Hail Storms

Small rocks of ice slam against the rooftops in a rhythmic way. Wind blows hard through the trees and rattles glass windows. At a glance it almost sounds like rain. She is ice cold and fierce today. Relentless as she brews these dark gray clouds together. Guilty and innocent are treated alike. As if they are one and the same. Only in Norwalk. If you get past her grasp and make your way into Bellflower’s arms just five feet past the flooding riverbed, you are greeted with a calm cold that makes you think of days by the fire with a cup of cocoa during Christmas. But Norwalk is filled to the brim with emotional distress that comes crashing down with its shards of ice that crash into the ground like a pellet gun. Only today. An unpredictable day that comes only once every two years. It’s as if she is harboring all of her negative feelings together, waiting for this day. Then she unleashes her anger, frustration, depression and everything else she is feelings onto the world beneath her. Aside from this day, she is like any other Southern Californian city. Full of warmth one day, and ice cold the next. A typical, bipolar, So Cal city. Except for that one day. That single day that appears every two years where the city’s inhabitants are left standing by doors to afraid to venture outside. For fear of being pierced by flying rocks of ice that leave red blotches on smooth skin. Only in Norwalk. Only today. Only once every two years. She unleashes her hail storms upon the city. The reason for this pattern continues to be a mystery.