Written by Danielle E. Pasqua
Copyright April 26, 2017
When thunder clouds would roll in, I would lay near the living room window, counting just when lightning would strike again. But as I watched hail bounce off the front porch and the glass of the picture window, I couldn’t help to observe that the clouds had suddenly disappeared, but not the lightning.
“That can’t be,” I cried as I jumped up and down,” There’s no way the flashes could still be occurring.”
“You should be a meteorologist, Noah,” my sister Lacey mocked me as she turned a page on her music sheet rehearsing “God Bless America” for the Stars and Stripes Festival the following weekend.
“No, a detective,” I corrected. Then I picked up my phone off the coffee table.
“Huh?” Lacey didn’t understand as she finished the last note of the song.
“You know, a secret agent. That’s for the high-tech world,” I explained as I searched on my phone for my friends’ numbers.
“Who are you calling?” Lacey asked as she put her music sheets away. Instead of her piano playing, there was only the humming of the air conditioning unit in the window.
“Xavier,” I answered,” He’s a good buddy of mine.”
“I know your old enough to stay home alone. But Mom said for me to be home with you,” Lacey ordered as she stood up from the piano with her hand on her hip,” I am the oldest so you have to listen to me.”
“You don’t want me to go,” I scowled at my sister as I waited for Xavier to pick up,” Why not?”
“Mom doesn’t know how late she’ll be,” Lacey explained,” Going to her monthly craft show and then with Dad to- “
“Dad? Where’d they go?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” Lacey answered as she put her hand over her mouth,” Anyhow Mom said for us to heat pizza up in the toaster oven.”
“I love pizza, but my friends and I have a job to do,” I debated between company and pizza, as my sister headed towards the kitchen, but I couldn’t deny that the continuous blinking in the sky was more interesting than cheese and sauce.
“What job?” Lacey questioned as she turned around. There was a tone of suspicion in her voice.
“Since “The Rock” is gone. Now there’s endless lightning,” I tried my best to reason with my sister. Outside the domination of the storm’s darkness was sparse. There was now a double rainbow, yet behind it, there was more lightning. Then I took a deep breath and said,” I’d like to find out more.”
“You don’t want to watch TV while I heat up our dinner?” Lacey asked. She then proceeded back to the kitchen.
“No…. Hey Ian…. Did you see that lightning…Me too…? It is strange indeed,” I ignored my sister as I sat on my father’s recliner gabbing with my friend, “If you see Xavier on his bike tell him to turn up his ringer. Then we’ll see where this electric source is coming from.”
“I wouldn’t trace that lightning. That’s dangerous,” Lacey warned as she ran from the kitchen overhearing my conversation.
“Not if it’s man made,” I boasted as I threw both my phone and water in my backpack and then whined,” This house is so bizarre. So is the sky. An opening to a world one could only imagine.”
“Then write something about it,” Lacey winked,” Mom always said you were good at telling- “
“Stories,” I finished the sentence, but not giving up on something that might have a true explanation. I thought of this vividly, as I walked the neighborhood tracking my friends and the continuous lightning bolts in the Western sky.
There was a business park there.
That was where my father worked.
I was interested in learning about machinery.
Very much so.
A large building spiked into the zodiacal light of the clear sunset, that Xavier, Ian and I witnessed as we tried our best to camouflage ourselves in the nearby pine trees. There was a huge lot, paved with markings, in a mathematical code, that was unknown to us boys.
“What does that say?” Xavier demanded.
“I don’t know,” I answered,” When we take Calculus in high school we’ll understand.”
“How do you know its Calculus?” Xavier asked.
“My father had a paper at his desk-,” I caught myself, putting two and two together, that it possibly had meant something.
Xavier was not paying attention. He watched Ian read a sign and motioned for us to come over.
Xavier and I followed him. To most onlookers at top secret sights, one would think it would say “Danger: High Voltage” but this one said,” Witness ‘The Lightning Rod.’”
“That’s strange,” I commented.
“So, Ian are you going to take a picture of it?” Xavier laughed,” That’s if it shows up in your photo gallery.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Ian didn’t mind his friend’s sarcasm,” Just like ‘The Rock.’ It has been two weeks since then. I’ve checked my phone a hundred- “
Then the garage of the warehouse opened. A vehicle with jagged edges standing out on its’ triangular form emerged with such energy that the boys stood back in awe and wonder as they watched this ship of some sort park itself around the equations. Then it locked its’ wheels into place and stood there for a moment.
“What’s it doing now?” Xavier asked.
“I know,” I pointed to the sky where a thunder cloud rotated around and around. The top of the ship opened and a bolt of lightning struck, its’ deadly energy was consumed by the vehicle. Xavier and Ian both turned to me and I knew I couldn’t doubt myself,” I just guessed that would happen.”
“What does your father do for a living?” Xavier asked.
“I assumed he did something with cars. Not planes. But this?” I questioned as the vehicle put itself into reverse and back again into the garage of this mysterious factory.
“Well, he’s doing something high tech,” Xavier guessed.
“Look Noah, there’s your Dad,” Ian pointed out a man in a blue uniform walking out one of the side doors with two other men. There was a distinct square logo on the front of his shirt that said, “High Tech Star Gateway Machinery.”
“Don’t let them see me,” I hid behind the trees,” Com’n let’s go. I’m out of breath from fear.”
Then my friends and I took off through the trails that led back to our neighborhood. I believed my father had seen me, but I didn’t need that image to haunt me now. Instead I knew I had to accept my father’s secrecy. But I believed my father’s intentions were not bad, but rather good.
“I bet they’re using that lightning for energy,” I predicted as my friends and I reached our development,” Either to explore the stars or help our planet.”
“There’s only so much petroleum left on the planet,” Ian agreed,” You would’ve thought they did something about it. The dinosaurs have been gone for 65 million years.”
“But technology didn’t come into place until later,” I mentioned as we reached the starting end of our cul-de-sac,” the Industrial Revolution kicked everything off.”
“Yeah, I remember that topic in social studies,” Ian recalled as we hurried along to our houses.
“There’s my Mom,” I nearly gasped as I saw her standing on my front yard,” Why is she home?”
“Don’t know. See you later. My Mom’s making burgers,” Xavier laughed skipping across the side of his house, where the smoke from his Mom’s grill circled the air above.
“We’re going to dinner somewhere,” Ian’s happiness was clear as he ran up his driveway to greet both parents who returned from work.
But my mother had a blank look upon her face. She didn’t work like my friends’ mothers. Or did she?
When I reached to where she was standing I waved my hand across her face.
She only asked,” Did you write your story?”
“About what?” I asked,” ‘The Rock’?”
“No, ‘The Lightning Rod,’” she answered.
“Lacey told you,” I looked away covering my guilt, although from my mother’s ghostly stare, I believed I wasn’t the only one at fault.
“I just assumed,” my mother answered,” You’ve always been interesting in summer storms.”
“What about your craft class?” I asked.
“Oh, it was fine,” my mother laughed,” But somethings are a priority.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“My children’s safety,” my mother answered and then asked,” Did you witness ‘The Lightning Rod?’”
I just wanted to run. But instead my curiosity rose. Technology and the deep secrets of my family.