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"Grinpayne?"
Grinpayne awoke to the sound of four-year-old Dea's worried whispering. She tugged on his sleeve as he shrugged the sleep off him.
"The cart's gonna break, Grinpayne. It's going to break!"
"Nonsense, it's not going to break, Dea."
"But I can feel it! It's all wobbly."
A flash of lightning lit up the tiny cart, sharply illuminating Dea's frightened little face and making Grinpayne squint. Dea's face didn't change at all in the flash, frozen in fear.
The storm was still distant, so Grinpayne had plenty of time to brace for the thunder. But Dea wasn't ready, and when the thunder struck she shrieked and covered her ears.
"Hey, hey, hey, Dea. Hey. Come here."
Dea crawled into his lap, sleepy but still worried.
"What's all the noise, Grinpayne? The windows are shaking!"
"It's thunder. It happens sometimes when it rains."
Another lightning flash, and Grinpayne gently covered Dea's ears before the next boom of thunder.
"How'd you know when it's about to happen? Can you see it?"
"Sort of, I mean… there's lightning right before, and I can see that. The thunder comes after."
"What's it like?"
"Well…" How do you explain lightning and thunder to a terrified child? Grinpayne thought for a while, and this is what he came up with.
"When it rains, the sky is all dark and cloudy. It's like someone threw a big heavy blanket over the sky. Lightning is like… do you remember when you burned your hand on a hot pan? And then you stuck your hand in the icy cold stream? That's what lightning looks like. It's sharp, and bright, and it flickers on and off. It lights up the whole sky for half a second, and it's brighter than daylight. Even at night. Sometimes it looks like those big loud thunder booms, sometimes it looks like those soft rumbling thunder booms."
"And then the thunder comes? What does thunder look like?"
"I can't see thunder, Dea. It doesn't look like anything."
"Why does thunder happen? And why is it so loud?"
"Lightning and thunder are like two friends. The lightning is very bright but very quiet. The thunder is very loud but can't be seen at all. They like to play a game together, like a call and answer game. The lightning likes to wave 'hello' to the thunder, and the thunder likes to answer with a loud 'hello' back. They go back and forth until the storm is over."
"Like you and me?"
"Yes, like you and me. You're the lightning, and I'm the thunder."
Satisfied, Dea sat contentedly in Grinpayne's lap for the rest of the storm. Whenever the lightning struck, Grinpayne said "hello!" in a silly deep voice. And whenever the thunder followed, Dea waved exuberantly. By the time the storm was over she had fallen asleep in Grinpayne's lap, exhausted but happy. She felt safe.
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Dea was nineteen now, and no longer afraid of thunderstorms. She loved them. She could smell the sting of ozone in the air long before they arrived, long before Grinpayne even knew a storm was on its way, and the smell made her giddy with excitement. Whenever she smelled it she'd turn to Grinpayne and wave wildly, and each time he'd answer with a big booming "helloooooo!"