My little fire—a little lightning
made for a great lighter—was crackling and drying me out quite nicely when the
green water rippled and Maddy rose out of the surface. As usual, she was
wearing a wetsuit. She grinned at me, but also cocked her head to one side,
puzzled.
“This does not seem like a social
call,” she said.
I shook my head. “Nope, end of the
world kind of thing. You hear about the storm barreling towards Florida?”
She shook her head.
It wasn’t surprising. The Aquarians
spent most of their time in the water, so they didn’t exactly have instant
access to the web. Even if they had waterproof gear, a signal couldn’t get
through the water.
I pulled up my phone and showed her
the animated radar map.
“You came up here specifically for
my help, not just an Aquarian.”
“Yup, time for us to do the thing.”
She reached out her hand and closed
her eyes, concentrating.
I took her hand and also closed my
eyes.
The concentration was not a
focusing of intent on something. That would actually make things worse.
Instead, I focused on shifting myself. I had to reach a different state of
mind, one more like hers, while she had to do the same with me. Instead of
being the rapid, changeable nature of the winds, I had to smooth it out, go
more with the flow. Abrupt changes of mood would give way to evenness and
acceptance. I surrendered to the river’s current.
Nothing happened.
I peeked with one eye. Maddy’s face
was scrunched in concentration, but I felt nothing.
Maddy
always has to be mad at me to get there. Guess it’s time for me to help out.
With my free hand, I made tiny
currents of air brush her neck and ears. She shivered. I did it again. I kept
it up until she let out a snort of laughter.
“Stop it; that’s distracting.”
“Nope.”
She began to convulse as the air
tickled her neck.
“Reilly!”
And then my senses expanded. I
could feel the current in the lake. The cold no longer bothered me and my eyes
could see down into the water where a small rowboat had sunk, probably decades
ago.
I reached out, willing the water to
spin and flow into a small water spout, and then crystallize into a small chunk
of ice that plopped back to the water.
Maddy reached out, gusting a breeze
that rippled against the lake’s waves.
“Let’s do this,” I said, letting
loose a green-blue bolt of lightning that catapulted us into the sky.