Lightning Chase Me Home

by Amber Lee Dodd

  I know this is a lot to take in, which is why I understand it might take you a while to want to talk to me again. And that’s OK, because I will be waiting. I will wait for as long as you need me to.

  All my love,

  Mum

  PS. I hope very much that you like the compass I sent. It was your grandma’s and then mine and now on your eleventh birthday, it’s yours. I hope it always helps you find your way home.

  It was only a short letter but I took a long, long time to read it. I wanted to understand every word. Because surely there had to be a mistake! All this time I had thought that Mum couldn’t get in contact because she was on the other side of the world. That she was paragliding in the Andes, or lost in the jungles of Peru searching for Incan treasure, or saving penguins in the Antarctic. But she was just in Edinburgh. So close that I could almost swim to it.

  My hand grew hot and I felt Mum’s compass shaking in my pocket. I pulled it out. The needle was spinning. With every turn it spun, faster and faster, and my whole body started to tingle. I could feel the disappearing ready at my fingertips more powerful than ever. I knew that this had been the last thing I needed to find. The last place the rock had needed me to go, that now it was ready to fulfil my wish.

  But the letter had changed everything.

  Chapter 31

  My head was filled with questions. Questions I realized I’d always had but had just forced into the box in my head so I didn’t have to think about them. Questions like:

  •What had stopped Mum coming back?

  •Why had she waited so long to write?

  •Why hadn’t she taken me with her?

  I could feel the power buzzing through me. I was about to get my wish. I should have been thrilled. But my world felt like it had been turned upside down. And the question that burned the most brightly wasn’t about Mum, it was about Da:

  •Why had he kept the letter from me?

  I needed to find out.

  I could barely make my way back home from the harbour. Everything looked new and strange in the snow. I could just make out the light from the windows in my house. It took all my strength to make it up through the hill; the wind battered against me and every footstep made me sink deeper and deeper into the snow. But I could see the light from our kitchen window get brighter and brighter. Finally I burst through the door in a hail of snow and ice.

  “Amelia,” Da said, wrapping his arms around me. “I’ve been so worried.”

  Even though it was the first hug I’d had in a long while, I pushed him away. Da dropped his arms, looking hurt.

  “I heard school’s been cancelled, I was about to go looking for you,” he said as the wind outside stormed around our house and made it shake.

  Hail clattered against the window, the old oak tree outside creaked and moaned and a deep roll of thunder rippled across the island. But the storm wasn’t just outside any more; it was in me.

  “Why would you care? You don’t even want me around!” I shouted.

  The lights went out; a bolt of lightning flashed past the window, illuminating Da’s shocked face.

  “Amelia, that’s not true,” he said.

  “You’re a liar!” I yelled as I pulled the envelope from my pocket and slammed it on to the kitchen table.

  The lights came back on and for a moment the house filled with the most deafening silence.

  “How did you get that?” Da said.

  I shook my head. I wasn’t the one who needed to answer any questions. Da sighed and sat down heavily.

  “This is not how I wanted this to happen. I wanted to give this to you when you were ready.”

  “When would that be?” I said, thinking of the months it had sat in the boat lockbox.

  “I wanted to give it to you when I gave you the compass, I really did. But I know how much you miss your mum on your birthday and I was scared that if you read the letter you would get upset and…” Da stopped.

  But I knew what he was thinking about. I remembered how last time Mum had tried to talk to me on my birthday I had run away. How Da had really thought I was lost and cried when he’d found me. How closely he’d watch me when the phone rang from then on. And how he’d made such a big effort on my last birthday so I wouldn’t feel sad. But that didn’t stop the horrible stormy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “You could have given it to me after my birthday,” I told him fiercely.

  “I was going to when everything settled down at school. But you had such a tricky start and then there was the suspension and I didn’t want to make everything worse…” Da trailed off. “I thought I was protecting you.”

  “But you weren’t,” I replied, thinking of all the times I missed Mum. All the times I had to invent where she was just so I could make myself feel better by imagining what she was doing at that moment.

  “I wanted this to be the year we got on our feet. I thought you becoming an islander and starting school would be our big chance to start over. I didn’t want anything to ruin that. But the more the year went on, the more I realized I’d got everything wrong,” Da finished and I could see his face break into a million pieces.

  But I couldn’t look at Da any more. I stormed upstairs.

  I could feel the rock’s magic buzzing through me. It wanted to take me to Mum and Mum wanted to see me. Didn’t she? That’s why she had written. She hadn’t forgotten about me. She had just been waiting for my letter in reply. But this was going to be even better. I was going to turn up and surprise her. She would be so pleased to see me, wouldn’t she? I tried not to think of the months that had gone by without her calling. Or the flat in Edinburgh. Or the man named Bob. I tried not to think about what Da had said. Instead, I packed my backpack full of the things I thought I would need.

  •The Little Book of Lady Adventurers

  •The compass

  •Miss Archibald’s blue journal book

  •And the pair of dinosaur pyjamas I’d managed to secretly wash after my adventure in the bog.

  I looked around the room one final time. It made my heart ache to think of leaving, but I couldn’t have second thoughts. I closed my eyes and squeezed the compass. I was going to disappear; I was going to have my wish come true. All I had to do was say the words.

  “Amelia!” I heard Da cry out.

  But I didn’t want to hear any more of what he had to say. I’d made up my mind: there was nothing he could do to stop me leaving. But then the door shuddered open and Da stood, ashen-faced.

  “Your grandpa’s disappeared,” he said.

  Chapter 32

  I helped Da search the whole house again. But Grandpa wasn’t in bed, or sitting in his armchair listening to stories on the radio, and where his boots should have been there was just an empty space.

  “He kept muttering something about putting it right. About stopping the storm. But I wasn’t really listening,” Da said, his head in his hands.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Grandpa’s “fabulous ways to pop your clogs” list. How nearly everything he said might come true if he was out in this storm. He could be hit by lightning, or drown in a bog, or be killed by an avalanche. And all of it, all of it, would be my fault. I had been so wrapped up in making my wish come true that I hadn’t thought how it might hurt Da and Grandpa.

  “I’m going to go out and find him,” Da said, going out into the hall to get his coat and boots.

  But I knew the snow was too deep and the blizzard was too fierce to find anyone. There was only one thing that could save Grandpa and that was to use my powers.

  If the magic had grown so powerful it was ready to take me to Mum, maybe I could use it just this once to take me somewhere else. I tucked the compass back into my pocket.

  “Take me to Grandpa,” I whispered, but nothing happened.

  I closed my eyes and tried to picture Grandpa’s face. His shimmery grey-green eyes, the same as mine and Da’s. The way they crinkled up when he laughed and how he cried at silly romantic movie
s when he thought no one was watching. I felt the familiar tingle in my hand.

  “Take me to Grandpa,” I said again.

  And this time I thought of Grandpa teaching me how to tie my shoelaces, and us getting into fights while playing chess and all the Sunday afternoons we had spent listening to murder mysteries on the radio.

  My hand grew hot.

  “It’s working,” I yelled and Pipi howled. “OK, you can come with me, just no biting,” I said, scooping her up and putting her into my backpack. She yapped happily. I pulled the strap of my backpack tight as the room started to shimmer.

  “Amelia, what are you…” Da said, appearing in the doorway with his coat half-on. I tried to turn around but I couldn’t, because my feet had already disappeared. Da’s jaw fell open, his face filled with shock.

  “Amelia!” he shouted, and I could hear the fear in his voice.

  Suddenly I realized I was terrified too, because I was about to head out into a storm with nothing but a broken compass and a dog who was scared of snow. But I couldn’t stop what was happening. The magic had grown stronger and it was working faster than ever before. The sound of the ocean roared in my ears as the room flickered away.

  “Da,” I called back, but my voice sounded so tiny and far away.

  Just as the room finally faded away, I felt Da reach out and grab me.

  “Don’t let go,” I squeaked.

  “Never,” Da replied, hugging me tight, before we both disappeared.

  Chapter 33

  “Amelia,” I heard someone shout, but the sound of thunder was so loud that my head hurt. Then I felt someone shaking me.

  “Amelia,” the voice called again.

  Then everything that had happened – the storm, Grandpa going missing and the disappearing – all suddenly came flooding back.

  “Grandpa,” I cried out.

  But when I opened my eyes, I saw it wasn’t Grandpa who was holding me. It was Da; his eyes were filled with concern and he was trying to say something. I could see his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. It was like a bomb had gone off and I was now completely deaf. Then a bolt of lightning hit the ground and everything came roaring back.

  “Amelia, we have to get out of this storm,” Da yelled and he pulled me to my flickering feet.

  I stood shakily and looked around. We were at Sometimes Island: Grandpa’s favourite spot and the place I had disappeared to that very first time. But it didn’t look anything like how it had the time me and Pipi appeared here in the middle of the night. The cliffs had fallen away, there were uprooted trees everywhere and the rest were being pulled in all directions by the howling wind. The sky crackled, flashed white, and fell into darkness again. I looked around. Grandpa was meant to be here. I was meant to have brought us right to him. Had I made a mistake? Had the disappearing not worked properly this time? Everything felt wrong.

  “We have to find Grandpa!” I yelled back and I could hear Pipi barking madly in my backpack.

  But Da wouldn’t let go. He held my arm tight, and pulled me over to the trees. I remembered the night that me and Pipi had been stranded on the island, how we had heard something chasing us. But the only thing we were being chased by this time was the storm, which roared overhead. The rain lashed my face; the wind pulled me off my feet. I didn’t know where we were running to and every part of my body just wanted to stop.

  “We have to get to higher ground,” Da yelled. “The island’s sinking.”

  I could see darkness rising around us. It was the sea and it was coming in fast.

  “You don’t understand. I brought us to where Grandpa wandered off to. He’s still out here. We have to find him!” I yelled.

  Da took me by my shoulders. “Are you absolutely sure?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “Stay here. I’ll go and look for him.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t want Da to go.

  “I won’t be long.”

  I thought of how Mum had said the same thing before she left.

  “I don’t want you to leave and never come back,” I cried.

  “Oh, Amelia,” Da said, and as he pulled me closer I breathed in the smell of his musty old jacket. “I’m never going to leave you.”

  I hugged Da back. I’d forgotten how much I missed him. How much I missed his bear hugs and his checking in on me at night. How much I missed his smiley-face breakfast and Da surprise suppers. How could I have ever thought about leaving? I squeezed him harder as the sky crackled with lightning. Then I pulled away.

  “I think I know where Grandpa might be,” I said.

  “Let’s go,” Da said, slipping his hand into mine.

  We raced through the trees over the slippery rocks and up the cliff. All the while I could hear the thunder of the waves breaking around us. We didn’t have long. My heart thumped. But through the trees I could see it: the stone circle, glowing with the same strange lights I had heard about on the night the Serpent’s Tooth Rock disappeared. There in the middle was Grandpa. But he wasn’t moving.

  “Grandpa!” I shouted and Pipi leaped from my backpack and we all ran over to him. Pipi licked his face and Grandpa’s eyes flickered but didn’t open.

  “Grandpa, wake up,” I whispered, holding his hand as Da wrapped his jacket around his shoulders and Pipi nestled her head under his chin.

  If I’d just listened to Tom about returning the powers to the rock, then maybe I could have stopped all of this happening. Because now I had put me and Da in danger and I was going to lose Grandpa and it was all my fault. The storm roared around us. All the birds flew up from the trees, their screeching filling the sky.

  I closed my eyes. I just wanted to undo my wish. I wanted everything to go back to the way it was. I reached out and touched the stones. They were hot. Just like Serpent’s Tooth Rock had been.

  “I promise if Grandpa’s OK, I’ll make everything right. I’ll find a way to take back the wish,” I muttered.

  The green glow grew brighter around us.

  Grandpa’s eyes flickered open.

  “Did it work?” he asked blearily.

  “You stupid old man. What are you doing out here?” Da yelled.

  I grabbed Grandpa and Da and pulled them in for a hug. I couldn’t stop crying. But I could hear the waves now, louder than ever as they crashed against the cliffs. The island was being swallowed up.

  “I’m sorry, this is my all my fault – it’s the wish I made that’s causing the storm,” I said.

  “What did you wish for?” Grandpa asked.

  “To be with Mum. I just missed her so much and then everything bad happened at school and Da stopped talking to me. I thought I’d messed everything up, that I’d disappointed you so much you’d stopped caring about me. So I’d be better off with Mum.”

  “Oh, Amelia, I’ve been so stupid,” Da said, shaking his head. “I should have given you the letter. I should have tried harder to let your mum be part of your life. And I should have listened to you when you tried to tell me about what was happening. But if there’s one thing you never have to worry about, it’s me caring about you. I know I’m not always good at showing it, but I love you, Amelia. I love you when you’re funny and silly and I love you when you’re filthy and bad-tempered and misbehaving and awful. I love you no matter what.”

  I had thought Mum was on the other side of the world and Da didn’t love me any more. But I finally realized that I’d understood everything backwards.

  I pulled out Mum’s compass from my pocket. It was still spinning and spinning, wanting to fulfil the wish. But Mum had given me the compass so I could always find home. And home wasn’t with her. It was with Da and Grandpa and Pipi, on the house on the hill under the North Star.

  I slipped the compass back into my pocket. But this time I didn’t need to close my eyes to think of home, because my heart was filled with it. I could see our living room with Grandpa’s chess set next to his big comfy armchair and our worn-out leather couch. And I could picture
the kitchen filled up with the smells of Da’s mighty dinners. And then I saw my bedroom covered in the millions of plastic glow-in-the-dark stars, that me and Da had hung together.

  “Ready?” I asked, scooping Pipi back into my bag.

  “Ready for what?” Da asked.

  “To go home,” I replied, taking Da and Grandpa’s hands.

  Chapter 34

  We landed with a boom in the middle of the living room as the windows blew out all around us. It was as if I had brought the storm right into the house with us.

  “Amelia, what’s happening?” Da yelled, as chairs and tables flew around us. And then, with an awful roar, I could hear the house begin to shudder and shake. All this time I had never thought what would happen if I kept using my powers. And now I couldn’t stop it.

  “Duck!” Grandpa yelled out as a tree branch blew in.

  But it was too late. Everything went black.

  When I woke up, I wasn’t in my house any more. I wasn’t sure where I was. For a horrible moment I thought I was still back on Sometimes Island. But I couldn’t hear the howling of the wind, or the trees shaking, or the screech of animals. Then Hettie’s face loomed over me. I screamed and tried to struggle up from under a blanket.

  “It’s all right,” Da said, “they’re here to help us.”

  In their pyjamas the old ladies looked totally different, not scary at all. In fact, Penny beamed as she fussed over everyone, Pipi chasing at her heels. Only Hettie looked stern. Although the more I looked at her, the more I realized how tired she looked too. She was wearing an old moth-eaten nightgown that hung off her shoulders and her neat white hair wasn’t tied up in its usual tight bun. It hung long and limp right to her waist. For the first time I realized how very old she was.