Lightning Struck.
The sky was dark for 3pm. I was walking home from uni and it was stormy. I'd had a pretty medium day, the usual English lectures and tutorials. I was looking forward to chilling out at home for the weekend. I lived with my mum and my older sister in a nice enough area, I could get to uni with a single bus ride and short walk at either end.
It wasn't raining but it felt like it could at any moment. The wind would pick up and blow heavily. I thought I'd heard some thunder a little way away but I hadn't seen any lightning. I was wondering if I'd make it home before it started bucketing down.
Suddenly an almighty BANG crashed down on me.
"Ahh fuck" I heard myself shout. I realised I was crouching. My whole body was tingling and aching. My ears were ringing. I slowly stood up and looked down at myself and around me. I realised I was breathing heavily, almost panting, but I couldn't see anything different about my clothes or body.
The concrete footpath I was standing on was black with scorch marks zig-zagging out from under my feet. I stood for a minute or two, collecting myself. As the seconds went by, the shock seemed to dissipate. I found it was only my hands that remained tingling. The thought popped into my head, 'I have just been struck by lightning'. As I thought it, my hand went to my chest, I could feel my heart beating but it felt totally normal. 'Is it possible to have a minor "struck by lightning" incident?' I wondered.
I continued walking home and found myself more and more okay with what was happening. 30 seconds ago, I'd thought I should call an ambulance and rush to the hospital. Now, I felt that wasn't necessary. I felt fine: full of adrenaline, definitely, but maybe even better than normal.
I got home and walked through the front door. Mum was in the kitchen at the sink.
"Hi James, how are you?" she asked with just a glance over.
"Yeah, good, glad it's Friday"
"I'm planning dinner, anything you want?"
"Fifty bucks?" This was a running joke in our family. Whenever anybody asked for anything, be it glass or water, a pair of hands for a task, a quick favor, the response should be "fifty dollar". If someone says 'do you want something?' in this house, the auto-response is "fifty dollars". It's a very dumb joke. And it has a very dumb follow up where the person tells you to "get fucked". It's quality banter.
I waited for the inevitable reply.
"Sure", I heard my mum say. Wait what? Is this some kind of joke evolution? I felt pranked. Mum had turned from the sink and was pulling her wallet out of her bag and retrieving some notes. She came up to me and handed me $50.
"What's happening?" I asked, "I was just doing the bit."
"You asked for $50 so here it is." She held my hand that held the cash.
"I've done that twenty times this week and you've told me to 'get fucked' twenty times". I could feel something weird was happening. Mum was silent.
"Can I have another fifty?" I asked with a smile, trying to figure out what the punchline was if mum was doing a joke.
"Sure thing," she turned to walk back to her bag.
"Nah, stop. It's all good. Were you going to do it?" I asked.
"Of course"
"Why?"
"Because you asked."
"If I asked you to jump up and down on the couch, would you?"
"Yes."
"Do it"
And then I saw a weird thing. It shouldn't be unexpected. But what I saw was my mother jump up and down on the couch.
What followed in the next half an hour was a very childish experiment. I would ask my mum to do something and she would do it. I don't know why, but the things I asked were things you'd ask a younger relative to do to keep them entertained:
"Mum, do a somersault", "run the length of the passage twice", "Walk backwards up the stairs".
I was thoroughly convinced I could ask my mum to do anything and she would. As mum was counting to 300 on my request, I had the thought that what was happening was related to my little '20,000 volts through my body' experience an hour earlier. I wanted to experiment more and I'd run out of ideas of dumb things to have my mum do. The next experiment seemed to naturally be someone else. And once I thought that, I knew who it was going to be and what I would want them to do.
Jane is my hot neighbour. She's 6 years older than me: 25 and she's gorgeous. Dark brown hair with pale white skin. A small, cute nose and great teeth, behind amazing lips. She's got a rocking body, tall and skinny. She works in a florist and seems to wear the same clothes for work and when she's not working.
I walked up to her front door and knocked. She opened it and I was greeted to an amazing sight, A small, tight, green-striped t-shirt was stretched across her round tits that were a perfect handful. The t-shirt showed off a strip of flat stomach. She was wearing jeans with it. I've seen her in jeans a lot and her ass is always amazing. It's round and pert and just the right size for her frame.
"James! Good to see you. What's happening?"
My heart was racing and I wanted to chicken out and run away.