Chapter 39
Wrathful, black storm clouds descended on Possibly, Texas the following day.
Bloated with unshed rain, and torpid in their movements overhead, thunderless lightning etched through them sporadically, like illuminated veins practically electrifying the air in town.
The Possibilian breeze ceased and the town grew quiet and still.
When I rose from bed and my bedroom was still dark as night, I had looked through the dormer windows to see if maybe I had been woken in the middle of the night by something.
When I saw the angry clouds hanging bulbously in the sky over Possibly, my gut sank.
Something was coming.
Though I’d lived—even if briefly—on the Gulf Coast during hurricane season, and in Tornado Alley during the spring and early summer, I’d never seen such angry clouds.
They weren’t carrying in a hurricane—Possibly was landlocked far from the Texas coast. A tornado was possible, but the clouds didn’t remind me of how the sky had looked before other tornados I’d seen.
As I knelt there on my bed, staring out at the black clouds through my window, I had a thought that even the craziest of Possibilian would scoff at if they heard it.
The clouds weren’t just bringing weather…they were bringing scorn.
Anger.
Angry was what the sky was.
Over what or whom, I wasn’t sure, but I knew, somewhere deep inside me, that the black clouds above were out for vengeance.
Down in Possibly, I could see that the streets were mostly clear.
Anyone walking in town hurriedly made their way into whatever building was their destination.
No one lingered on the corners catching up with each other.
Earl Dean was nowhere to be seen on Liberty Lane.
Levi Lee wasn’t outside of Starbuck’s, pretending to be part of the hull.
Obviously, he was inside helping out or at home—wherever that might be.
Though Starbuck would have understood if I hadn’t shown up for work on such a day—especially since my job wasn’t integral to the operation of his business—I clambered out of bed and made my way to the shower.
As I was stepping out onto the bath mat and reaching for my towel, the house vibrated with the arrival of thunder.
Overhead, the bathroom light flickered as the sound of the thunder shook the house, then shone brightly once the thunder ceased.
I wrapped the towel around me, as though scandalized, covering myself as I watched the light overhead, waiting to see if we would lose power.
Rain pounding against the windows and side of the house was what I had expected to hear after that first belch of thunder, but the world grew quiet once again.
With the towel clasped tightly around my waist, I tiptoed across the third-floor hall to look out of the window into the backyard.
Jack was nowhere in sight, but his table project in the backyard was encased in the blue tarps, which were strapped down securely with bungee cords.
Apparently, he had woken with the same thoughts. Something was coming; it was going to be bad. Today was not going to be a day where woodworking in the backyard would be possible.
After drying off in my room, fixing my hair, and dressing for work, I jogged downstairs to find that Jack was at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. He looked up when I arrived and signed that he had made breakfast for us.
Even with the nervous energy zig-zagging throughout my body, that brought a smile to my face.
Having Jack acknowledge me—and be pleasant—was a relief.
Following my encounter with Auggie the previous day, every little kindness felt like a stitch to the wound in my heart.
“What did you make?” I asked.
Jack signed that he’d made bacon, eggs, and toast.
“Yum,” I said. “I think I’ll slap some eggs and bacon between some toast. I’ll eat on my way to Starbuck’s.”
Jack nodded along slowly.
“I want to beat the rain.”
He started to sign, then seemed to realize that maybe it was too advanced, and produced his notepad from his breast pocket. I waited until he had finished writing his block letters, then read what he had to say over his shoulder.
Do you think you should go to work today? Starbuck will do fine without you.
“Yeah,” I said. “I thought of that. But I think it’ll be okay. It’s just a storm. Right?”
Jack gave me a crooked grin and shrugged.
It wasn’t as if Jack and I had known each other long. I’d only been living with him for a few months—and I could barely remember him from my early years—but he seemed nervous. The storm was unsettling to him as well. That didn’t ease my worry.
“It’ll be fine.”
He gave me a firm nod, but the serious look in his eyes let me know that he was concerned.
“I’ll hurry to Starbuck’s. I swear.”
Jack signed.
It’s cold outside.
“It…cold?” I frowned; certain I had misunderstood.
He nodded slowly, giving me a look that let me know he knew that was ridiculous, too.
“Like…cold…or unseasonably cold?”
Jack thought on that then lifted his hand and tilted it back and forth while tilting his head back and forth.
“Gotcha. You guys probably don’t get many cool days here in August, huh? Seems like the end of times?”
I smiled and Jack grinned widely, his mouth opening as though he was laughing, though no sound came out. Through his fit of laughter—or his version of it—he jotted another note quickly on the notepad and held it up to me.
Up to you. Be careful.
“I will. Promise.”
Jack went back to his breakfast as I scooped eggs onto a slice of toast and topped them with bacon, though he watched me out of the corner of his eye.
Typically, such a thing would annoy me, being watched over without need, but, for some reason, having Jack showing care for me again helped melt away some of my anxiety over the impending storm.
I’d do my best to make sure he didn’t have a reason to stop caring about me again.
Or, at least, acting as though he didn’t care.
I slid another slice of toast atop the pile of eggs and bacon and pressed it down with the palm of my hand.
“Breakfast panini,” I proclaimed, holding the sandwich up as I spun to look at Jack. “Kind of.”
Jack grinned at my ridiculousness, just as the sky belched out another roll of thunder. The two of us froze as the house rumbled along with the thunder. When things were still and quiet again, Jack started to sign.
“I promise I’ll be careful,” I stopped him. “It will literally take me forty-five seconds to get to Starbuck’s.”
Jack’s whole body straightened and fell, as though he sighed. Then he waved me off with a tight smile.
Up to you. Be careful. He hadn’t written it down again or showed it to me again, but I knew what he had meant by the movement.
“Thanks for the breakfast, man,” I said. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Jack signed “goodbye” to me and I responded verbally, then I jogged out the front door.
As I hustled across the front yard, taking a giant bite from my sandwich—and losing a few of my scrambled eggs in the process—it dawned on me that Jack hadn’t been playing the radio as he normally did in the mornings.
The reason that it occurred to me so suddenly was that in the distance, from the speaker mounted on the pole alongside the road down the street from Jack’s had Amos’ voice pouring from it.
I had walked outside just as he was announcing the song of the day.
Probably for the twentieth time that morning.
“You’ve been listening to AMOR, the most popular radio station in Possibly, Texas. All day long from 6am to 6pm. That was Tiptoe Thru’ the Tulips with Me by Tiny Tim. Next up—Tiptoe Thru’ the Tulips with Me by Tiny Tim!”
When the opening ukulele sounds poured from the speaker as I jogged along the road and Tiny Tim’s falsetto began, a shiver ran up my spine.
Veins of lightning zig-zagged through the heavy, inky clouds overhead, and thunder clapped in the distance.
Growing closer and closer, coming from the east past Susurrus Creek, the thunder rolled through town as the clouds produced their light spectacle.
The pavement underfoot shook angrily. I picked up my pace and my jog turned into a run.
I stuffed the rest of the sandwich down my gullet, choking it down like a python as I raced to work.
The rain was going to come any moment. I just knew it.
When it came, it wasn’t going to drop sprinkles and droplets in a delicate dance.
The clouds would open up and begin dumping every last bit of rain they held, punishing the land below.
I would be soaked within seconds. Buckets would pour down and I’d have no other choice but to either show up to Starbuck’s soaking wet or run back to Jack’s and not show up for work.
Once the rain started, I had no idea how long it would last, but the clouds overhead practically screamed that their fury would not burn out quickly.
Jogging along the road, I’d barely made it past Bend of the Road Graveyard and was just approaching Liberty Lane when thunder crackled overhead.
It wasn’t a rumble or a boom, but more like someone had lit a trail of gunpowder.
Stopping at the end of Liberty Lane, my head crooked back to look up at the darkness overhead.
Lightning crackled through the sky like a Tesla coil and another shiver ran up my spine as the thunder popped and hissed.
Even the lightning wasn’t enough to fully illuminate the sky overhead.
It turned patches of the black clouds into dark and light gray, but their intensity wasn’t diminished by the flashing.
The Possibilian breeze returned, blowing in off Susurrus Creek as I stared at the sky.
First, like a whisper, then as a howl that blew my hair back on my head, ruffling it as the lightning crackled on.