“Okay, losers, what say we take this party outdoors? Cape Arago, anyone?” Dave called out to everyone. Mark jumped up with the rest of the pack and with the speed of old-west gunslingers, they all tore their car keys from their various pockets.
Ten miles away out past Charleston were a bunch of secluded coves and beaches where people liked to go after parties and dances to build campfires and extend the fun. Lucy had never been, so when she looked at Kat, there was obvious excitement in her face. Kat winked at Lucy and they all ran for their cars.
Mark and Lucy raced to Mark’s car, or rather his sister, Amanda’s car. It was a 2005 Toyota Celica that she had purchased before joining the Navy and shipping off to the Persian Gulf. The car was sleek and white and Lucy couldn’t wait to sit in something so much cooler than her little Cavalier. Mark opened the passenger side door and gracefully bowed her in. With a couple of slams they were off to the coves.
As they headed down the coastal highway, Lucy grabbed Mark’s hand. His fingers were warm in hers. She felt it again, the electric-like charge that seemed to come from him. He perked up in the driver’s seat and looked at her. It was strange because it was nearly midnight and he should have been dead tired, but then Lucy thought about how she was feeling: full of energy and excitement and anticipation for the night. Perhaps he was feeling the same.
Up ahead, Lucy could see the red-orange taillights of Dave’s car, a decade-old Honda that was the envy of the entire school with its added features: a spoiler, ground effects, and paint job that cost him his entire summer’s wages working for his uncle.
Behind them, a row of headlights painted the road in a ribbon of white. Dave was the leader of the exodus, and Mark brought up the second spot. Everyone else followed their lead. Feeling Mark’s fingers wrapped around her hand, she squeezed them tighter and the electric sensation increased even more.
“I like that,” he said pressing on the accelerator. “Maybe we can give ol’ Davie a run for his money.”
Mark downshifted from fifth, came right up on Dave’s tail, and started flashing his lights. He was laughing, almost giggling like an excited little boy waiting to get into Disneyland for the first time. He seemed so full of energy and life and Lucy couldn’t help but giggle with him.
As Newmark Street became four lanes, Dave swerved into the left westbound lane and the fire-red glow of his lights lit up the inside of the Celica as he slowed down to pull alongside Lucy and Mark. Kat’s window was down, and her teeth gleamed in the night like a Cheshire cat as she waved at Lucy.
Mark stayed right alongside Dave and rolled his window down. Air rushed in like a windstorm, and Lucy grabbed her hair to keep it from whipping her face. She closed her eyes for just a moment before hearing Dave’s voice yelling over the sound of the road.
“Hey, Thompson! You think your ride can keep up?”
Mark leaned his head out the window and smiled back at Dave’s playful challenge. “Why don’t we find out? Intersection at Norman, first white line we hit it!”
“You’re on!”
That was all the two needed to seal the deal. As the windows went up, Lucy made eye contact with Kat and she waved enthusiastically. Kat waved back.
Mark looked over at his date. “You ready for this?”
Lucy was full of nerves. “I guess so.”
She checked her belt to make sure it was secure and settled snugly into her seat. A few hundred yards ahead, she could see the next intersection. It was lighted by the orange glow of street lamps.
Mark looked over at Dave, then back at Lucy.
“So you’re going to race. What does the winner get?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, it’s a little tradition we have. It’s nothing big. We race a quarter mile to the next light and the winner gets to be lead-car for the rest of the trip to the coves. I just hope there aren’t any cops out tonight.”
“Is it normal for there not to be cops out here?”
“Well, as long as we’re safe, they sort of let us play, so I guess I just hope there aren’t any other cars out here so it doesn’t look unsafe.”
“Oh,” Lucy said as she lowered herself further into her seat.
The white line was coming into view at Norman Avenue and Lucy’s heart started racing. Anxious nerves were shooting up and down her spine. She wanted to grab Mark’s hand, but she thought that a foul since he would need it to shift when the race started; so at about the one-hundred-yard point she leaned over, grabbed him by the face and, without obstructing his view, kissed him forcefully on the cheek and whispered “Good Luck” in his ear. She repositioned herself firmly in the seat, her feet against the firewall.
Mark’s eyes were wide for a moment as he looked one last time at Lucy. A new wave of fresh emotion seemed to fill his body as he focused on the road.
The lights were green up ahead and as the two cars neared the starting line, their drivers evened up their bumpers until they were as perfectly aligned as they could make themselves while driving thirty-five miles per hour. Lucy grabbed the door handle as she smiled through a tense jaw. When the white line disappeared under the front of the car, she closed her eyes and she was thrown back into her seat as the cars were propelled into the darkness between stop lights.
The sensation was absolutely thrilling and a little scary as Lucy felt the car’s acceleration around her. She had never experienced anything like the sheer unbridled speed that she was feeling at that moment. The car revved higher than Lucy had ever heard an engine go before, and just when she felt the car might take flight, her body lurched forward momentarily as Mark shifted into his final gear.
Lucy opened her eyes again as she was once again thrown back into her seat. The quarter-mile mark of the next stop light was quickly approaching. Lucy was amazed at how fast the distance had been covered. She relaxed her grip on the door as the race neared an end.
Looking over, she saw that Dave’s car was still nearly even with theirs. She didn’t know how fast they were going, and all she could see was that the bright red needle of the speedometer was pointing right in her direction. On any speedometer that would be an indication of going quite fast.
Lucy didn’t say anything when suddenly she felt a strange horrifying sensation in her entire body. It felt like someone had pulled the plug on the bathtub and all the excitement had flowed from her, leaving nothing but a strange emptiness. Lucy became uneasy as the green traffic signal got closer. It should have been a comforting feeling, since it meant the race would be over, but there was only a growing sense of apprehension or fear that seemed to be taking over her body.
They shot through the green light, which should have been the end of the race, but the two boys didn’t seem to be slowing down. Lucy looked over to see that they were still dead even with Dave’s car.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice shaky and tense.
“Just one more light; I think I can beat him.”
“But what about that curve? You can’t see around it.” Lucy looked at the road, knowing that beyond the light at Main Street there was a blind curve by the post office. She tried not to think about the possible dangers of sailing into it at such high speeds in the dark.
“It should be clear. There’s no one out here.”
Lucy’s eyes darted around, looking at all the side streets and sidewalks. She looked for any sign of danger at all.
Mark held tight to the steering wheel. “Is this scaring you? I’ll stop if it is.” He glanced over at Lucy, then reapplied his attention to the road.
Lucy didn’t want to be a wet blanket on tradition, in spite of her indescribable uneasiness about the whole thing. “No, it’s okay, but let’s just make this the last one?”
Mark looked at her warmly. “You got it. If it’s not decided by Main Street, I’ll hit the brakes and forfeit.”
“Okay,” Lucy said as she sat back in her seat. She closed her eyes and rested her arm on the window, putting her thumb and forefinger to her forehead to try and shake
the uneasiness.
Her eyes shot open suddenly. She felt for a moment that something awful was about to happen. Mark was looking over at Dave’s car, gauging the slight lead he had, when they blew through the intersection at Main Street and sped into the shallow turn. She felt him take his foot off the gas and the car subtly began to decelerate. Then, before she could even warn him or scream, she looked out the window and saw in the darkness, an eighteen-wheeler not twenty yards ahead, pulling into the road from the next side street. They were going to plow right into the back wheels of the tractor section. Just as Lucy wanted to scream, it was suddenly and inexplicably clear what she needed to do.
Without thinking, her body reacted as if by sheer instinct. She reached up and, with all the strength she had, grabbed Mark’s body with her left arm and the steering wheel with her right arm and pulled them violently in her direction. She felt the car jerk to the right, which made their bodies want to stay left, but she somehow willed the two of them down as low as they could possibly go below the level of the dashboard.
At the moment of impact, Lucy felt shards of glass hit her face and arms. The screech of metal was deafening, but she held on with all her might to Mark’s body, pinning him on top of her with her hand clutching the back of his head to resist the reflex of sitting up. Every part of the car above them seemed to explode in a cacophony of earsplitting horror, and suddenly there was nothing but wind and the sound of ricocheting metal and glass behind them.
She had done all she could do, but something was still wrong. She felt a quick lurch as the car accelerated, realizing Mark’s foot was still resting on the gas pedal. Opening her eyes, she saw copious amounts of blood soaking the hair just above his right ear, and then a violent bang and a jolt sent everything into blackness.
Lucy lay motionless. She could feel her eyes moving behind the lids. Everything outside of her was quiet and calm. Sensing no weight on her, she shot upright and realized she was sitting on the ground. The forest was the same as it had been. She jumped to her feet. Looking around at the trees, her heart pounded in her chest.
“This is wrong. This is all wrong,” she said out loud as she looked toward the sun. Not knowing what to do, she started to yell for the only other person she knew would be there. “Benjamin! Benjamin! I need your help!”
There was no reply and no sign of him. She looked around frantically in the recesses of the trees.
“Please tell me you’re here!” she yelled.
As she finished scanning the woods, hoping to see the person she had been avoiding for days, she noticed that Mark was lying near her in the clearing. Somehow he was there.
“Mark!” she yelled as she ran to him and dropped down beside him.
His eyes were closed and his face was peaceful. She gently turned his head to look at his right ear. The last time she had seen it, the brief second she had had to look at him before being thrust back to the rainforest, he was bleeding from that spot. But it looked just fine; there wasn’t even a scratch. His hair wasn’t so much as tousled out of place. He looked perfect.
With her hands on his chest, she softly shook him. “Mark, Mark, can you hear me?”
He didn’t respond.
She put her face close to his face with both hands on his cheeks. She could feel tears welling up inside. A terrifying feeling began to rip its way through her body, a feeling that he might be dead. The tears rolled down her cheeks as she pleaded with him to respond.
“Please, Mark, please. Wake up. I need you to wake up.”
She touched her forehead to his and the torrent of tears flowed freely. Mark still didn’t move.
Lucy had to get help. At the very least she had to get out of this dream and back to reality where she could help him. Benjamin had to be there somewhere. He was always there. She didn’t even know why it was pertinent; it was all a dream. She was making it all up in her subconscious, so it didn’t really matter if she found Benjamin at all. But, the fact still remained that, in the waking world, Mark was badly hurt, and she might be, too, and Benjamin was somehow the key to her waking up.
As she closed her eyes to regain her faculties, she heard something behind her. It sounded like footsteps running through the undergrowth of the forest. Lucy stood up quickly.
From directly ahead of her, she saw a figure moving rapidly toward her. She could tell it was Benjamin by the shape of his body and the familiar stride. A chill went up her back as she remembered the last dream she had, and just like the last dream, as he got closer, she saw the sword in his hand. In a way, she welcomed a repeat of the last dream; at least she would wake up.
She clenched every muscle in her body waiting for the sword to pierce her chest, but to her surprise, she saw Benjamin slow to a walk, and just before he entered the clearing, he stopped and sheathed his sword in its scabbard. He stood there in the shadows looking at her.
“Benjamin, I need your help. He’s going to bleed to death if I don’t wake up. How do I get out of here?”
“It’s going to be alright, Lucy,” he said, taking steps toward her.
“I need to wake up, how do I do that?”
As he approached, she could see his sparkling green eyes and they were soft and gentle.
“That’s the last thing you should do if you want to save him. If you want him to live, you have to save him from right here,” Benjamin said.
“What are you talking about? This is a dream; I can’t do anything from here!” Lucy said frantically.
“You have a special gift, Lucy, and right now you’re going to use it to save Mark.”
“What are you saying? I don’t have any gifts; this is a dream! It’s just a dream! I need to wake up if I’m going to save him!”
“You know what your gift is; you’ve seen it work before. Focus on him. I’ll help you however I can, but I’m not there, so I can’t do it for you.” Benjamin came up behind her as she sat down beside Mark. “You need to trust yourself. It is in you. I believe in you. Now you have to believe.”
Lucy felt confused and scared. She had no idea what he meant about her gift. She looked back toward Benjamin and tears came again. Her eyes pleaded with Benjamin to help her.
“Lucy, you have an internal energy that I know you’ve felt before. You need to use that energy to save Mark.” He looked into her eyes, “I know you can do this.”
Looking back at Mark’s serene and motionless body, she wiped the tears from her cheek. “But I can’t! I don’t even know what you mean. Please, help me.”
“I can’t; you have to do this, Lucy.”
“No! Please, you have to.” She was starting to get manic.
“You can do this, Lucy,” Benjamin said encouragingly.
With a pained and seemingly frustrated expression on his face, he turned around and headed back into the woods. Lucy jumped up to chase after him, but Mark needed her.
“No, you can’t leave me!” she yelled after him. “Not Now! I can’t do this!” Her plea became convulsive gasps as fear contorted her body and she cried out, “You can’t leave me; I don’t want him to die! Don’t you get it? He’s dying and I’m trapped here!”
She doubled over, sobbing, falling to the ground. She ripped a handful of fern leaves from a nearby plant and felt the foliage crumple in her fingers. In her anger she wanted to turn them into dust. She wanted to pulverize them out of frustration toward Benjamin. All she had known of him was abandonment and fear. Why couldn’t she just let him go and go back to her life? Why couldn’t she wake up and get help for Mark?
As Lucy sobbed, her body relaxed. In her hands she held the mutilated leaves and as she felt the texture of them she suddenly felt compassion for them. She felt shame at her actions and pity toward the destroyed life for which she had shown such disrespect. As she looked through the obscurity of her tears, she tried to stretch out the fragile stems and leaves she had just tried to destroy. Doing so, she alarmingly noticed that bright, rich color had begun to spread from each vein of each leaf she held. S
he wiped her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Without a single doubt, the leaves were revitalizing. She picked up the pieces she had dropped and held them all together. Vivid green was spreading all over and she felt something tickling her knees. Looking down she saw that from the base of the leaves, very thin winding roots had sprouted and were reaching toward the ground, demanding nutrients. Life was being renewed to the plant. Life as it was meant to be. New life was given, and the plant accepted it.
Lucy’s eyes opened wide in surprise; she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It made sense because of her past experiences, but here it was, happening right in front of her. The plant was coming back to life just like the moth, like the bird. Holding the plant to the ground, Lucy watched as its roots dug deeply into the soil and drank up the richness of its new home. It was amazing to see the plant sprout new leaves and the coarse tendrils elongate as they stretched out, not toward the sun, but toward Lucy.
That’s it, Lucy though to herself. That’s what it is.
She released the plant and turned toward Mark lying nearby. Recalling the moth at her desk and the bird in her yard, understanding coursed through her.
“Is it that easy?” she said in disbelief at the notion.
With a sense of panicked urgency, she threw herself down and wrapped her arms around Mark’s neck and shoulders, cradling his head. She was surprised when she felt the electric sensation again that she had felt on the dance floor and in the car. She suddenly realized that the electricity had not been coming from him; it was coming from her. She held Mark tighter, and it didn’t matter that it was all supposed to be a dream. She simply focused all of her life force on Mark. The electric sensation engulfed not just her arms, but her whole body.
“Come on, Mark. Wake up. I need you. I need you to live.”
She tried with all of her strength to summon enough energy to revive him, but he still felt like dead weight in her arms. It wasn’t enough. She wasn’t enough.
Immortal Light: Wide Awake Page 10
