The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 4: The Chorus of Thunder

"What happened there, James?" asked Andrew after the race. Andrew had finished first, Amber second, and James had finished waaaaay after everyone else.

"I heard you guys coming from behind, and I looked back, and I turned the kart too late." explained James. As they walked along, James suddenly remembered the stranger.

"I need to use the restroom. Meet you guys at lunch!", he said. They waved goodbye and walked away. Instead of going to the bathroom, though, James headed to where the spectators had stood. He looked around, wondering if he had just imagined the whole thing with the man. Then, as he gave the ground a second look, he saw a piece of paper, fluttering near a bush. He picked it up, enthralled, but it didn't make much sense at all. It was just a bunch of numbers.

18 3 21 4 6 2 25, 10 9 29 19 11 12 27, 13 26 14 5 15 1 8 17, 16 20 22 7 23 24 28

It didn't make much sense to James, but he put it in his pocket anyway. Then, he stood up, shook his head, and went to the bathroom, deciding not to mention the incident, lest his friends label him insane.

He sat at lunch with Amber and Andrew, talking about what they would do for the rest of the day.

"I want to go on the indoor track again!" said Andrew. "And this time, I want the fast car! Do you know why?"

"Why." asked James dryly.

"Because I want to be the...wait for it...DRAG QUEEN! Get it?" James and Amber sighed. The puns where getting worse, and the day was barely half over.

"Over my dead body" replied Amber and James eventually. They looked at each other and said "JINX!" "JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!JINX!" As they continued to jinx each other, Andrew looked around the room, sighing. Besides their group, there wasn't many other people, just a few families.

"They must be afraid of the weather" he thought. He glanced outside.

"Hey, you two, look outside! The clouds are growing blacker!" He said, serious for the first time that day. The other two stopped and looked outside. Sure enough, the black clouds, if possible, were getting blacker.

"I noticed that earlier."said James. "They weren't like that until today."

"Hmm. Maybe it's finally about to rain. We need it. By the way, why did you take so long in the bathroom?" ask Andrew.

"I didn't," answered James, "What kind of question is that?"

"A good one! You were out there for, like ten minutes!"

"No I wasn't. You would think I would remember, since, I was, you know, there."

"Whatever, dude" The three ate their pizza in silence for a while. Amber finished first, and told them she would wait at the outdoor track. Andrew and James finished later, and they headed out to the track to have their rematch race.