"Naomi." She jumped at Papa's hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
Naomi forced herself to smile and ignore the feeling that had reached her elbows already. "I'm fine," she smiled.
"You just turned really white," Papa said. "You looked like you were about to faint. Are you sure you're okay?"
"It's nothing," Naomi assured him. "I just thought I saw a spider. But I was wrong. It was just a shadow." She could tell by the disbelief in his eyes that Papa didn't buy her story for one moment. But she couldn't worry about that now. Right now, she had to find somewhere private to Shift.
Naomi struggled to keep her body relaxed when every instinct within her was telling her to run for the nearest exit as the tingling passed her shoulders and spread up her neck and down her torso. Trying to appear calm and relaxed, she turned to Mrs. Jogah and asked, "May I please use the restroom? I think I've got something in my eye."
"Of course," Mrs. Jogah said. "You know where it is, right?"
"Yes, thank you." She quickly rose from the table and, as soon as she was out of sight from the dining room, ran as fast as her legs, now tingling, too, could carry her.
The tingling was spreading very quickly, just as quickly as it had yesterday. Yesterday... Had it really only been twenty-four hours ago that she had hid in her own bathroom to hide? Was this really her third Shift in as many days?
Naomi found the bathroom and quickly locked the door behind her. She was panting, though from running or panic she couldn't be sure. However, if the last two days were any indication, this Shift was going to be rough.
The tingling made short work of her feet and soon a familiar warmth spread across her body. Here it comes, she thought as she sat on the floor, knees against her chest. The heat quickly retreated into her palms, leaving her toes feeling like ice cubes. Naomi was right. It was very rough-- rougher even than yesterday's Shift. The heat made it feel like she was holding two suns in her hands. The sudden and intense heat in her palms would have made Naomi cry out, had she not stubbornly clamped her teeth together, and it didn't hurt that she had mentally prepared herself, either. She let out a gasp of pain that turned into a sigh of relief as the heat went shooting back across her body, like someone had just fired a flamethrower at her.
Naomi let out a relieved sigh and leaned her head against the bathroom door. She stared at her glittering hands for a moment before running them down her face. What was happening? She might have been able to convince her nothing strange was going on with her Shifting yesterday, but three Shift days in a row, each one getting more intense than the last? There was definitely something funny going on. But what could she do about it? There was no Shift doctor she could visit, no guru to give her a basketful of essential oils to rub on her chest, no wizard to concoct a special potion, and worst of all, no one to give her answers. No one could answer why she was the way she was. No one could explain to her how Shifting worked or how to stop it. No one could help her. She was on her own. The thought made her ache with a loneliness she had never known before. Sure, hiding her Shifting had always been hard and most her feel isolated, but this slew of new unanswered questions with no one to turn to made tears prickle Naomi's eyes. Her throat felt tight and she struggled to swallow.
A knock on the door startled Naomi so much she jumped. It sounded like a gunshot or an explosion in Naomi's enhanced ears.
"Hey, your dad asked me to check on you." It was Darcy.
"I'm fine," was Naomi's automatic response.
"Great. Now, hurry up in there. I need to use the bathroom."
Feeling panicked, Naomi looked down at her hands just in time to see the last of the shininess disappear. These everyday Shifts might be painful and sudden, but at least they didn't seem to be lasting very long.
Standing, Naomi unlocked the door and opened it. Darcy was leaning against the frame, digging dirt out from beneath her nails. She seemed shocked when Naomi opened the door. "Wow," she said. "I've never had someone respond that quickly. Usually I have to wait fifteen minutes."
"And, as a bonus, it doesn't even stink in here." Naomi smiled and went back to the table, leaving Darcy with the bathroom.
"Are you okay, Squirt?" Papa asked as she sat back in her chair.
Naomi flashed him a bright smile. "I'm fine, Papa, promise. I just had an eyelash about to go in my eye. I got it, though. Crisis averted."
Naomi could tell Papa didn't believe her. It was hard to lie to a psychiatrist when he knew all the signs and clues to look for to tell if you were lying. It was even harder when that psychiatrist was your father.
Trying to appear completely normal and calm, Naomi turned back to her soup. In the distraction of the Shift, Naomi had nearly forgotten how hungry she was. She was glad to discover that the soup hadn't gone cold in her absence, and she ate it with gusto. She took a bite of her bread and smiled. The long, agonizing wait for the dough to rise had been worth it, and her mouth salivated at the taste of it.
Darcy came back from the bathroom, and Naomi noticed she was smiling and looking very pleased. "What's got you so happy?" she asked.
Darcy grinned and winked. "You'll find out. It has to do with our trip to the lodge."
Though Naomi kept the smile on her face, on the inside her stomach churned with anxiety as she thought back to the conversation she had overheard between Darcy and the mysterious Sunshine boy. The thousands of questions that had plagued her since that conversation would be answered at the lodge-- at least, she hoped they would be. And excited as she was to receive answers, Naomi really didn't like having to wait for them. Waited was torture.
The rest of the meal went smoothly. Naomi participated in conversation and acted as if the Shift hadn't even happened. Naomi tried to ignore it, but from time to time she would catch Papa giving her strange looks from the corner of her eye. He knows something is up, she thought, panicking on the inside. Outwardly, however, she smiled in thanks and accepted the piece of a delicious chocolate cake for dessert Mrs. Jogah offered her.
The rest of the evening was a blur in Naomi's mind. Between the stress and relief the Shift had brought and eating herself full, and she found herself struggling to stay awake. Her attention zoned in and out of the conversation and she often caught her thoughts drifting away. Man, I really do have a daydreaming problem, she thought as she forced herself to pay attention to the conversation.
"I know Darcy and the boys are excited," Mr. Jogah was saying.
"Naomi is, too, aren't you, Squirt?" Papa asked.
They were talking about the trip to the lodge. That was obvious enough.
Naomi forced a smile on her face, not allowing herself to think about Shifting while at there. "Yeah, I'm really excited. Thank you again for inviting me."
"Of course," Mrs. Jogah said. "We try to go every other weekend for some time to recover and recuperate, and I know how hard you've been working in school. All those times you couldn't come over because you were doing homework? You deserve a little rest and relaxation."
Naomi kept the smile plastered on her face but on the inside she cringed with guilt. All those time she couldn't come over had been Shift days, and she'd lied about having homework for an excuse to stay home.
Before Naomi had to think of a sure-to-be-awkward response, Papa looked down at his watch. "Is that the time already?" he asked.
Naomi glanced at his watch. It was almost eight o'clock. They'd been here for nearly two hours.
"We'd best be on our way so you can get your little ones to bed," Papa said, standing. Naomi followed his lead. "Thank you so, so much for having us."
"We should get together again soon," Mr. Jogah said, standing to shake Papa's hand. He gave Naomi a squeezing hug.
"Next time, you will be our guests," Papa insisted.
"That sounds doable to me," Mrs. Jogah said, standing and giving Naomi a side hug. "We'll be bringing dessert, though."
"Deal." Papa shook Mrs. Jogah's hand while Naomi gave Darcy a quick hug and ruffled each of the triplets' hair. Hunter quickly patted his hair back to its original form, Hale giggled, and Lenny turned bright red.
It was drizzling slightly outside as Mr. Jogah escorted Naomi and Papa to the door and waved them off as Papa turned on the headlights and pulled out of their driveway. It was then that Naomi let out a long yawn she'd been fighting for the past ten minutes.
"Sleepy there, Squirt?" Papa turned on the windshield wipers to clear his view of the lamp-lit street.
"Yeah," she said around another yawn. "It was fun to be there, though. We definitely need to have them over soon."
"I agree."
They drove in silence for a moment or two, and then Papa said, "What made you run off to the bathroom so quickly?"
"I thought I saw a spider," Naomi said, repeating her lie from earlier. "I figured it must have been something in my eye, so I went to wash it out."
"You went pale," Papa pressed, obviously not believing her story. "You've never been scared of spiders." His tone was hard and bordering on something that was a mix between frustration and disappointment. Naomi didn't like that voice at all.
Naomi looked down at her lap and started to rub her finger against her ring's cool, smooth surface. "IIII've just been having some digestion issues lately and I needed to use the bathroom."
"Why didn't you just say that?"
"Right, 'cause that's not embarrassing at all. 'Excuse me, Mrs. Jogah, but may I please stink up your restroom?'"
"That's not what I meant," Papa said, and Naomi was thrilled to hear laughter in his voice. That moment ended, however, when his voice turned serious again and he said, "What I meant was, why make up the spider story? Why lie to me?"
Naomi looked out the window, her heart feeling like it was being torn in two. On the one hand, she really hated lying to Papa. It made her feel icky and squeamish inside. But on the other hand, if she told him the truth, told him about her Shifts, would he even believe her? And if he did, what then? Would his behavior toward her change? How could it not, after he discovered his daughter was a freak of nature-- a monster? No, she couldn't ever tell him the truth.
"It's just really embarrassing," she murmured. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you."
"You can always be honest with me, Naomi," Papa said seriously, turning on the signal and turning onto their street. "I understand you have your secrets, and that's fine. You don't have to tell me every little detail of your life. But I don't want you to feel like you can't be open with me. Got it, Squirt?"
"Got it."
"Good. Then let's get to bed." He yawned widely. "All that yummy food made me tired."
Saturday came and went and, before Naomi knew it, she was in her room, packing a suitcase Sunday evening for the trip to the lodge. She'd already packed toiletries, undergarments, and sturdy shoes. All that was left was clothes and pajamas.
She had done the laundry the night before, and now she sat cross-legged on her room floor, folding everything and sorting it all into three separate piles: clothes she'd be taking, clothes she'd be leaving, and Papa's clothes.
She hummed softly to herself as she worked. The last two days had been Shift-free, and the relief that fact brought made her feel less worried about the trip. In fact, she was starting to get excited. She'd been so stressed between keeping her Shifting secret and midterms that she couldn't wait to sit back, relax, and have a fun time with her best friend. Besides, surely the universe wouldn't be so cruel as to expose her after a high-stress-inducing three days in a row of Shifting.
There was a knock on the door and Naomi called for Papa to enter. His blonde hair was still standing up in some places from his Sunday afternoon nap, even though he'd tried to pat it down with his hand. "Dinner's almost ready," he said.
"I'll be right there, Papa," she said as she folded a grey baseball T-shirt and put it in her "take" pile. "I'm almost done." She folded the last shirt in the load and placed it in his pile. "Let me just put your pile on your bed really quickly."
"Thanks, Squirt." He smiled and left the room.
Holding the pile of clothes in one hand and turning the light off with the other, Naomi made her way down the hall to Papa's room. She placed his clothes neatly on the bed and was about to turn away when she noticed his nightstand. Or, more specifically, the picture of Papa and Maman on their wedding way that was on the nightstand.
Naomi's feet drifted closer the the nightstand and before she knew it she was holding the photograph in her hand, smiling sadly. Her feelings were usually mixed when she saw pictures of her mother, ranging from horror that she was missing to Naomi's heart aching from missing her to anger that she had left in the first place. But today Naomi only felt a bittersweetness as she rubbed her ring, remembering the comfort and peace she had felt when Maman had given it to her. Maybe it because of Naomi's good mood. Whatever the reason, Naomi sure preferred bittersweet to a stir of conflicting emotions warring in the pit of her stomach.
Rubbing her ring, Naomi set down the picture. Just as she was about to leave the room, she turned back to the picture and whispered. "Je t'aime, Maman. Come back soon. Please."
Mnha.
"Shut up."
Mnha.
"Shut up."
Mnha! Mnha!
"Ungh."
Mnha! Mnha! MNHA! MNHA! MNHA!
"Okay, okay, I get it." Naomi slammed her hand down on her alarm clock, silencing its aggravating buzzing. She groggily rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sighed, lying back into her pillow.
"Today is the day," she whispered to her room with a smile on her face.
She sat up and stretched, letting loose a large yawn as she did. She rose, showered, and dressed in ten minutes. She double checked her suitcase to be sure she had packed enough clothes and all her toiletries. After slipping her wallet and phone into her pockets, Naomi made her way to the kitchen. Papa had already left for work, but he'd taped a note for her on the milk. It said:
Smiling, Naomi folded the note and put it in her back pocket. She poured the milk over her cereal and ate quickly. It was a quarter till eight, which meant the Jogahs would be there soon to pick her up, and she didn't want to hold them up any longer that it would take to put her bag in the trunk.
But eight o'clock came and went and there the doorbell didn't ring, there was no knock at the door, not even a tap on the window. Naomi wasn't too worried. Darcy was known for being tardy. But soon ten minutes passed. Then fifteen. Then twenty. After twenty five minutes, worries came rushing into Naomi's head. Had they forgotten her? Were they having car problems? Had they even woken up yet? Was she supposed to meet them at their house? Naomi checked her phone for any messages from Darcy, but only her background greeted her.
Naomi was in the middle of figuring out how to word a text to Darcy asking what was taking so long when the doorbell rang. Sighing in relief, Naomi rushed to the front door and flung it open.
Darcy was standing on the front porch, long black hair in a ponytail and bright teal bangs pinned back with a hair clip. She smiled excitedly when Naomi opened the door. "Are you ready?" she asked, an excited gleam in her eye.
Naomi smiled back, the excitement contagious. "Yeah, just let me go grab my suitcase."
"Do you have a water bottle packed for the trip?" Darcy called through the house as Naomi made her way down the hall to her bedroom.
"No, I don't. I didn't think of it." Naomi glanced one final time over the contents of her bag.
"I'll get it for you." Naomi could hear Darcy in the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards and the fridge, followed by the sound of pouring water.
"So, what took you guys so long?" Naomi asked when she met Darcy in the entryway and accepted the water bottle she offered to her. Suitcase in hand, Naomi followed Darcy out the door, making sure to lock it behind her.
"We stopped for breakfast on the way," she said as they made their way to the white SUV running in the driveway. "And... we kinda had a little change of plans."
Before Naomi could ask what those change of plans were, Darcy open the trunk and grabbed Naomi's luggage from her and threw it in. As she did so, Naomi realized the car had no passengers, no three small heads bobbing up and down in excitement like she'd imagined. There was only a tall young man sitting in the driver's seat.
"Where are the triplets?" Naomi asked. "I thought they were coming, too."
"That was the change of plans," Darcy said, pulling the trunk door shut with a slight grunt. "This morning, we got a call from one of the triplets' friends. He's going to the amusement park in Elmwood Springs and he invited the boys to go with him. They had a nice long debate about it, but ultimately they decided to go to the park." Darcy opened the car door and gestured inside. "After you."
Naomi scrambled to the furthest seat. "Hello, Ezhno," she said to the driver as she buckled herself.
"What's up, Naomi? How've you been?" Ezhno was tall as a flag pole and just as thin. His hair was the standard Jogah family black, and he smiled politely at her in the rearview mirror. "You ready for a week of fun?"
"Absolutely," Naomi smiled. "Will you be staying the whole time?"
"Oh, no, just for the first two days. My dad will be staying with you guys from there. I've got work on Wednesday that I can't miss." He pulled out of the driveway as Darcy closed the door and got buckled.
"You're working now?" Naomi said. "That's great. What are you doing?"
"Oh, a little this, a little that," he said, turning on the blinker to turn. "Pretty much whatever needs doing. But Wednesday I'm leaving to work with our Great Uncle Sahale."
"Remind me what he does, again?" Darcy talked much about her many extended family members, but there were so many Naomi had a hard time keeping Great Grandpa Sachem and little cousin Eriel apart.
"He's does woodcarving," Darcy said. "Quite successfully, actually. He owns his own little shop."
"That sounds wonderful," Naomi said. "Good for you, Ezhno. What about you, Darcy? Do you plan on working with a family member after we graduate?"
Darcy laughed. "I packed literally ten minutes before we left. Do you really think I have my career plans figured out?"
Naomi laughed, too. "Touché."
"You hungry?" Ezhno asked.
"I already ate."
Ezhno reached into the passenger seat next to him. Naomi had thought it was empty, but she was proven wrong when Ezhno held up a box of a variety of doughnuts. "Are you sure about that?"
"Ooh, yes, pass them back, please," Darcy said, snatching the box from him. She opened the box to eye the contents and a hungry gleam entered her eye.
"Save a maple for me," Ezhno said as he checked the car's blind spot before passing the slow-moving car in front of them.
Darcy wrinkled her nose and pretended to gag. "Maple? You actually like those ones?" She held out the box to Naomi, and though she'd already eaten, there was no way in heaven or earth that Naomi was going to pass up a doughnut when it was sitting right in front of her. She glanced over the different flavors until settling on a chocolate raspberry-filled one. She took her first bite and the raspberry filling nearly fell into her lap.
"Thanks," she said, her mouth full of doughnut.
"Hey, Ezh, will you turn on the radio?" Darcy asked. "It should already be set to my favorite station."
"Why don't you ask Naomi what station she wants to listen to," he suggested.
"Who do you think introduced her to her favorite station?" Naomi replied smugly.
Ezhno laughed and turned on the radio. It was in the middle of a song that Naomi didn't recognize, but Darcy seemed to. She started to sing along immediately and bob her head to the beat of the heavy drum.
"You listen to the strangest music," Ezhno told Darcy once the song had finished.
"It's an old one from the eighties," Darcy said. "Our parents grew up listening to that song."
"So why do you know it?"
"My dad is a pretty good tenor."
The station's music was cut off by a string of long, boring ads that Naomi wasn't listening to. Her mind began to drift when she suddenly heard Darcy gasp and ask Ezhno to turn the radio volume higher.
"... two more deaths have been caused by mysterious lightning strikes in the last week, making a grand total of seven just in the last month. These lightning strikes have been completely random but viscous. The remains of its victims have been difficult to identify due to the severity of the strikes. Witness reports of all these unfortunate strikes state that these were no ordinary bolts of lightning, claiming that the lightning was a dark blue color, though this has yet to be confirmed. Storm chasers all through the nation are in a great race to capture photographic evidence of this new mysterious blue lightning nicknamed 'Wrath of Zeus'. Scientists have offered a variety of possible explanation for the lightning's unusual color, from a reflection of the Northern Lights to the lightning mixing with a chemical compound in pollution in the air, although a solid answer is still pending. For more information, visit our website..."
"How awful," Ezhno said. "But blue lightning, though? That sounds awesome!"
"It doesn't sound possible," Naomi said. "I mean, lightning can look all sorts of colors, depending on the clouds and atmosphere and stuff, but specifically blue?"
"But all seven of them?" Darcy said. "That's too much of a coincidence. Maybe it really is the Wrath of Sue, or whatever they're calling it."
"Wrath of Zeus, the Greek god of the sky," Naomi corrected. "He became the king of the gods after he overthrew his father, Kronos, who tried to swallow him whole as a baby, but his mother, Rhea, gave Kronos a rock swaddled in blankets instead." But Darcy wasn't listening. She'd pulled out her phone and was now texting someone, wrinkles etched across her brow.
"Who're you texting?" Naomi asked curiously, glancing at the contact name. When she saw what it was, she tried hard to contain a victorious smile that threatened to cross her face.
"Oh, uh, just a friend of mine." Darcy quickly turned off her screen. "He loves weird stuff like this, so I told him to look into it."
"And you put his contact name as 'Sunshine'?" Naomi smiled mischievously. "Is he an old boyfriend?"
"Ugh! Ew, no, never, ever, ever!" Darcy pretended to gag onto the floor.
"Okay, okay, not your boyfriend, then, I get it!" Naomi said through her laughing.
"Trust me, Nomi, he's just about the last person anyone would want to date," Darcy said seriously. "He's the most arrogant, rude, pompous, full-of-himself jerk I've ever met."
"You don't seem to be too found of him," she noticed.
Darcy scoffed. "I'm not."
"Then why are you friends with him?"
Darcy opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again, looking baffled. She thought for a moment. Finally, she said, "I say 'friend' loosely. He's more like a... partner in a group project."
Naomi's curiosity was piqued. She was certainly learning more about Sunshine than she expected to at this point in the trip. Maybe she could learn more about what she'd overheard them talking about, too.
"What kind of project are you guys working on?" she asked nonchalantly, like she was asking just to keep the conversation going and not for the answers which she desperately craved.
A short-lived smile twitched on Darcy's lips. "You'll find out."
"When?"
"Soon."
Darcy's phone dinged as it received a message. Darcy made no move to read it.
"I think your boyfriend replied," Naomi said. "Aren't you going to see what he said?"
"Nah, I think I'll make him wait a little bit."
"Playing hard to get?"
"Shut up."
Naomi couldn't help but smile. "Is what you guys are doing at the lodge? Is he going to be there?" she asked.
Darcy smiled impishly and reached for another doughnut from the box. "You'll just have to wait and see."
Pretending to be irritated wasn't hard as Naomi rolled her eyes and faced the window away from Darcy. "Great. So you've invited me along just to be a third-wheel while you hang out with your boyfriend."
Darcy's voice was hard. "He is not my boyfriend. No way, no how."
Naomi shrugged, still not looking at her. "Whatever you say."
The car fell silent for several moments, only the sounds of breathing, the running engine, and the tires on the road breaking it. They were, at least, until Naomi started to hum softly to herself, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey."
Darcy threw the box of doughnuts in her lap to get her to shut up, and the plan worked, as the next moment Naomi was biting into a chocolate ring covered in red, white, and blue sprinkles. "Oo aren' gettin ese ack," she said with a full mouth.
"If it shuts you up, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," Darcy grumbled.
"Will you pass me a maple one, please?" Ezhno said.
Naomi swallowed. "With or without the chocolate drizzle?"
"Mmm, without."
"Too bad, you get with." Naomi handed the doughnut in question to Ezhno's awaiting palm and took another bite of her own. "Your taste buds will thank me."
"What are you, a doughnut connoisseur?" Ezhno laughed at his own joke and took a bite.
Naomi smiled. "I might as well be. Well, what do you think?"
Ezhno chewed thoughtfully. He finally swallowed and said, "You're right-- you might as well be."
They made their first pit stop at a small town gas station next to an even smaller convenience store. While Ezhno filled the tank, Darcy went inside to use the bathroom, and Naomi took a moment to stretch her legs. It was overcast, and dark clouds were still gathering. The scent of the air promised rain, and a soft distant rumble of thunder vowed to bring it.
The trip had been fun thus far. She and Darcy had been able to sit and talk without a school bell cutting their conversation short or a teacher's lecture to take notes on. They talked about everything and nothing, from their ghastly experiences with their midterms to the plot of the most recent book Naomi had read to Darcy's morning havoc trying to get ready to leave.
But through the whole journey Naomi couldn't quiet the tiny voice of worry in her head, telling her that she very well could Shift during the long branches between pit stops in which they were driving, that she could easily expose herself with nowhere to hide. She tried to smother the voice with positive thinking: I had three Shift days in a row. I'm sure I'll be fine. My luck will hold until we reach the lodge, at least. Besides, even if it doesn't, I can say I'm feeling car sick and ask to pull over and find some place to hide. Or I can crawl in the back seat behind Darcy and pull my hood up and claim it helps me feel better.
It was blind optimism, she knew, but Naomi always believed that you could still hope for the best while you prepared for the worst. She had a plan in place should she feel a Shift coming on, but she had hope that she wouldn't need to put that plan into effect.
Darcy came out of the convenience store, a little bell tinkling as she swung the door. "If you need to use the bathroom," she told Naomi, "it's in the very back."
"I'm fine," she said. "I think Ezhno should be done filling up the tank by now. We should probably head back."
The storm clouds continued to gather as they made their return to the vehicle, and by the time they had pulled back onto the road, rain had begun to fall, splattering the windshield in water. Ezhno turned on the wipers as the rain began to fall in earnest and he turned on the car's headlights. The thunder that rumbled overhead was no longer quite so distant.
"It sure is coming down," Ezhno commented, raising his voice to be heard above the splatters of raindrops on the top of the SUV. A loud roll of thunder was the only reply.
"It seems to have come out of nowhere," he continued.
"The sky's been looking cloudy all day," Darcy said. "Looks like this place to use some rain, anyway." She pointed out the window. "See how yellow and dry everything here is?"
Naomi gazed out her own window, and the tall grass zipping by was indeed a dry yellow color. When she looked further on the horizon, the sky in the view was suddenly lit up with a strike of lightning, followed by another crash of thunder.
"Did you see that?" Naomi asked no one in particular. "Did you see that lightning?"
"Was it blue?" Darcy asked, interest piqued.
"No, just the regular white." Naomi pointed to the horizon where the lightning had appeared near a farmhouse.
"Shame it wasn't the blue," Ezhno said.
"You mean the mysterious, theoretical blue lightning that's claimed seven lives in the past month?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah. Do you know of another mysterious blue lightning going around, Naomi?"
"Just clarifying."
Another lightning strike lit up the sky.
"Did you see that one?" Darcy said, an edge of excitement in her voice. Thunder rolled overhead, louder than the last. "That was awesome!"
"Can you two quiet down a bit?" Ezhno said. "I'm trying to concentrate. We're starting to hydroplane and I--"
The entire sky seemed to have exploded with thunder. Later, Naomi could not tell if it was the thunder which shook the car, or just her imagination. But what she did recall, something she knew for absolute certain that she did not imagine, was the sky in front of her being lit by dark blue lightning.
It seemed to happen in slow motion, though lightning moves faster than the eye can see. Before the lightning, the Wrath of Zeus (and Naomi had no doubt in her mind it was indeed the Wrath of Zeus, as the news had called it), struck, Naomi felt every part of her buzzing, tingling with energy, from the tip of her nose to the arches of her feet. Even the hairs on her arms and neck seemed to be suddenly full of energy.
And the energy felt familiar, like she'd felt it many times before. It reminded Naomi of how she felt after a Shift-- all colors brighter, all sounds crisper, all senses enhanced.
The energy seemed to build up inside the pit of her stomach. It gathered and grew until it seemed to explode, and suddenly it was gone and a dark blue streak of lightning exploded on the horizon.
Darcy gasped next to her. Ezhno in front of her slammed on the breaks and tried to bring them to a stop in the sopping rain.
The strike was blindingly bright, despite its dark hue, and when Naomi closed her eyes, she could see a shadow of it behind her eyelids. She blinked, once, twice, thrice trying to clear her vision. She started to blink rapidly, and each time she did, she saw the shadow, the imprint the strike had left. After a few speedy closing of her eyes, Naomi began to notice something she hadn't before, something the lightning had been too fast for her to see properly. At first, she thought it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but as her vision began to clear, so did the reality of what she saw.
Inside the bolt of lightning, she had seen something, something that hadn't been there before the strike and definitely wasn't there after.
Naomi whipped around. "Was that...?" She was panting like she'd run a mile. "Was that--"
"The Wrath of Sue?" Darcy finished. "I think it was."
"It's Wrath of Zeus," Naomi corrected.
"Whatever you call it, that was awesome!" Ezhno was grinning from ear to ear as he pulled back onto the road and brought them back up to speed. "Too bad we didn't get a picture of it."
"I'm surprised it didn't set the field on fire," Darcy commented. "It certainly looked powerful enough to, and the field's dry enough."
"I can see why it's killed so many people in such a short time," Naomi said. "Did you feel the energy from it? No one could survive that much energy being suddenly forced into their body."
"It made my hair stand on end," Darcy agreed. "And it wasn't even that close."
"Too close for comfort, if you ask me. Imagine if we had been closer." She shuddered thinking about it.
She turned back to the window, gazing at the spot where the lightning had struck-- and more importantly, where the thing she'd seen inside it had been.
It hadn't been a trick of her eyes, of that Naomi was certain. No, it was too realistic for that. There was no explaining why she'd seen what she'd seen, yet there was no denying that she had, in fact, seen it. Her mind still reeling, Naomi tried to make sense of it, but try as she might, she couldn't do it. It was there one moment, when the lightning came, and was gone the next when it left. Only its ghost in Naomi's eyes was evidence to her that it had been there at all.
A single question echoed through Naomi's head, over and over again like a broken record:
How could I have seen a traditional Japanese building in a bolt of lightning?
"Ezhno, wait." Darcy's voice brought Naomi out of her thoughts.
"What, what is it?"
"Turn around and take the dirt road near where we saw the lightning."
"What? You want me to drive toward the deadly lightning that's killed half a dozen people?"
"Yes." Darcy sounded impatient.
"Are you losing it, Darcy?"
Darcy's sigh sounded more like a groan. "Think for a moment, Ezh! If that lightning has struck people before, how do we know it didn't this time? There could be a dead body lying in a field right now, and if there is, we need to report it."
"We're in the middle of nowhere, Darcy, and it's pouring outside. Who in their right mind would be out and about in this weather?"
"There are farmhouses all around here, and the storm started pretty suddenly," Naomi said. "Maybe a farmer could have been caught in the rain while he was working and was struck."
"'Maybe' being the operative word."
"Oh, come on, Ezhno!" Darcy nearly shouted. "Now you're concerned about the dangers of it? Two minutes ago you were saying what a shame it was we didn't get a picture! If you won't turn around, at least call the police or someone to check it out!"
"You call them. I'm driving," he said.
"No, I'm gonna make you do for being a buttface about it." Darcy folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently on the floor.
Naomi could see Ezhno roll his eye in the rearview mirror as he removed his phone from his pocket. He dialed the number and Naomi and Darcy remained silent as the phone rang.
"Yes, I'd like to report a lightning strike. A blue lightning strike, like on the news-- the Wrath of--" He pulled the phone from his mouth and whispered, "What are they calling it again?"
"Wrath of Zeus," Naomi reminded.
He nodded his thanks and returned to his call. "The Wrath of Zeus. Yes, ma'am. About a half-mile off Elverton Highway, just before mile marker... I think it's seventy-three. Yes, ma'am. Um, I don't think so. No, we just saw it as we were driving passed. Alright. Thank you. Take care. Bye."
He hung up the phone and glared at Darcy through the mirror. "There, you happy now?"
"What'd they say?" she asked.
"The woman said she'd send someone by to take a look.
"We should turn on the radio again," Naomi suggested. "If there is a death to report, I'm sure it'd be announced pretty quickly."
Ezhno turned on the radio, where they listened to many songs that only Darcy knew, though she didn't sing along. She had been glued to her phone for the last fifteen minutes, seemingly texting, and Naomi wondered if she was updating Sunshine on the lightning they'd seen.
When Darcy wasn't texting, she was staring earnestly out the window, as if she were looking for more lightning strikes.
About an hour after Ezhno had called the police, the radio finally turned to a news report.
"The Wrath of Zeus has struck yet again," a woman on the air said. "Witness reports place the strike right next to Elverton Highway, and though there are no deaths to report, residents from Weston Ridge to Elmwood are advised to seek shelter and remain indoors until the south-bound storm that brought the lightning passes."
"See that, Darcy?" Ezhno said. "No one was hurt."
"See that, Ezhno?" Darcy said, mocking his tone. "Now we know that."
Ezhno opened his mouth to give a no-doubt snarky reply, but before he could Naomi cut him off.
"How much longer?" she asked.
"About an hour and half," Ezhno answered.
"Are we gonna stop for lunch along the way?" Darcy asked. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
"Your parents gave me some cash to go grocery shopping, so we'll do that at the next town we hit, but that'll be for when we actually get there. In the meantime, we have doughnuts," Ezhno said.
"Naomi has doughnuts," Darcy corrected. "She won't give me any."
"I told you you weren't going to get them back," Naomi said innocently.
"Yeah, well now I'm starving."
Naomi laughed and opened the doughnut box. "Here." She handed her a doughnut so covered in chocolate it was impossible to touch it without getting some on your hands.
Darcy took a big bite of it and closed her eyes in appreciation. "I'm convinced doughnuts are the key to world peace," she said around her food.
"Darcy," Naomi said. "You are a genius."