Page 10 of Leveling

“Ta da, huh?” Beckett teased, “You know, you’re better at reading the sky than the room. I alreadyhavethe house.”

“Double drat. So let’s see, you’re not in it because of a dream, or the for the job, you must...hmmmmm.” She crinkled her eyes and drew out another long, “hmmmmmmmm,” and then, “I don’t know, I keep coming back to, you want to piss off your great-grandmother by bringing her quilt out to the middle of the ocean—”

Thunder clapped and lightning flashed.

Beckett sat up straight in his chair.

Luna looked wide-eyed, “I didn’t see that coming.”

Beckett grabbed a bundle of blankets from his cot and a flashlight. “Well, you are in a tent, even you can’t read a storm from inside the tent.” He peered out the door flap. “Let’s get down below until the electrical part of the night is over. Are you bundled?”

Luna had the quilt tightly wrapped, but seeing the intense rainfall, bundled it into a ball and stuffed it under the front of her jacket.

Beckett yelled, “Run!” and they dashed across the expanse of the rooftop toward the stairwell in the far corner. The rain drenched, poured, splashed. By the time they shoved through the door together they were laughing and breathless.

It was dark in the stairwell and the flashlight was bundled in the blankets, impossible to find without dropping everything. Beckett said, “Hold onto my shoulder, right here, we’re going down, fast.”

The darkness was total. Terrifying. The dripping sound intense. Stairs usually make sense. They have an order, size, and angle, and ought to be easy to maneuver even without sight, but in Luna and Beckett’s fright and friendly rush they slid and stumbled and held on and giggled, as they descended the one flight.

Beckett shoved against the door and they fell through. They were on the 120th floor. It was fully enclosed in glass, not needing open port windows for Nomadic paddleboard landings. The view was epic, from two sides, the other sides were covered with more stacked and shoved office furniture. Outside was dark but the lights at every corner were spinning and shining all around. A clap of thunder and then lightning arced through the sky right in front of their view.

Beckett said, “That was close.”

Another boom and arcing light.

They stood in the middle of the room, holding their bundles, watching the light show outside. Their arms within a half-inch of touching, yet not, because touching would be insensible, yet the tiny sliver of space between them felt more electrified than the lightning outside, more dangerous.

---