Dddad Was Home

He was coming...

We watched the clock and we watched the leaves...
the wind was strong, trees tossing their arms around in a frenzy, protesting
while the grass shivered and bowed at its passing.

The clock ticked on, and as the second hand swept the minutes away like a hawk's shadow
over the hills, we felt him drawing nearer.

Incipient music, soft at first, he stood...tiny, non-threatening...in the distance...but we knew
he would grow with time as the clock brought five o'clock nearer...

...so we stood by the window in our minds and watched the clock.

By four thirty the alarm began to sound...and as the seconds passed inexorably by, the first
glint of detail began to appear...there was the beginnings of a bazooka...the ubiquitous fists
that carried the grenades...the dynomite in his voice, the poison in his eyes...and the demon
that lurked within his heart.

At four-forty-five the cannons exploded...and in the tank that was his armor, he appeared
in the street beneath the cowering trees..

Tick. Tick went the clock, fearlessly pealing ever louder....and, like the children we were,
we began to panic...hearts flattened by fear....and the music

....the music all the while growing louder and louder as the wind whipped the trees, tearing
them apart limb by limb...

I shook in my miniature shoes...my hands trembled like the leaves, and my body convulsed
in great waves of fear.

Four fifty-five, and the ivory stones in the driveway exploded under the weight of the war
vehicle...

The escalating music shattered the windows, broke the dishes, jostled the silverware in the
drawers.

BANG The door flew open ow our faces breached in terror. Deafeningly the music spilled
over the room like a flood...and then....

...and then he raised his bazooka...sighted down the barrel...swinging the muzzle from side to
side...back and forth...until...until..he pointed it right at ME!

My heart dropped down, down to my toes. Empty of all feelings, save fear, I froze in my tracks.

DAD WAS HOME.