It’s a dark muggy day, and black clouds streak the sky. The ait is rich with the smell of approaching rain, with thunder just over the horizon. Trees shiver in the wind, their red and gold leaves spill over the lawns of the surrounding houses, who stand clean and resolute, despite their diminutive size, ready for the typhoon to come. Just as the yellow bus pulls to a stop, the doors hiss open,and a flood of children, rushing, giggling, come flowing out. As quickly as it came, the flood stops, and a small girl steps out. She has long black hair, that has been carefully braided, and bound with a ribbon behind her head. Her skin is darkened, not brown, not pale. as she descends from the bus, he dark, deep brown eyes seem to plead for help. She turns left, and begins to walk. As she shuffles nervously along, she seems afraid of what might be waiting for her at home. She looks forward to being safe each morning, when her brother is around,and each day at school, surrounded by facts and rules, things she can understand, and control, but shivers in fear of returning home, for one day her brother might not come back, or in his place, there would be a horrible old woman in he crumpled purple dress, its patterns of violets on a deeper background. Her flowery perfume even smelling of purple, the color of fear. The girl’s name is Melody, and she fears her grandmother. She fears losing her brother, as she lost her parents. Her parents went out into a storm, and they never came back. She never knew what happened. She was only ever told that they were gone. As she walked up to the door of her house, the first cracks of thunder are audible, causing her to flinch and fumble her key as she reaches to open the door. The house seems darker than normal as she steps in, the stormy weather causing the furniture to cast alien shadows across the wood floors. She knows no one is home, and wishes that her brother would hurry home. She knows he won't be home for a time. he works full time, in order to keep her safe, to help her succeed. She is smart. she knows what the storm is, that the air fronts clashing, piling on each other, are nothing to fear,  but it doesn't matter. she clicks on a few lights in the kitchen, and starts on the living room, but at a crack of thunder, she dives back, into the light. away from the dark half of the living room, as if demons live in the shadows, and attack each time the thunder cracks. she makes her way across the living room, lighting the three lamps, but diving away from the shadows with each crack of the thunder. She fears the shadows. Empowered by the storm, they will take her, as they took her parents. Once the lights are on she snuggles into the couch to wait, digging herself deeper in with each concussion from outside. The wind blows, rattling the windows, causing her jaw to clench. The clock in the hall strikes, five unearthly gongs shattering the storm’s spell. for a moment the world seems to stabilize, as if calmed by the clock, until with an ever greater crash, thunder strikes again. She curls into a ball, fearing the storm, and fearing that her brother will never walk through the door again, and instead there will only be the woman in the violet dress. She hides from her fear, curling into a ball beneath a mound of blankets on the couch. The great storm thunders against the house, threatening to tear her life away. The greatest crash of thunder yet shakes the house. The door clatters. Melody twists up as the door swings open, clattering against the coat stand as the wind blusters in. Melody’s heart echos the the resounding thunder. A dark figure steps in. Startled, melody tumbles back, pulling the mound of blankets and cushions back with her. She struggles, wrapped in the suffocating folds of her onetime shelter. Hands grab her. Melody freezes, as the hands pull back the blanket from her face to reveal stormclouds pulling apart as the storm ends. Her brother smiles down at her. “Hey Sis! I’m Home.”