Big Noise

[rejectomorph]

Treetop winds sound ominous during a rainstorm. It sounds like a mass of rushing water, as though the dam had broken and we were about to be swept away by the flood. Of course, none of the dams around here could flood this high ground, even if they did break. But sometimes I doze off and hear that wind and half-dream that I'm at the elementary school I went to, downstream from the leaky MWD reservoir in Monterey Park. Then I fully wake, startled, and remember that all I need to worry about here is having the wind uproot one of those big trees from the sodden ground and topple it onto the house. Then I go eat the tastiest thing I can find in the kitchen, so it won't go to waste if I'm killed. Life is simpler than we sometimes think it is.