(this newsletter discusses child abuse)
The hurricane came through, streaming currents of wind until the tall trees swayed to one melody and the small ones to another. Outside my bedroom window palms fronds sang a song I’d never heard before. The wind was so strong that I closed my blinds so it wouldn’t scare me. Edna crawled under the bedcovers and hid there, as much a comfort to me as I was to her. It was early morning. I slept, waiting for the electricity to cut off. It awoke me when it did. My white noise machine was silenced. The fan above the bed paused. I was grateful that I’d kept the a/c low and reported the outage to the local electricity company.
I was alone during the hurricane but we are never alone now, not with technology. I uploaded several apps back onto my phone and hopped on social media again, just for some company. I streamed Friends on my laptop using my hotspot. The winds passed. No trees fell on my little cottage. All was well.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Gathering to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.