The Hell that is Hail
meanmom4
The old woman sat there rubbing her nose with the top of her hand and rocked her body back and forth. She mumbled incoherently as my father spoke softly to her, gentle and coaxing, trying to find a way to understand her mumbling.
“Hell, hail, hell - hail...no, no it was hell” she muttered over and over again.
I looked over at my father, he had stopped talking to the old woman. He just stared at her. I was almost positive that he was trying to understand what the old crone was saying. She was filthy, covered in mud, her hair a matted mess. I squinted imagining that main of hair must have been a beehive do at one time - now it was stuffed with grass and who knows what else. The only part of her worth noticing were her bright blue eyes, they stood out amid all that sludge she was covered in. She grabbed the mug of water my mom handed to her. She gulped and spat until she got her fill. She hugged it as she lowered it from her lips. She gazed off in the distance, seeing right through those who stood in front of her.
“Dad.” I grabbed his arm to get his attention. “She’s crazy! She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Dad lowered his head and turned away from the woman. He whispered so only I could hear him, “hush son, whatever it is there has to be some truth to it.
All communication is down, maybe she’s got news for us, it hasn’t been easy I know, what with no WiFi, no smart phones, no Internet...we’re literally in the dark here, maybe she can shed some light.”
"H E L L!!" The old woman screeched. She jumped to her feet, running toward my father, grabbing him and tackling him down, she started to scream into his face as my mother and I struggled to pull her off him. We finally got her to sit back down, still screaming and squirming.
The front door to the house blew open. There in the threshold stood my older brother Blake. I ran to him.
"Well, the old lady was right. I went to the location you got from her Dad, it's a mess. Power lines laying all across the ground, giant hail stones, the like I've ever seen, they were huge."
"Did you find it?" Dad gasped, as he was still shooken up from the old woman's attack.
"Yes, Joey has it."
My sister Joey then stepped through the threshold, holding a full garbage bag. She held it up triumphantly as if she had just won a boxing match. She walked over to our father, She slowly handed the bag off to him.
"We've got it!"
—Lari Tanner Aug. 2, 2016
