Sunlight and Gloom

Chapter 4

The drive to Maria's father's house took less than ten minutes. The van's conversation was a lively discussion in the back about what point of view Amber's book was in, and a whispered conversation in the front about where Grandpa was going to stay. While Maria was talking to her husband, she had worries about Amber, which was why she was drawing out the conversation as long as she could.
      "I don't understand why he can't stay in the guest bedroom," Martin said. "It's not to messy and no one is using it."
      "It's upstairs, though. He'd have to climb 30 stairs to get to the top."
      "He's in great shape. A few stairs won't do him any harm."
      "And when he trips and breaks a bone, I suppose that won't do him any harm either."
      "Honey..."
      "No, no. You're right. As long as you pay the medical bill."
      He gave an exasperated sigh. "This isn't something we should be arguing about. Why don't we just..."
      "Fine," she interrupted. "You're right. This isn't something we need to argue about. He'll stay in the guest bedroom until we figure something else out."
      "Thank you." They drove in silence for awhile, and the thoughts that Maria had been trying to avoid flooded her mind again. The worry obviously leaked into her face, because a few minutes later, Martin asked if Maria was okay.
      "I'm great. Why?"
      "You looked worried."
      "You look pretty worried too."
      "I'm worried about you." He looked at her lovingly, then turned his eyes back to the road.
      "There's no need to be worried. I was just thinking... Amber is already in the 8th grade. Soon she'll be going off to college and I'll lose my little girl."
      "It's okay. She still has a few years left. We just need to make the moments with her count now. We need to make memories. And when she does go to college, it's not like she'll never visit."
      "I know." She looked out the window until they pulled into Grandpa Rick's driveway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Supper was leftovers from Grandpa's fridge. Amber warmed up some potatoes and chicken in the microwave and Cole made a roast beef, mayo, and cottage cheese sandwich.
      "Want a bite?" he asked with his mouth half full.
      "No thanks. I'd rather stick to a combination of ingredients that was meant for human consumption."
      He shrugged. "Suit yourself."
      "I will." She went to the table where the adults were sitting. "Are you sure I'm related to him?"
      Her father laughed. "Sometimes I wonder."
"So, Amber," her grandfather asked, "what do you have coming up in sports?"
"Well, I have a volleyball game on Thursday, and we have a tournament on Saturday."
"Really? When do you have practice?"
"We started practicing two weeks before school started. On the first week of school we only had practice on Tuesday and Thursday. Our couch wanted us to focus on school the first week. This week we'll have practice everyday."
Her grandpa smiled. "Ah. Well, I'll be sure to come to your games to cheer you on."
"Thanks Grandpa."
The adults continued talking, and Amber began to realize that she was being paranoid. Every minute she expected her grandfather to turn to her and causally say, "Amber, tell me about the light you omit from your chest."
Amber helped clean up dishes after supper. While she loaded then into the dishwasher, Grandpa Rick got out a game.
"This is one of my favorite games," he said. "I played it with Maria when she was younger."
Amber got a closer look at the title. "Pit," she said, "I've never heard of it."
"Never heard of it? Well you'll catch on soon. Now, what you do is..." He proceed to explain the rules of the game. There were six different kinds of grain cards. Since there was only five people playing, they used five of the grain types. Mixed in the grain was a bear and a bull. The cards were mixed and passed around. The point of the game was to get nine of a card that you chose. If you had the bull, you only needed eight. If you had the bear, you couldn't win. To get the cards you wanted, you shouted the number of cards you wanted to trade. You wanted to trade away the bear and keep the bull. Once you had nine of every card (or eight and a bull) you rang the bell that was in the middle of the table. "It sounds complicated, but you'll get the hang of it," Grandpa concluded.
After they played pit for a couple hours, dad suggested that he and Cole get to bed. Cole, of course, objected, but went to bed anyway. Amber was about to follow, but her grandfather pulled her aside. Oh no, she thought, please don't ask about the light.
"What's up grandpa?"
"I want to tell you a story."
"Okay, go ahead."
"Once upon a time, there was a boy. He wanted to be known to the world as someone who had done things. After many years, the boy found a way to capture sunlight. He went out on a sunny day and caught a whole jar full. He shared his secret with no one, and he kept his jar under his bed. A few days later, the boy realized he could sell the jar for a very large profit. He went out and tried to get a few jars more. While he was collecting them, a storm cloud passed in front of the sun. Instead of the brilliant, golden light, a dark, murky, grey filled the jar. The boy sold them as a pair at the nearby market. A wealthy merchant payed the boy handsomely and brought them to his home. However, he made the mistake of placing them in the medical cabinet.
"The merchant had two daughters. The oldest was Cecelia. She had bright golden hair and a heart of kindness. The younger daughter was named Lucia. Her hair was like ebony, dark and beautiful, and her eyes were the color of a stormy night. Their caretaker noticed the jars in the medicine cabinet and assumed it was a new medication for them to take. She gave Cecelia a dose of sunlight and Lucia a dose of storm, thinking the colors were to make it easier to tell whom they were for. In the morning, both girls were gone.
"Years went by, and tales of a dark eyed witch and a golden haired fairy spread through the land. The witch they called Gloom and the fairy they called Aurora. The legends told that Gloom had been forged in the depth of a volcano, ready to destroy the Earth by spewing her dark clouds over the world. Aurora was said to have been birthed from a star, sent to defeat Gloom with her sunlit rays. Although these were nothing but wives' tales, Gloom and Aurora were enemies.
      "As you have probably guessed, Aurora was really Cecelia and Gloom was Lucia. Even though they fought each other, they were still sisters. In their last battle, Cecelia convinced Lucia to give up her evil ways and live a normal life. Both sisters moved to a place where they were not known, got married, and had children. Their battles were soon all but forgotten, never written down in history."
      "That's a great story grandpa."
      "That's your story." Her grandpa looked at her, and complete seriousness filled his eyes. "Cecelia was your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother."
      "That's impossible. A woman able to make sunlight?" She was lying and Amber knew her grandfather knew it.
      "Amber. Tell me."
She took a deep breath. "Um. Well, I started noticing things years ago. Especially when I was mad, I could feel this heat rushing through me. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then last year I started having these moments where I would glow. My hair would turn a glistening blonde. It would usually only happen for a few minutes. There would be a rush in my blood, and it would just happen. To be honest, I don't know how I kept it hidden so long."
"Have you found a way to control it yet?"
"Sort of. I can make it go away, but I can't control when it comes."
"That's something we'll have to work on. Uncontrolled, sunlight can be just as harmful as storm."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you know about the Dust Bowl?"
"Yeah, we learned about it in school."
"That was caused by my great-great-aunt when she was a girl."
"What?" Amber yelled.
"Shhhh! Don't wake your brother."
"Wait, do you have the power? Can you make light?"
"Unfortunately, no. After so many generations, only a few are gifted with the power. And no one has the pure power that Cecelia had, not even her son and daughter."
      "So this is like a chosen few thing? Why am I one of the chosen few?"
      "No one knows. It's genetics, what scientists call a recessive gene."
      "We learned about those in 6th grade. There can be red hair in a bloodline, but it can hide itself for generations before showing again."
      "Exactly like that. It's a type of gene that scientists haven't found out about yet."
      "How come? Surely someone would have shown themselves to the scientific community."
      "They all probably knew that if they told, they'd be studied like lab animals. Scientific discovery in many cases has been more important than the subject's comfort."
      "Oh. So, if you don't have the power, how can you help me control it?"
"After my great-great-aunt caused the Dust Bowl," Grandpa started, "she knew how important control over the sunlit ability was. She taught her sister, my great-grandmother how to control it incase she ever developed it. My great-grandma passed it down to my grandma, and her siblings, who passed it to my mom, and her siblings, who then passed it to me. I never taught your mother, because it had seemed the gift had died out. But here you are. We'll begin training when we get back to Centerville."
      "Why do we have to wait until we get back home? Why can't I start training now?"
      "It's easier to train in an environment your familiar with. You've only been here a day, but you've lived in Centerville since you were born. It would be better to start there."
      "Oh." Amber yawned and her grandfather laughed.
      "Alright, that's enough history for one day. Get some rest kiddo. We'll be heading out tomorrow."
      Amber left the room. She was sure that talk should've cleared up everything, but she left with more questions than she came with.