A prompt a week - 18. A Rainy Day for Hilda - Prompt 342

Hilda stepped out onto the sun warmed deck and stretched. She felt the breeze and could smell the scent of rain in the air. The garden flag that her mother had given her flapped in the wind, reminding her that she still needed to give her a call and thank her for gift.

She looked to the west and could see the dark clouds that were fast approaching.

“Damn, I’ll never make it to town and back before that storm hits,” she muttered as she slipped on her shoes.

She turned to go back into the house just as her cat, Jinx slipped out.

“Come on Jinx. It is going to rain and you hate to be outside.”

The cat paused, looked at Hilda and then walked over to the flowers growing by her deck and lay down.

“Fine, just don’t come crying to me if you get soaked.”

Hilda headed inside to her kitchen. She grabbed a cup out of the cabinet and filled it with water. She had just started the Kuerig when the first rumbles of thunder could be heard. She glanced out the window and could see what looked like a dark wave rabidly approaching. She hurried back to the kitchen door and opened it.

“Jinx? Jinx, where are you?”

The cat wasn’t by the flowers and more so Hilda hurried out into the yard to see if she could spot him before the storm came. As she looked under the Forsythia bush, the rain began to fall hard. Before she was entirely soaked she ran for the house. She barely made it through the open door when lightning struck the yard. A moment later the power in the house went out.

“Great. Better call the power company and let them know. “

Hilda dug through her bag and found her cell phone. The kitchen was dark and when she finally turned the phone on, it seemed to be the only light in her small room. She was about to dial when there was a thud alongside her, scaring her and she dropped the phone onto her stone floor, where it shattered.

Turning quickly Hilda found Jinx sitting on the counter next to her.

“Thank you so much Jinx.” Hilda bent down only to find that the screen had cracked so badly that you couldn’t use it any more. “Jinx, you have made me the proud owner of a broken cell phone.”

Jinx sat back and licked his paw to clean his face.

“Yeah, I see how worried it has you too.”

Hilda shook her head. She opened her junk drawer and dug through it finding her flashlight, which luckily was still working. She walked to the front of the house to see what kind of shape the front yard was in with all the wind. So far she didn’t see any broken limbs but with the way the rain was falling it was hard to see ten feet out, and the wind was just whipping the trees back and forth.

“Great.” Hilda said to no one in particular as she wandered back to the kitchen. She sat down and hoped the power would come back on soon. She looked at the kitchen table and spotted the letter from Tommy. He had sent her his cd for her birthday with that note. She wished he had come back instead of just sending the gift. She missed best friend, but knew since his first album had been released he needed to tour and try to get the music listened to. She looked at the song list on it and smiled as she read the last song title – Friends with Hilda. When the power came back she was going to have to listen to Tommy’s music.