THE EVENT

by Jamie Heppner

"No, but can you see what Dawn is pointing to"

  His eyes went out of focus a minute as she must have sent him a vision as well and he glanced out where her hand was still pointing.

  "Yes, I think she is right. That does look like a place that has survived somehow. The light is fading pretty quickly so it’s hard to see."

  My mother walked up behind us all, never missing a step.

  "We should set up camp before it gets too dark I think."

  My father looked a moment longer at the fading patch far away. I thought for a minute he was going to start walking right now but he shook himself and nodded to my mother.

  "Yes, let’s see what we can do about some dinner. I'm famished!"

  Darkness fell around us but didn't bring any cold air. Occasionally one of us would go and look over the ridge at the next valley only to return a few moments later. The fires kept the valley pretty well lit. Spots of red in the darkness looked almost like lava flows. Now and then, there would be a large flair up as the fire found a new source hidden under some ash. The bursts didn't last long, and would die quickly. The patch of green we had seen was no longer viewable. As I looked out, I could make out the faintest of lights. The plants there lived as they did in our valley. My parents broke off from us after we all made camp and talked silently about the changes that had taken place, as well as the possibility of our plans. Dawn and I didn't find a lot of interest in their conversation though so we eventually walked back up to the ridge to look at the valley below.

  "What do you think about the plants we saw? Was it an oasis?"

  Dawn looked out over the burning valley and projected an image of us all walking through the ash towards it.

  "No, I don't think Dad will let us all go. He wants to, but I don't think he will let us go there quite yet. My mom did a very good job walking up here with him. If I didn't know, better I would say that she could see as well as the rest of us. He won't take her across, not without more supplies. No, now’s not the time."

  Dawn nodded her head as she looked at me and projected the same image again. Only this time it was just her walking with me. I snickered to myself at the thought.

  "No that’s less likely than all of us. I think Dad would have something to say about that."

  Dawn nodded again as she looked out over the valley. Her face showed a slight sadness to it in the red glow from the valley burning below.

  We sat in silence for a while longer, listening to the conversation of my parents change to more mundane topics of weather, food and eventually they too fell silent as the night drew on. Dawn stood to go back to the camp and projected an image of bed to me. As I stood, I thought of a question that had never occurred to me.

  "Dawn, where did you come from?"

  Dawn stopped and faced away from me. Slowly she turned back to me and looked me in the eyes.

  A flood of images broke into my mind, so many broken images, or just a flash of something hit me one after the other I couldn't understand any of them. Mostly I saw just greyness. A fog, as though everything was so out of focus you couldn't see two feet in front of you. Then they stopped.

  It took me a minute to try to understand what she had shown me."You don't know, do you?"

  Dawn shook her head in response.

  "Is that why you want to go to the next valley then? Perhaps something there might tell you?"

  Dawn shrugged, but her head did rise a little more.

  "I promise to try and take you there then, one day."

  She smiled in response and walked back to the camp again, her step was a lot lighter, almost a skip.

  Morning broke with clear skies once again; we were all getting a little more used to it and stopped asking each other the whys, no-one could think of a reason. We ate breakfast over a small fire my father made, and made sure to clean up all of our traces. Mom insisted we take every item. Soon my father insisted that we start our return trip if we wanted to make it back in decent time. Our bags were packed and once again, my Dad took the larger share. Not that anyone complained of course. He didn't even groan as he shouldered the pack. We all walked to the top one last time to look over the destruction. It hadn't changed since the day before.

  "How long can it keep burning?" Shade asked as everyone looked out over the ash.

  "I don't know, but it can't go forever, I wouldn't think. But how can it be burning this long?"

  No one could answer that question. Our little trip had shown us much but only left us with more questions than before. As the sun grew a little higher, a small green strip appeared on the far valley once again.

  "At least it's still there." Shade said. Dawn projected me an image of us walking the ash again and gave me a small smile. My father just nodded as he too stared out over the ash and wind. With that, we all turned and started down the trail once again.

  Progress back was much quicker than the way up. Familiar sights once again flooded our vision as we practically flew back down the side of the valley to our home in the woods. Dawn and I ran ahead soaking up the sunlight and the sounds of the forest. The ground itself seemed to cushion our feet as we almost bounced down the path towards home. A few hours passed and we spent them wrapped up in the joys of being young and free, when an unnatural snap and a blood-wrenching scream came from behind us. Dawn projected a question to me, as she didn't know what it was either. I turned back up the trail, and ran as fast as I could to my parents with Dawn trailing close behind. I found my mom lying across the trail with my dad standing over her, a look of shock on his face.

  I saw my mom's leg bent at an unnatural angle and her foot trapped between two rocks. She lay on the ground sobbing. Her face began turning white from shock. My dad seemed frozen unable to move.

  "What happened? Dad?"

  "I, I, I'm not sure... I wasn't paying attention. I was too absorbed in my thoughts and... I must have not seen the rocks."

  With that, he reached down and gently tried to pull my mom's foot from between the rocks. The effort obviously hurt her more as she screamed in response to the movement. He gently let her go.

  "It's still stuck hon." She spoke between sobs.

  Shade reached down and tried to pull the rock from the ground but the best he could do was barely wiggle it side to side.

  "Maybe I can get it loose and you can pull her foot free?"

  Something in my Dad snapped as he realized this was his fault. "Let me give it a shot."

  Shade moved aside carefully. His father reached down and placed both hands on the rock to the side. Looking at mom to make sure his efforts didn't cause more pain he pulled up sharp on the rock. The rock flew up out of his hands and ended up thirty feet away crashing into a tree. It was only because he was looking at mom that he didn't smash himself in the face with it. A deep hole remained where the rock had been stuck.

  "I thought you said it wouldn't move!" He said angrily at Shade. "I almost killed myself!"

  "It didn't! I could only just barely move it!"

  Dawn projected an image of mom again to the both of us. My father shook his head at me and moved back to my mother.

  "Never mind then. We have to help your mother now. We will talk about your little joke later."

  My dad began administering to mom as best he could. Dawn approached me and gave a questioning look.

  "I pulled on that rock as hard as I could. There was no way I could have budged it without a shovel or something. I have no idea what happened."

  Dawn just looked into my eyes and nodded at me.

  "We need to get your mother home. This looks like a bad break." He reached down under my mom and gently as he could just lifted her up in his arms. The packs of two people were still on his back.

  "Let’s go." Was all he said, he started fast walking down the trail to our home. Dawn and I brought up the rear, trying to keep up with his forced pace.

  We continued like that for at least two more hours without a stop. We were getting closer to home fast, but we still had a few hours to go when
I looked back at Dawn. She didn't look too good. Her hair was slick against her head from sweat. She didn't project anything when she saw me looking but just nodded as to say. Keep going, I can do it. I nodded back at her and we both lowered our heads and kept moving. Only the occasional sobs of my Mom broke the silence as Dad hit a bump on the path a little too hard. Thirty minutes later my Dad and Mom had gone farther ahead of us. Far enough that they couldn't hear both Dawn's and my own laboured breathing. My father hadn't looked back once since we had started again.

  "How is he doing it?" I asked between breaths to Dawn. "He is carrying two packs and Mom, yet he hasn't stopped for a single break. We can't keep up!"

  Dawn looked at my eyes and projected to me an image of her healing my mother, the same as she had done for my father's wound. It already seemed so long ago.

  "She will need us. Ok, let’s see if we can catch up and get him to stop even for a few minutes."

  Catching up was harder than they thought. Dawn and Shade ran as hard as their tired bodies would let them, but only rarely did they catch a glimpse of the older couple up ahead. Before long, both of them began to stumble, and Dawn went down to the ground in a pile of bushes at the side of the path. She lay there just breathing for some time as Shade came back to check and see if she was ok.

  "Are you hurt?"

  Dawn shook her head no and tried to stand again.

  "Do you think you can project to Dad and get him to stop a minute?"

  Dawn nodded yes and her eyes glazed over a second as she tried to reach out farther. Only a few seconds passed and she sat down hard on the trail again.

  "Did it work?"

  A weak shrug of the shoulders was her only response. Shade stood catching his breath waiting for Dawn to do the same. He kept glancing from her to the trail ahead as he slowly started to feel some of his strength return. Within moments, my father came back down the trail still carrying my mother and the two packs at the same time. It was impossible to consider but he looked the exact same as he had hours before. Not a single drip of sweat was on his forehead, back or shirt. It looked like he had just started the walk.

  "What’s wrong? Why did Dawn tell me to stop?"

  Then he looked down at the two panting for breath and stopped in his tracks. "Why are you both so tired?"

  "Dad, we have been almost running for three hours trying to keep up to you. Aren't you even tired yet?"

  My father turned to look up at the sky. The sun hung low on the western horizon as night was only a few more hours away.

  "I feel, I feel, like I have been walking only a few minutes. How can that be? I was just thinking how stupid I had been to let this happen to your mother. I wasn't really paying any attention while I walked, except to try and keep her from more pain."

  "Dad you practically ran the last hours, it was all we could do to keep up."

  My Mom was silent, as she must have fallen asleep. From the pain, or the exhaustion, I couldn't tell.

  Dad looked at her and spoke again to us."It seems you three aren't the only ones to change. I will have to think about this later; we need to get her home now though. That break is bad and if it’s not set properly your mom might have trouble walking when it does heal. We can take a few minutes but we must get home so I can set her foot properly."

  Dawn struggled to stand again but my father stopped her.

  "I can see you need more then this small amount of time. We will wait a little longer."

  Dawn lay back down on the ground thankful for the rest.

  "Dawn thinks she can heal mom, kind of like she did to you I think." Shade spoke when his breath had evened out some again.

  Dawn nodded yes, as she stood again.

  "Can you do it right now?" My father stared at Dawn his changed eyes hopeful.

  Dawn replied with a sad no.

  "We're too tired now Dad." Shade said as he studied Dawn "When we tried to heal you last time it was almost too much for Dawn. However she did it then, it took a lot of our strength. I think we need to be more rested then we are right now."

  My Dad looked down at his wife’s face.

  "Are you ok to start walking again, perhaps a little slower this time?"

  Dawn and Shade both nodded in unison as my father started down the trail again, this time at a much more manageable pace.

  When we finally came into the clearing around our house, my father stopped abruptly.

  "Do you smell that?" He whispered as he raised his nose into the air and drew in deep breaths.

  Shade and Dawn both tried to smell anything, but only got the usual scent of the lake, trees and fresh air.

  "No, nothing out of the usual." Shade said after a few attempts.

  "Someone has been here, I can smell them. It’s like a bad perfume. How can you not smell it? It’s so strong. It's like they wanted someone to know."

  The two youths tried again to no avail. "Sorry Dad, I just can't smell it."

  "Never mind, we are here let's get her inside and see what you can do."

  The three moved into the cabin my father in the lead. He insisted the smell was worse inside then out. It didn't take too long to notice that he had been right. Someone had been here but had left before we got back. The place was a mess. It looked like someone had ransacked the entire cabin in a search for something. It was such a mess. We couldn't see if anything had gone missing.

  A deep growl broke from my father's throat. "We can straighten this out later. Please, Dawn. See what you can do for her?"

  My father gently lay down Mom onto her bed. The action of moving her legs down caused her to admit a small squeak as her broken leg slid down along the bed.

  Dawn's eyes glazed as she projected that we would have to straighten the leg first. This made my Dad cringe as the idea sunk in. He whispered a sorry to Mom as he grabbed both sides of the break and pulled on them to try to reset the bone. The scream that broke from my mother’s throat was unlike one I had ever heard before. It broke off suddenly as the pain overcame her and she passed out once again on the bed. Dawn moved over to her then and placed her hand lightly over the broken area. Shade moved over to Dawn and placed his own hand on top of hers. However, this time she shook her head no. It was a difficult thing for her to project to me this time but I got the general idea. "I'm strong enough alone this time." Dawn's eyes glazed over as her face took on the look of concentration Shade had seen once before. A small light formed under her hand in the space between wound and herself. Shade's father looked at Dawn as his eyes opened in amazement.

  "Is this what you two did for me?"

  Shade simply nodded yes, as he watched the light grow brighter under Dawn's hand.

  "How is there a light coming from there?" Shade's father stared confused at the light he could now see.

  Shade took his eyes away only for a moment to look at his father, concern and confusion twisting his features as he watched Dawn proceed. "I don't know Dad, she doesn't either, and she just does it."

  Shade looked back at Dawn's progress and saw the light inside her start to dim slightly. He moved forward to offer his hand and his own power like the last time. A quick shake of Dawn's head though told him she didn't need it, as she pulled her own hand away. The light underneath faded to oblivion as Dawn sat back. She looked up from Mom and projected. "Sleep."

  My father nodded. The projections didn't affect him anymore, he had already accepted them. He sat down in a chair next to her bed, just watching her for signs of anything. It looked to Shade as if her face was much more relaxed now. Shade and Dawn moved outside into the night air to give her some quiet.

  "How come you didn't need help this time? How did you know you could do it?" Shade asked quietly while looking up at the stars ahead. Their lights were crisp and clear in the darkness. There were so many stars overhead, had there always been so many stars?

  Shade looked at Dawn's face, her frustrations of communication showing in her eyes. Dawn moved closer to Shade and placed her hands on either side o
f his head, palms touching his temples.

  "I don't know how I know; it’s the same as when your father was ill, I could just tell how bad it was by looking at their lights."

  Shock blossomed in Shade's face as the voice inside his head had spoke to him. It was the voice of young woman and it matched her perfectly. The words spoken so clear, the sound so beautiful inside his mind, Shade caught himself staring at her face a while.

  "You can talk!?"

  Dawn blushed as she looked away from him a moment then spoke again inside his mind with her hands held still.

  "Yes, the projections are more useful since I don't have to be in direct contact, sometimes though they don't suffice. Like now, so this is the best way to communicate. I didn't know it would work for sure until I tried it. I don't think I can do it that often though; it feels quite tiring and is very intimate."

  The shock wore off Shade some as she continued to speak to him, trying her best to explain things she herself didn't really understand.

  "The light inside of us is energy; I can feel it almost like a battery, it has a lot of power that we can use. When we healed your father, he was so close to death that it took more than I had. Almost more then you had too. Only the both of us could undo the damage caused. I think that something changed in him though that night. I missed something that didn't get healed perhaps."

  "So why can't I do what you do? Why can't I heal others?"

  "I don't know...you have the power inside you. I can see it there and I tapped it helping your father. Perhaps yours is different somehow.

  "I can see the lights inside things too, anything living anyway. Other things like our old car just seem empty, dead."

  "I see that too. Your mom will be ok. I repaired the wound, but I don't know if it was soon enough. We should have done it right away. I don't know what other damages have been done to her."

  Shade looked towards the small cabin aglow in the starlight. Soft voices broke the silence as his mother woke up and started talking to her husband.

  Dawn removed her hands from Shade and walked back into the cabin to see Shade's parents talking quietly. Shade's mom was already sitting up and looked much better then she had not hours before.