Skipper's Heartbeat (PRN)

nine

The thunder crackles and I jump. My only three fears in life are my mother, God, and thunder! It is raining cats and dogs but that didn't stop Prince from teaching today's lesson. He arrived right around his usual time, umbrella in hand with his backpack just as dry as his fully picked afro. I couldn't believe him. He sat down and we've been going through our usual routine for the last two hours now but I can't focus with all of this thunder!

Prince stops playing and looks at me. "Will you stop jumping like a scared little punk." He laughs at me, choosing to shift his hand placements to play a creepy tune. Getting more scared by the moment as the thunderous clouds grow louder, I slap his thigh for antagonizing me.

"Stop playing! Can't we take a break or something?"

"No, you got to learn this. I just got here fifteen minutes ago!" He says, turning on his dramatics. Prince directs his attention back to the instrument. In the midst of his movement, thunder crackles and the lights flicker... After the flicker, they don't come back on. "Now we'll take a break." He sighs in the dark. I see his frustrations as lightning shines through the front window.

"Let me go get a flashlight..." Feeling my way through the darkness, I do my best to make it to the kitchen without falling on my face. I dig in the pitch black drawer until I find the flashlight. I flip it on and step back into the family room. I notice that the room is empty. "Do not play with me... Prince! Prince, stop goofing off!" Cautiously, I look around the room. In the pit of my stomach, I sense another presence within the blackened room.

"Boo!"

I scream, dropping the flashlight on the hard wooden floor. The light shuts off. "Damn you!" I know my one source of light is broken.

"Woops..." Prince bends down to pick up the broken flashlight. He hands it back to me. "Sorry." I groan, taking it and throw it on the sofa. "Don't you have more flashlights?"

"No, this was the last one. I've got some candles in my room come help me." I lead the way up the stairs and to the right. In my room, you can still see the pink interior when lightning struck. The storm is getting worse by the second. I'm shocked there are no tornado warnings. I prepare to ask Prince if he heard of any possible warnings when I see he took it upon himself to take a seat on my bed as I pull out my bags of candles from underneath my bathroom's sink.

"You like pink?" Prince asks from my bed. I hum in assurance. "What else do you like?"

"Ice-skating. It's probably what I'm best at in life." I laugh as I enter his presence once again. I hand him some candles before we go back downstairs. After setting up a bunch of candles in the kitchen, living-room, and bathroom. Prince sits back down at the piano.

"We can't do the lesson in the dark, Prince."

"Yeah, we can. Come play me Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star." His tone is sincere. I didn't want to get up. I can't grasp why we can't just sit on the couch and make out or something. His discipline is beyond me. "C'mon, hurry up."

"If I do this right then can we end today's lesson?"

I can see Prince stop to think in the dark. The flicker of the candles shined against his skin. It is a breath-taking sight. "You gotta' do it perfect! No mess ups, in time, perfect tempo!"

"Okay, I got it." I only make the bet because I know I can do it. Yesterday, my mother was so excited that I'd finally learned to play some type of musical instrument she made me play it over and over again. I simply had memorized this very specific piece. "Tadaaaa! I win! Come sit with me," I say as I tap his leg softly with an eagerness to get away from the piano.

Prince meets me by the couch. Eventually, we sit and talk for ten minutes as we wait for the lights to come back on. Slowly, we begin to realize that the lights probably won't be coming on any time soon.