Burning Moon (Wattpad Version)

After the rain- Chapter 1

“Lilly, that’s totally radical,” Stormy-Rain was the only person on the planet that still used the word radical. In fact, she was famed for using words that hadn’t been uttered in decades, and when she wasn’t doing that, she was making them up. A couple of months ago she’d tried to get the word “Groove-alicious” circulating- she hadn’t succeeded.

“So what’s the date?” Stormy was forced to move to the other side of the room, her cell phone reception was a nightmare, which undoubtedly had something to do with the fact that her phone was a prehistoric relic from the 90’s. She just didn’t understand everyone’s obsession with having the world at their fingertips 24/7, and on a phone no less. Besides, the more you logged onto things like Facebook and Twitter, the more the government could spy on you.

‘The wedding will be on the 20th of September,” Lilly shouted down the phone noting that the line had gone bad, she was used to this.

“Wait? What’s Damien’s star sign again?”

“Leo.”

“Okay, hold on I need to do something quickly. Please call me back in exactly five minutes, I’m running out of airtime. K, bye.”

Stormy hung up and raced across the room, almost tripping over her pet tortoise Frank Zappa as she went. Once safely installed at her bookshelf, she pulled out her large trusty astrology book. 

“Index, index.” She flipped it open and ran her finger down the wordy column, “Leo, leo, leo where are you….Ah, page 22.”

Stormy scanned the words on the page, ‘Uh-ming’ and ‘Ah-ing’ as she went. She pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, which had been sharpened within an inch of its life, and began scribing some numbers down.

The phone rang…

“Hey Lil, it’s okay, you can have your wedding on the 20th, the numbers say it’s a favorable day,” Stormy’s tone was serious. Astrology and numerology were no laughing matters, as far as she was concerned they were as cut and dry as science. So were things like Crystal healing, tarot, aura’s and ancient aliens- obviously.

“Well that’s a relief, I’ll let Damien know.” Lilly said with a smile in her voice.

“So where’s it going to be… NO, let me guess, some fancy place in the Wine lands or the Drakensburg?”

There was a pause on the phone, “Okay, don’t hate me but-“

“No!” Stormy exclaimed. “It’s not-“

“I’m sorry, it is.”

“Where?’

“Prague, it’s really beautiful and you’ll love it there and-”

“Lilly, you know I can’t.”

 “Please, I need you there, it wouldn’t be the same without you. Besides, who’s going to help with our mother when she gets drunk and falls off a table, or gets up to make one of her famous inappropriate speechs?”

Even though Stormy and Lilly had only technically been stepsiblings for a few months, during a rather tumultuous and explosive marriage between their dysfunctional dramatically inclined parents, she still referred to Ida as her mother, since Ida was the only one she’d ever known.

“But, but, but…” Stormy sounded panicky and twirled her hair around her finger, something she’d done since childhood whenever she felt anxious- which had been often. Her childhood hadn’t exactly been the picture of stability. Having an alcoholic theatre director as a father didn’t mean picket fences, parent teacher meetings and home cooked meals. This was something that she and Lilly had in common, and probably the reason they were so close. Of course it didn’t help that her mother had run away to join a hippie cult a few hours after she was born either.