Connection (Le Garde) by Emily Ann Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

definitely didn’t know. What if I tried to tell her we’d caused it? Would she call up the police? The mental hospital?
    As soon as Anna got her book, she took off again. I followed behind her. “Anna, don’t you want to.   .   .I don’t know, try something?”
    It was pouring rain outside, so Anna jerked her hood up over her curly hair. I followed suit before we went outside, but I was still soaked within a couple seconds. “Try what, to take out the electricity again?” she asked over the rain.
    “ Let me give you a ride,” I said.
    Anna hesitated. The rain would drench her on the way home, and neither of us were smart enough to have an umbrella. I held out my hand, a mix of an invitation to see if anything else would happen and an offer to let me take her home.
    She stared at my outstretched hand, her curiosity rising. She looked back at the library, biting her bottom lip. She caught my eyes on her mouth and blushed. I knew she was thinking about my curiosity about her relationship with Steven.
    “ Come on, Anna,” I said, taking a step forward.
    I’d hardly realized she was reaching for me when her hand met mine, and then my entire body was buzzing. My arm hair stood on end, and I could feel currents in the air. I could practically see them they were so real. It was like nothing else I’d ever experienced. The electrons, the charges, the concepts in eighth grade science that had always been abstract—it was all right here, around us, inside us.
    A flash of lightning lit up the sky, lit me up. We both jumped—not from the flash of light, but from the reaction that went through us, like the lightning was calling out to us. I could feel it crackling in the air. The sky filled with white lines of lightning, jagged streaks of light that were nearly blinding. They lit up the bellies of the clouds, and then the rumble of thunder surrounded us.
    I realized I knew when it was coming. I could predict it. The lightning was getting closer, the strikes were growing larger and brighter, the thunder echoing only seconds later, until it was almost simultaneous, and then Anna broke away.
    The air whooshed out of me, like someone had punched me in the stomach. I gasped for breath as the sky went dark again. There was no sound but the pounding rain. White flashes were imprinted on my vision, and I blinked rapidly.
    Anna started to back away, staring at me and shaking her head.
    “ Wait, Anna,” I called, but she turned around and started to jog off.
    I stood there for a moment, stunned by her sudden absence and all that our touch had done.
     
     

    5. la varicelle (the chickenpox)
    Anna
     
    I didn’t even bother with the bus. I ran until my legs were aching and my throat was burning. When I got home, I was drenched. I jogged past Ginger and Allie, who were huddled around the TV, and went straight to my room. I stripped off my sweatshirt and blouse. My skin was damp; even my bra was wet. I peeled off my jeans and threw everything into a pile in the corner.
    I wished I could throw away the memory of what had just happened. I wished I could strip off my connection with Aaron.
    I started the shower and sat on the toilet, shivering as I waited for the water to warm up. I looked at my hands and my long, dark fingers. How could they have the power to shut off dozens of computers? How could they cause lightning over and over again?
    Maybe it was just a coincidence. I jumped under the warm water, trying to tell myself we hadn’t caused the power outage or the lightning. I tried to lie to myself, but I knew the second my hand took Aaron’s. I knew by the way the world came alive, how everything, each electrical charge in the air, even in us, was like a part of us. Not me. Us . When the clouds crashed and the lightning struck, I’d felt it go through every fiber of my being.
    After my shower, I dried myself off and got dressed in dry, warm clothes. Downstairs, Ginger and Allie snacked on jelly beans while they searched for