This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...They finished their meals in silence, other than the pelting of the rain against the tent and the sound of the gusting wind. "Are you ready for your dessert?" she almost coyly asked, her eyes sparkling.
"I suppose. What are we having?" he asked, knowing it could only be a candy bar or something similar. What else could she have in her backpack? "Let's see. Is it another energy bar?" he teased.
"For that remark, you get to clean up after dinner," she joked as she ducked to go inside the tent to rummage in her backpack. A moment later, she returned with her hands behind her and a big smile on her face. "Guess which hand?"
Before he could respond, a bolt of lightning hit a tree on the opposite ridge. It was still a good hundred yards away, but the lightning had so far been in the far distance. Dessie squeaked, and Phillip cursed, the sound of the bolt crashing into a tree so loud that they seemed able to feel it. The charge had apparently run down the center of the tree, blowing out strips of wood to show the fire now burning inside. The tree was twenty feet or more from its closest neighbor, and with the fire mainly inside the split trunk, it had caught none of the other trees on fire yet and probably wouldn't because of the downpour.
"We're under a tree, and we're not supposed to be near one during a lightning storm," Dessie worriedly commented...
Have a goodun;
Roust