Brother

"What's going on"? My brother, Jeffrey says from the doorway.

We turn to look at him. He's leaning against the doorjamb, still rumpled with sleep and smelly and grumpy as usual. He's stares us. A flicker of fear crosses his face, like he's bracing for horrible news, like someone we know has died.

"Your sister has recieved her purpose." Mum smiles again, but it's less jubilant than before. A cautios smile.

He looks me up and down like he'll be able to find evidence of divine somewhere on my body. "You had a vision?"

"Yeah. About a forest fire." I shut my eyes and see it all again: the hillside crowded with pine trees, the orange sky, the smoke rolling past. "And a boy."

"How do you know it wasn't a dream?"

"Because I wasn't asleep."

"So does it mean?" He asks. All this angel-related information is new to him. He's still in that time when the supernatural stuff can be exciting and cool. I envy him that.

"I don't know," I tell him. "That's what I've got to find out."

I have the vision again two days later. I'm in the middle of jogging laps around the outside edge of the Mountain View High School gymnasium, and suddenly it hits me, just like that. The world as I know it --- California, Mountain View, the gym-- promptly vanishes. I'm in the forest. I can actually taste the fire. This time I see the flames cresting the ridge.