by Ellis Logan
Chapter 13
I wound up staying at school until the end of the day, sleeping through a couple of periods in the nurse’s office. When the last bell of the day rang she gently prodded me awake and helped me up.
“Time to go home, sweetie. You think you can get there alright or do you want me to call your mom?”
I insisted I was good and made my way home, driving slowly through the quiet afternoon streets. When I got home I sat on the floor in the living room doing homework while I watched a couple shows on a local TV station through my laptop. Hey, what my mom didn’t know wouldn’t kill her. At least I usually skipped through the commercials. She’d left a note on the counter saying she’d be working late again tonight, so after a couple hours I decided to order a pizza from Giovanni’s. Rowan took the order and said he had a break coming up, so he’d bring it over when it was ready. Mmm. Pizza and Rowan. Delish. My appetite grew even stronger, though whether for the pizza or for Rowan, I couldn’t say with any certainty.
I spent a few minutes picking up and making sure there weren’t bras hanging around on my floor or in the bathroom, and put on a fresh coat of lip gloss. I didn’t want to be one of those girls, primping just for a guy, but I also figured it didn’t hurt to make sure I was at least presentable. And sporting kissable grape-flavored lips. Why not?
The doorbell rang just as I was walking out into the living room. I could see that the TV show had segued into the early evening news, and they were leading with some news about Rio in Brazil. I walked past the sofa and opened the door.
“Hey Rowan,” I smiled.
“Hey yourself,” he smiled back and leaned against the doorframe. “One medium mushroom pizza, and an order of jalapeño poppers.”
“What? I didn’t order any poppers.”
“I know, but I look out for my own, you know?” He winked at me, and then got more serious. “Are you feeling better now? You kind of scared me back there in school today.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. The nurse said there’s a bug going around.”
“Well, you don’t look ill. At least not anymore.”
“Hey, thanks! Please, tell me more about how craptastic I looked earlier today.” I laughed as I took the bag of poppers from him. “Do you have time to hang out a bit? Come on, I can’t eat all this myself.” I turned and nodded for him to follow me into the living room.
He started saying something behind me about how he’d have to get back to work in a few minutes, but I wasn’t paying attention. Because there, on my laptop screen, I could see pictures of dusty rubble.
“What–” I started to say as I slid down onto the couch. The screen was showing images of the hillsides of Rio de Janeiro, which had been devastated that morning in a 6.3 earthquake, flashing back and forth between images of the poorer favela communities before and after the earthquakes. Everything I had seen earlier, all the visions I’d had, cascaded through my head.
“I was there.” I whispered.
Rowan sat down beside me. “Siri, you’re pale as a ghost. Are you alright? I mean, what is it?” He looked at the screen. “Rio? You’ve been there?”
“No,” I said, and then realized how that must sound. “I mean. Yes. I was there. I’ve seen these places. I’ve been there.” A very familiar image of the street I had seen at dawn in my visions flashed on screen and I pointed at it, “There. I’ve been on that street, right there. Oh. My. God. All those people!”
Tears were running down my face, and I knew I must look like a total freak to Rowan, but I just didn’t care. The news was flashing numbers across the bottom of the screen, tallies of the dead and the missing. The numbers were sure to go up because it was still early. Because I knew. I knew how many had died. On that street alone, it had been almost everyone. Those poor, weak buildings hadn’t been built to withstand earthquakes. And now the people inside were all dead. So many. Just gone. I stifled a sob and shut my computer. “I think I’ve lost my appetite. Rowan, would you mind very much if we didn’t...”
He hopped up instantly. “Yeah, sure, no problem.” He ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Look, I’m sure they’ll find most of the people. I have to get back to work anyways, but listen,” he knelt down and gave me a quick hug, “text me later, okay? Just to let me know you’re alright? I worry about you, Serious.”
I gave him a wan smile. “Okay, I will. Thanks Rowan.”
“Anytime, gorgeous.” He smiled at me and walked out the door.
As soon as he left, I opened up my laptop again and ran a Google search for news articles about the earthquake. The articles already listed several thousand people dead, and the numbers were expected to keep climbing over the coming days. Or weeks. Some articles said it might take weeks for the rescue parties to make it to certain parts of the city. It had happened early that morning, as far as I could tell. So what now, I was some sort of seer? I could tell when big disasters were going to happen? And then, if this was something real, something that had really happened, then who was that man in my vision, the one I couldn’t get a good look at? And what did he mean, “It has begun?” What had begun? The earthquake? Or something else, something worse?
God, this was all so creepy. I shut the laptop again and stood up, suddenly feeling very twitchy again. I needed to be outside. Immediately. I put my shoes on and ran outside, down the porch steps. Without even thinking where I was going, I turned around the side of the house and was in the woods before I even realized what I was doing. Coming out on the tiny path, I made my way back to the rock ledge and the fire pit. Everything looked the same, no one had been here in the past day. I stood still, staring up at the rock face, taking deep breaths. Within moments, I felt better, but I still needed to move. I dropped into a solid horse stance and began flowing through some Qigong forms, weaving my way around the circle several times.
Better.
But I could still hear the startled screams of the sleeping Brazilians as their homes swayed and collapsed without warning around them. I expanded my circle, and started incorporating the quartz boulders into my routine, pretending they were part of my internal kung fu movie set, leaping over them, onto them, around them. The moans of the fallen surrounded me. I fought my way clear of the pain and the confusion. The noise of the dying began to subside as I worked my way through the pain, striking and lunging to defeat an unknown army so I could see another day. Finally, I collapsed into a full lotus position on top of a large granite outcrop, and leaned back into the face of the cliffs behind me.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
The voices were gone. The ground was still. Everything was as it should be. I was in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. Everything was going to be okay.
I repeated the last like a mantra in my head, over and over again. I almost believed it. The stone all around me felt comforting, like home. I thought that maybe if I just knew how to ask the right way, the rock would be able to tell me what was going on. And it, most definitely, would say to me that everything was going to be okay. Could I truly believe that? Or was it just wishful thinking? I heard movement in the forest nearby and tensed, hoping someone else wasn’t making their way to my new spot. I opened my eyes and looked around. No one was there. The birds were quiet, and the leaves rustled on the trees, even though I didn’t feel any wind where I was sitting in the lee of the stone. Each tree had its own vibrant, unique shade of green, red or yellow. The foliage here was amazing this time of year. The stone beneath me felt warm and cozy, not hard and cold like I would have thought a rock should feel. It felt alive. I felt alive.
I heard some more noise in the woods, coming closer, fast. My heart sped up for a moment, and then stopped when a little dark blur of fur passed behind a stone nearby. A moment later a black squirrel clambered up onto the rock across the circle from me and stood on its hind legs, scenting me with its small twitching nose. It had a small patch of white just like the one I had held a few days before by the side of the road. But that
couldn’t be. Could it?
“Hey little guy,” I cooed in what I hoped was a reassuring tone of voice. “Have you come to say hello?” The squirrel cocked its small ears forward in interest.
“Is this your special spot, too? We can share.” The squirrel chittered back at me and ran back down behind the rock. Seconds later, it came back up, an acorn its mouth. It settled down, and started snacking away.
“Lunchtime, huh? I like nuts, too. I guess we can hang out,” I chuckled.
The squirrel looked up and clicked at me, and went back to eating its nut. For some reason, I felt reassured, like the squirrel was keeping me company on purpose, like a sentinel. Not as useful as a guard dog, but for some reason I felt as safe as if it had been. Everything was so peaceful. I closed my eyes again, and continued sitting for I don’t know how long. Eventually I heard the squirrel chattering away again, and when I opened my eyes I could see it had started getting dark.
I was reluctant to move and scare away my companion, but couldn’t stifle a yawn as I stretched my arms over my head. “Guess it’s time to head home, little one.” The squirrel flicked its tail twice and scampered off into the woods, leaping up into an oak tree with another acorn in its mouth. I got up and started heading home, and as I walked I could see that the animal almost seemed to be following me, leaping from tree to tree in the canopy above until finally it ran up high into an old pine tree. “Good night, little one, sleep tight!” I called.
