Wind’s voice was as welcome as a dentist’s drill.
“I suppose you’ve come for your shadow,” I said.
“Did you find it?” Wind hissed.
Its voice sounded like sand blowing across a parking lot. I reminded myself that none of this was real. Hallucinations can’t hurt you, Dad had assured me. They’re just a reminder to eat more sugar.
“I have good news,” I said.
“You do?”
“Yes. But first, I have a question.”
Wind swirled between the trees. A thick branch snapped and crashed to the rocks below.
“Why do you steal things?” I asked.
A monster wave clobbered the shore. “I never steal,” Wind said. “I just move stuff around.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “You stole my dad’s pants. There’s no way you could have got them unless —”
A cloud of sand swirled in the air. The lightning storm was coming closer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wind said.
I leaned over and coughed. It was getting hard to breathe. Each time I exhaled, I wondered if I’d have the strength to pull another breath of air back into my lungs.
“And what were you doing with my song?” I said, raising my voice. “There’s no way you could have got that paper unless —”
“Are you going to give me my shadow, or what?”
“Stupid Wind,” I said. “You never had a shadow.”
“What?”
“There’s nothing to you!” I shouted. “You’re nothing but thin air!”
The howling wind dropped away to nothing.
“That’s right!” I shouted. “You’re completely invisible! You don’t have a shadow because you can’t block the light!”
Far away, thunder hammered the mountains. It rumbled over the valley and then slowly echoed into silence.
“But everything has a shadow,” Wind whispered.
“Not everything,” I said.
Lightning flashed again, revealing mountains of charcoal cloud. A blast of air threw me against a tree.
“Name one other thing that doesn’t have a shadow!” Wind shrieked.
“That’s easy,” I spluttered. “Memories.”
Another wave hit the shore, and spray lashed my face. “Don’t be mad,” I cried. “It’s okay not to have a shadow. There are other types of shadows that you can —”
“Shut up!” said Wind. “Shut up now!”
Something stung my skin. My eyes were full of grit. Wind was running around on the beach, spraying sand in all directions.
Then, very quickly, everything went dark, as if someone had drawn a curtain across the moon. I could hear the treetops hissing like snakes. A bitter smell filled the air. There was a deafening crack and then a blinding flash.
Through a thick crust of sand, I could make out the shadows of writhing trees. Then everything went dark again.
I staggered down to the shore to flush out my eyes. The lake churned and the waves rushed at me like rabid dogs. One crash of thunder followed another, and between the crashes I could hear the sound of someone screaming.
“Kara!” I shouted. “Kara, is that you?”
No answer. My eyes were blurry and wet. The thunder was deafening, but I could still hear someone wailing.
“Dad?” I shouted. “Dad, are you there?”
The screaming sounded more like a man than a woman, and I worried that it was Kern, the bandit. I crouched down beside a boulder. My eyeballs felt like they’d been scrubbed with steel wool.
Suddenly, an ice pick stabbed my neck. Something else took a bite out of my arm.
Hail!
I blinked away the rest of the sand, ran to the edge of the forest and crouched down.
For the next 3 minutes, hailstones crashed down. It felt like I was in a blizzard of molars. In no time, the forest was carpeted in grey slush. The air filled up with the tang of pine, as if someone had run a lawnmower through the treetops.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the hail stopped. A hush fell over the forest. The air was still and fragrant.
A high-pitched whistle filled my ears. It was far away, but rushing closer every moment.
It was Wind. It sped across the lake with a papery sound, like handfuls of dry rice being thrown on a kitchen floor. Lightning flashed every 2 or 3 seconds, and through the choppy light I could see a wall of rain. It swept across the lake like a huge grey blanket. Then, like a bulldozer, it smashed into the forest.
The trees thrashed, yanking at their roots. Rocks flew through the air like ice cubes in a blender.
“There’s no point breaking stuff!” I shouted. “It won’t make your shadow appear.”
“Maybe not,” roared Wind. “But it makes me feel better!”
There was a splintering crack, and a giant spruce tree collapsed. I realized that I needed to get out of the forest, so I ran back down to the edge of the lake. Colossal waves battered the shore, and sheets of spray lashed the rocks.
Then a new sound arose — a throttling hum. It sounded like an airplane taking off.
In the dim light I saw a rope fall out of the clouds. The hum turned into a scream. The rope was a tornado.