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Thunder Booms

and empty rooms

By David X. SheehanPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 6 min read
3

Thunder boomed overhead and I ran for the covered outdoor section of a small strip mall, near where I lived in Smyrna, Georgia. I had sat on the circular brick garden wall in the middle of the parking lot, because here, after 5:00 PM, all the shops were closed, everyone just went home. There was quiet here, and a place to lean back and watch the massive thunderhead cloud build and build, though all around it, above and here, way below, it was hot humid sticky close just mui caliente. This was my thinking spot and alone time, away from all people. Not an easy time, because I had recently been divorced, and she moved back to New England taking with her our four beautiful children. This time was horrible for them and for me. Adding to my angst, was the loss of my job and of a woman I had fallen in love with, who broke off our relationship, understandably not wanting to be, even for a moment, be considered as “the other woman”. The upside, if you could call it that, was I had severance pay, and two of the warehouse men, Lionel and Bubba to share an apartment with, so I had a roof over my head. I had no car, but needed to find work, so with a newspaper, I would walk to this place, sit in the sun, read the want ads, and just be, in a place where only God, could hear my urgent pleas for help and inspire my next step.

On days, like this one, I would think, maybe He is telling me (as another boom, much closer), that whatever that last thought was, it was not the right one, try again. Also, it could be that the coming storm and torrential rain, could wash away all the old and make room for the new, and hopefully cool it down a bit on this hot August day. (NOT)

It’s funny how Georgia thunder storms come at you, you can see it rising and hear it coming, but the sun is still frying your exposed flesh, and like life itself, you always think there’s time, in this case to get to cover. Wrong, through the hot sunshine, I was being pelted by rain drops, hard enough to be hail, but just short of it.

I looked up into the only tree in the middle of this circular garden of strip mall Eden, and the birds were starting to ruffle their feathers. They were blackbirds, mostly, come to clean the parking lot of all dropped or left behind human food particles. I opened and closed my eyes, blinking several times to observe the weirdest thing I had ever seen. In the midst of these black noisy birds, a larger far more colorful bird. It was anything but black, a colorful scarlet top with a patch of yellow and long tail of almost all blue and some scarlet feathers. My first thought was this must be a parrot or something in that family; later I found it was a Scarlet Macaw, usually found in Central American, and the national bird of Honduras.

The rain came faster now, as I jumped down from the brick wall and headed for cover; that darned bird flew right after me and landed at my feet under cover, and walked around pigeon pecking at the ground. I didn’t know what to make of it, so I laid the newspaper down for him to keep his feet dry and he looked up and said “thanks”. No, he didn’t, I’m just kidding. We cohabitated for the duration of the storm, maybe fifteen minutes; we talked about the Atlanta Braves and their incredible run of division straight championships and how many South American players had made it to the “big leagues”. No, we did not. When the rain slowed to sprinkles this beautiful Macaw headed out, before he left, I asked “are you heading home? And he said, no, I have an idea for a movie, I’m heading to L.A. (still not true) and majestically, with dry wings and long flowing tail, he circled the tree and then headed up and away, in a westerly direction.

I scooped up the wet newspaper and noticed an ad for a local moving company, and made up my mind to get there and fill out an application as soon as I could.

The next day, Bubba drove me on his motorcycle to Mays Brothers Moving & Storage and they were looking for an experienced packer, the one who goes out and packs the glassware and everything else in a house, before it goes on a van to their new home. My earlier years spent in working for Allied Van Lines was good enough to get a job, that very day. At first, I was kept busy in the warehouse, making sure I could do as advertised, loading long term storage customers household into crates. As the weeks went on, I was given packing jobs and use of a step van, so I had transportation to and from work, and pulling my end for food and shelter.

The calls from the children, always depressed me, because they missed me as much as I missed them; and my heart ached to be with them, or at least where I could easily see them. I had just met and started dating a new person, and I could tell she wanted to get serious. She had two children, and though we all got along really well, I had this constant thought that I had four children of my own.

Soon, I was negotiating with my former wife to see if maybe we could get together, so our kids could have their original parents again; and to put she and I back together too. We agreed, it would be best to do it and remarry. After resigning from the moving company and trying to say goodbye to my recent love interest and her kids, Bubba dropped me off at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Marietta, Georgia. Georgia was done with me, for now.

After what seemed like 4 years, in 4 days, I was reunited with my children and their mother, living with her sister, in a small apartment with way too many people in it. I had no job, no car and after a short time, no money.

Thanks to prayer and the kindnesses of friends and former employer, I had a new job, an old car, an apartment and my first wife for the second time.

I wish I could say that we lived happily ever after, but as is so often the case, that which was broken, and mended did not hold. A story for another writing.

I did get a couple of cards from my friend The Scarlet Macaw, he told me he was working on getting a role in a movie with Eddie Murphy, I think the name was “The Golden Child”, he said he was up against a parrot for the the lead avian role. You can’t possibly buy that, can you?

just sayin'

divorced
3

About the Creator

David X. Sheehan

I write my memories, family, school, jobs, fatherhood, friendship, serious and silly. I read Vocal authors and am humbled by most. I'm 76, in Thomaston, Maine. I seek to spread my brand of sincere love for all who will receive.

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