Famous Last Words Week 3

here is a little flash Fiction for you guys.....

The Storm

Storm Clouds

“There must have been a storm coming,” she thought because, she remembers a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder as it echoed through her kitchen door. It shook the walls of her small two bedroom house. The air had a heavy scent though she couldn’t quite make out what that scent was. To her, it smelled like a mix of sulphur and burnt pork, maybe beef. She stared at the ceiling while she waited for the rain to start. The scent in the air was beginning to fade now and she could feel the rain begin to soak the top of her shirt.

Two men walked by her like she was invisible. In and out of her house they would go as if it was moving day. The movers had been arguing just as after the thunder had rolled through the house, but that had now been replaced with discussions of which items to move first, next, and last. They must have decided to start in her bedroom, because she could feel the heavy footsteps of their steel toed work boots hit the ground and vibrate through the house. As they walked by her, she could not see what they were moving, but she could tell it was small, maybe the size of a jewelry box. One of the movers looked at her as he was passing by and she wanted to tell him to be careful when moving the dresser, but figured they had done this before, so she remained silent. She needed to get out of the rain because it had already soaked her shirt. Though it was December the rain wasn’t cold. In fact, it was warm and comforting like a rain shower on a hot May afternoon. Still it was making a mess on her tile kitchen floor, but for now she was content to remain for a moment longer. 

The smell of sulphur and pork had all but faded and the sun was beginning to set. She could hear the movers in the front room fiddling with her home entertainment system. She wanted to tell the movers to be more careful, because they were making quite a bit of noise, but she figured they had done this before and it was best if she just let them handle it without her intervening. She felt a heavy “Thud” rumble from the front room to the kitchen and knew one of the movers must have dropped something. As she heard one of the movers yell to the other one “Be careful, that thing is expensive,” she hoped it wasn’t her flat screen TV.

The rain was now beginning to soak her jeans. It wasn’t warm anymore like the rain that was soaking her shirt, so her legs began to go numb. One of the movers walked by her carrying her television and she was relieved to see that it was not damaged. He was wearing black work boots that shook the floor each time he took a step, black jeans, and a black pull over hoodie to keep him warm in the December weather. She couldn’t see any of the moving companies logo’s on his uniform. The other mover walked by her carrying speakers and the surround sound unit. She noticed that he was dressed similar to the other mover. Her arms were getting wet now from the rain. 

A subtle hint of the sulphur and pork smell still lingered in the kitchen air as the two men stood next to her talking. From what they were saying they appeared to be done moving. She began to get upset at the movers because they hadn’t moved any of the big furniture. In fact as far as she could tell they had only been there long enough to move a few things. She looked up at one of the men to say something, but the two of them were preoccupied with their own conversation and ignored her. If the two men were done moving they could at least close the door, because the draft from the cold December air was biting at her nose. The warm May rain had now become cold on her shirt and she could feel herself going numb. One of the men looked down at her and their eyes met. She saw another flash of lightning, but did not hear the thunder. The storm had passed.

Picture Attribution

By cjohnson7 from Rochester, Minnesota (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons