Charlie stood on the bridge, watching her the rush of flowing water. She idly wondered how long it would take for the river to carry her to the sea if she just jumped in. Being lost in the endless deep blue didn't seem so bad. It was better than losing her sanity to the crippling anxiety and boredom. And destroying her family's centuries-old legacy.
It had all happened so fast she still couldn't believe it was real. Springtime was just ripe for rain, but a proper thunderstorm tore through the town last night. The boom rattled the windows, startling her into a series of childish quivering. She peeked out the windows to watch the lightning flash and stretch across the sky. Then suddenly her vision went white.
It took a distressingly long time for her to regain her eyesight, long enough for panic to completely take over. When she was able to see again, it became immediately obvious what had caused the temporary blindness. Lightning had struck on the southwestern side of her property, starting a fire that had begun to spread across the tops of the apple trees in the plot just east of the pink apple plot.
Racing out to the porch, she stood frozen in horror as the trees burned, flaming branches falling to the ground and igniting the long grass underneath. As the flames began to rapidly move north, fear compelled her legs to function again. Charlie's screams were drowned out by another blue-silver thunderbolt as it crashed down into the forests farther south. In fear of falling victim to the flames, she ran.
In hindsight it had been a stupid move. Everyone knows you're supposed to stay indoors during active lightning to avoid being struck. At the time, however, the fear of very real fire was greater than the fear of potential electrocution. She sprinted east towards town, ringing the shop's buzzer like her life depended on it. A startled Tal opened the door, and upon seeing how shaken Charlie was, pulled her inside without question.
The rain came shortly thereafter, a torrential downpour battering the windows and roof. It lasted for hours, long enough for Charlie's racing heart to settle and drowsiness to take hold. She managed to grab a few hours of sleep on the living room couch before morning arrived, and after a bracing cup of coffee, Griff walked her home to assess the damage.
The good news was that the rain had snuffed out the fire well before it reached her house. The bad news was the plot of red apple trees—the ones that were set to harvest and ship out that week—had been reduced to nothing by charred stumps and blackened ground.
Somehow, she managed to keep it together in front of Griff, but as soon as he headed off for his shift at the theater she broke down. Who was she kidding? She wasn't cut out to be a Guardian—she didn't even have the first clue where to begin, or how to do even a fraction of what her grandmother had. Marianne was gone, her mother was gone, her dad was gone—she was all alone, and the only one who could give her a clue where to start was stuck in some weird magical coma. Hell, she couldn't even manage the orchard without fucking that up.
Curling up into a ball in middle of her bed, she wept bitterly. She was a failure. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to make it out of the abyss she'd fallen into. She had spent all week finalizing paperwork with Crestwick for those apples, counting down the seconds until she could harvest them—or carry the sacks of sprite-gathered fruits into the shipping bin. Now she would have to tell them that Mother Nature wanted those sweet round fruits for herself.
When her tears were spent and her breathing steady, Charlie forced herself to get up. She needed air. Somewhere clean, away from the smell of charred wood and broken dreams. She swapped her pajamas for a pair of shorts and headed for Forest West.
There was no way she was going to pass the twisted and charred remnants of her family's pride and joy, so she cut through town. The walk helped, and so did the change in scenery.
YOU ARE READING
Ephemeral Reverie #1 - The Silence Between
FantasíaCharlie's lost a lot in the years since her father's death. Returning to Miner's Cove where it happened might just help give the closure she needs, and help her ease into the family job. The only problem is that she never received training. With the...
