It’s time to share another story from the archives. First, though, a memory.
I remember staring at the sky as I lay in the bed of a truck on a road between Marysville, OH, and Bellefontaine, OH, at the end of a day working at Honda Homecoming, where I was helping my dad man a parts booth for the weekend. I had this story idea of a depressed man who needed money or something and a cloud that dropped to the earth, which the man carved a home out of. I was taken with the story but I couldn’t find a plot, just an idea.
Flash forward. Sometime later I’m at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Auction in Auburn, IN, doing a stint as a reporter. For some reason, my old idea about the clouds comes to me while I’m trying to find my quota of stories for the day.
These are two threads (of several) that led to the creation of the story you’re about to read. They aren’t necessarily clear threads to the reader, but I still remember their influence. This convergence of many ideas is one that happens often in the concocting of a story and encapsulates a process both mysterious and fascinating; it’s one of the really exciting things about being a writer.
Anyway, to the story at hand. “Local Man Struck By Lightning Survives” was one of my early “greats,” in the sense that I felt like I had finally figured out (or stumbled upon) a way to write a really good story. I place it up with “The Memory” as a personal milestone. Plus, it’s one of the first non-fantasy stories I was proud of.
So, without anymore delay, here’s “Local Man Struck By Lightning Survives.” –> Local Man Struck by Lightning Survives – Nick Hayden