chapteR FIVE
Strange Things Start to Happen
It began on a Wednesday.
At exactly 3:33 PM.
Nic was eating grapes
(as usual)
and thinking about what
the fireflies had spelled
the night before:
“Soon.”
She didn’t know
what “soon” meant.
Or when soon was.
Or if “soon” meant something good
or something huge
or something you had to be
very, very ready for.
But she had a feeling.
And when Nic had a feeling,
things tended to get…
strange.
Like how the ceiling fan
blinked three times
without turning on.
Or how her tea steamed
in the shape of a spiral.
Or how her school notebook
kept flipping back
to the exact page
where she’d doodled:
“The Boy in the Song
+ The Girl Who Remembered”
= Boom.
Clifford was on high alert.
He kept sniffing
the corners of the room
like someone invisible
had been there.
Nic didn’t say anything.
She just sat in her room,
holding her wand
with one hand
and a grape with the other.
And then—
right as she popped the grape
in her mouth—
The lights flickered.
The radio turned on.
And the song played.
THE song.
The one from her dreams.
The one the boy always brought with him.
The one with the thunder velvet lullaby.
Nic froze.
Clifford sat up.
And the hair on her arms
stood up like soldiers.
Something was happening.
Here.
Now.
She got up slowly.
The wand felt warmer
than usual.
She held it tight.
She walked to the window.
And outside—
across the street—
standing under the same tree
she used to climb
when she was five—
was a boy.
He had star freckles.
Twinkling eyes.
And a guitar case
slung across his back.
He didn’t wave.
He didn’t shout.
He just smiled.
Like he’d been waiting
his whole life
to see her
here.
Nic blinked.
And he was gone.
But the song
kept playing.
And her wand
was humming
like a heart.
Clifford looked up at her
and barked—thrice.
Which meant:
“It’s starting.”
And Nic?