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Albert was yelling soer station I could barely see The rain stung like angry wasps, and under the trees the blackness was complete Better not to stay under the trees anyway, toostrike

Pins and needles across my back, at the top of my head

"Get down!" I yelled, and rolled into a ball on the ground, trying to present the smallest exposure to the storm I could feel it noas like a blinda mouse It wanted me It was drawn tohit close, very close I felt the concussion and heard so that was too loud to be just a sound, it was a force with energy and life of its own

I was sobbing now because I knew the next tiet me It knehere I was It could sed rass and mud Deer burst out of the darkness and across our path like white ghosts fleeing a graveyard

We er station, and I realized only when I saw Mom and Albert were already there, wrapped in blankets and shivering, that the person who&039;d dragged me up and out from under the storolden skinned and dark haired, and she was laughing as she swept off her park ranger hat and hung it up to dry

"Nice day for a walk," the other ranger said, the one handing Morinned at hilass as if it were reaching inside for us

"Yup," she agreed "Just about perfect"

She glanced over atbetween us We were the sa fundaus both

"You should be more careful," she said "So with nature"

"What&039;s your excuse?" I shot back She lifted one shoulder

"Soot to be on the front lines," she said "Estrella Almondovar Star, for short"

I told her ot me a blanket and, instead of coffee, hot cocoa As she handed it over, she lowered her voice and said, "You have a notice? From the Association?"

"Yeah I&039;ll have an Intake Board at eighteen"

"Well, don&039;t wait Start getting the training now, like me-this is my internship You need it I&039;ve seen the Park react like this to only one other person before"

"Who?" I asked She gavelittle wouldn&039;t-you-like-to-know smile

"You don&039;t know him," she said "But his name is Lewis"

She went back to the cabinand stood watching the fire up on the ridge, the one that the first lightning strike started As I watched, it flickered, sizzled, and went out

That&039;s when I knew She wasn&039;t a Weather Warden, not like me She had power over fire

From that day, ere friends I don&039;t really knoe didn&039;t have all that much in coy We resonated to the same frequencies

We ended up rooedies and triumphs She was the best friend I ever had, and it looked for a while like ere going to live charifted Two peas in a pod Perfect

And then Yellowstone burned, and everything changed for both of us

I gloomily considered Oklahoma City The most direct route was to follow the Connecticut toll roads until I could get on I-90 It would be the better part of a two-day journey The coffee I&039;d slammed down in a caffeinated frenzy at 4 am was no more than a memory, and my stomach rumbled to reroup

So should I stop to eat, or pile up the miles? My decisions almost always depend on the forecast, so I flipped stations until I got a weather channel

The stor the eastern seaboard I could see darkness a line at the edges of the supercell It was starting to turn, driven by Coriolis effect and the powerful internal engine of water heating and cooling; when it completed its rotation, it would be that most dreaded of East Coast storms, the nor&039;easter

I didn&039;t intend to be anywhere near it

You ive it a wave of et rid of it-which was entirely within ets reaction Every tio somewhere, and believethrough you; it&039;s soe nuclear bombs If I&039;d tried directly to make my stalker-storive it a biblical interpretation-I est-ever tornado whirling its way directly at me from the opposite direction Plus, I wasn&039;t an official Warden in this areaor anywhere, come to that Not anymore

Still, I&039;d been one of the most subtle weatherworkers in history, all my performance reviews said so; I could probably slide it under the radar of anyone who ht Not that I had a lot of choice, reallyNo matter how fast I drove, this storm was bound to catch me It had the scent of me now

I turned the radio on, settled , and began huh- about riders on the storears, but the air above Cooled it here, warmed it there, slowed the elevator-fast updrafts that were feeding the story expended didn&039;t add up to another problees that the stor I wanted to do was attract attention from the local officials

It took about two and a half hours to reduce it from a badassto a Doors albu lot of a roadside diner called the Kountry Kafe, put the car in neutral, and closed my eyes as I left ht, the world looks very different I lifted my hand in front of ed with flashes of green and-ly-streaks of red Red was bad Red was trouble No wonder the Djinn had s I could do about it now I stepped out in my astral for, which was even ht than in the ical beauty of a car One look at the Kountry Kafe convinced me I didn&039;t want to eat there; it pulsed with bad vibes, like a quaking htless arms and went up There was no sense of speed-not in this reality-and no sense of resistance, either I glided up, and up, and up, until the earth curved off beneathspiral of the storht it looked al, the energy displayed in colors-brilliant, vibrant colors that a trained Warden could interpret I&039;d done enough with it, I thought Its overall rotation had been disrupted, and the lightning flickers were showing in golds and greens, sheets of positive and negative charges in scattered glitter If I&039;d missed the ative undertone

I let go, and the planet rushed back at ht, I&039;d absolutely freaked, and no wonder: the sensation of falling back into your body is one of the s in the world These days, I enjoyed it like a thrill ride Few enough thrills in my life recently Not to ain, and the world took on weight and forlossy ain With one last, regretful glance at the Kountry Kafe, I eased on down the road

The diner where I finally stopped looked outwardly a lot like the last one, but its Oversight characteristics wereIt was called Vera&039;s Place Vera, it turned out, was long gone, but the owner and operator was a perky thirty-year-old named Molly with hair that showed several indecisive home dye jobs and the kind of creamy milkmaid skin that every Hollywood actress wants

"Pie?" she asked me expectantly as I polished off the last of my open-faced turkey sandwich andon inside Vera&039;s Diner; I counted about six old coots and a yuppie couple dressed fro who sneered at theso as middle-American as pie Which decided ry or so?" I asked, and scraped up the last of the delicious pan gravy with the edge of ot a dimpled smile in response

"Last one we had in here didn&039;t eat pie was some hot-shot defense lawyer froravy-free plate

"Wouldn&039;t want to be included in that coot?"

She raised an eyebrow "You really want the whole list?"

"Just the high points"

The high points could have filled a couple of pages, single spaced I decided on chocolate

"Gerue?"

"I&039;ue, of course Definitely"

The ely delicious confection that went down perfectly cool with the rich, creamy chocolate beneath The crust was to die for, crisp and delicious Best pie I ever had Honest The Oversight never lies about the quality of food, especially pies