The rain and wind abruptly stopped, but the sky still had the gray swirls of storms

in the distance. Dave knew this feeling all too well. The calm before the storm. He
only had a limited amount of time before all Hell broke loose, but he stopped to
admire the calmness. Maybe it would be different this time, he thought, with the
knowledge deep within that it wouldn't.
Twenty-five years Dana had been waiting. She tried to be patient during that time
but she hadn't always managed to be as patient as she'd like. But today the
opportunity had finally come. The thing she always imagined would make her the
happiest person in the world was about to happen. She didn't know why at this
specific time she all of a sudden felt sick inside.
He ordered his regular breakfast. Two eggs sunnyside up, hash browns, and two
strips of bacon. He continued to look at the menu wondering if this would be the
day he added something new. This was also part of the routine. A few seconds of
hesitation to see if something else would be added to the order before demuring and
saying that would be all. It was the same exact meal that he had ordered every day
for the past two years.
It's not his fault. I know you're going to want to, but you can't blame him. He
really has no idea how it happened. I kept trying to come up with excuses I could
say to mom that would keep her calm when she found out what happened, but the more
I tried, the more I could see none of them would work. He was going to get her
wrath and there was nothing I could say to prevent it.
Sometimes it's simply better to ignore the haters. That's the lesson that Tom's dad
had been trying to teach him, but Tom still couldn't let it go. He latched onto
them and their hate and couldn't let it go, but he also realized that this wasn't
healthy. That's when he came up with his devious plan.
There was a time when he would have embraced the change that was coming. In his
youth, he sought adventure and the unknown, but that had been years ago. He wished
he could go back and learn to find the excitement that came with change but it was
useless. That curiosity had long left him to where he had come to loathe anything
that put him out of his comfort zone.
Debbie put her hand into the hole, sliding her hand down as far as her arm could
reach. She wiggled her fingers hoping to touch something, but all she felt was air.
She shifted the weight of her body to try and reach an inch or two more down the
hole. Her fingers still touched nothing but air.
Don't be scared. The things out there that are unknown aren't scary in themselves.
They are just unknown at the moment. Take the time to know them before you list
them as scary. Then the world will be a much less scary place for you.
Greg understood that this situation would make Michael terribly uncomfortable.
Michael simply had no idea what was about to come and even though Greg could
prevent it from happening, he opted to let it happen. It was quite ironic, really.
It was something Greg had said he would never wish upon anyone a million times, yet
here he was knowingly letting it happen to one of his best friends. He rationalized
that it would ultimately make Michael a better person and that no matter how
uncomfortable, everyone should experience racism at least once in their lifetime.
The young man wanted a role model. He looked long and hard in his youth, but that
role model never materialized. His only choice was to embrace all the people in his
life he didn't want to be like.