Plans and Theories before the Storm Arrives

Hilary breathes, in and out, her eyes closed. “Okay, unplug,” she mutters to herself. We watch as, for a few moments, nothing happens. Then, slowly, she begins to dim.

It’s partway through this dimming, as the room is darkening, I realize that there isn’t any light otherwise in the room. The curtains are drawn shut, the lights are all off, and there is a general air of darkness hanging in the room to boot. Shortly after me, everyone but Mikey realized it, too. The room grows dark, as Lyle heads over to the light switch and I head over towards the window. Darkness settles in, then the lights come on, dimmer than usual. I pull open the curtains and look out. The storm is growing closer. And bigger.

Hilary smiles at Alyson as she collapses onto her bed. “Thanks,” the woman tells the college kid.

“Of course,” Alyson replies, “Anything to help figure this all out.”

“Storm’s coming in soon,” I tell everyone, “Someone ought to head back to the hospital, tell the Hernandezes that Mister Jennings is safe and we’re trying to figure things out. Warn them about the coming storm.”

Lyle shakes his head. “If Jennings or I go back, they’ll just have questions and concerns,” he posits.

“Someone should check in on Katrina and Seleste,” Hilary offers, “See what they’ve figured out as well.”

“I was going to test out exactly what extent and abilities I can do,” Alyson states, “After the hologram surprise, I don’t want to be caught off-guard in public.”

Mikey nods. “Good call,” he says, then looking at his girlfriend, he adds, “If you’re up to it, we can head out to the hospital.”

Hilary nods. “I wouldn’t mind some fresh air,” she replies.

Mister Jennings shakes his head. “I need to know what is going on,” he states. Heat seems to emanate from him with every word. “The fire wasn’t hot.”

I nod. “Well, Alyson is doing some experimenting to figure that out, I’ll be heading up to Seleste’s room to ask her and hopefully Kat if they’ve figured anything out. Which are you interested in?”

Win steps in before the veteran can come up with an answer. “There’s about to be a big tropical storm hitting our coastline, and the last time we suspect Mr. Jennings’ new abilities flared up, he burned down the building he was in. I vote he join you on team having conversations.”

At first, the old man is instinctively upset by this, but a realization dawns across his face that the preppy college kid who rescued him from the fire earlier isn’t wrong. Even though whatever this is, Mister Jennings needs to learn control at some point, that point doesn’t necessarily need to be right before a storm. Especially if his newfound talents are all as destructive as the one that burned a bar down. “Fine. That makes sense. Besides, I guess I should check in with the doc-lady anyways.”

I nod, and look to Alyson. “Make sure the magical healing man and mister falls through the floor don’t do anything that will get us all killed,” I tell her.

“Okay, Jackson,” Alyson replies.

Lyle looks upset. “Why does she get to be in charge? Or you for that matter?”

I look him in the eyes. He’s upset, because he feels small. He wants people to recognize him, his capabilities. He wants people to see how strong and capable he sees himself as. I nod. “Only because she had the idea first. None of us are in charge. We all are just working to together to figure things out, and if that means following someone else’s lead sometimes, that’s as important as finding a new path of discovery,” I begin to say, realizing I’m being more eloquent than I expected as I speak, “And as long as we all recognize that, with what we may well be able to do, we can grow to achieve the extraordinary. But only if we work together, and figure this out as a group.”

Lyle nods. “I get it,” he says, then looking at Alyson, adds, “I guess I just need to think of a clever plan myself, as we’re doing the testing and whatnot.”

Alyson rolls her eyes as all of us leave Mikey and Hilarys room. The college kids and the couple head down the stairs, towards the ground floor. Makes sense, as Winsten, at the very least, seems to have some connection to the ground. I offer my shoulder to Mister Jennings as we start to climb up the stairs.

He takes up the offer, and uses the railing of the stairwell as well. Slowly we climb. “Sorry for slowing you down,” the old veteran says.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say, “While we’re walking, do you mind if I ask you some more questions?”

“Only if you answer them too,” he replies, then a moment later adds, “And don’t mind me taking some time to reply.”

One step at a time, we walk upwards. “So you knew the time, and the fire felt cold. Anything else?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing new or different yet. But if we’re right and I caused the fire, then whatever is going on is triggered by need or stress, and I haven’t had much of either since then.

I smile. “Fair point.”

“Your turn,” he says as we turn a corner in the stairwell.

I furrow my brow. “I feel like I get people better. You know, understand them, and can communicate my ideas better. And there is something going on with sparks and the weather, where I can just sort of feel it in the area. Besides that, nothing I’ve noticed.”

Mister Jenning’s eyes widen slightly. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you said this has something to do with the glow in the woods, right?” he asks, knowing the answer but I’m guessing just laying the groundwork for some realization he’s just come to.

“Yeah,” I reply, curious where this is going.

“And in the elevator, you were trying to take charge of things. Not doing a great job of it, but trying.”

“I suppose I was,” I say, curious. Is he trying to say something about how that’s why the others are following me, like they see that I was leaderlike after the fact, even though I wasn’t good at it in the moment.

“Maybe they’re related? Our abilities and our states of mind in the elevator,” he wonders aloud. “Because I was thinking about my life and how little time I had left, and now I know the time and my memory is getting better somehow.”

“And Kat was trying to save and heal us, and now she can see when people are sick,” I add. He’s right, at least in part. Not everything, I can’t see how burning things down or feeling the strom coming has anything to do with our emotional states at the time, but at least that explains a part of it. “That’s actually a really good idea. I don’t think it’s the whole picture, because your fire thing and my weather thing don’t connect much to our states of mind, but it is likely at least a place to start. Make sure to bring it up to the ladies once we’re up there.”

He smiles. “So it wasn’t just a nonsense idea?” he muses.

I pause our walk to shrug, before continuing up the final flight of stairs to Seleste’s floor. “Oh, it was. I just feel like some degree of nonsense may well be our new normal.”

Mister Jennings chuckles as we enter the eighth floor. Walking down the hall, I knock on Seleste’s door. There is a brief murmuring, and a pause, before I hear Katrina’s voice say “Oh,” from the other side of the door. It opens up slightly, and she hurries us inside before shutting the door. “Mister Jennings, what are you doing up and about on that knee?”

“Sorry, but we’re trying to figure out what is going on. Did you know fire isn’t hot to me anymore?”

“Really?” Seleste says from the main room. “Interesting.” Together we delve deeper in.

She’s set up a whiteboard in front of another. Clearly the elevator scene has taken priority over whatever she’s actually supposed to be doing. I offer, “By the way, in case Mister Montero didn’t manage to get in touch, Kat, all of our stays have been extended by a week.”

Seleste is barely paying attention, but Kat smiles. “Was that you or Mr. Hernandez?”

I look at her and smile back. “Me. How’d you guess?”

“You’re more confident, and if we think about it, who else could it be? Mister Jennings wouldn’t have thought to ask, and the hotel wasn’t going to listen to the college kids.”

I chuckle. “Fair enough,” I say. Then I add, “So, have you guys figured anything out?”

“Not really,” Seleste says, “But for some reason my mind has been buzzing and I woke up this morning and put together all this.” She gestures towards the board.

She has her account, minute by minute, of the forest and the elevator. And several theories, mostly focused on what Katrina knew after speaking with me and Mikey. I start reading through the details as I say, “By the way, Mister Jennings has something of a theory that makes some sense. Doesn’t quite explain everything, but some of it.”

Mister Jennings, behind me, shakes his head. “Not everything by a longshot, but I was thinking about what’s been going on with us afterwards, the pulse in our eyes, as Jackson put it, and I think some of what we can do might be based on what we were feeling and thinking about when that light was washing over us.”

Seleste moves to say something, then stops herself, thinks, and replies. “Maybe not just thinking about, but striving towards. It didn’t feel passive, but active. Would explain the big question mark, and my mind acting so quickly today.”

I look at the big question mark. While she was working this morning, based on the board, she grabbed a mealbar out of the mini-fridge, ate it, then felt like she was wasting time and was back at work with a full mini-fridge and the time started back from before she’d eaten. It was marked with a large question mark. “So were you trying to do something differently, or squeeze in some extra time?”

“The latter,” Seleste says, finally looking up from her notes. “What about you? Are you suddenly better at taking charge of a situation and leading people?”

“Kind of?”

Mister Jennings chimes in. “He’s been taking charge of us all day, leading the kids and organizing everything. You should’ve heard his speech earlier.”

I shake my head. “I wonder,” Kat murmurs, and she turns to Mister Jennings. “If that is true, might I try something?”

The veteran shrugs and the med student puts her hands on his legbrace. She starts breathing slowly and deeply. There is an awkwardly loud series of popping noises, and the old man lets out a sharp “Ah,” before suddenly beginning to flex his leg. “What did you do?” Mister Jennings asks, taking off the more professional leg brace that the hospital had provided.

“Well in the elevator, I’d been focused on keeping everyone safe and treating you guys, so if that was where in part our abilities come from.”

I nod, and finish her thought. “You figured you’d likely have the ability to heal his leg.”

She nods right back. “And so consider this all more evidence that your theory is true.”

Mister Jennings shakes his head. “It doesn’t explain everything, though. Like, I wasn’t thinking about anything regarding burning down a building, and I don’t think Jackson was dreaming about being a meteorologist while we were about to die by purple light.”

“What about the past?” Seleste asks.

We look over at her, and she explains, “Well, if in part we were changed to be closer to who we were trying to be in the moment, it might also be affected by who we once were. I was a workaholic, and now I can work even harder and more.”

Mister Jennings shook his head. “If that were the case, I’d almost certainly be something related to being a sniper in the war,” he argues. Even as he’s talking about it as though it is ridiculous, we watch as appearing in his hand is an old, worn out, scoped rifle.