished up the stairs. Apparently my mom's scolding wasn’t well seated in my mind because I shouted a few more obscenities at the little devil and brought her wrath down once more. Without listening to a word I quickly went to the front door, put on my shoes and got the hell out of the house before anything worse could happen, or so I thought.
It was raining so badly outside that I thought it might actually flood the neighborhood and we lived on a hill. Faced with a dilemma to go inside and get an umbrella or deal without I decided the house was cursed today and went on. We lived on the edge of town so to the left were more houses, and the right was the businesses. There were puddles everywhere and my knowledge of where holes in the sidewalk was lacking so I made my best effort to avoid them. Five steps down the sidewalk toward town a car flashed by going at least 60mph, spraying me in water very much akin to my earlier shower. I was beyond words at this point and just screamed like a mad man at the car as it disappeared down the hill.
While contemplating just how this day could get any worse a massive gust of wind blasted me from the front, and because of the wet sidewalk and poor choice of shoes I lost my footing and collapsed to my left, halfway lying in the road. A horn suddenly blared in my ears and a bright light blinded me, but by the time my head turned to look the car which had been heading my direction swerved and managed to avoid making a pancake out of my face. It came to a stop just ahead of where I lay and the driver got out, shouting at me like it was my fault and I had just ruined his day.
Getting back up for once something went my way and a second gust of wind made him fall backwards and hit his head on the bumper of his car. While he regained composure I walked off and made sure to keep my footing secure this time. It was around this moment that I had forgotten two very important things at home; my cell phone, and my wallet. I didn't really need either, but I didn't like not having my cell phone just in case something happened that was an emergency. I stopped to check the TVs in an electronics store's window to see the weather and my day got worse. Apparently the county was under a tornado watch and the storm was only going to get worse. The place where I worked wasn't too far away, though. I could get there, then head to the community center a block away and wait it out away from home.
About thirty seconds after leaving the electronics store's pavilion it began to hail and the wind got ridiculously strong. The cloud cover suddenly got really dense and the street went dark except for the random lightning strikes and cars driving rapidly. Common sense would say that means a tornado is nearby, I thought to myself as I took refuge from the downpour of marbles. The sound of the chunks of ice beating everything in their path like tiny hammers was deafening, but the wind suddenly picked up and the howling made the hail seem no louder than bees buzzing around a hive.
Unsure of what to do I crouched behind a bike rack which was cemented in place and held onto the metal bars for safety as the wind whipped through the street taking anything loose with it. After about a minute the howling died down and whatever had come had passed. If it had been a tornado or not I wasn't sure, but I was relatively certain I was safe from it for now. It was then that I noticed in the darkness of the clouds that in the middle of the street was a light blue glowing orb like nothing I had ever seen before. The glow, though pale, was just bright enough to see that it was floating freely, drifting slowly and absently in the empty road.
A bit unnerved at the sight, but curious, I looked at my feet and found a rock which I immediately flung at the thing. Uneventfully the projectile passed straight through the ball of light unaffected, leading me to believe it was harmless. Standing up and leaving the bike rack I had held onto during the cyclone I approached the orb until I was about five feet from it. It was no bigger than a cantaloupe and I could smell ozone surrounding it. Steam rose from it as the rain continued to pour down, apparently vaporizing with contact so I decided against touching it.
And then it changed its slow drifting course and started heading right for me, slow at first, but steadily increasing the pace. It was like a magnet and in a panic I took three steps back and tripped over my own feet. By the time I turned around to try and stand up I felt the warmth on my left foot and glanced over my shoulder. The glowing orb seemed to be getting unstable and was rapidly shifting its shape as it got closer. I scrambled to get up and get away from it, but as I got halfway to my feet the ball exploded in a blast of light and sound as deafening as thunder itself.
See, apparently that is called ball lightning and is a naturally occurring thing, although rare. If I had known this, maybe things would've been better that day. There I was laying in the middle of the street with a bloody nose, soaked to the bone, a dumb look on my face, no identification, and no pulse. They never did find out what the cause of death was. That was definitely the worst day of my life. Ever.