CALL DOWN THE WIND

Jackson watched apprehensively as the turgid clouds jostled for dominance. The smaller ones skittering feverishly across the lowering sky,while the large ones gathered ominously upon the horizon. like Generals surveying the future battlefield. Jackson folded his arms, cupping his elbows in the palms of his hands in that usual way of his. He shoogeled nervously as he stood watching the pencil pines sway to the rhythm of the rising wind, and thought how they reminded him of erotic dancers, long forgotten.



Rolling thunder proclaimed the storms advance and as though someone had closed giant shutters the gloom darkened. Jackson turned on his heel and mounting the porch strode to the front door. Small raindrops started falling slowly,hitting the ground  silently like stealthy  para troopers. Inside,he went to the bottom of the stairs and called out, “Bianca, you speaking yet?” Silence. “Bianca?”... there is a doozy of a storm coming!



“Go away you beast!” As though in sympathy an enormous thunderclap exploded over head, or so it seemed and the wind howled in outrage.



“Bianca!”



“Leave me alone!”



Jackson bounded up the ancient creaking staircase and tried to open the door to the master bedroom, the one he shared with Bianca... she had locked it.



Shit! Grasping the big brass doorknob he shook it violently to no avail “Open the door Bianca!”



“Piss off you creep!”



The wind chortled frenetically through the nooks and crannies of the old house, and the copious rain, no longer a passive thing fell more heavily,tapping insistently and noisily on the old “tin” roof. Jackson gave up momentarily and  went into the spare room next door. Peering out of the small window into the fallen darkness he could see nothing. Suddenly the incensed elements intensified. And the rain slapped nosily against the small window like the hand of a angry woman across the face of her startled lover. Multiple salvo’s of angry thunder crashed across  the sky and fierce jagged lightening lit up the ungodly scene. The wind rose to a demonic crescendo and something shattered the window in the room next door. An hysterical  Bianca leapt from the bed and the cold rain slapped her back as she  fumbled with the old lock , finally,screaming Jacksons name, fled the room. She collided with Jackson whom had rushed into the corridor, always the knight in shining armour.



She trembled in his enfolding arms and almost magically, the storm began to abate.

“Lets go to bed Babe” Jackson suggested, comically  bouncing his bushy eyebrows up and down.



“Bed?” Jackson....are you sorry about your comment?



“Comment?...what comment Babe?



Bianca glared angrily! “About Ruby...you said she was only a cat!”



With a barely concealed smirk he muttered, “Well..”



“You don’t care! She was part of our family,our baby you bastard!”



Bianca! Look, I will get another cat for you!”



“No you won’t!” she stamped her foot angrily and her face took on a look of venomous  hatred!



“Ah come on Babe!”



“Don’t come on Babe me, you clueless prick!” Pushing him away she went on, “Your gonna be sorry, I’m gonna call down the wind, that’s what I’m gonna do!”



“Don’t be so bloody stupid!” He laughed harshly, “Call down the wind indeed, I’d like to see that!”



The words were barely out of Jacksons mouth when the wind began to moan. The sky darkened and the wind grew,shook, rattled, gusted and tore the old house apart. Perhaps strong hands seized the old house and tore it asunder. It’s work done, the wind whispered a farewell to Bianca and and returned from whence it had come. Bianca stood in the ruins and smiled. Nobody would ever call Ruby “just a cat” again....Nobody!