“When will it start?” Marcus whined as a mosquito bit him, leaving an itchy red welt behind. It seemed like they’d been waiting forever already. “Not long,” Mom said. He lay back on the quilt with a huff and watched the purple sky. The more he stared, the darker it got until it was nearly blue black with a winky-blinky star and a big round moon. Then he saw it. A tiny flash of light, then another, and another. He…
Jake spread the map out on the hood of his car. The sun glinted off the windshield, adding to the sweat already accumulating uncomfortably on his back. He traced the route they’d been traveling, trying to determine where he’d gone wrong — aside from agreeing with Mia to lock their phones in the glove box so they could have an ‘old-fashioned’ road trip. Somewhere between license plate bingo and attempting to tune the radio to a station that played songs…
This heatwave was ridiculous, and the AC couldn’t keep up. Brittany lay sprawled on the living room floor under the ceiling fan which was pushing hot, sticky air around. She hadn’t moved in hours, limbs lethargic, sweat pooling under her arms and on her lower back. To amuse herself, she attempted to count the fan’s blades, but that made her dizzy. Instead, she imagined herself swimming through the heavy humidity. This was insane; she needed to get up and do…
Veronica switched the TV off despite the loud protests from her children. “Not cool, Mom,” Lochlan, her eldest, said. No surprise there. The only things he deemed cool were his phone and video games. “Get your bathing suits on.” Lochlan raised an eyebrow. “Uh, like we don’t own a pool.” “Did we get one?” Maybell asked. “Nope, but meet me out back.” Veronica didn’t wait for more questions as she hurried down the hall to get changed. Afterwards, she slipped…