Chapter Text
They were in the middle of a field at nighttime, the SUV moving at a snail’s pace. Uncle Atul barely paid attention to where he was going, he was still trying to convince a panicking Lilly that the car wasn’t going to be struck and torn apart by the lightning coming down from above. Stella sat beside her sister in the backseat. She watched their interaction while chewing carefully at her lip. She was scared too, but she couldn’t show it for Lilly’s sake.
“You know what,” Uncle seemed to be admitting defeat. Maybe he would finally take them back to the city. “Let’s just stop here.” When he turned the engine off and the vehicle plunged into darkness, Lilly began to shout. Stella herself pressed her eyes shut tight with a flinch. Without the engine or the radio running, the crashes of thunder seemed so much louder and so much closer.
“Hey girls, it’s alright, here.” Atul clumsily crawled into the backseat with them. The moment he sat down, Lilly crawled onto his lap and Stella grasped his hand. Atul moved over so he was pressed against the car window. “Okay, now we watch.”
“…watch?” Stella squeaked. “Is this like one of those educational trips Mom takes us on?”
“Well I mean, you won’t really be learning anything here. I just think storms are cool, and since you two,” he gently squeezed Stella’s hand, “are my favorite people, I thought I’d show you it all.”
“You,” Lilly let out a loud sniffle, “you like these?”
“Just look out the windows. Trust me.”
Stella leaned to look through the window closest to her. She didn’t like it. The blackness seemed to stretch on forever, only disrupted by the streaking of the rain, which seemed to fall and morph like shadows. Then it happened.
A blaze of light so brilliant Stella’s first instinct was to close her eyes. When she opened them it was gone, and a loud boom followed it. Stella felt more tense than anything, but then another one came. It wasn’t as bright as the last, but it still partially illuminated the valley. It was gone in an instant, but at the same time it almost appeared slowly, branching out across the sky.
A few moments later, Stella heard Lilly give out a faint ‘wow,’ with a chuckle from Uncle right after it. Stella stared out the window with a new resolve: if Lilly wasn’t scared, she shouldn’t be either.
More lightening came, stretching out and overlapping like cobwebs on the sky. Even with their roars and brilliant light, Stella’s eyes slowly began to grow heavier.
“You know why I like them?” Atul asked.
“Why?” Lilly murmured sleepily, no trace of tears left in her voice.
“They’re simply mesmerizing. It’s just all so intricate and complicated, that before you even figured out what you’re looking at or how it’s happening, it’s gone. I can just stare for hours, taking it all in. It’s the only space I can actually just, turn my brain off.” There was silence in the car for a moment, before Uncle Atul let out a soft chuckle. “That was a bit much, sorry girls.”
“’s okay.” Stella nodded, squeezing Atul’s hand, a gesture he returned. Stella could see his form in the dark gently lifting Lilly and placing her beside Stella. The smaller girl’s head immediately flopped onto her older sister’s shoulder. Uncle gently tousled Stella’s hair before crawling back to the front seat.
“Now we’re going home. We gotta be quiet when entering the house, you don’t want to wake your aunt up. And don’t tell her or your mother about our adventure here.”
“Will you get in trouble if we do?” Stella asked sincerely.
Atul broke out in a brief coughing fit. “No, no, no. It’s just our special secret, okay?” The car started up, and Atul began pulling out of the field.
“Fun,” Stella grinned sleepily.
“Hey kid, you should get some sleep on the way back. I’ll be fine without company,” Atul’s large, smiling face reflected in the rear-view mirror was the last thing Stella saw before she closed her eyes.