One weekend, my dad and I were eating dinner. It was a big storm outside. It was thundering and lightning. All of a sudden, we heard a very loud bang and the house shook for a second or two. I said it was an earthquake. Then my dad said that we don’t get earthquakes in New York. After the storm went away, the next morning we went outside to see what made the band and the house shake. Then we saw that lighting hit a tree in the back yard. It was almost split in half. My dad and I were amazed by how much damage the lightning strike had caused. A few weeks went by and my dad, me, and the neighbors went in the back and cut the tree down, and a little of the woods next to it. Just in case that the next might cause a fire.

--Frankie Reilly