The Heavens Opened

As I got onto the bus the heavens opened. That’s the expression isn’t it, ‘the heavens opened”? I’d say I’ve said that a hundred times, you probably have too. It was just a figure of speech until then. The walk home wasn’t appealing with the dark clouds hanging over the city, so I waited for a bus that would at least keep me warm and dry until I was a little bit closer to home.

As the bus groaned up the hill and the passenger on the back seat sniffed away every breath. Every breath I tell you, is that even possible? I thought he should be dead by now, drowned in his own snot. That thought was shunted from my mind when I noticed the heavens literally opening. The skirts of the sky lifted and we saw the heavens and all of the drama that was going on in them. The light shone brightly through the cracks in the cloud but it somehow only managed to illuminate what was going on up there. Down here it was still as glum and bleak as it had been all afternoon.

All of the passengers, even our friend the sniffer, stared out at the windows at the battle going on above us. The Gods were battling in the sky and every time a blow was struck it seemed to knock more rain loose. The bus kept on rolling and listing in and out of traffic, stopping and starting like the battle above. Powerful hammer swings and blocks with giant shields let off sparks and thunder, a thrown body sent down a gust of wind that blew umbrellas inside out on the street. All the time as the bus weaved its way through the rush hour city, the battle made its way across the sky. Sometimes obscured buy the clouds, other times a full view would open up, just as more action unfolded.

By the time the bus got to my stop the action in the sky was leaving. There was still rain, a light drizzle. And over towards the east I could see the last of the flashes and the glimpses through the clouds slowly closed up from my vantage point. My commute was almost over but the Gods looked as if their battle would never end.