“Was the party over?” She could see his lips move a moment before the sound came over her phone.
“No, there were still a few people there. Kat’s still there.”
As she looked at her father through the windshield, she realized just how much she loved him.
“Did you want to go back?”
Lucy couldn’t believe her ears. She didn’t quite know how to respond.
“I … uh, well, I don’t know. Kat wanted me to stay at her house tonight, but …”
“Well, since tomorrow is Sunday, we’re going to Bandon. Can you be back by ten?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
This dream kept getting better and better.
“Okay, then,” he said with a smile that radiated in the darkness. “I want you to text me when you get to Kat’s house. Is that clear?” His tone was calm but his intention was crystal clear.
“Yes, absolutely I will.” She smiled back. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“Don’t make this a habit.”
She could see his eyes looking straight at her from the tree.
“I won’t.”
“Okay. Be safe, Goosey.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too, Baby.”
With that, she watched as he pulled the phone away from his ear and turned it off. He stood in his socks and watched her pull out. Only when she was back on the road did he turn to go back into the house.
Relieved, Lucy closed her phone and opened it again. She dialed Kat’s number and waited, the warmth of her father’s patience and love filling her.
“Hey, what happened?” Kat said as she answered the phone.
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing?”
“I mean I called him and told him what happened and he was fine.”
“So, you’re not in trouble?”
“No, I’m actually on my way back.”
“Really?” Kat exclaimed in a high-pitched squeal.
Lucy laughed out loud at her friend’s excitement.
“You know, Mark’s still here,” Kat said scandalously into the phone. “He asked me where you went.”
Lucy’s breathing faltered for a moment. “Mark, really?”
“I’m telling you, he likes you. This is your chance, Luce.”
Lucy smiled widely. “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Good, I’ll see you when you get here! Bye!” Kat exclaimed, and hung up the phone.
Lucy couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face. Just the very thought of Mark made her heart do backflips. Never had she ever had a boyfriend, and never had she had such a crush as Mark Thompson. Finally, this could be it, she thought to herself.
The rain had turned to a thick mist and the empty streets of Coos Bay were lighted periodically by hovering street lamps. As she rounded a wide corner, she looked up at the giant American flag hanging soaked on the flagpole of a Toyota dealership. As the banner caught the stormy winds and opened up slightly, she suddenly remembered Benjamin and the flag. Lucy looked at her hand. She rubbed her fingers together as she could almost feel the shocking sensation she had gotten from him when they touched. Suddenly her entire consciousness was overwhelmed with thoughts and images of him, images that had been so commonplace all summer, but this time were intensely distracting. The turn-off to the party was on the left, but she drove past it.
Benjamin, who are you? Where have you been? she thought to herself.
He had appeared from thin air and disappeared into thin air, but he was always there in Lucy’s head and she didn’t know why. She suddenly wanted to get away from the street lights. Turning onto Ocean Boulevard she headed for Cape Arago highway, which led to Charleston.
The rain seemed to be coming down even harder as she drove the quiet highway. Street lights were a blur as her wipers worked hard to keep a clear view. With fewer cars on the road, Lucy felt more comfortable. It wasn’t long before she had crossed the bridge into Charleston. The rain was letting up just enough to make the dark road navigable. Before long, those lights would turn to darkness, and she would have only her high beams to lead her to the bay.
Making her way over the few miles of winding road was liberating. She felt free of everything: her obligations as a daughter, a friend, and a city employee. She was left alone with her thoughts and nothing else.
Raindrops fell in a gentle swathe in front of her headlights. The sight was mesmerizing. As a child, Lucy had often found comfort in a night drive in the rain with her parents. She loved the contrast between the warmth and dryness of the car and the harsh cold of the elements. There was something about the comfort only safety could provide that made the darkness bearable.
Lucy’s thoughts were traveling faster than her car through the shallow turns of the road, and she thought of nothing but Benjamin. Before long, she emerged from the trees to where Sunset Bay opened up like a giant door to the Pacific Ocean. The bay was a horseshoe cove encased by high forested cliffs on the north and south sides. The road ran the circumference of the curved sandy beach that filled the five or six hundred yards between the ridges.
Lucy had hundreds of memories of Sunset Bay spanning her entire life. It was a place that even in the stormiest night would be a refuge from the harshness of the world.
As she rounded the last bend that looked out on the shore, a burst of lightening filled the sky. The beach lit up like daytime for a split second, and Lucy’s heart stopped. The beach wasn’t empty; the figure of a man was standing near the water.
In spite of the initial shock, Lucy slowed the car to get a better look, hoping that another flash would verify that she hadn’t imagined what her eyes claimed to have seen. Peering through the rain, she strained to get any kind of view of the beach. It was a good eighty yards away, but she knew she had seen someone standing with their feet in or very near the water.
Rolling past at a crawl, she turned off her headlights in the hope of getting a better view, but the lightning wouldn’t cooperate. Her heart was beginning to speed up and she felt uncharacteristically nervous. Pushing the button on the door panel, she made sure the doors were locked.
Finally, a white fiery flash lit up the sky and earth, but the beach was empty. Lucy sighed with relief and a little disappointment. Pushing on the accelerator, she sped back up the hill, but she couldn’t help feeling that someone was out there.
After an additional mile of winding pavement, she pulled off the road and turned the car around back toward the bay. Heading downhill, she focused hard on the road. Every curve was anticipated, as she knew them well. Lucy thought about what she was doing, and common sense told her there was absolutely no reason to go back. If a person was crazy enough to be standing on the beach in a lightning storm, he was probably not the kind of person a young girl should be meeting in the dark. But, her mind was defying all logic by insisting for some inexplicable cosmic reason that she had to go back and find him.
The last turn was just thirty or so yards ahead and Lucy looked down for only a second to make sure the blue high-beams symbol was illuminated. Looking back up, she saw him, standing on the side of the road in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. She gasped when she saw his face in her headlights. It was him. It was Benjamin.
As she passed him, she couldn’t decide whether to turn around to look into the darkness behind her, or hit the brakes. She only turned for a second when without warning, in a flash of wet, matted hair, a deer walked into the Cavalier’s headlights. Lucy screamed. She pulled back on her steering wheel and slammed both feet on the brake pedal, but it was too late. Her little car fish-tailed in the rain before slamming into the deer with so much force that Lucy’s locked elbows popped free and her whole upper body violently whiplashed before coming to a stop.
Lucy could feel her heart pounding nearly out of her chest. With her hands still gripping tightly to the wheel, she assessed her condition. She didn’t know if she was hurt; she couldn’t tell because adrenaline was coursing thr
ough her body. Everything was too confusing in the dark. She needed light, but the only light she could see was that of her left headlight, and it was pointing too far to the side to have remained unscathed in the accident.
Directly in front of her, Lucy could see that the hood of her car was crumpled like a wave curling into the shore. Steam or smoke wafted up from underneath. She just sat in panic-stricken shock for a moment, watching, as her quickened breathing fogged up the windshield.
Just as she started to arrest her pulse a little bit, Lucy saw movement in front of her. It was Benjamin, and she got irrefutable evidence of that as he looked through the driver’s window at her to see if she was okay.
Lucy just nodded her head, more embarrassed than hurt.
She watched through the fogged window as Benjamin bent down just inside the headlight’s rays. She could make out his dark, wet hair plastered against his face. She was glad that he was there, but she had no idea what he was doing. The deer had to be dead, yet it was as though he were checking its vital signs. The way the impact felt and from the look of her hood, there was no reason to even bother checking. It was dead, and Lucy’s heart sank knowing that she had killed the poor, innocent creature. But then, she didn’t know what was really going on at all. Her thoughts were traveling at light speed, and she didn’t know if she had exaggerated the effects of the deer hitting the car, or if her car was a mangled lump of scrap metal wrapped around the driver seat and she was lucky to be alive. For all she knew, everything was okay and it just felt worse than it was.
Lucy shook her head to focus when she saw Benjamin stand up. It was then that she decided to reach for the door handle. As she gripped the lever, she stopped. The sight in front of her only confirmed that she had overestimated the entire event, yet she was amazed by what she saw. As she sat staring out the windshield, she witnessed the deer stand up and look at Benjamin. It was perfectly fine. Lucy’s neck was killing her, but the deer jumped up as though it was startled from a light sleep. All Lucy could do was watch as it leapt for the side of the road and disappeared into the woods.
Convinced that she still wasn’t thinking clearly, she met Benjamin’s eyes through the windshield. His expression was of sincere concern as he gently raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in her direction to inquire again if she was alright. Lucy answered with a nervous nod of her own and followed him with her eyes as he came around to the driver’s side door. She stared at him through the glass. As he bent down, Lucy could see him smile through the window in the dim reflected light and he waved his hand in a subtle circular motion. She knit her eyebrows in confusion before realizing he was requesting she lower the window. Groping for the button on the door panel, she felt stupid, both for her bad fortune to be involved in an accident for which her father would skin her alive, and to be stuck in the rain with a guy she barely knew, yet thought about almost constantly.
When the electric hum stopped, she heard Benjamin’s soft, steady voice speak, “Are you alright?”
Lucy shook her head in affirmation. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Good,” he said calmly. “I think we should get you out of the road. If you steer to the left I'll push you into the parking lot."
Lucy looked past him in the dark to the other side of the road and the Sunset Bay parking area. She didn't know how he would accomplish moving the car by himself, but he seemed confident enough that she just nodded, put the car in neutral, and gripped the wheel. In a matter of seconds, Benjamin had pushed them across the road while she steered. The car came to a rest and Lucy put it in park.
"Do you want me to call a tow truck for you?” Benjamin asked as he came back around the side of the car.
Lucy stuttered, searching for the words to answer him, when the gravity of the situation finally hit her. “Oh no! My car!”
She pulled on the handle and threw the door open, forcing Benjamin to step out of the way. Making her way around the car, she could see that the entire front was smashed in. Everything from the right headlight to the grill was either smashed or bent or broken.
“What am I going to tell him? He thought I was going back to the party, but I came all the way out here. He’s going to kill me this time.”
“If you mean your dad, I honestly don’t think he’ll actually kill you over this.” He flashed a cheap grin at her in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Lucy just glared at him. She was absolutely incredulous that he dared make a joke at her misfortune. The more she looked at him the wider his smile got before he finally started laughing. Incredulity turned to fury. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. How did she misjudge him so badly?
“What are you laughing at? Do you think this is funny? How do I explain this?”
Benjamin immediately suppressed his amusement, and Lucy couldn’t believe he would be such a jerk. Benjamin finally relaxed.
“Why don’t you tell him the truth?”
“What, that I was out driving the dark coastline ten miles from home when I told him I would be at a party? Yeah, that’ll go over really well. It wouldn’t matter that the car is totaled.”
“Well, it’s not totaled,” Benjamin began.
“What are you talking about? There’s steam or smoke or something pouring out all over the place; I’ve probably got that green stuff or gas or oil or something draining all over the ground getting ready to explode or something and—”
“Alright, alright, I can see you’re a little hysterical—”
“Hysterical! You want to see hysterical? This all your fault! Standing out there, in the road, at midnight in the rain!”
“Ok, ok, calm down. I’ll tell you what. Let me call my brother, Jack. We live just up the road and we’ll see what he can do for your car.”
“What’s he going to do at midnight? I have to be home before ten tomorrow morning. How’s he going to fix this by then?” She forcefully gestured to the remains of her precious automobile. “No, I just have to call my dad and he’ll take care of it,” she resolved.
“Wait,” he said in a serious tone. “Just let me call Jack. If he says he can’t fix it, then we’ll call your dad, okay? Just sit and relax, I’ll call him.”
It was difficult to get her heart rate down. Of all the places to be, she did not want to be where she was. She tried to relax in her seat, but it was little use. She needed a distraction.
Flipping on the dome light, she examined the mess of books on the passenger side of the car. They had all slid to the floor like fallen dominoes in the crash. She reached down and picked up a copy of a fantasy fiction book about mythical creatures living in the United States. She tried to read it but couldn’t, so she rested her head back and closed her eyes with the book open across her lap. She tried not to think about her fate and instead focused on the blackness. She thought of Sunset Bay in the summer time, how she would try and stray away from her parents down the beach, but her mother would inevitably call her back. For a moment, she felt as though she could feel the warmth of the sun and the sand of the beach, when her repose was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the glass.
Opening her eyes, she looked up at Benjamin again outside her window. With frustration she opened the door just enough for him to peak his face in.
“Jack’s coming with the truck and trailer. I described what happened and he says he can fix it. He should be here in about ten minutes.”
Lucy just shook her head. “There’s no way. How can he fix that?”
Benjamin stared back for a long silent moment.
“He’s got some magic in him.”
Lucy just rolled her eyes. “Okay, I’m dead anyway. Might as well give it a shot.”
Benjamin nodded and Lucy looked into his fantastically green eyes.
“May I join you?” he asked.
After a moment’s hesitation, Lucy leaned over and unlocked the passenger door to let him in.
“Thanks for your help. I don’t know what Jack can do, but I appreciate the help.”
“
Not a problem,” Benjamin replied as he turned to walk around the car.
After getting situated in the passenger seat, Benjamin examined the books at his feet. Lucy could feel her heart rate return to normal.
“Don’t look at those, they’re just for fun. I don’t really read that stuff.” The selection of fantasy and science fiction novels sprawled on the floor embarrassed her.
“No, they’re great; I’ve read almost all of these.”
He sorted through the spines. Lucy watched him and was intrigued by his interest in the stack of mediocre literature.
“Was that you I saw out there on the beach?” Lucy had to say something to ignore her wracking nerves.
Benjamin looked up from his sorting. “Yeah, I was going for a walk.”
“In the rain? At midnight?” Lucy asked incredulously.
“Why not? I love lightning storms.” He just smiled at Lucy and went back to his books.
“You know, this is all your fault,” she said to him.
“Why do you say that?”
“If you hadn’t been out there, standing like a lightning rod on the beach, I wouldn’t have been speeding down the hill.”
She wanted to blame him and be mad at him, but the fight was pretty much gone.
Benjamin sat up and gave her his full attention. “I’m sorry. I should have known it would look weird.”
Lucy sat back in her seat. She crossed her arms as Benjamin stared.
“So, what happened with the deer, was he really not that hurt?”
“I think he may have had some broken ribs or something, but he was well enough to run off. I just sort of helped him up.”
Lucy shook her head as she looked at the hood of her car again.
“It’s amazing that he could do so much damage to my car and still be alive.”
“You’d be surprised at how resilient animals can be.”
The words had barely finished reverberating off the car’s interior when, from down the road, Lucy saw headlights grow brighter and larger until the nose of a pickup truck appeared. It pulled into the parking area and turned around. In the light of her lone headlight, she could see that it was pulling a long trailer with a car already on it. The whole rig came to a stop and a tall figure emerged from the truck. Lucy could tell already that Benjamin’s brother, Jack, was not a small person. He stood almost as tall as the pickup next to which he stood.
Immortal Light: Wide Awake Page 3
