The Sorcerer's Comet

"She suddenly froze. I mean, Mom went completely rigid and swiftly closed her eyes. I blinked to see if my eyes were deceiving me, but she had just sat there like she was asleep. Then I smelled something burning. The sound of boiling was prominent too... when I looked down at her mug on the coffee table, I saw that the liquid was bubbling. But that wasn't possible... the coffee must have grown at least lukewarm by then.

...It was like I had been sucker-punched in the gut, all the air had been sucked out of me with a vacuum. And with all the weird things that had just happened, it wouldn't be that weird if I actually had been hit. Why? It didn't make sense. Mom had said she would turn him down, hadn't she? What the heck was going on?! I stared at her with a look of stunned hurt, but she didn't turn to look my way.

Mom picked her mug lightly and took a sip, burning her tongue, "Oh, hot!""