Lightning, Massachusetts

  The lightning splattered as it struck the ground, shedding beautiful, deadly, fractal patterns onto the concrete. For half a black the pavement looked like an enormous snow flake traced by a giant. Super imposed electrically, burnt magically. The storm's scar left the whole town feeling special, as if they had seen rain falling in a way no one else had before.  Perhaps they had. From that day the people were just a little different. A little prouder. They changed their town's name from "Olde Town" to "Lightning", that is Lightning, Massachusetts. A place that had been around since the state had been a colony, but now reborn with a new name; brand new.

   With a new name the people themselves decided they would become more exciting as well.  No more being satisfied with the quiet life; each person made an unspoken resolution to become ever so slightly more. Racel Newberry started wearing a thunderbolt pin in her hair. Mark Finnegan at the age of 62 took up wake-boarding. He knew nothing about it, but it sounded exciting and found he enjoyed it immensely.  Lisa Brucket, who had become increasingly agoraphobic since her 20th birthday, was coming out more and found she liked flying kites, especially yellow ones. Richard Zacharias took to running each morning. He was up to 8 kilometers, he hoped to be ready for the marathon in October. The list went on, people adding something to their lives no matter how big or small.

Oh Thunder Road

Brad stood in the service plaza gazing at the brochures by the information stand. Most of the pamphlets were the normal fair, advertising local tourist spots or national parks or even "World's largest Ball of String 2 miles east". But one pamphlet caught Brad's eye, it advertised "Thunder-storm travel - Get to your destination in a fraction of the time!", Brad took the pamphlet and started flipping through it. It sounded odd, like a joke or something from a sci-fi novel, but too earnest to be either.

"Excuse me, Sir?" Brad said to get the attention of the information stand's attendant.

The attendant turned around and responded cheerily, "Yes, how may I help you?"

"Can you tell me more about this 'Thunder-Storm Travel' thing? I'm still not quite sure what it is exactly.."

The Attendant smiled as if he'd been waiting all day for this request, "Ahh, yes, Thunder-Storm Travel! Its new! And quite easy to use. If you sign up, which you can do right here, then you get a small beacon which you simply put in your front or back windshield, doesn't really matter which. Then a sort of electro-magnetic current is charged from your car straight up to the troposphere where it signals a group of nan-bots. These nano-bots then group together any extra clouds flying around and Voíla! a storm is born! Then using that same electro-magnetic pulse, the storm clouds do a sort of push/pull with your car, just like opposing magnets in grade school! This allows you to get there in half the time!"

Brad stood with his mouth agape, he then closed it and nodded a bit as if he understood everything that was just said. He tried to act non-chalant, "Well, is it safe?"

The attendant smiled brightly, "Sure! Safe as can be! So long as you can keep your wits about you in a storm. And you save on gas!"

"Well, sounds too good to be true, but I guess I'll give it a try", handing over his credit card.

A few minutes later Brad walked to his car feeling quite like Jack after buying the magical beans. He applied the beacon to his front windshield, put the key in and started the ignition, Brad laughed when nothing immediately happened, then as he put the car into reverse, he heard it: the distinct crack of thunder.

Some wackiness

  I read a book about sharks til my eyes turned green. Laughed until I fell down. Tried to find out what it all means ended up with an another enigma bout 42. Raced a sailboat on the sea but ended up on the moon. I jumped on a trampoline, did a flip couldn't stop spinning for days. Dreamt I was a doctor but my stethoscope was a snake, he kept biting everyone. Found out how to use a hula hoop, ended up with a barrel of apples. Pulled the cork and my cup filled with apple sauce. Lightning strikes in the distance, acoustic guitars strumming in my ears bugs light up across the lawn. I heard the whip crack on the hillside, looked around for Indiana only found a kid named Jones. Discovered I had super powers, flew off to all my far off friends' houses.