Explosions in the Night

Tinkering around with a few wee ideas....

It was in the night that we first heard the explosions.

Lying there, eyes closed, on the verge of sleep.

At first I thought it was a door that had been left open, flapping in the wind.

When they started to get louder, and more frequent, we opened up the blind and looked down the sound.

In the distance we could see a dim light that pulsed intermittently, and as it pulsed, grew brighter at each turn.

The banging grew louder and louder, the light grew brighter and brighter.

It looked like the city over the hill, down the sound, some thirty miles away, was on fire.

As a child I remembered hearing tales about when the sugar factories were hit in the 2^nd world war, and how they lit up the sky with a pink and orange glow.

And so it was here and now. The glow from the explosions filled the sky, like a sunrise, creeping up from the south east, silhouetting a radio mast against the changing colours.

Then we saw the flames. Like you would nurture the fire in the grate until it became a roaring blaze, the flames licked over the brow of the hill, small ones at first, then great leaping towers of orange and yellow, dancing like dervishes, displaced from home.

We looked at each other, and spoke for the first time, barely able to hear each other under the explosions.

“Oh my God.”

“Oh sweet Jesus”

The explosions were now so loud that the whole earth seemed to thud and move with them. The flames beat their pulse, becoming more and more in snyc the closer they got to us.

“What - What is it?”

Bang, thud, crump.

The windows in the house started to balloon in and out almost in time with the explosions.

We could feel the pressure in our ears mirror the movements of the windows.

“Under the bed!”

I followed her.

Thump.

Crump.

Thump.

We scrambled under the bed, compacting old bags, sleeping bags and yoga mats in to a heap in the middle in our haste to get to shelter.

Louder. Louder. Louder.

I held my head in my hands, I couldn’t bear it – the pain was too much – the explosions were now inside me. My breath taken from me with each new blast.

The whole room shook. Shook again.

I couldn’t hear anything at all now, too afraid to open my eyes I could only feel the heat coming from her, as I pressed in beside her.

The house jolted from side to side. There was nothing to hold on to.

And then it stopped.

It just stopped.