Sudden Storm

(From my book "Once Upon a New England" First, the sudden darkness, then the distant rumble of advancing thunder. We had experienced summer storms before, so we ate and talked without concern.Hardly had we finished dessert when the storm setttled overhead with booming claps of thunder, shaking house, glasses, china, and our nerves. We looked at each other with uncertain stares. Then came a rain so deafening in its falling, we feared it might shatter the windows. The first bolt of lightning, acetylene, vicious, ripped the distant black sky in half, its jagged imprint cutting deep into the eyes. For a second, it was midday. Jolted, tight of breath, we did not hear the crash of glassware on the kitchen floor, the crescent-shaped pieces glistening like the bared teeth of rabid dogs.