Dinner was amazing, Maggie had truly out done herself. It must've had something to do with Rose being there and her wanting to impress, we rarely had guests. The conversation at the table had been light and very entertaining. Rose smiled and laughed which kept me doing the same. Maggie played the part of 'awesome older sister' for the night, instead of her more straight edge mother type role. Not that there was much difference between the two.
Afterwards I did the washing up while the girls chatted, to quietly for my liking, I only caught every second or third word that they said but it was all peppered with laughter so it couldn't have been that bad.
"Leave the drying up Matty. You should probably walk Rose home it's getting late."
"Oh... okay, no worries Mags." I was more then a little surprised. I had expected Maggie would tell me to wait at home while she dropped Rose off in her car. Ah! how surprisingly wonderful sisters can be at times. She came over and gently squeezed my shoulder.
"I am still pissed," although her voice did not sound like she was, "but she is gorgeous and I can't argue with your taste. I expect you back home in an hour and a half." She smiled. I looked at her with my mouth hanging slightly open from shock. Her smile broadened.
"The clocks runnin' buddy."
I dried my hands and headed over to the front door where Rose was already waiting for me, grinning form ear to ear.
"Told you it would be fine." She said.
"But how?"
"If you're lucky I will tell you on the way. You got that compass?"
"Yeah and a torch." I replied handing her the small light.
"Ah... Good thinking."
With that she grab my hand and led me out the door. I marvelled out how soft her skin was. When we had reached the end of the drive way I tried to get a little more information our of her as to how she had managed to let Maggie walk her home.
"I told her I liked you." At this I choked a little.
"Wha... I mean what?"
"I just told her I liked you and would it be okay if you walked me home."
"I... I see... um good thinking. But?" It was the only question I could come up with, I wasn't even sure it was a question, she obviously understood its meaning because I could make out her huge grin in the starlight.
"Thought you'd like that. Come on we don't have that long."
She started jogging along the road towards Kreen's farm. Her had still firmly gripping mine and I just allowed my self to be pulled along. I was not totally capable thought yet. I was still stunned. It was a very clever thing to have said to Maggie but was there any thing else behind it. I was already beginning to see how a girl could perhaps drive a boy nuts. They were kind of all consuming.
We were both completely out of breath by the time we reached the spot in the fence where the big rock, which I had hit that morning, sat in the gutter marking the place. We both took a moment to catch our breath. It was around seven o'clock and the days heat, still stored in the ground, was not going to let us forget what a scorcher it had been. I looked towards the area in the field where I thought the circle had been. I at first I could not make out much, the birds seemed to have all left, then I noticed a lighter patch of ground and realised it was the crop circle.
By the time we had scrambled over the fence our eyes seemed to have well and truly adjusted to the starry light. One of the nicer points to living out in the middle of no where was that the stars were so much brighter then in the cities.
"Before we go any further we should check that compass."
"Good idea."
Rose took out the torch and I pulled the little compass out of my back pocket. Rose stood right next to me, closer then I thought she had to, not that I was complaining, and flicked the little light on. It turned out my hunch had been correct. The needle should have pointed off to some point behind us, north, but it did not. Instead it point straight out into the field ahead of us.
"Damn you're clever aren't you?" and I was rewarded with another kiss, this time on the cheek.
"I try." I said with a smile, "Come on, lets take another look."
As we got within a few feet of the flattened grass the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up again.
"Is it just me getting that?"
"What? that static kinda feeling?" she asked.
"Yeah exactly."
"Nope it;s not just you." Sure enough in the light of the torch I could see strands of her red hair starting to stand up and I laughed.
"I wouldn't be laughing boy, your's no better."
I ran my hand over the space four inches above my head and there it was all my hair up on its end to.
"Do you think its dangerous?" She sounded more excited then concerned.
"Maybe. It's definitely not normal, I know that much."
Suddenly stepping into that circle seemed very stupid and I knew in that moment she agreed because she squeezed my hand that much tighter. I am still not sure why, with that thought in my head, I did what I did next. Maybe I was trying to impress her or maybe there were other forces at work, I'll never know.
"Shall we?" I said smiling at her.
And with that we both stepped across the threshold and into the circle. Instantly the torch went out and things seemed a little darker.
"Did you turn it off?" I asked hoping the answer was yes.
"Nuh..uh." Just what I'd thought.
"But your watch is still working right?"
"Hang on, I can't see... Yeah it's working, but it's a old wind up one, my mums. Would that make a difference?"
"It might." If it had no electrical parts to it, that may explain why it was still running.
"A magnetic field wouldn't do that to the torch though, would it?"
"I wouldn't have thought so..." Then it hit me, "but an electomagnetic field might."
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"I read to much."
"No such thing." She said, "Check the compass."
I had forgotten all about it so I took it back out. At first I could not make out the needle at all. In fact it appeared to have vanished but as I held it closer to my face I realised it was still there, it was just spinning to fast for me to see plainly it any more. I was starting to feel a little nervous about all this. When Rose yelled out.
"What the hell is that?"
I looked over my should, back towards the road, just in time to see, what I can only describe as straight lightening racing along the fence line. I blinked and it was gone leaving only a purple line in front of my eyes where it had once been.
"What was that?" This time I thought I heard the edge of panic creeping into Rose's voice.
"I have no idea. It kinda looked like purple lightning." I tried to keep my voice calm, I wanted to reassure her, even if I felt like I could do with a little reassuring myself.
"Yeah but lightning tends not to be purple and sorta comes down wards instead of racing along fences."
I had to admit she had me there.
"Crap!" I said as more lightning zipped along the fence, this time it was not purple.
"That one wasn't purple?" She said.
"Now if it will only come downwards we are back in business right?" I smiled weakly at her then some thing stranger again caught my eye. The night sky. It was... moving?
"Look." I said to Rose turning her head upward and away from the road.
"What the hell?" Was all she managed.
The stars were moving, not as fast as the lightning had been but a lot quicker then they normally did. It was rather pretty to witness, I remember thinking at the time. But I didn't get much of a chance to dwell on that notion. It was then that I saw another light in the night sky. This one was moving a lot quicker. It was arcing across the sky like a shooting star coming out of the east, very very fast, and coming lower as it drew closer. Evidently Rose saw it to.
"Thats heading right for us isn't it?"
"Shit!"
It was all I had time to say.
To be continued...
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