Guy--Part Nine

Splog # 26

Nine

   The woman wondered what could be making the cows behave so strangely. It was a bright sunny day. She looked up to the sky. A lovely blue without a single cloud. The air was still. But then she realized that it was unnaturally still. There was no wind, not even a slight breeze. She looked at the trees around the field. Neither the branches, nor the leaves, were stirring at all. She wondered if there was a storm coming. But the sky was completely clear. There wasn't even a hint of darkness all the way to the horizon.

   Then she noticed how quiet it was. There were no birds singing or insects chirping. The only sound was the murmur of the brook that ran along the edge of the field. But even that sounded as though it were moving more sluggishly than usual. There wasn't the sprightly gurgling as it ran over rocks in its bed, that she was used to hearing.

   She walked to one of the cows. Her name was Emily. The woman ran her hand over the cow's flank as she walked up to her head to look in her eyes. Emily swished her tail once or twice, but there was no other response. She looked into the woman's eyes but didn't react as if she saw her at all. She was breathing normally; her mouth was open a little. But she wasn't chewing anything. She looked healthy but there was something odd in her immobility.

   The woman walked over to another cow. This one was Rider. She seemed to be in the exact same state as Emily. The woman gave her a slight push on her flank. This usually set the cows to wandering through the field or started them on their way back to the barn. But Rider just stood unmoving with her head up in that strange way.

   As she was walking around the field, trying to see if any of the cows would respond to her, she heard what sounded like a low rumble of thunder. She looked back to the sky. Perfectly clear in every direction as far as she could see. Bright sunshine everywhere. And then another rumble of thunder.

   Not knowing what else to do, she started walking back toward the house to begin making lunch. She looked up again as she heard another rumble of thunder and when she brought her head back down, she narrowly avoided stepping on a large toad that was sitting in the grass in front of her. As she put her foot down just to the right of the toad, she was surprised to note that it didn't jump or amble out of the way in that awkward gait that toads use. It just sat there as if it were perfectly safe from predators. It seemed unusually large for a toad. Almost as big as her foot. She started to walk past it and, as she did, she felt drops beginning to fall. Yes, it was raining. But, as she looked up, she saw that it was raining lightly from a clear blue sky. With a last look at the huge toad, she resumed her walk to the house.