Oklahoma Dreaming: Lightning

by Donna Schoenkopf

last time: blowin' in the wind

ACT I, SCENE I

[There's a flash of lightning in the black sky. It's been HOT. The weather channel announces there will be enormous thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow.]

ME (thinking): When the weather channel says the thunderstorms will be enormous, they're not kidding.

[I sit in my little metal house on top of the hill in the darkness and wonder whether I will be hit by lightning.]

ME (remembering): Over 600 people a year are hit by lightning in this country. Read it in A Match to the Heart ... Gretchen Ehrlich ... hit by lightning as she rode through a storm on horseback in Wyoming herding sheep with her dog, who was also struck. Blew her off her horse. Laid her dog flat ... in the middle of nowhere, horribly hurt ... nervous system fried. Literally. Lightning crashed through her body through her nerves. Screwed up her autonomic nervous system.

ME (out loud): I never used to be scared of lightning till I read that book.

[The lightning flashes are coming closer. They light up the whole sky. The twisted branches of the oaks look menacing and evil.]

 

FLASHBACK #1

[I am a little girl. I see a ball of light, the size of a basketball, streak behind my mother's back as she washes dishes in the kitchen. It flashes through the house and out the dining room window.]

 

FLASHBACK #2

[Years later, in Mr. Milstead's science class.]

MR. MILSTEAD: ... and so lightning can also travel like a ball of light.

ME (hand waving in air): I saw that, Mr. Milstead!!!

(Aside, to the audience) I had never said a word to my mother. Kids don't realize they are seeing something amazing because EVERYTHING is new to them. It's only years later that they realize that they DID see something rare.

Once, when I told my daughter this story, she said she had seen it, too, when she was seven and coming home from school one rainy afternoon ... a ball of light, streaking down the gutter of the street. She said she had always thought it was a leprechaun racing to his pot of gold.

ACT II, SCENE I

[The day of the primary. The rain falls in giant bursts every few minutes on the metal roof. I have to turn my teevee to maximum volume in order to hear what Mika and Joe on "Morning Joe" are saying about the election.]

ME (thinking): I wonder if I'm actually registered. I haven't gotten any campaign material yet.... Ha! Here's my Voter Registration Card. I'm legal.

ACT II, SCENE II

[Interior of Bancfirst lobby in tiny Tecumseh. Lots of cars in the parking lot. I am the only person with a bumper sticker (Obama) on her car. I walk inside, following people. I get to the lobby. Everybody knows everybody. I am the stranger. A short line ahead of me. Nice people help me with marking the ballot. This style of ballot is made so that you fill in a line with a thick black marker that makes an arrow when the two lines are joined together which point to your candidate. Hmmmm.]

ME (thinking): Obama, Obama, Obama. Oh, boy!

 

FLASHBACK #3

[The yard goods store in Shawnee, the day before the primary. The store is virtually empty. Rows of folded fabric, displays of needles and thread, and quiet are all that exist in the large space, except for the well-coiffed, middle-aged, diamond-as-big-as-an-olive-on-her-finger saleslady.]

ME (thinking): WHAT is she DOING here with that expensive hairdo and giant diamond?? Did her husband leave her? Did their stocks go south? Are they broke because her husband had a stroke and they had lousy insurance and she has to work? Is she working because if she didn't and she stayed home all day with nothing to do she'd become a drunk or a pill freak?

[Wandering through the rows of material is a handsome, gray-haired guy in his seventies wearing jeans and a cowboy shirt whom I hadn't noticed before.]

SALESLADY (to me): Kin ah hep yew?

ME: Yes. I need your cheapest material in order to make a room divider for my family and friends when they come to stay over. My house is one big room.

[Saleslady shows me some great stuff and gives advice on how to do it by hand, as I have no sewing machine.]

ME: Well, it's the big day tomorrow ... Super Tuesday Primaries.

SALESLADY: Sure is.

ME: (After a little back and forth conversation) ... so I'm an Obama supporter. Who are you supporting?

[Handsome Old Guy is lurking a few rows away. I feel him listening intently. I hear him ask for some felt. What could it be for? His cattle? His dog? Something to wear when his wife's not looking? Hmmm. That makes him seem more interesting.]

SALESLADY:  I haven't decided. I'm praying on it.

ME (thinking): Huckabee.

[She gives me my invoice.... I go to Cashier Girl, who comes when I ring a little bell. Old Handsome Guy has his felt and follows me up.]

CASHIER GIRL (smiling): That'll be $25.79.

ME (getting money out): Oh, will you put it in this bag? [I put my cloth bag on the counter.]

CASHIER GIRL: (puzzled look on face)

ME: I try not to use plastic. They found 300 plastic bags in a cow's stomach outside of town.

OLD HANDSOME GUY: Where was the cow?

ME: I don't know. A lady I was talking to in the waiting room of my doctor's office said it was her cow. She raises organic beef.

OLD HANDSOME GUY: Well, if she's raising organic beef she's an idiot.

ME: Well, then, I must be pretty dumb because that's all I eat. [I lied.]

CASHIER GIRL: (nervous giggles)

[I turn and walk purposefully and forcefully out.]

Speak truth to power.

Jerry Brown said that.

 

FLASH FORWARD

[A few days later the news programs show hours of footage of SIXTY tornadoes smashing through the southeastern United States. I swear to God I could feel them gathering their power here in Oklahoma.]

Watch out for lightning.

I said that.

 

next time: Bob and Mom