Meeting a Storm in the Middle of Nowhere

I had always liked sunny mornings, especially there. I went out of my house, stretched myself by swallowing a slug of coffee once in a while. It was really like in some soppy childish movie – I could feel the warm touch of the sun, hear the songs of morning birds and see the sea of flowers all around me. Anyway a bright, warm morning there had always influenced me well – during my morning coffees I had been able to plan long distance walks in nature, mushroom picking and cooking, making photos or just sleeping on the sands on the beach.

What was this there? A nice guest house in the middle of nowhere as I always had said. On one hand it was located just on the border of small village and had always had many regular guests during summer season. On the other hand there were wild woods all around the village except to the North, where the sea lied. Also the inhabitants of the village came here mainly during summer. To get to the closest shop an hour walk was needed, while the closest doctor – similar time by car.

But that might be the reason, why people had always liked visiting there. They could feel the nature during their walks in woods full of flora and some fauna or during their sleeps at the wild seaside with rare person to disturb. The shop or the doctor was not close, but they were available. And the guest house itself had comfortable beds, warm showers and cold fridges to keep the food and beer bought before.

I had my holidays there for many years during summers and not only summers. The owners of the guest house had become my friends, so that it why I was there… alone. They had to leave for several day trip and I had agreed to keep an eye on the place. There were no other guests, but somebody could come unexpectedly to look for a shelter for the night. Or it was just safer that somebody is looking after the guest house and the village as such, if some ill-intended person came.

The morning coffee and stretching under the sun made me a bit hungry. So it was a moment to check the fridge. My friends had left me plenty of food: cheese, some herring and sausages was something I found as the most suitable for my breakfast. I took everything to the living room, made another coffee and my morning feast could begin.

I decided to have at least some connection to the civilisation, so I turned on the radio. Actually there had never been a wide choice of radio channels: national news radio channel, national local music channel and if lucky, sometimes it is possible to get one modern music channel. But as I wanted to hear something about the civilised world, I chose the news channel. And I got lucky as they were broadcasting the latest news rather than some interview or analysis on current affairs.

In the moment I was cutting the cheese in narrow slices, I heard news I did not want to hear. It was a warning from meteorologists. As it seemed, a storm was heading towards my location. Yes, there was some previous information about a strong wind during that night. But the center of the storm had to be far away in the middle of the sea rather than coming so close to the coast. And, of course, we did not have hurricanes like in the countries closer to oceans. But on the other hand, I was alone in the middle of nowhere. There were some trees growing over the house I was staying in and there were some trees growing over the electricity line. And the sea was much closer than in other places I used to be during our storms.

Certainly I was not able to finish my lunch. I had to be prepared for this stormy evening as I was a bit too worried about the updated forecast.

It’s interesting, how my priorities too their order. My first idea was to make sure that I would have enough beer for the evening. Probably I was expecting to have and additional stress after getting dark, so I needed something to relax. Or I just needed some occupation before the night not to think about that.

Anyway there were only some bottles left, so I dressed myself to start my trip to the shop. But shortly after getting outside I understood that only some bottles of beer had to be enough as the wind had grown strong enough itself. It probably was calm enough for a short walk around, but it certainly was too stormy for getting to the shop. The problem was, that the shop was located nearly an hour walk away from the guest house. The route led through woods that were not cleaned of old trees as that was a national park. And the wind was going to get even stronger, so the trees and twigs, and squirrels might fall down on my way back, even if they were not doing that already.

Still I needed to occupy my mind with something else, I needed some activities outside. First of all I brought some bottles of water from the stock. At least, if I my beer dried out, I would have some water to drink. I also took some additional piles of firewood inside the house. It was not only the mean of heating the house, but the fire-place was able to be a source of at least some light.

These activities took not more than an hour. I had to do something while it was not dark outside, in spite of wind growing stronger. There was a perfect place to enjoy this power of nature – the seaside. During some ten minutes’ walk there I would be able to evaluate if I really was the only person in the village and if the electricity lines were endangered by any trees.

The answer was “yes” to both questions, but my thoughts lingered on that only that short moment before I got to the beach. I had never gone for the seaside to watch the storm before, despite there had been many people around the country with the tradition to visit the sea during autumn storms. Especially near piers. But that moment I understood this tradition fully. It was so exciting, so charging up. I could feel all the power of the wind flying towards me over the sea. I could see the high waves jumping over each other and ending their game much higher on shore than usually, nearly reaching the entrance of the beach. Even the seaweed catching pier was nearly fully under the water.

I tried to make some pictures and some short videos to share with others in social networks. But it was much harder than other times. Firstly it was really hard to stand straight or keep my phone camera without shaking it – I felt so weak against the power of wind. Surely I tried to lie down to find some support, but the sands were thrown against me with such power that it really hurt. And yeah, the sands did not improve the contrast of the picture itself as well.

Still I managed to make something for sharing with others and I was ready to get back. Actually I was satisfied I chose not to go to the shop as even this short trip home was full of stress. I had to look all around towards top of the trees to avoid anything that could fall down. I had always thought that the road towards the sea quite clear from trees, but those ten minutes made me to change my mind.

I got back safely, but there was some dusk already so I went inside. Firstly I had to light a fire as the wind had blown all the warmth out of the house. I also decided to take all the bedclothes down to the living room, to the ground floor; just to reduce the risks from those two trees growing right over the bedroom.

It was warm and cosy, so I opened one beer and took my phone to share some pictures from the seaside. I managed to upload only one as the internet turned off. And it was not good. On one hand I had reduced my use of modern technologies there before as well, just to enjoy the nature fully. On the other hand that meant I had no communication means – the internet was provided by the mobile phone operator. So no internet meant no telephony.

At least I had electricity, the light. I could read some book, play some solitaire or listen the radio. I tried that all, but neither helped. The storm got stronger, the view through window got darker and darker. I understood that I was alone in the village. I understood that any of the trees I saw during my trip to the seaside could cut the electricity as well. And if something happened to me? Or the house?

Actually the surroundings did not help to get away from these thoughts. The wind howled louder and louder. Suddenly I saw a light far deeper in the village. But as soon as I went out on the porch, there was no light there. Was it my imagination or was it part of some security system?

I swiftly jumped back indoor as I suddenly saw two glowing eyes not so far from me. Was it just an animal, probably a cat? Or was it a werewolf? Or even a ghost? I remembered reading that the ghosts consumed from the energy around and that the storm could be as an additional source. In fact the cemetery was not so far. And actually most of the houses in the village were quite old, so they had passed through several deaths of their inhabitants.

I looked the doors and switched all the lights I could find on. I snuggled down in bed, the blanket nearly reached the tip of my nose. I tried to listen to the radio more carefully, but actually it did not help much. They were reporting about damages by the storm, which included information about several villages not so far from mine.

Also the noise outside grew louder and louder. The wind was howling like an injured wolf. Also the trees were cracking closer. And suddenly something flied just right by the window. I hoped it was a trash bin. But if it was something bigger and heavier?! And what if the next one came right towards the window, not by? What if the tree was going to fall on the house? Did they write truth about the ghosts? Or could it be something else, but related? A werewolf?

A noise of scraping sounded there… inside the house… upstairs...

It went dark.