Syra

Chapter 3

Two days went by that Mom and Paul were off in Rio, celebrating their marriage and enjoying their last days of peace away from the four kids.

We watched the weather and kept an eye on Hurricane Leah. She was making her way down the East Coast, directly toward Rio. All the reporters were going on about how it wouldn't make landfall, and they were saying it wouldn't get much bigger than a category 2.

It took less than three days for the forecasters to upgrade Leah to a category 1 hurricane as she levelled towns as far inland as Georgia. By the end of the third day of her reign of terror, Hurricane Leah had taken 97 lives.

"I hope they're evacuating Rio," Tyler said while watching a forecast.

"They're not thinking the hurricane's gonna go that far south, I don't think," Braydee replied.

"No. They're not gonna evacuate Rio until the buldings start coming down. That'll be around Wednesday," I said.

"They've gotta get everyone out before then. I mean, it's in two days!" Tyler protested.

"I know. No one knows what we know, though," I replied.

And they especially didn't know about my dream the previous night.

In my dream, I was walking down the coast of Rio de Janeiro. It was stormy. The winds nearly knocked me off my feet. The rain pelted my skin like bullets. But I kept walking. I was on a mission.

I was looking for someone.

I kept calling a name, a name I myself didn't recognize until I found who I was looking for. The dream version of me was my mom, and she was looking for my dad.

I kept calling his name. My voice was carried away by the rain and the wind, but I was calling anyway. Finally, I came across a body on the shore, and it was Dad.

"Patrick!" I cried. I knelt over him and put my hand on his heart. He was unconscious, and appeared to be dead. However, as soon as I touched him, the sky became clear and the rain stopped.

I'd had that dream before three or four times over the past few weeks. That was always where it ended, only last night, I saw more.

I looked around me. The storm was still raging behind me, and I saw Paul fighting the winds.

"You betrayed me!" I yelled.

"I told you the truth. Syra was never meant to happen. I just showed you why," he replied.

"She's my daughter, and I will always love her for who she is," I cried.

"She was never meant to be loved. She was meant to be discarded," he said. That was when I woke up last night.

I didn't want to tell my siblings yet, because I didn't understand it yet. What did Paul say when he meant I was "never supposed to happen," "never meant to be loved," or "meant to be discarded"? I could only find those answers out from Paul, who was hopefully about to get killed by Hurricane Leah.

"We gotta get that out there somehow," Ally said angrily. "We have to tell people what Leah's gonna do."

"Not yet," I said. "We have to let them do what they're gonna do."

"Syra, you're the one that tried to save Mom and Paul. Now you're saying you don't want to do anything?" Braydee argued.

"I got proof from a dream last night," I said. I didn't explain my dream the way it happened, I explained it the way I wanted it to happen: Mom was looking for Paul and found him dead on the beach, and that was where it ended.

"So, you're saying my dad's gonna die?" Ally said, holding back tears.

"I've never been wrong about a hunch, Ally," I replied.

"No, you're just saying that because you hate my dad," she said, her voice cracking. "Well, I hate your mom. I wish our parents never got together. I wish they never met."

"I know," I replied. Ally sniffled and looked at me, her eyes wide. I was looking at the floor, but I knew what she thought about everyone she'd ever met. "You knew our parents were together months before I did. My mom had been having dinner with you guys for awhile, and you'd grown to respect her. But she's never once tucked you in, hugged you, made you a snack when you were sick, told you she loved you. You asked her about it, and she ignored you. That's why you hate her. It's not because she married your dad, it's because she treats you like you're invisible."

There wasn't a dry eye in the room. I heard Braydee sniffle while I was still looking at the floor. "And I'm guessing that's how my dad makes you feel, too," Ally said.

I nodded. "I think you're starting to feel that way, too. Like everyone you've ever loved is drifting away from you and towards someone else," I asnwered. "Well, I'm your sister. Braydee is, too, and Tyler's your big brother. That means we gotta stick together and look out for each other. That's what Tyler's done for Braydee and I since the day we were born. Do you think you can do that?"

"Thanks, Syra," Ally said, giving me a hug. I hugged her back. "I've never had a sibling before. I'm so glad to have one now, and I'm lucky it's you."

+++++

We watched the weather channel all day, keeping up with Hurricane Leah. I also played board games with my siblings and watched videos on my tablet.

Gram came over to make us dinner every night while Mom and Paul were gone. That night, she made pizza and garlic breadsticks. It was amazing.

Outside my mom and my siblings, Gram was the only other person who knew about my powers. I was keeping her updated on Hurricane Leah. She was worried about her daughter, my mom. I told her what I knew from the news and anything I could sense about the future.

As we sat down to eat dinner, Gram asked me about what I learned that day.

"She's sticking around Cuba and Mexico," I explained. "There's hardly gonna be anything left of Cuba by tomorrow."

"This is awful," Gram replied. "What's the death toll so far?"

"238," I answered. I didn't need any news report to tell me that. "Although on TV, they're saying 197."

"How about Rio. Have they evacuated?"

"No. Mom and Paul are still there. They're at their hotel right now, watching The Office and eating pizza," I replied.

"I wish there was something we could do about that," Gram said.

"Me, too."

We all told Gram about our boring day of watching the storm and not doing much else. After Gram left, we got ready for bed and settled down to watch a movie. After the movie, we all went to bed.

During the night, I had another dream. It wan't my recurring dream about Mom and Dad, but it was still pretty scary to me.

I saw someone laying in a hospital bed. Their face was blurry, so I couldn't tell who it was. I heard a commotion coming from the hall, and shortly after, three nurses entered the room. It appeared as though they were trying to ressucitate the patient. After several seconds, the patient sat bolt upright.

"Where is she?" the patient said.

"Sir, you need to lay down. You're not well," said one of the nurses.

"I need to find her. She's not safe," the patient replied.

"Who do you need to find? Who's not safe?" asked another nurse.

The patient's face was slowly coming into focus. "My daughter," he said. "Syra Peterson."

When I could finally see his face, I woke up gasping.

It was my dad.