Child of the Storm

Lost, found, and struck by lightning…

Thunder echoed between the mountains as I tied my hair back into a ponytail.

“Annette, are you sure we'll be safe?” Jody asked, her brow furrowing. “Remember, when you can hear thunder, you're close enough to be struck by lightning!”

She adjusted her backpack. We picked our way across sandy slopes towards the trail leading to the top of Mt. Zernon. The park was technically closed so late in the afternoon, but we had slipped in through the back, following a set of tiny, wandering footprints.

“I'm aware of that.” I steadied myself with my walking stick. “We need to find her.”

Jody nodded. She couldn't argue about my little sister Chloe. But she scanned the sky, watching the dark, tumbling clouds rolling in. They swallowed the lowering sun, casting a silent gloom over the thick air. At the foot of the mountain, the sand turned to gravel, and Chloe's tracks were lost.

“How do we know she went up this way?”

I craned my neck to look along the mountain. A spot of red caught my eye. Jody passed me the binoculars.

“That's her! She's wearing a red dress, and I think she's asleep. Come on, we have to get to her. She could roll right off the edge of the cliff!”

We pressed upwards, using our walking sticks to balance ourselves on the steep, slippery gravel trail. Lightning flickered inside the swelling, lowering clouds, making them glow briefly like lanterns holding giant fireflies. Pebbles clattered away under our feet. What if there was a landslide? What would we do when it started raining?

At some points we scrambled on our hands and knees, grasping for footholds on the treacherous climb. A jagged, blinding white bolt of lightning split the clouds, followed by thunder reverberating through the mountain. Raindrops splashed off the rocks, a few at first, then more and more, until sheets of rain poured down, drenching us and obscuring our view.

I slipped backwards. Jody grabbed my hand, steadying me.

“We're almost there! Hang on!”

Finally, we climbed to the ledge where Chloe was resting her head on a clump of weeds. She seemed oblivious to the storm, sleeping as peacefully as if she were snug in bed. Rivulets of water drained down all around her.

Another flash of lightning burst through, almost in our faces. Jody shrieked. My scalp tingled. My heart skipped. A sharp, hot smell filled the air.

“Hurry! We're gonna get struck!”

I stumbled towards Chloe. She seemed to be glowing a pale white light. The sky lit up brighter than day, sharply delineating every crack, bump and wrinkle in the mountainside. A burning arc of light threaded down – straight into Chloe.

“No!” I screamed, lunging towards her.

Jody dragged me back as the air crackled around us.

“Stop! It's too late – you'll be caught in it!”

I tried to raise my arms to shield myself from the blazing light, but I was paralyzed. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut as my hair stood on end, lungs full of pungent charged air, and cling to Jody.

In a split second that seemed to stretch into infinity, it was over. The white light behind my eyes faded away to the dull, pulsing red of recovery. Raindrops bounced and rolled down my face. Jody tugged at my arm.

“Come on, we have to help her.”

I couldn't bear to open my eyes. Slowly I peeked through the curtains of rain. Jody was already down on her knees beside Chloe, who seemed unharmed. I'd expected she would be melted into the soaking, superheated rocks, which were sending up steaming billows of fog like teakettles. I took a few steps forward and collapsed in front of them, legs unstable with shock.

“Chloe! Are you ok?”

I pulled myself up to my knees in the muddy gravel. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and looked at me.

“I'm fine, Annette,” she chirped in the voice I thought I'd never hear again, “but what's the matter with you?”

“I – I –”

I couldn't breathe enough to say anything else. I wrapped my arms around her in a bear hug as Jody checked her pulse. Chloe swiped her dripping hair off her face and gave us both a funny look.

“So why are we out here in the rain? Let's go home. You two are all purple.”

“Purple?” I glanced from myself to Jody, frowning.

“I feel purple, actually,” Jody said, mopping the rain out of her eyes. “I think the lightning gave her that thing where she can see emotions as colors.”

“But… I can't believe you're unharmed!”

Chloe wriggled away from us, stood up, and skipped along towards the downward path. Jody followed, supporting me as I forced my rubbery legs to start moving.

“I feel like you were the one struck by lightning instead of Chloe,” she observed to me before shouting to her, “Hang on there, kid! We gotta get down this mountain together. You don't want to go sliding all the way down on your bum in the mud, do you?”

Chloe giggled and paused for us to catch up. I ran a hand across her wet scalp, searching for the burn marks I'd heard would be at the point of entry of a lightning strike. There was nothing. She squeezed my hand.

“Now you're turning more blue-green,” she told me matter-of-factly.

“What emotion does that indicate?” I asked.

Chloe shrugged.

“Whatever it is, you're steeped in it! Jody's a nice shade of it too. But you both have red smudges.”

That sounded like red was the color of shock and incredulity. Which made sense; I was still shaking. Jody was silent. We picked our way down the mountain, avoiding the rushing streams of water. Lightning still burst intermittently through the cloud cover, followed by throaty rumblings of thunder, but none of it came near us.

By the time we made it to the base of the mountain, the rain was tapering off to a misty drizzle. We wrung out our sopping wet clothes. I still eyed Chloe for any signs of distress, expecting her to faint or fall over.

“You sure your heart's beating right?” I asked. “Your brain doesn't feel funny?”

“I feel fine. Let's go home! I can't wait to see what color Mom is.”

She started running along the trail. As we stumbled to catch up, the clouds split and the late afternoon sun poked through, giving everything a peachy golden glow. Is that how things looked to Chloe now? She skidded to a stop, waving and pointing.

“Look at the rainbow!”

We paused, awestruck. Bands of color rippled across the rosy clouds with gemstone clarity. I tried to imagine seeing people bathed in rainbows representative of their emotions. Do their auras shift and quiver with different shades by the second, in kaleidoscopic variation?

“What color is awe?” Jody whispered.

“Apricot,” Chloe responded, as if she'd been considering it already. “You guys will have to buy me a really big box of crayons now, if you're gonna always be asking me about the colors I'm seeing!”

I laughed and squeezed her hand. I'm pretty sure love and relief together is the color of a flourishing pine tree. I didn't even ask.

Words: 1208.
Written for "The Fortnight Ink Clash" 
Prompt: A girl is struck by lightning, yet wakes up perfectly fine.