Hiding Behind Lightning

There was a storm, that was very clear. Wind shaking the skin from bones. Rain like a thousand hands pressing down, pushing away. Perhaps it was the flash of lightning, the brightness, the whiteness. Maybe it cleaned out his brain. He stood and walked out into the storm. He opened his arms. Could any of this be real?

The rack of thunder, the fury of heaven. He cried out, "What!" interrogating the sky. He was in agony, there was some kind of pain. He was in pain from something that happened before the lightning and the flash. It's too easy to forget things in a storm.

He shook his fists at the sky, "The fuck do you want?" Somehow this was all God's fault, that prick.

"My Lord, a miracle,"

"Huh?"

There were voices behind him. A few men huddled in a simple fishing boat. They stared at him in fear and wonder.

"You're standing on water, Lord,"

He looked down at his feet, and so he was. Dark, storm-troubled waters swirled around his ankles and lapped at his legs. The water rocked and tossed, yet he stood solidly, as if on stone. It was cold, bone-chilling freezing. Why couldn't he feel it?

"How do you do that, Lord?"

"I don't know," he had to shout over the din.

A breeze blew the boat, sideways spinning. The men scrabbled for the oars and heaved themselves back closer to the man out on the water.

"Why then. Why did you do it, Lord?"

"I wasn't... really thinking,"

One of the men stood up in the boat, excited, "Yes of course! Our Lord speaks true. How are we to know our limits. In the light of God, all things are possible,"

The others grabbed for his sleeves, "Sit down, you'll tip us,"

"Faith, my friends, is all we mortals need. Faith in God's love to transform us," With sure steps he hopped over the side, "Let me be a vessel, Lord, for..." and plopped into the sea, vanishing in a white froth. His shocked cry lost in the whip of wind.

The men in the boat reached into the water, catching the rough cloth of the drowner's cloak. "Peter, you dumbass," one muttered as they hauled him in. He gasped and sputtered. The storm spun the boat farther and farther away. The one they called Lord stood and watched the sky, waiting.