Lightning God It was a happy day for Christine and Rondo Kramer, when after nine long months of Christine carrying twins was rushed to the hospital to give birth to the babies. This would be the first set of twins in either of their families. They would be the proud parents of two babies shortly. Christine was rushed up to delivery as soon as they reached the hospital. While Rondo was sent to put on a sterile gown, cap and mask to cover his mouth. This proud father had requested to be allowed to be there in the delivery room for the birth of the twins. The births of the twins came within minutes of one another. The delivery of the twins went like clock work and no problems. And were surprisingly easy deliveries of the two twins for Christine. Rondo and Christine were now the proud parents of two beautiful baby boys. Though she was very happy, Christine wished that her babies had been a boy and a girl. Rondo would have his son and she would have her daughter. Rondo the proud papa was twice as happy. He now had two sons from this birthing instead of one. "It's a lucky man that gets two sons at once to carry on his name. Rondo smiled proudly. "Yes it is indeed." the doctor answered cheerfully. "And you Christine my dear will have to wait for that little girl you would have put pink ribbons in her hair." Christine smiled heartily even though she was a bit tired from her ordeal. She was still pleased with the two sons she had birthed. There would be more children born to them. She had no doubt that she would get the girl child she wanted. Maybe even two or three of them before it was all over. So she took pleasure in Rondo's joy of having two sons. He looked so proud standing there grinning from ear to ear. The new born twin boys were weighed and cleaned up. The first baby weighed six pounds, two ounces. The second baby weighed five pounds fourteen ounces. The twins were then taken to the hospital nursery. Christine was cleaned up and then taken to recovery where she would stay for two hours before being put into a regular hospital room on the obstetrics floor of the hospital. Christine, she would be attended to there for the rest of her stay there in the hospital. Christine was resting comfortably in her hospital room with Rondo sitting near her bed in a chair. He had passed out at least two boxes of cigars in the hospital. He even gave them to the nurses he was so happy. They talked joyfully discussing their twins until Christine tired and dozing off to a restful sleep. She was so beautiful this mother of his children, Rondo thought as he watch her sleeping peacefully. Suddenly from out of the blue a storm began to brew up outside. The sun completely disappeared behind grim black clouds rumbling around bumping together in the sky like the cars in a demolition derby. There had been no signs or news of bad weather announced on television or radio in the last few days. This storm had come up from no where all of a sudden. The sky blackened as if night had fallen upon the town at twelve noon that day. Wind howled and blew furiously, blowing down trees, store signs, almost anything in its path. Lightening began to light up the cloud darken sky, cracking like whips of a hundred loin trainers at once. It followed by thunder roaring loudly as the beastly loins being tamed by the lion trainers. Christine was abruptly awaken by the loud noise of the thunder booming in the sky and in her ears so loudly. Rondo could see that it had frightened her and moved to her side to comfort her. "Oh God Rondo, what's happening?" she cried out trembling and clinging to her husband tightly. "It's only a summer storm honey. Don't be afraid it will pass soon." he said. But the suddenness and harshness of this storm had shaken Rondo too. The weather was raging outside like not one hurricane, but two or three full scale hurricanes had in set upon this town far from where they should be in any case. This town was a small town in the middle of Iowa. Not the coast of Florida, Cuba, or Japan someplace hurricanes do happen. Maybe a tornado or two, but nothing like what was going on outside now. Rain, heavy and dark pouring down as if the town was under a waterfall, accompanying hail the size of softballs striking fire as it hit the pavement, and sides of houses. Breaking limbs and branches of large trees that the wind couldn't topple to the ground or up root with it's blowing far above gale force, ripping up everything it could that was in it's path of destruction. Cars were being tossed around like toy cars. People who were unfortunate enough to have gotten caught out in this storm were at great risk of being blown away or being struck by the fury of the lightening clapping and lighting up the sky and reaching down towards the earth in gigantic bolts. And many were the unfortunate ones to be in the path of this fury. Lightening bolts began to flash and strike closer and closer to the hospital. Everyone inside the building had become frightened as the thunder rumbled so loudly in their ears any conversation among the staff of the hospital and between the patients can barely be heard by of them. The noise of the storm boomed and rumbled now just above the top of the building. The storm was directly over the hospital and seems to have gotten even more furious. Nurses and the doctors were running from room to room trying to settle the nerves of upset frightened patients. Being afraid themselves wasn't helping matters one bit in this situation. Christine fearing for the safety of her new born twins insisted that Rondo go to the nursery to check on their sons though she, herself is terrified by the storm. Worry for the babies well being was greater than her own. Rondo was hesitant, but his concern for his sons also took a front seat in his concern for even his wife or his own well being. "OK, I'll go and check on our sons, but as soon as I see that they're all right and safe I'll hurry back to your side." he said holding her hand in his. Rondo rushed from Christine's room heading for the nursery at full speed. He could feel the building shaking and hear the thunder echoing thru the hospital halls. It seemed to him, he was in the middle of all the hell that was occurring around him. The noise and confusion was horrendous. Just as Rondo got to the nursery a blinding light of a giant lightening bolt and a deafening clapping of thunder rang in his eyes and ears. The bolt of lightening had struck in the nursery where several babies lay sleeping and others lay crying during this terrible storm. Rondo yelled out in agony seeing that the bolt of lightening had struck one of his twin babies, burning straight thru the baby's body and down thru the tiny bed then thru the floor beneath it. The other twin hadn't been touched as he lay near his twin brother awake not making a sound. Rondo ran inside the nursery praying his eyes had deceived him. But upon approaching his son's bed where the lightening had struck. The baby that lay in the tiny bed was burned completely. Only ashes remained where the baby had lain only seconds before. "Dear God in heaven, what has happened here." Rondo cried at the top of his lungs. One of his precious sons was gone right before his shocked unbelieving eyes. "God why did this horrible thing happen to one of my sons?" he cried uncontrollably shaking his fist in the air then falling to his knees heart broken and distort at what has happened. "Oh God help me." How will I explain this travesty to my wife Christine? Why didn't I come here sooner and save my son from this horrific death?" Tears ran from Rondo's eyes just as the rain was running down in buckets outside. He was shaking all over in pain for the loss of one of his sons. Rondo looked over at his other son that lay there untouched by the lightening. He jumped to his feet scooped up the infant from his tiny bed fearing this son would be next to be struck by lightening. Still crying he ran from the nursery towards his wife's hospital room never noticing all the chaos in the halls now. Nurses and doctors were still running back and forth from the nursery evacuating babies from the now burning room as fast as they could. The floor of the nursery was burning where the lightening had struck Rondo's son and now was a threat to the lives of the other infants there. Some of the doctors were fighting the fire with fire extinguishers that were mounted in the corridors of the hospital. Suddenly the sprinkler system activated in the nursery smothering the fire creating a massive amount of smoke in the room, the efforts of the nurses and doctors to save the remaining babies were very successful. Rondo and Christine has lost one of their twins, but Christine would never know of their loss. She too had been struck by lightening as she lay in her hospital bed waiting for Rondo to return from the nursery with word of their sons being safe in this storm. Rondo ran into Christine's room and was stunned once again in his tracks. The sight he saw there crushed him as it's the same sight as he seen in the nursery upon approaching his infant�s bed. Christine lay in the bed chard, burned to a crisp the same as her new born baby. Smoke still rose from her body and the lightening had burned straight thru the bed with a fire smothering beneath it. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room and Rondo's nostrils. He held his last son close to him in one arm and cover his mouth in astonishment with his other hand. He totally broke down yelling and screaming then stumbled out of the room. His eyes were glazed and fixed in a stare straight ahead. A nurse ran over to him grabbing the baby just as Rondo passed out falling to the floor unconscious. Doctors and more nurses ran to help the nurse that had already grabbed the baby when Rondo began to fall. They knew it was one of his twins sons that had been struck and burned to death in the nursery of the hospital. And when he was lifted to be taken into his wife's room to be revived and seeing that his wife had come to the same fate as their infant son, pandemonium quickly took over. Nurses screamed in horror running from the room. The doctors unable to believe what they were seeing for the second time in just minutes stared at the bed of ashes dumb founded, backing out of the room stammering in their speech which came out of their mouths in yells followed by gasps for air. "God, what in the hell happened here in this hospital today?" One of the doctors screamed. "IIIIIII," another doctor yelled. "Don�t know, but this is sure in the hell weird." They had completely exited the room, stumbling over their own feet and legs that felt like rubber. They took Rondo to an empty room a few rooms from where his wife lay as ashes now. They felt more than sympathy for this poor man. They felt his pain and grief as deep as if this catastrophe has happened in their families. During all the chaos inside the hospital no one on the obstetrics floor noticed that the storm had ended. The sun had returned in the sky and shining brilliantly. The only sign of wind was a gentle breeze blowing softly. Only the aftermath of destruction and death had the storm left behind could be seen. Everyone in this town would surely remember this day, the gigantic raging storm along and the toll it had taken on their town. There were lost homes, broken windows, downed trees, wrecked cars. Streets flooded with water and blown down telephone and electric lines on just about every block of the town and especially the lives that were lost this day. There had never been a storm of this magnitude in sixty seven years, back when Rondo's father was born. It too had come without warning ending just as suddenly. Rondo gain conscious, but his look was that of a zombie. He was unfeeling, unthinking, not alive. He was sitting there staring into spacing. Even the blinking of his eyes has left him. All that he could see in his mind was the ashes, his wife and his son. A nurse checked on him constantly. Every time she left the room where Rondo was sitting, she would shake her head in pity. Poor Rondo such a happy day that now had turned tragic for this new father. He had almost sat there staring into space. Not saying a word for nearly twenty four hours paralyzed and heartbroken. The coroner had been call in hours before to confirm the deaths of the baby and his mother. Death certificate were made out and would be sent to Rondo's home after they had been filed in the town hall. The remains of the bodies were taken to the funeral home, until the time Rondo would make arrangements for them. Rondo shook his head trying to shake off his trauma and grief. Then again tears emerged from his eyes. In his pain and sorrow he remembered he still had a son who needs him even more now than ever. His son had no mother to care for his new born needs. It would be his job to be mother and father to his son. Rondo left the hospital lost in grieving and suffering from his tragic loss. He had to make burial arrangements and prepare for a memorial service for Christine and their son. He had to notify his father also of the deaths and the service. To notify his father would be the first thing he would do. His father would want to be there with him in his grief without any doubt. At home Rondo felt alone and abandoned. No Christine, no twins, just emptiness. He sat down on the couch reaching for the phone to call his father, when it rang. Had his father heard the bad news? Maybe someone who knows them or the newspaper had printed it and his father knew of his wife's and sons deaths. Rondo picked up the phone expecting to hear his fathers voice on the other end of the line. "Hello, Dad?" he asked. "No, this isn't your dad, Mr. Kramer." the voice answered. I'm your fathers housekeeper calling to inform you that your father passed away yesterday. I called you when it happened, but there was no answer at your home." "Oh, my dear God. Did you say my father is dead?" "Yes Mister Kramer, he died at noon yesterday. You have my condolence on the death of your father." Rondo dropped the phone horrified at hearing of his father's dying. How could this be happening? First on of his son, then his wife and now its his father all in one day. Rondo's mind, body and soul screamed in pain and disbelief. Then his inward screaming reached his mouth. The sound of woo and pain he released could have awakened the dead. And if it had it would have been glorious to have his dead family returned to him in one gigantic scream. "I must be dreaming. No not dreaming, I must be lost in some strange and sick nightmare. My whole life and world has been taken away from me in a little more than twenty four hours." He fell to his knees in prayer and tears asking God to help him to understand why this terrible sorrow has happened to him. Rondo sat there on the floor in darkness hoping this is just a bad nightmare and he would awake from it with everything back as it was before this nightmare began for him. At dawn he pinched himself hard realizing this is a real life nightmare and nothing would change the outcome of it. His losses are real not even God could change what has happen in these twenty four hours of hell that has taken away his family, all but one son. Frantic, he jumped to his feet remembering his one son left in the hospital. Fearing the worst that perhaps his last son may have come to disaster and an ill fate too during the night, Rondo ran from his house. Jumping into his car he drove like a bat out of hell through the still some what damaged streets to the hospital. Although he was in great pain the relief he felt upon seeing his son alive and well was like lifting two tons of anxiety and fear from his mind. He talked with a doctor and a nurse about when the baby would be released from the hospital. "Mr. Kramer tomorrow is the release day for your son." We can keep him an extra day or so if you need the time to make the arrangements for your wife's and your other sons memorial and burial service." the nurse said. "You have the condolence of the entire hospital staff." "Thank you nurse and thank the others for me." Rondo said sadly fighting back his tears. "I can use that extra day to arrange a small service for my wife and son. Then I will have to fly to Seattle Washington to bury my father." "My Lord man, your father has died too!" she asked in surprised. "How on earth could such a thing happen? You must be at the end of rope in sorrow. Once again you have my condolence which now includes your father too." "Thank you again." he said. Then he walked solemnly to the elevator rode down and left the hospital in a blur. Rondo's next stop was at the town mortuary to make the arrangements for the memorial service. He had decided to have his wife's and his son's ashes put together in one urn. Mother and child would forever be together wherever their ashes were buried or spread. The next morning after a short ceremony, Rondo took the urn with the ashes of his wife and son and spread their ashes from the top of a hill, over looking the town where they often went to the top of on Sundays to view the town they loved. It was the perfect place for Christine and his son ashes Rondo thought. When he had finished spreading the ashes Rondo had one more funeral arrangement to make, that of his father. Before he could leave town he had to find someone to care for his new born son until he settled his father's affairs in Seattle Washington, legal and other wise. As he returned home from spreading the ashes of his love ones, he had force himself to get through it without breaking down Now he would have to force himself once more trying not to go to pieces with such great grief on top of already grieving. He hired a nurse indefinitely to take charge of his home and his son. She was to let him know immediately if something went wrong with his son while in her care while he was away. "I want you to keep a constant eyes on my son and keep him safe from harm in my absence. He is all I have left in this world. If something were to take him away from me now I, myself would die." Rondo said sadly then left to fly to Seattle. It was strange arriving in Seattle and his father not being there at the airport to meet him. Instinctively Rondo looked around for his dad to be there at the airport as he had always when he came for a visit. But this time it wasn't a visit that's bought him here. He took a taxi to his father's house. When he got out of the taxi he stood there outside the house feeling the pain of his fathers death. He slowly walked up to the front door. It was immediately opened by his father's housekeeper. "Hello Mr. Kramer, I wish this was a happier occasion for you to be here." she said pulling a handkerchief from the pocket of her dress. She started to cry. Rondo wanted to break down in tears too, but he restrained himself. He walked into his father's house looking around at his father's possessions, which weren't many. His father had in his old age for some reason systematically began to reduce his material things. He said it would make things easier for his son not to have to look through junk when he died. Rondo asked what mortuary his father had been taken to. The housekeeper gave him all the information concerning his father's death. Once again it was drastic news for Rondo to hear. His father had been struck by lighting while trying to call him. "An important call he said it was. I left the room so he could have privacy and when I returned he had been struck by lightening and burned to a crisp." Rondo could barely believe his ears, his father had been struck by lightening. Dying the same as Rondo's wife and son had. His legs felt like jelly beneath him as he looked around for some where to sat down from the shock. Was this just a coincidence? "Was there a storm here a few days ago?" Rondo asked. "No, the suns been shining and we've had fair weather." "That's what baffled the coroner about your father's death." the housekeeper said still in tears. "It was just a freak bolt of lightening." Rondo shook his head, he too was crying now. The housekeeper excused herself. Her work day was over for today. So she left Rondo to grieve alone in his father's house. He wiped his tears and began to look through his fathers business papers in his den. There were just the usual papers that someone would keep there. Rondo found an insurance policy and mounds of bills that had been paid and letters that he had written to his father over the years. He went upstairs to his father's bedroom. Rondo hesitated at the at his father's bedroom door. It was so painful standing there knowing his father wouldn't be inside this room when he entered it, and never would ever again. It was the same pain he felt when he entered the house. The grief within Rondo flowed over now and tears ran down his face. "Oh dear God, dad what am I going to do now without you, Christine and my other son?" "Why has this happened to me?" Rondo turned to away from the room wanting to run, but where would he run to. He turned back towards the door. Slowly turning the knob he entered the bedroom. Once he was inside the father's bedroom his eyes glanced over his father�s things. His father's razor laying on the dresser, his robe thrown over a chair, the pictures on the walls. One of which was of Rondo's mother. She was beautiful, but Rondo had never known his mother. His father reared him alone in Iowa after his wife's death. He has only seen many pictures of her. Rondo's father moved here years ago after raising his son alone. Rondo's mother had died in child birth. Now Rondo would be raising his son alone too. Though it wasn't child birth that caused his wife's death. Rondo began to take the pictures from the walls. Behind one of the pictures a wall safe. He wondered why his father would have need of a wall safe. He was a simple man with very little money or valuable jewels. Maybe his mother had some jewels his father kept in this safe. Taped to the back of the picture that covered the safe is a piece of paper with the combination. Rondo removed the paper and attempted to open his fathers safe. When he finally opened the safe, he only found a small notebook, a set of wedding rings that looked as if they had been burned and some weird papers about storms. Rondo laid his findings on his father's bed baffled as to why his father had these things in a safe. He sat on the side of his father's bed and began to read the notebook. It began: Upon my death, I leave this book of information to my son. It's a tragic family history of every first born son in our family. For centuries we have been plagued by lightening and thunder. It follows us everywhere we go, there is no escaping it. All of the first born sons are born as the gods of thunder and lightening. Striking our wives and some of the other love ones down. I don't know how this terrible curse got passed on to us, but it was. Rondo threw the notebook down then kicked it away from him. "Any one who could believe this foolishness is crazy." "My father must have gone crazy to have written or believed such garbage." he said. "Maybe it's me. I'm tired and grieving my whole family I had in the world. Maybe I'm hallucinating about this thunder and lightening crap. There have been to much pressure on me these last few days, I need to rest." Rondo left his father's room, not dare to even look at the book laying there on the floor. He went to the room he usually slept in when he came to visit his father. He undressed then crawled his weary bones into bed. No sooner had he closed his eyes he was fast asleep, but it wasn't a peaceful sleep. Rondo was being tortured in his sleep by the storm that killed his wife and son. All he could see in his dream is lightening lighting up the sky and deafen thunder in his ears. He could see the notebook he took from his fathers wall safe and the words written there seemed to fly out at him. He jumped up from the bed wringing wet with sweat and tears. Rondo got up and went back to his father's room to get the notebook that lay the on the floor. He sat back down on his father's bed and continued to read it all the way to the end. Rondo was dumb founded, this notebook s something hard to believe, but he knew his father wasn't taken with lying. And if this fantastic tale was to be believed why he hadn�t ever experienced lightening or thunder coming from him in all of his life. He went back to bed going over and over in his mind the strange accusations his father had wrote in the notebook. The next morning he was up and cleaning out his father�s house before going to the mortuary. When he got there he told the director there would be no service for his father. His father's ashes were to be put into an urn and the first sign of a dust storm there the director was to empty his father ashes into the storm. This is the way his father would have wanted his ashes to be disposed of. For some reason there was an urgency in Rondo's efforts to get back home to his son. He finished emptying his father's house with the help of the housekeeper's hired staff. Put the house up for sale all in a few days and was on his way back home carrying with him the notebook, the old weather reports, the seemed to be burned wedding rings and his father�s entire picture of the family. When he arrived home went straight to his son's room to see that he was all right and he was. The next morning he called the hospital and asked if his son that had survived had been born the first twin or the second. "The records show Mr. Kramer that it was your second born son died here in the hospital. So if the notebook is right his first born child is the god of thunder and lightening and it was he who cause the death of his own mother and that of his grandfather. Why had Rondo not been cursed passing it to his own son? He began to look through his father's notes again. There it was the reason for Rondo not to have been cursed. His mother had miscarried with her first born son. Rondo was the second son and so he lived to have him as a carrier of the curse to pass it to his son which didn't affect him at all. Rondo named his son Ron and while he was growing up they were very close. Rondo cherished his son. Ron's pets whether it was a dog or cat would be found dead, struck by lightening, burned to a crisp. Ron didn't know it was he himself that was the cause of his pet demise, but his father Rondo knew all the while. When Ron got to be a teen he would joke around saying. "May lightening strike me down." Then he would laugh. His father Rondo scolded him for taking such a statement so lightly. Ron grows into manhood and he went to college where he fell in love with a beautiful woman by the name of Lori. They were together only six month before Lori walked out of Ron's life. When he went home at break time he told his father of his love for Lori and that he would search to the end of the earth for her. Ron decided it was time to tell his son of the curse. Rondo took out the notebook and the burnt wedding rings of his mother's, and then he sat Ron down showed him the items and told him of the curse on their family. Ron was so distort thinking this is why Lori left him even though his father's story was hard to believe. Ron walked for hour until he came to an open field. He walked out into the middle of it not wanting to believe he had caused all of the death and destruction by lightening in the places he had gone. In the middle of the field he raised his arms and tilted his head towards the sky and started to yell as loud as he could. Suddenly lightening bolts came from his finger tips traveling upward to the sky and thunder roared from his yell. And with every agonizing yell the fury of the lightening and thunder grow more intense drawing and darkening the clouds overhead creating a tremendous thunderstorm of rain and hail. Clouds were rolling in the sky and the thunder could be heard for miles. Frustrated and dismayed with him self he dropped to the ground on his knees crying over his misfortune. How could he be with a normal woman knowing of this curse that's on him? He kneeled there for awhile not realizing that the lightening and thunder hadn't stopped. When it finally came to him that it hadn't and he wasn't causing this lightening and thunder that he now heard. Ron looked up curiously. Why hadn't it stopped when he collapsed to the ground exhausted from such power radiating from within him? Just ahead of him he saw an image far off in the distance. At first he thought it was his imagination, but the image kept moving towards him slowly. Soon he could see it was the form of a woman holding her hands in the air with her head tilted somewhat in the air with lightening radiating from her finger tips and thunder roaring from her mouth. As she came closer Ron recognized the woman. It was Lori the woman he loves. She dropped to her knees in front of him smiling and crying at the same time. "Now you know why I left you." I didn't want to ruin your life knowing I'm cursed with being the goddess of lightening and thunder until I pass it on to my first daughter." she cried. "But now that we both know who we truly are we can be together for all time. Our first child will be the only goddess or god of lightening and thunder ever needed again since we have found each other. We will rise up into the sky and live there forever together. They'll have to excuse us if a few people on earth get struck by our lightening accidentally. It will just be because our children playing to rough. Ron and Lori walked out of the field and into the sky where they will live together happily ever after. So when there is a terrible storm and the lightening and thunder seems unbearable. Don�t let it frighten you its only Ron and Lori�s children at play. RETURN TO INDEX