I woke up.
It was Friday night... or Saturday morning now I guessed. The month of May had brought thunder storm after thunder storm to Southwest Virginia. I looked at the clock on the nightstand beside my bed. It was flashing 12:10, which meant that the power had been out and had come back on ten minutes previous...
My senses began to come to me.
The wind was blowing fairly hard outside and it was raining. I wondered whether water was coming in our bedroom window.
I saw a lightning flash. A second or two later I heard the thunder: not too loud, not too close.
I lied there, feeling the breeze blow cool across my body and trying to work up the energy to get out of bed and check the window. I wondered whether my wife was cold; she was under just the sheet.
The dog barked. That was not unusual. Sometimes it barked at night at the cat. Sometimes it barked at its dreams - or its own shadows for all we could tell.
Again lightning flashed and thunder came - a little brighter, and little louder, a little less time in between and therefore a little closer.
The wind picked up a notch.
The dog barked again - this time a longer "bow wow wow wow" instead of the single bark of the first time.
I sat up and swang my feet off the bed. The floor was cool but I couldn't feel any water. I stood up and walked the one step over to the window. There was a little moisture on the sill.
Lightning flashed again. The storm was moving toward us. I began closing the window. The dog gave another bark.
With the window now closed I decided that a small glass of water wouldn't hurt me. The noise level in the room had gone down with the window and I walked as quietly as I could toward the bedroom door. As I opened it, our dog (Boots) gave yet another bark - longer, louder and more sincere than before.
"Boots!" I hissed. "SHUT UP!"
I had entered the livingroom where Boots slept. But she was not in her little bed. Nor was she in the recliner. Another bark. And I found her...
Boots is a black and white Pekinese: no nose, lots of chin, ears that look like a science fiction character, a little bit of a temper, and allergies that make her scratch her hair out in places. But she had courage: the heart of a lion.
