Sons of Thunder

The Stranger at the Window--(Saorise)

Year XX71: Month III, Day 06

Today was Saturday. Chael left ages ago with Mr. Steven to do his big-kid stuff at the compound again, leaving me and Ryder alone and sad. Well . . . I was the only one who cried, but I knew Ryder wanted to cry too.

It was lonely without Chael in the house, but I had Ryder and Mrs. Lindley, my new mommy, to play with me.

Mrs. Lindley couldn't play today though since she had to do her work stuff.

I turned to Ryder and asked, "What should we play today?" Today was his turn to choose the games.

"Hide-and-Seek," he said. Ryder pointed his thumb to his chest. "I'll be it first. And you can't use your powers to find me when you're it. That's cheating."

"I don't know how to do it that good anyway," I said. "I can only tell which room you're in, not how you're hiding."

"That's almost the same thing anyways."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is," he said and crossed his arms. "If you know where I am, you can find me fast."

"Well," I said. My feet rubbed against the fluffy carpet. "I'll try not to do it then. But you have to try to hide your lightning too. It's not my fault your signal's so strong."

He nodded then covered his eyes. "Okay. I'm gonna count now. One, two--"

"Wait, we should ask Mrs. Lindley if we can play upstairs too," I said. Upstairs had the best hiding spots.

The two of us tiptoed into the kitchen where Mrs. Lindley was working on all her important papers. I tapped on her arm a few times to get her attention. "Can we play upstairs?"

She looked down at us and nodded. "Be careful. I'll check on you in a few minutes, okay?" Then she went back to her adulty papers.

Right then and there, Ryder covered his eyes and started counting. "One, two, three.."

"No fair, I wasn't ready," I whined. I dashed up the stairs to find a good hiding place. There were a lot of rooms up there, including mine and my brothers', but Ryder would find me there. The best place would be . . . the wardrobe in Mr. Steven's room.

I slipped into his room when Ryder counted to twenty. Lucky for me, the wardrobe door wasn't creaky. I climbed inside, closed the door, and hid behind all the suits and jackets. I moved them so they weren't right in front of my face.

Ryder finished counting, and I felt him walking outside in the hallway. My breath slowed when he stopped in front of the room. The door creaked open, and he called my name. "Saorise, you in here?"

I put my hands on my mouth and tried not to giggle. There was no way I was gonna give away my hiding spot so easily.

Ryder didn't go inside but left to investigate (Chael taught me that word) the other rooms. His lightning signal got tinier and tinier when he went down the hallway, stopping every so often  when he looked around the rooms.

I scooched a little so my feet wouldn't ache so much. The jacket sleeves brushed against my face. Ryder was taking too long.