Blue Noon

24

5:33 P.M.

TRICK OR TREAT

"Looks like Halloween might be canceled," Don Day said from the other end of the couch.

Jessica looked up from the book she'd been trying, and failing, to read. As usual the Weather Channel was on. A man in a bow tie was coaxing a swirling mass of white out of the Gulf of Mexico and onto the Texas plains.

It was headed straight for Oklahoma.

"Is that rain?" she said. "For tonight?"

"It was a hurricane, but by now it's just a tropical depression," her father said in his Weather-Channel-lecture voice. He leaned forward to peer out the back window. "By the time it gets here, it'll only be a thunderstorm."

"Only a thunderstorm..." Jessica watched in horror as the satellite image repeated its course across the TV again and again, stopping at the border of Oklahoma every time. "Um, when's it supposed to get here?"

"Sometime tonight. It might rain out all the fun." He gave her a puzzled look. "You're not going trick-or-treating, are you?"

"Duh. Of course not." She rolled her eyes dramatically. "I'm probably doing trig homework all night. But thunderstorms are kind of scary, you know, especially on Halloween."

Especially at midnight, and particularly when you were trying to keep two hundred pounds of fireworks dry because you were fighting off an invasion of monsters. In the last two weeks of planning, no one had brought up the possibility that it might rain.

"So, Dad," she said a minute later, trying not to sound too interested. "Are they saying the storm should be here by, like, midnight?"

He shrugged. "It's hard to tell what's going to happen once a hurricane, or even a tropical depression, hits land. Could take until tomorrow morning. Might break up into nothing. Or it could keep going strong and get here by nine or ten."

"Whatever!" Beth announced from the doorway. "I'm going trick-or-treating even if it's raining golf-ball-sized hail. Or even golf balls."

Jess looked up at her little sister and had to suppress a snort of laughter. Eight coat hangers stuck out from Beth's shoulders at all angles, covered with black paper and bobbing wildly Her face was mostly blackened with makeup, exaggerating the whites of her eyes, and she was wearing plastic vampire fangs.

"What are you supposed to be?"

"I'm a tarantula, stupid." Beth took a step closer to the couch, angling one of the legs so that it menaced her father.

"Ow," he said as it struck his head, eyes still trained on the Weather Channel.

"You're calling me stupid. Look in a mirror." Then Jessica frowned. "Where'd you get that idea?"

"From Cassie. We're both going as tarantulas. She has this thing about spiders."

A chill ran down Jessica's spine. "She's coming over here tonight?"

"What? Don't you like Cassie, Jess?" Beth said sweetly.

"Yeah, she's wonderful." Jessica lowered her eyes to stare at her book. Cassie had been over a few times since that first awful Spaghetti Night. The two of them had left Jessica alone so far, but tonight she had a feeling they were going to show up at exactly eleven-thirty, when she had to slip out of her room.

At least in one way it was a good thing: it would be a lot safer for Cassie here than in Jenks. Once midnight fell, the rip was going to start expanding, zooming down the 36th parallel. Hopefully it wouldn't grow wide enough to swallow houses on the north side of Bixby. But even if it did, the darklings might not make it this far.

That's what Jessica had been telling herself all week, anyway.

"Well, you won't have to put up with us in any case." Beth swiveled her hips so that one of the tarantula legs banged against Jessica's head. "I'm going over to her house."

"What, in Jenks?"

Beth looked at Jessica with surprise, and even her father's eyes lurched away from the Weather Channel.

"Um, yes, Jess. Because that's where Cassie, like, lives."

"When are you getting home?"

"Jess, you're being weird. Dad, tell Jess she's being weird."

"Jessica?" her father said.

"Well, trick-or-treating in a strange part of town and everything."

They both looked at her in puzzlement a little bit longer, and then a knowing smile broke out slowly across Beth's face.

Their father turned back to the TV, which was filled with images of the storm roiling the Texas coast. "Lighten up, Jessica. It's Halloween. Cassie's grandmother promised they'd be in bed by eleven and that they wouldn't eat too much candy."

That last word seemed to remind him of the open bag of candy corn on the coffee table, and he leaned forward to grab a handful.

"Mom said not to eat that," Beth said.

"Mom's not home yet," he answered.

"But it's dangerous!" Jessica cried.

"What?" her father said. "Candy corn?"

"No. Being out there in the country. With a possible storm coming and... everything."

Beth was still smiling. "You don't want me in Jenks tonight, do you?"

Jessica ignored the words, staring at her book, trying not to chew at her lip. Her little sister was headed right into the path of the darkling invasion, but she couldn't think of a single way to stop it. Beth had that smug look on her face - this time she really was ready to spill everything she knew if Jessica got in her way.

And this was not the night to get grounded.

"Come on, Dad, let's get moving," Beth said. "The Weather Channel will still be here when you get back. Like it ever changes."

"The weather changes all the time, smarty-pants," he said, scooping his keys and another handful of candy corn from the coffee table and rising to his feet.

Jessica found herself wishing that she'd become all predatory, like Rex, so that she could slip outside right now and pull the starter cable out of her father's car. But she didn't actually know what starter cables looked like and wasn't a hundred percent sure she could even get the hood open.

What else could she do? Explain that the food chain was about to turn upside down? That Bixby was about to be invaded? They'd only think she was kidding or crazy.

She would have to deal with this at midnight. Along with everything else tonight, Jessica was going to have to make sure her little sister was okay.

"See you later, Jess," Beth taunted from the front door.

Jessica didn't answer, and the door slammed with a booming note of finality. She looked at her watch, her stomach slowly winding itself into knots.

Only five forty-five, and already Samhain was off to a brilliant start.

25

11:21 P.M.

RAIN

"Can you still taste him?"

"Relax, Flyboy." Melissa shook her head. "He's headed off down Division."

Jonathan let the car speed up again but glanced in the rearview one more time. Relaxing didn't seem like such a good idea at the moment. Cops were crawling all over Bixby tonight, hoping to catch Halloween vandals and impose curfew on any kids who'd stayed out late after trick-or-treating. And of course, the sheriff's department were dying to find whoever had stolen all those fireworks before they were put to use.

The fact that Jonathan's trunk contained about half of the collection of firecrackers, smoke bombs, Roman candles, sparklers, and rockets of every description certainly didn't fill him with relaxing thoughts.

"Just let me know if he comes this way again."

"Don't worry about the cops. I can taste those rednecks a mile off."

He leaned forward to look up into the roiling sky, a flicker of lightning illuminating the clouds from within. "What do you figure about that rain?"

"In general, Jonathan, storm fronts don't have minds. So I have no idea."

He let out a short laugh, only half sure that she was kidding. Melissa wasn't usually Jonathan's favorite traveling companion, but he was glad she was with him tonight. He was too nervous to ride around alone, especially with the police hunting for what was in his trunk.

"All excited about tonight?" she asked.

"Nervous."

It was Melissa's turn to laugh. "Jonathan, I know you're not completely dreading this."

He sighed. There was no point in bluffing a mindcaster. The night before had been one long flying dream, a half-anxious, half-thrilled rehearsal in his mind.

Jonathan shrugged. "It's something different."

"That's what I like about Bixby: always something different."

"What about you?" he asked. "A whole day without... what do you call it? Mind noise? Isn't that your dream?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Melissa said. "But as the rip grows, all those other minds will be sucked in, polluting our midnight. Frankly, Flyboy, I wish the secret hour would just stay between the five of us forever."

"Yeah," Jonathan said softly. He hadn't thought of it that way, but in addition to all the death and destruction, midnight was about to become something public, something less special. "Me too."

They pulled onto Jessica's street, five minutes early.

She was already outside and ran to the car, pulling open the door even before he'd rolled to a stop. She threw herself into the backseat and said, "Okay. Go."

"Relax, Jess," he said. "We're ahead of schedule."

"I need to get out there early, okay?"

For a moment Jonathan wondered what she meant, but then, slowly but surely, the only possible explanation crept into his mind.

"Beth?"

"Just... drive."

"She gave you trouble tonight?" Jonathan shook his head. "It doesn't matter, okay? By the time the sun comes up tomorrow, thousands of people will have seen the blue time for themselves. The secret's over!"

"I know all that." Her voice was tight, afraid. "But we have to get moving. Beth's in trouble."

He put the car back in gear, easing into the center of the street. "She's not still out trick-or-treating, is she?"

"Much worse. She's in Jenks."

"What?"

"She's spending the night with Cassie Flinders."

Melissa put a hand to her head. "Guys..."

Jonathan's eyes widened. "But that's right next to the rip!"

"I know!" Jessica cried.

"Guys!" Melissa said, her head tipping back, eyes closed. "Shush your minds!"

Jonathan brought the car to a stop at the next light, looking both ways and then into the rearview mirror, trying to think quiet, relaxed thoughts... and failing.

"Turn left," Melissa suddenly whispered. "Don't wait for the light."

Jonathan spun the wheel and accelerated, whipping the car onto Kerr Street.

"He saw us. He knows your car..." She twitched. "Crap. It's St. Claire."

Sheriff Clancy St. Claire - Jonathan's knuckles went white on the steering wheel as he imagined the lawman's grinning face. The sheriff could recognize Jonathan's car from a mile away.

"Which way?" he hissed.

Melissa shook her head. "Don't know yet. Can't feel any other cars, but he's calling it in."

Jonathan breathed through clenched teeth. They didn't have much time to get clear of St. Claire. Soon there would be another cop car involved in the pursuit and then another - Bixby police never did things in small numbers. By the time midnight rolled around, they'd all be in handcuffs and miles out of position. Totally unable to help Beth or anyone else, for that matter.

"Hang on," he said, and pushed the gas pedal to the floor, speeding down Kerr. A few seconds later lights spun in his rearview mirror, the whoop of a siren splitting the night.

"Oh, no," Jessica said softly. It occurred to Jonathan that she'd been taken home by the cops right after she arrived in Bixby - part of her introduction to the hazards of the midnight hour.

"Don't worry, Jess. We'll get there." He spun the wheel again, turning onto a small residential road called Mallard and hoping there weren't any trick-or-treaters still out. Fortunately he'd flown over Jessica's part of town dozens of times and could visualize it perfectly from a bird's-eye view. Mallard took a winding route toward downtown, then branched into two roads a mile before hitting the highway.

If he could just get to the fork before Clancy caught sight of them again, they'd have a fifty-fifty chance of getting away. Which was better than nothing.

They swerved along the winding street, shooting through the narrow straights between parked cars. Jonathan had to force himself to look ahead instead of checking the rearview mirror.

Then - with a sudden whack!  -  something struck the windshield, and Jonathan felt the steering wheel slip from his fingers. Tires squealed for a moment before he pulled the car straight again.

"What was that?" Jessica shouted.

"I don't..." Jonathan started, then saw a delta of yellowish goo oozing upward on his windshield, spreading wider as it was pushed by the wind of their passage. A tiny white fragment clung to the ooze, fluttering for a moment before it was ripped away.

"Just kids," Melissa said. "And I think they've got a few more eggs for St. Claire's car."

Lightning flickered in the distance, illuminating the goo as it crawled across the windshield.

They reached the fork, and Jonathan veered left. Another mile ahead was the highway that led toward Jenks.

"Wait! Stop!" Melissa suddenly shouted.

"Do what?"

"Pull over and park! Clancy's backup just turned onto this street. They're right in front of us!"

Jonathan squashed his foot down on the brakes, bringing a screech from the tires. He swerved the car in behind a camper van and switched off the lights and motor.

"What are you doing?" Jessica cried from the backseat. "We can't just sit here!"

"We're not just sitting, Jess!" Melissa hissed. "We're hiding!"

"It's okay, Jess. We'll get there." Jonathan hoped it wasn't an empty promise.

He slid himself under the wheel, one hand still clutching the dangling car keys. He wondered how fast he could get the engine started again if the other cop recognized his car.

Of course, if they pulled in behind them, they'd all be stuck here behind the camper van....

"Here they come," Melissa whispered, huddled against the passenger door.

Jonathan heard the swoosh of tires whipping by and listened for the sound of them slowing. But no lights flashed, no siren sounded, and gradually the car faded into the distance.

"They're gone," Melissa said. "And Clancy's headed the other way. He thinks he's got us now."

Jonathan let out a slow sigh of relief, but as he pulled himself back up into his seat, his heart sank.

A few raindrops had already spattered on the windshield. As he watched, they began to fall more swiftly, diluting the egg goo and catching the flicker of lightning like a hundred glowing eyes.

Thunder rumbled again, this time right over their heads.

He looked at his watch. They still had time to get to Jenks, but by midnight it would be raining like crazy.

"Perfect night for fireworks," he said, turning the engine back on and putting the car in gear.