Christopher Nelson

THE NELSON RESIDENCE - THE MORNING AFTER THE STORM

I wake up to the sound of Clara crying, she's prone to nightmares, especially when there's loud noise, such as thunder, I wipe the sleep from my eyes, get up and head to her room, which is right beside my own. "Hey, angel, are you okay?" I ask her opening the door, walking towards her and sitting on the edge of her bed. She sits up in her bed and looks at me with tears in her eyes. "I had a bad dream that everyone left and I was all by myself." She cried, launching herself into my arms. I hold her in my arms and stroke her hair, soothing her and her shaking body. "Awe Angel, that sounds scary, I would be scared to if I had a dream like that, but you should know that I will never leave you, neither would mom, or Jocelyn, or anyone else who loves you." I reassure her. She nods into my chest, sniffles, unburies her head from my chest and sits back to look me in the eyes. "You pinky promise?" She asks, eyes wide and still filled with tears. "I promise, let's go make some breakfast, huh?" I say with a smile while standing up and offering my hand to her. She nods and takes my hand, then we start to make our way down the hallway and to the kitchen.

I notice that the power is still out, which is strange, considering the entire town has a few backup generators on a separate grid, in case of such instances. I brush it off and grab two pans from the cupboard, then some bacon and eggs from the fridge, since the power is still out, I figured we can use it for breakfast so it doesn't go bad. I guide Clara over to the kitchen table so she can sit and draw while I cook breakfast. God, I remember nagging mom last year to renovate the house so we can run our stove on electricity in stead of gas but she was unwavering, saying that if she was able to get by using it growing up then so could we. She also has a fear of the power grid going down and then not being able to feed ourselves, due to our complete reliability on electricity and right now, I am seeing her point.

I turn on the gas and light the burners with a lighter, since there is no electricity for the igniter to spark the gas, I have to do it manually. I warm up my bacon pan and toss a few pieces in it, using my fork to flip and move them, in order to cook them thoroughly, I'm halfway through the pack when I hear some of my friends start stirring from the living room. Figures, they wake up when they smell food cooking, I shake my head and laugh softly. "Well, your in a good mood this morning" Jocelyn says walking up from behind me and trying to grab a piece of the done bacon before I slap her hand away with a smirk. "I always thought you were a grump in the morning" She finishes with a smile and lifting herself to sit on the counter opposite of where I was cooking and preparing the breakfast.

"What are you talking about, I'm a ray of sunshine in the morning." I joke, removing the now finished bacon, replacing it with the rest of the pack, then grabbing the second pan and melting some butter for the eggs. "Since your here, be useful and grab the plates, then crack the carton of eggs and whisk them so I can cook them up for everyone." I say, slightly turning to her but not taking my attention off the bacon. I see her grin and jump off the counter, grab the plates, put them on the counter and then start whisking the eggs. "Yunno, some young women might have taken offence to that statement, sir, your lucky I know you mean nothing by it." She says jokingly while bumping her elbow into my arm. I laugh and look at her "Oh please, how can you be offended in anyway, when I ALWAYS make you food while your off doing science space stuff and forgetting to eat." I reply rolling my eyes. She makes a face like I offended her while putting a hand on her chest for dramatic effect and making an exasperated sound. "Well now I am offended! How dare you say you ALWAYS make me food, I sometimes get takeout" She jokes and starts to put the eggs in the now warmed up pan and start pushing them around for them to scramble. Just then little Clara speaks up "Jeeze Louise, you two sound exactly like my preschool teacher and her 'guy friend'" She says rolling her eyes and making a disgusted face. Jocelyn blushes and removes the now cooked eggs from the heat to plate them for our friends and I do the same with the bacon a small smile on my face.

As Jocelyn and I set the plates with food, one by one, our friends full wake up and start to gather in the kitchen. I give Clara her plate first and sit her back at the table, then everyone else grabs their plates and starts eating standing in place. I finish my plate and clear my throat. "So, I was thinking, obviously you all want to head home and shower, change and let your parents know your safe, but I was thinking maybe afterwards we can go see a movie? I'm sure the power or generators will be back on soon, what do you think?" I ask them all. It's the beginning of summer and we were going to make it our Bitch this year. I have a babysitter lined up for Clara the entire summer, a fourteen year old named Anita, I've seen her around at school, she's in grade 9 and from what I can tell super sweet, and it helped that Clara really liked her when they met; which means that I'll be able to have more freedom and time to myself this summer and it's been a while since I've been able to really have time for just myself, so I'm looking forward to it.

"Yea man, that sounds awesome, I'll be back in like 20, thanks for breakfast dude." Richard says while putting his dishes in the sink and heading to the door to put on his shoes and head out to his house.

"Of course! You honestly think I'm gunna miss my chance to go out and cause some shi... shenanigans!" Said Chantel through a mouthful of food and a grin on her face, while surprising correcting herself in front of Clara. "Imma quickly go and catch Richard, can't believe the fool left without me. But I'll be back probably around the same time as him, doubt I'll go to my place, just message my dad later once I can." She finishes, running after Richard.

"I'm not too sure if I'll be able to join, you know how strict my dad is and even if it was a storm that kept me from going home, he's still going to be upset, so, I'll say if I'm not back in a half hour then I won't be joining you today." Said Bernard, who washed his own plate, as well as Jocelyn and Richards before putting them away and walking to the front door. "Thanks for breakfast Chris, it was delicious." he finished, before shutting the door behind him leaving just Jocelyn, Clara and myself.

"What about you" I say, turning to Jocelyn. "What do you mean, 'what about me?' you think that I'm just going to stay at home while you have all the fun!? Not a chance sweetheart, I'll run to my place and be back in ten minutes. 'What about you'" She mocks again, laughing while walking away to head to her place. Then it's just Clara and I. "What do you say Angel, wanna get ready and see if Anita is wanting to take you a day early?" I turn to her, taking away her now empty plate and cleaning the left over dishes that weren't done. "Oh my goodness yes, yes, yes, please!" She screams excitedly and runs to her room to get changed for the day and I do the same.

Not even twenty minutes later, everybody started showing back up. Jocelyn first, then Richard and Chantel, followed closely by Bernard, so I guess his dad wasn't to mad and let him come out anyway. "Hey, really weird question" Starts Bernard "But has anyone seen their parents.. or like, any adult for that matter? Cause neither my mom nor my dad were at home, which is strange, cause mom never leaves the house and dad is on leave at the moment, so he should be watching tv, but all I found was nothing" He says while looking around at all of us with a confused and worried look in his eyes. I look around to each of my friends to see their responses and find that no-one has seen their parents.

Worried, we decide to ditch the movies and just walk around town to where each of our parents work, to hopefully see if we can find them there. The closest was Chantel's dads work, the Justice Hall, where the only Firm is located in the entire town. As we walk through the town, there's not a soul in sight, and every shop and house is dark and has no movement. As we get to the Hall all of the lights finally come on in the entire town. "Well, at least we have power now" says Chantel as she pulls open the doors to the Hall and we all file in, heading towards her father's office where the Environmental Lawyers spend their time. Walking in, it looks as if everyone just up and walked out, there are laptops and notebooks open with pens sitting beside them and a box of files sitting on the table, but not a soul in sight. "What in the actual fuck is going on" Says Chantel "And I'm sorry for cursing in front of Clara, but what the actual fuck is going on Christopher, where is everybody." She finishes while pushing past us to start heading back outside.

We all follow Chantel outside and even though the lights have all come back on, there is still no-one outside, we all slowly go down the stairs and walk aimlessly down the main road that connects all of our local businesses and the school. Before we know it, we're at the school football field, not quite sure why or what lead them there; as they are walking towards the school, they notice other students, both Primary and Secondary, also starting to congregate around the school. But not a single adult.