Darcella’s forearms drag themselves along the splinters atop the fence as she stands on her very tippy-toes to match the height of her father. She stands at the very edge of the chair, feeling her body shiver upon the cold, brewing rain that graced her face.

She welcomed the cold—letting it envelop her, letting it cool the most darkest parts of her.

Strikes of lightning bolts struck across the sky, making her flinch but she soon became indifferent to the deafening sounds. She was afraid of getting struck by lightning but, Darcella could not pass up on this offer.

“I see no tornado, your mother is crazy!” My father jokes, standing right there beside her as his head twists and turns. Darcella stares at the flicking streetlights that illuminate the falling rain. It would blow towards her to which she would need to force her body to keep stationed. She laughs as she does so, her eyes only latching onto the swaying trees.

It felt like the earth was alive to her. The sky was angry, clearly. The trees falling, the rain crying. It imbursed her body in an entirely new feeling she never thought possible.

Even better, it was with her father whom she despised most of all. Every speck of her childhood was stripped away by the man next to her—she would never forgive and forget. No matter how badly it was in her nature, in her being, to do so, she vowed herself not.

It wasn’t fair to her if he got her love when he reciprocated none back. He would never change, she knew that. But, standing here now besides him, hearing him ramble about the works of a tornado—as if she didn’t already know—she wondered if things could have been different.

Could we have a normal father-daughter relationship someday? She thinks in her head as she stares upon the lightning strikes in the horizon. It illuminates the cloudy sky, giving her a sense of foreboding.

“A few people in Arkansas died from a tornado, too. Did you know that?” Her father speaks. His eyes are shifting around, capturing every sight in his eyes. She hoped she would not catch a cold. It would be worth it only just to savor this moment that only came once in a blue moon.

“No, I didn’t. From a tornado?” Darcella speaks over the rain. He nods, and he’s off on another ramble.

She lets him speak, relishing this moment, knowing it would never come again. It was not in their nature, not in their paths to be like any other father-daughter. But, for now, she could pretend.