by P K Stadnyk
“Stay here and wait for me,” he said, but, of course, I couldn’t stand still and went after him.
I got to her garden close enough so I could see behind the fences. She was throwing everything she could get her hands on at a man who tried to calm her down. I was glad her baby wasn’t near her or she would have thrown it too. My dad tried to calm the situation, but it didn’t work, so he picked Nancy up and took her inside. The man, whose face I couldn’t see, went after them. I decided to get closer and then I recognized the man. It was Matt, her husband! But how?! Where had he been all this time? How did he come back?
I was so curious for the answers that I didn’t realize I had gone inside the house. They didn’t see me, though.
“You!... How could you?! Where have you been?!” shouted Nancy in tears.
“I really don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal about it. I only went to the grocery store like you asked me to. I got stuck in the store; Charlie wouldn’t stop talking.”
I knew Charlie. He worked in a little grocery store outside our neighborhood. He was always so bored that anybody who came inside definitely wasn’t going out for a while, but I don’t think even he could talk for a few months.
“Liar! I saw you! They took you in that car! Don’t you remember?”
All that time, my dad had to hold her still. Otherwise, she would probably break everything. She looked furious, confused, and scared.
“I think you need to see a doctor. Good thing you’re here, John.”
“I’ll take a look at her, I promise. Then I have few questions for you if that’s okay. So, please stay here while I take care of her. He took her up to the bedroom and she put up a little fight. When they were passing by, he saw me and signaled me to watch Matt. How was it that all my hiding places were seen? They seemed so perfect!
I looked at the wall clock and it was middle of the night, so her screams would have wakened everybody up, but when I looked outside, few houses had a light on and at the opposite house, somebody was standing in the window but then disappeared behind the curtain. I remember when I had a bad dream once and I screamed. All our neighbors came down to check what happened. Some of them came to offer help and others just to have something to chat about the next morning. Not this time.
I watched Matt very carefully. He acted pretty normal, as if nothing happened. He just went to the kitchen and started unpacking the groceries in the bag. He had milk that looked pretty fresh. I looked at the bag and it definitely was from Charlie's because he gave customers colorful bags for their groceries. It didn’t seem like he lied about the shop he went to, so I checked his clothes. They were absolutely clean with no clue about where he had been for such a long time.
My dad finally came back, and I hid behind the outside door because, obviously, he would send me home after my job was done.
“She’s sleeping now. I had to give her some sleeping pills, so she might be a little dizzy in the morning. So what was that all about?”
“I went to Charlie’s in the evening because we needed some groceries. We talked quite a bit and then I came home.
“What day did you go to the shop?”
He looked at my dad, surprised and a bit curious, but answered, “Today, of course.” Surprisingly, it sounded too true.
“So did you going to the parade?” Good question, Dad, I thought. The parade was on the day people disappeared, our last true parade after which everything changed.
“Parade? Was there a parade today? Why didn’t anybody invite me?” He looked really upset about it.
“Are you lying to me?”
“Me? No! Why would I? You don’t believe what she says, right? You know I wasn’t missing for several months as she says. Where would I go?”
“No, no. I believe you, but I need to make a few checks on your health if that’s okay with you.”
“Okay. Can we do them now? I’m quite scared to stay in this house with her in that state, even when she’s sleeping.”
“Right. Let’s go.” As they went outside, Dad put a finger to his lips and then pointed it at our house. I understood everything this time. Before leaving, I watched them while they were getting in the car.
I felt sorry for Matt. He looked upset about his wife and the parade but what struck me most was that he looked as if he genuinely believed what he was saying. When they drove away, there was nothing interesting left for me to do, so I headed home. I felt somebody was watching me, so I looked around, but it was dark and I couldn’t see anybody. I got a little scared, so I started to walk faster. I turned around again but still... nobody.
There! A curtain was moving in one of the houses and another and another. Well almost everywhere I was passing by. Our neighborhood wasn’t as friendly as before, but curiosity and interest in somebody else’s life was still there. I thought that we were like a big family and that nobody and nothing could tear us apart, but I guess I was wrong. At least they watched over me, and I felt safe.
When I woke up, it was late. My dad still wasn’t back home yet, and I told my Mom that I saw Dad going out to work early in the morning, which was true, since he went to the hospital.
He came back home the next morning with mixed feelings on his face. In the evening, he came home with Nancy and baby and, together with Mom, they sat downstairs in the living room. The babies were put together in special seats and tried to talk to each other. My sister was a little younger than the other girl, but I guess they had their language. Sophie was getting bigger every day and was more interested in stuff in my room, especially in stuff she could chew on.
I watched from the stairs, since corners were spoiled. They didn’t talk too loudly because walls had ears in our neighborhood, so I couldn’t hear every word. First, my dad told my mom what happened, and she just couldn’t believe it. Nancy was crying and shaking a little, so Dad gave her some pills.
“I didn’t find anything unusual in him. The psychiatrist was checking him; we checked the blood and all other things we could. We checked his head for any internal or external injuries that could cause a memory loss and found nothing. In other words, we checked him from top to bottom. He’s absolutely fine. There’s one other thing, but I need to do it quickly. Do you remember what he was eating on that day, Nancy?
“I was just cooking dinner, and I was short of milk. That’s why he went to the shop, but before that, we had a lunch...”
“I really need you to remember what it was.”
“He likes to have an orange juice, cereal, or some biscuits. I’m not really sure. It was so long ago.” Nancy cried again.
My mom didn’t say much. She just looked from one to another, disbelieving her ears.
“Where is he now?”
“He’s staying in my office at the hospital. He didn’t want to upset you again. I’m going to him now and try to sort it out. I'll call you later.” He kissed Mom and left.
Nancy stayed out our house and waited for a call from Dad. He called early in the morning next day and they both came back.
“I didn’t find anything unusual. I even asked him what he had for lunch: some cookies, orange juice, and cereal, just as you said. A weird combination, I must say. Just go back home together, act like nothing happened, and watch him. If anything weird happens, call us straight away. It might come back to him eventually.”
“Okay,” said Nancy. “Thank you.”
CHAPTER 11 - MORE WEIRDNESS
Nancy and Matt went back home and after couple of days, they looked like a normal family from the times before he disappeared. People started to meet and talk again on the streets, sharing their thoughts about Nancy and Matt. I think that Matt’s return gave everybody hope that their relatives would come back to. Well… they didn’t.
We went back to school, and my sister was eating solid food now. Nancy and Matt were happier than ever and neighbors weren’t hiding at home anymore, but still, everybody kept some distance from each other.
In the middle of Septembe
r, we woke up to find something strange outside. It had been raining for a week and the weatherman predicted it would last for another week or so, but he said nothing about what kind of rain.
I went out on the street, waiting for my friends to go to school and found everybody standing outside in their pajamas looking amazed at the ground, so I did the same. The street was full of fish, prawns, lobsters, and all other seafood… still alive. It was everywhere: on our roofs, cars, gardens, and lawns. At first, I thought that somebody pulled a practical joke, but this was outside Joe’s and William’s imagination. They were too lazy for that. I went inside to get Dad and Mom. Dad went to Mary. She came out with her husband and even she looked surprised. Overgrown nature was bad enough. Dad had to cut the grass every three days. Tom helped him at digging a bigger pond for fish.
“I think...eee...that...hmmm...” Mary went inside and came out after a couple of minutes. “I suggest we clean it up and think what to do next. The smell is bad already.” Oh, yes it was. It hurt my nostrils and burned my eyes. “Everybody take as much as you can; put them in your freezers, since you won't get them fresher than that. I’ll try to call somebody later when I figure out who to call.”
Everyone had freezers full of fish and there was still lots left on the streets and lawns. That was soon sorted by Charlie, who came with his van and filled it up to the top. I don’t think he realized that he wouldn't be selling any of it to us for a long time.
I walked to school with Alvin, William, and Joe. We all smelled pretty bad, but when we got to school, we found that it also was covered in seafood. We’ve found the teacher who told us that the school was closed and would probably stay closed for another week or so.
“Anybody want some sushi?” joked William, and we headed back.
Mary called the police and fire department but they couldn’t help us, so she called the TV station. A reporter came down, made a short clip showing the seafood everywhere, but it never made it to the news.
We went back to school after two weeks but the smell was still there. Anyway, we all were getting fish to eat almost every meal of the day. I had enough already. Sea food was the main ingredient in soup, sandwiches, even pizza.
It was raining again and when we walked back home from school, Oliver followed us. I wasn’t so annoyed by him anymore but still didn’t count him as a friend. It started to rain heavily, the sky became very dark like night, and yellow-green lightning hit right in front of us. It shook the whole ground around us, and we were left blinded and deaf for few minutes.
“Keep close to the buildings, try not to stand alone in the middle of the street, and stay far away from the high trees!” shouted Oliver. “Now move!”
“I knew it! I tried to tell Mom, but she wouldn’t listen! Going to school was always a bad idea!” screamed Joe.
We did as Oliver told us. We started to run very close to the walls of buildings. We were all soaking wet. Then lightning struck again close to us. The lighting was getting more frequent, but it wasn’t as loud and close together. The bright green lighting made it hard to see.
“Ready for some disco?” joked Joe. Even then, he had silly thoughts on his mind. Ha, I wish I could always be in such a mood.
We weren’t far from our street and I started to cross the road. About halfway across, I heard, “No!” I was pushed and landed with my face in the mud. I couldn’t figure out who pushed me, as it was too light to see. I guess that lightning came down again but where? William, Joe, and Alvin ran up to me.
“What happened?”
“Oh, guys...” Alvin was pointing at the middle of the street where Oliver was lying.
“You were crossing the street and he pushed you out of the lightning, and I guess he got hit,” explained Alvin. “I don’t think there’s any hope for him now. Nobody ever survived a hit by lightning. Let’s take him to your dad.”
We carried him home. He was unconscious and looked worse than ever. His hair was standing up, his glasses were broken, and he was covered in sweat. I felt guilty and upset. I always was rude and impolite to him and he just gave his live to save me. That made me feel awful. The lighting was moving toward our homes. When we got on our street, we found it was all cracked and a few houses were damaged. When we got to my house, Dad was taking care of Mary. She got hit while saving her husband.
“There you are!” my Mom said. “I was worrying sick. Are you okay? Oh... Put him on the sofa where Dad is, next to Mary. I’ll call his mom. My mom tried to call her, but the phones were dead. “I’ll drive to their home to pick her up.” But she was back after a few minutes. “The car is dead, too.” She tried her mobile phone and all electric stuff we had but nothing worked. She tried to use Nancy’s phone but, apparently, it was the same everywhere. So, Mom and Nancy walked to Oliver’s home.
Dad gave Mary few injections and covered her with a warm blanket. Her husband was sitting next to her, heartbroken, tears coming down his cheeks.
“Will she be okay?” he asked.
“We’ll see in the morning. Her heart is beating normal, which is always a good sign, and I didn’t find any serious injuries. Few ever make it out alive after being hit by lightning, but she seems fine. That’s surprising.”
He then examined Oliver. I told him what happened and wanted to cry but decided not to. Dad did exactly the same thing as he did to Mary. His mom finally arrived.
“Thank you, thank you so much for bringing him here!” she said, hugging me. “I know how good friends you were with my son. How did it happen? Poor Oliver!” she cried. I told her what happened and she just smiled at me. “He always talked about you a lot.”
I felt awful. He thought I was his friend all that time I was so hard on him. I decided to improve if he survived and never make fun of him again.
Then some more people came down who only needed some warm words and treatment for shock and stress. We went to sleep but Dad and Mom were watching over Mary and Oliver all night. When I woke up, they were still sitting downstairs.
“They should be fine. They made the first night which is always the worst. They only need to wake up, but I can’t tell when it will happen.”
I wanted to take a walk with Bella, but she was still shaking and wouldn’t go out, so I went by myself. Everything was like yesterday and it was still raining but no longer thunder and lightning. If it continues, we’ll have a flood, I thought. All day I felt terrible for what happened and depressed by the weather. How could anybody feel happy when it was raining for so long? I went to play with my sister and Bella ran away. Sophie always pulled on her ears and tail so it backed up a little. I played with Sophie for a while, which was actually lots of fun for me, and we fell asleep together on the floor.
After few hours, Mom woke me up. Joe, William, and Alvin came down to check on Oliver. They brought flowers-from their gardens and some from mine. Still- a nice gesture.
Next day I went downstairs and found Bob sitting on a chair next to Mary. He didn’t want to leave her for a minute, and my parents let him stay. Oliver's mom was there almost all the time too, but now she went home to get clean clothes. Electricity was back and when I went outside with Bella, I found that the streets had been repaired. All the cracks were gone.
“Who fixed the streets?” I asked Mom and Dad.
“I don’t know, sweetie. Is it all fixed? I’m sure we would have heard something. They looked at each other, shook their heads, and went back to their problems and work. I went upstairs to watch some TV. There was nothing about lightning storms, so I watched cartoons. After few hours, I got bored and went downstairs to get something to eat. The TV was on and the news was coming so I sat down. I decided to watch the news so when Oliver woke up, I could tell him what he missed. After news, I turned to the Weather Channel.
“Because we have received so many complaints, we would like to apologies to our customers. We’re not responsible for weather changes. We tell our viewers the forecasts we get, and we can assure you that they were always right befor
e. Thank you for watching us.” Today’s forecast is continued rain but, smile; tomorrow, we will have a nice warm and sunny day. It should get up to 25 Celsius. Then it should be sunny for another three days, and on Monday, we’ll get some more rain and the high will only be about 10 Celsius. Bye”
That was some good news, but I didn’t really believe it would come true. I wondered who could fix the road unnoticed but since my parents weren’t curious about it, I wasn’t either.
CHAPTER 12 - FINALLY, NICE WEATHER! REALLY?
On next morning, I was awakened up by some noises downstairs. I went down and I found that Oliver was talking. He wasn’t awake yet but kept talking deliriously. I guessed he had a fever.
I went outside to welcome that beautiful weather they promised… and surprise! It was really HOT for the middle of September! I think it was more than 25 degrees Celsius, much more, probably 35! I went to play with my friends but after few minutes we were all sweaty, so we hid in my house. My mom gave us a sunburn cream. I never had to use it until now. I had been outside for only a few minutes and got burned. What was the use of such a nice weather if we couldn’t go outside? We stayed in my room and played video games. In the afternoon, it became dark outside so we thought it was going to rain and we went outside to refresh ourselves. We started playing football, but, soon, it was too dark to play anything. The only thing I could see were the lights from our house. We started playing hide and seek for few minutes, but it was too dark to find a place to hide. Actually, I could stand out in the open and no one would find me unless they bumped into me.
“Let’s go home and play some games!” I suggested. Then something small and hard fell on my head. “Yeah, yeah, very funny,” I said, thinking one of my friends had hit me with a pebble, but then it fell again and again. I started to run, covering my head with my hands. When I got inside, I found that Joe and William were there, but Alvin was missing. We went outside calling for him. He didn’t reply, so we went back for flashlights. I put the light down to see what hit me on the head and ew... Snails were crawling everywhere, from the smallest to the biggest. We started walking and with our every step we heard the crunching of their little shells. I found it disgusting walking on the slimy ground but Alvin was more important. We found him in the William and Joe's garden with the biggest and most disgusting snail sitting right on his head. EW! The most disgusting things always happened to him. Once, a guy at school was sick and when he was passing Alvin's desk to get to the toilet, he threw up right on his notebook. He would always step in dog poo even when there was hardly any on the ground.
