I’m a Huge Fan

Unhooking the latch and lifting up the lid, Paige reached in and pulled out a faded American flag wrapped around a leather-bound Bible. Blue jeans, tee shirts, hats, books and a stuffed toy frog made up the rest of the trunk’s contents, but underneath the toy frog rested a green spiral notebook. Opening the worn-out and half-filled spiral, Paige suspended her breath as she held the treasured jewel closer. Hand-written words immortalized in black ink captured her eyes as she began reading aloud, “I can feel it in the air again…”

“Feel what?” Abbey asked.

“It’s Gabriel Cross!” she exclaimed. “You know, my knight in shining armor. This is his notebook!” Paige’s excitement continued climbing to new heights the more she recognized her find. “I can’t believe this! This is his stuff!”

“How do you know?”

“It says his name right here on the inside cover,” she said, and then finished reading aloud the first entry. “I can feel it in the air again. Desperation hangs low with the night fog. I am in my weakest hour in the arms of freedom. FREEDOM IS FEAR…I can’t believe this,” she said again.

“What’s the big deal?” Abbey shrugged. “He was just another pampered celebrity.”

“No he wasn’t,” she snapped. “It wasn’t about being a celebrity to him. It was about truth. Like he always said, I’m an advocate for truth.”

“You talk like you knew him.”

“I’m a huge fan.”

“You’re pretty good at being a fan, aren’t you?”

“I guess,” she said and continued reading aloud from the notebook. “They’re coming for me. They’re coming for us all. Mankind will meet its demise in the coming decades, but they’re closing in on me, and I’m, once again, stuck in that viscous cycle of plastic clouds and synthetic sleep. God help me …This must’ve been one of his journals.”

“It sounds like paranoid fear-mongering to me,” Abbey said. “You know, most people thought he was completely off his rocker.”

“Maybe,” she replied, “but I think he was on to something. Have you ever seen his documentary? At the time, I’m sure people did think he was crazy, but nowadays, I don’t know, it’s like he’s been vindicated.” She continued reading aloud, “Twenty years from now, if I’m still around to watch colonies collapse and bees disappear, I’ll head for the hills and stoop to my knees, cuz I’ll know judgment is near.” Paige shivered as she closed the notebook and placed it on her lap.

“Whatever that means,” Abbey scoffed.

“It means we need to start heading for the hills,” she said. “Everything he warned about is coming true or has come true. That doesn’t peak your interest?”

“Science peaks my interest,” he answered, “not overly-hyped hypocrites and conspiracy theorists who thrive off people’s ignorance. He knew what was going to happen because he was on the inside.”

“Well yeah,” she said, “that’s where he claimed to have gotten his info, from the inside.”

Abbey swept hair from his eyes and shifted positions in his seat. “Look, just because we resemble each other doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“Alright, I’ll let it go,” she said. “It’s sad the way he died though, and in my dream, it’s just so real, like I’m actually watching it happen. I guess it’s weird that I’m dreaming about dead celebrities.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I just admire him so much,” she said, looking down at the notebook, “and it’s just so tragic to me.”

Stone-faced, Abbey replied, “It’s easy to admire someone when they’re dead, they can do no wrong.”

“You got a point there,” she said, ripping out the first page of the notebook and stuffing it in her purse.

An explosion of light flooded the room with a spray of colors. With Abbey’s help, Paige threw open the window and craned her head out to see a spectacular view of red and green lights electrifying the cityscape as if the heavens celebrated Christmas a month late. In awe of the brilliant colors dancing over the skyline, they watched the streams of light expand and swell, like an unstable sunset on some rogue planet. Crowds of speechless on-lookers gazed at the sky in wonderment until loud popping sounds filled the air, prompting screams of panic. Bright flashes of blue and white light spread throughout the city as transformers, one by one, blew out—a familiar sight to Paige. During the last hurricane when she ventured outside before the rain arrived, transformers popped out all throughout her neighborhood due to high winds. She’d never seen anything like it before in her life, nor had she ever seen the Northern Lights, until now. The two attic refuges remained spellbound until the light show faded from view and darkness rolled in like a storm surge—threatening and unstoppable.