Chapter 1

May 21, 2016

The Storm

A loud boom echoed through the night, rocking the building to its foundation and rattling the windows. Dan Nelson awoke with a start. For a minute he wasn’t sure exactly what had awakened him, or exactly where he was. A bright white flash of light illuminated the window across the room, followed quickly by another loud clap of thunder. Torrents of rain crashed against the window, as another bright flash cast eerie shadows on the opposite wall. He sat up in bed and looked around the room, which was completely dark except for when the lightning came in its quick, bright bursts. The flashes seemed to be coming quicker now, and the thunder seemed louder now as well, the deep, low sound shaking the walls and windows so hard that Dan was afraid that a picture might fall off the wall, or some other object might topple off of a shelf onto the floor. He rolled over to one side and felt for the clock radio on the nightstand to try and see the time, but the bright blue LED display was not lit. He realized immediately that the power must be out. His mind growing clearer now, he recalled the events of the past day and remembered that he was in a room at the Baker Family Bed and Breakfast on Green Island. He looked around the room, and to his surprise Dianne and the kids seemed to still be asleep. “How can anyone sleep through this!?” he thought to himself.

He gently pulled back the covers, trying not to wake Dianne, and quietly sat up on the edge of the bed. Outside, nature was unleashing all of her fury, but in here it was warm and dry. He thought about the previous day, and of the events of that day: The Presidential Reception, the climb to the top of the lighthouse, and the spectacular view of the sunset that had accompanied it. Watching the bright orange and red sunset as the sun slowly slipped below the horizon, there hadn’t been even a hint of the storm that was to come later in the night. He stood up and walked over to the window which looked out over Main Street. As the bright flashes came in rapid succession, for a few seconds he thought he saw a man standing under the street lamp, looking up at their window.

“It couldn’t be!” he thought, “No one would be out in this kind of weather!”

But even as he continued to stare out the window, and finally determined that there was nobody out there, he still felt an uneasiness that he couldn’t quite place. He began to think back to when he first woke up. He remembered the room being completely dark, but there was something else as well. The loud clap of thunder had interrupted a dream. He couldn’t remember a lot about it, except for the part right before the thunder woke him up. In that part, he was out at the lighthouse when a thick fog came up, and as he walked over to get a better look, a lovely woman with long blonde hair stepped out of the fog and began to walk toward him. He tried to remember if she was anyone that he knew or had seen before, but he drew a complete blank. He was fairly certain that he didn’t know her. But just as she walked up to him and was reaching out her arms to him, the clap of thunder interrupted the dream and he was quickly transported back to reality. He probably wouldn’t have remembered the dream at all if he’d been allowed to slowly transition out of the dream state and wake up normally, but he had been awakened quickly, and the last few minutes of the dream had been transferred to his conscious memory, at least for a time.

“Who could she be?” he thought to himself, struggling to remember just a little more of the dream. But even as he convinced himself that she was no one that he knew, something in the back of his mind told him that he did in fact know her, and for some reason this made him feel even more uneasy. “It was a perfectly normal dream.” he told himself. Nothing at all that should make him feel this strange. Yet it did, and it was a feeling that he really didn’t understand. “Strange” didn’t fully describe it, and actually “uneasy” didn’t quite describe it either. It was more of an apprehensive feeling, but even that wasn’t quite accurate either. It was almost like the feeling that you get when you feel like something’s wrong, but you can’t quite place what it is. It just keeps nagging at you all the same.

“Come on, Dan!” he thought to himself, “It was just a dream! That’s all it was.”

As the waterfalls of rain continued to crash against the window, he walked back over to the bed and slid back under the covers. Even now, surprisingly, he’s still the only one awake. The bright flashes of light through the window had become less frequent now, and the thunder seemed further off as well. The storm was passing, but even as he realized that this storm had passed, he felt that another storm was coming that would totally disrupt his life. For some unknown reason, he couldn’t help but think that this dream was more than just a dream, that it was a window into another world. He knew that it was totally irrational to feel this way, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling.

As he lay there in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, he still couldn’t quite get back to sleep. His mind kept wandering back to yesterday. Thinking that he saw the silhouette of a man standing under the street lamp a few moments ago reminded him of a feeling that he had when he first woke up yesterday morning. While everything seemed normal enough, he recalled a feeling very similar to the one that he was having now, though not nearly as strong. Even as he and his family drove out to the lighthouse dedication ceremony and attended the Presidential Reception afterward, he had the feeling that something was different; something just didn’t feel right, even though everything seemed perfectly normal.

He finally drifted off to sleep, but awoke a short time later. He glanced over at the clock radio which now had illuminated numbers which said 1:27 am. Knowing that the power had been out earlier, he wasn’t sure that was the correct time at all; it probably wasn’t. As he continued to lie in bed, he remembered something else about the previous day that he really hadn’t thought much of at the time. He remembered a man, which he had noticed several times during the course of the day. Something about him made him seem as if he didn’t quite belong. He was fairly nice looking, with sandy brown hair. He wore tan pants and a dark blue shirt. Dan remembered thinking at the time that he was probably a plain clothed officer there to protect the President. But for some reason, now he wasn’t so sure. He remembered the storm that had awakened him earlier in the night, but that had completely passed now. He also remembered having a dream then as well, but try as hard as he could, he couldn’t remember even the slightest detail of that dream now.

He pushed off the covers and sat up on the edge of the bed, listening to the air blowing through the vents in the room. He got up and walked over to the closet in the corner, where he withdrew a pair of khaki pants and a shirt. Purposely being quiet so as not to wake the rest of his family, he got dressed, picked up a room key off of the dresser and quietly unlocked the door to go out into the hallway. As he descended the stairway and turned to walk back to the kitchen, he could see that there was already a light on. He walked through the entryway into the kitchen, where he was greeted by his mother-in-law Jan, who apparently couldn’t sleep either.

“That was quite a storm!” she remarked.

“Yes it was!” replied Dan, “Woke me up a few hours ago.”

“I’ve been awake most of the night.” said Jan, “I couldn’t seem to get to sleep. I guess it was the storm, but I’m not quite sure that was all it was. When I first woke up, I just felt that something was wrong. I’m not sure why I felt that way, but I came out here and looked around. Everything seemed to be in order, so I didn’t think much of it. The storm was so strong, that I just figured that was what it was.”

“I know what you mean; it was the same with me.”

“There was something else.” she continued, “I hope you don’t think me to be just a crazy old woman, but while the storm was raging at its worst, I walked over to the front window of the parlor and looked out onto Main Street. The lightning was flashing almost constantly at that point, worse than I’ve ever seen, but what really startled me was that when I looked out, there was a man standing under the street lamp directly across the street from the window. He looked straight at me as I pulled the curtain back!”

“What did he look like?” Dan inquired, remembering that earlier in the evening he had thought that he saw a man out front as well.

“I didn’t really get a good look.” she replied, “The lightning was so bright, and flashing so frequently, that all I could really see was a silhouette, but I’m sure it was a man. When I turned and looked back out, though, he was gone. I really had to wonder if he had been there at all, since the rain was coming down so hard. Who’d possibly be out in that kind of weather?”

“I wouldn’t think anyone would, but the funny thing was that I thought I saw a man earlier standing under that same street light!”

“No?!” she remarked, as if his mentioning that he had seen the man actually proved that he was there after all. Since that incident, she had convinced herself that he wasn’t real, just a trick effect of the lightning. She actually preferred it that way, because there was something about the way that he was standing that completely unnerved her.

“I don’t think it really was a man,” answered Dan, “We were probably both fooled by an optical illusion created by the lightning. He was gone so quickly that he couldn’t have really been there.”

“You’re probably right,” she said, “but in the early morning hours, it’s still pretty unsettling. Especially with that storm! I’ve never seen one quite like that one in all the years that we’ve lived here. There’ve been storms just as severe, but not quite like that one. Wendell didn’t even move! Nothing can wake up that man!”

“Like father, like daughter.” said Dan. “Dianne didn’t wake up either. I’m sure she’ll wake up tomorrow morning and say, “What storm? Was there a storm?”

At this, Jan had to laugh. She knew her daughter well, and knew exactly what he was talking about.  She had been having a cup of coffee, and now thought to offer Dan one as well. He accepted, and they sat and talked for another hour before both decided to go back and try and get a little more sleep before morning. It was Saturday, which was the last full day of the week long Lighthouse Dedication. Sunday would have some activities, but most of the people that came for the celebration would be leaving then and life would get back to normal on the island, with normal being the usual summer vacation season.

A few hours later everyone was up and around the breakfast table. As both Dan and her mother had figured, Dianne hadn’t heard the storm at all, neither had the kids. Greg came by for breakfast as well. He could only stay just long enough to have breakfast before heading out. President Henderson was scheduled for another campaign stop over in Wilmington this afternoon, and being his Press Secretary, Greg had to arrive ahead of him to be sure that everything was set up and ready for his arrival. At breakfast, he remarked about the storm as well, and told everyone of all of the fallen tree limbs and other damage that he had seen on his way over. He had been staying with the President’s entourage out at the Harbor Inn, but the storm had been just as severe out there, maybe more so.

“What did you make of that storm last night?!” he asked everyone. “I grew up on this island, and that was about as strong of a storm as I’ve ever seen. It almost seemed to be fueled by some unseen energy. At one point, I counted lightning every two or three seconds!”

“It woke me up too.” said his mother, “Dan and I sat down in the kitchen and talked about it for awhile.”

During breakfast, the storm was the main topic of conversation. Even the guests from the mainland remarked how they were awakened by it. Most said that it was the strongest storm that they had seen as well.

Just how bad the storm was, was confirmed when they finally walked outside.  They all saw what Greg had been talking about. There were leaves and fallen tree limbs everywhere. Water still stood in the road in several places where the drainage was the worst. They didn’t fully realize the extent of the damage until they got down the road a little further on their way to the Harbor Inn. Some really large trees had fallen across the road, as well as numerous branches. Mike and his crew, who were the only tree and brush clearing company on the island, were already hard at work trying to get the roads cleared before the traffic really started. At one point, Officer Mark Collins was out detouring traffic around a section of road that was completely blocked by a fallen tree. They saw several trucks from the power company as well. While the power had been restored to the bed and breakfast a little while earlier, apparently a lot of the island was still in the dark.

After a longer than usual drive out to the Harbor Inn, they finally arrived. Since the hotel was hosting an exhibit on the history of the island, particularly the lighthouse, there were more cars than usual in the parking lot, so they had to park a little further away. Danny and Rebekah were excited to see the exhibit. Since their mother had grown up on the island, and their father had spent many vacations here, they were anxious to find out more. The lighthouse had always been one of their father’s favorite places to visit, and they both actually liked it too. It was a link to the past that couldn’t be found just anywhere. Exactly how much of a link to the past, neither of them could even begin to guess.

The four of them walked across the parking lot and went into the front lobby of the hotel. On the way across the parking lot, Danny had noticed a silver van parked along the side of the hotel that had about a half dozen radio antennas, and what looked to be weather instruments on the top. It wasn’t the usual TV station van, but had the words, “Coastal Storm Spotters” written along the side. He asked his dad about it and Dan told him that it was probably an amateur storm spotter club.

“They sure came to the right place last night then!” Danny replied. Even though he hadn’t personally been awakened by the storm, he had heard everyone talking about it this morning, and had observed the damage that it had caused on the way out here this morning.

As they all entered the lobby of the hotel, they could see numerous exhibits that were set up around the lobby area. Many more had been set up in the various conference rooms located in the Conference Center Wing. They found the “Coastal Storm Spotters” exhibit set up in the Pelican Room. It was a fairly large exhibit, having a table with various weather literature, pens and pencils with the club logo imprinted on them, refrigerator magnets with the National Weather Service phone number to call if you see severe weather, and numerous other informational flyers. What really caught their attention, though, was a forty inch flat screen LED TV mounted about six feet up on the back wall of the exhibit right under the “Coastal Storm Spotters” banner. On the monitor was playing a video of one of the most breathtaking storms that any of them had ever seen. Lightning arced across the sky, jumping from cloud to cloud, creating multitudes of unique patterns. The entire atmosphere seemed electrified. There was constant motion of the lightning, with some going sky to ground, some going cloud to cloud, and some seeming to arc in huge spirals in the clouds, as if it they had minds of their own. One of the men at the booth wearing a gray polo shirt with the club logo said, “That video’s from last night. The power was out in the hotel, but we took some of our equipment out back and created this 25 minute long film. It was incredible! The energy levels that we measured in the atmosphere were off the charts! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. By the way, my name’s Joe.”

“Dan Nelson,” replied Dan, “My wife grew up here on the island, and we’re down here for the lighthouse celebration.”

“Have you ever seen anything like that?” Joe asked.

“No, I can’t say that I have.” remarked Dan, “It was quite unique.”

Joe looked to be in his twenties, brown hair with a thin, lanky build. He looked the part of your typical weather geek. He talked with Dan some more before another man, also in the club’s gray polo shirt came running up excitedly.

“You’ve got to see this!” he exclaimed, holding up a color printout that he had just pulled off of the printer. “I just got this from the National Weather Service feed!”

“Man!” said Joe, “That’s incredible!”

They both studied the picture for a few more minutes, then, anxious to share their findings with someone else, handed the page to Dan. He stared in disbelief for a few moments, trying to get his bearings on the picture. It was a color satellite photo of the island taken last night by one of the NOAA satellites during the worst of the storm. Lightning covered a large part of the photo, and the island’s shape was difficult to make out, since the photo was dark except for the lightning. What had caught Joe’s eye, though, and what now drew Dan’s attention, was a large lighted circle created by the lightning in the lower right of the picture. Looking at it, it looked to be as much of a perfect circle as any perfect circle could be. Lightning didn’t do that, did it? It didn’t move that way?

“Where is this circle located?” Dan asked Joe.

Joe replied, “Based on the grid markings, I’d say that circle is right about where the lighthouse is located.”

“What could cause something like that?” inquired Dan.

“It had to be some sort of circular motion in the clouds,” replied Joe, “but if it were a tornado, the lighthouse would have had to have sustained serious damage.”

Dan took out his cell phone and dialed Steve’s number. Steve was the director of the Green Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, and his office was in the house connected to the lighthouse tower.

When Steve answered, Dan asked if there had been any signs of a tornado out at the lighthouse last night.

“Not that we can tell,” replied Steve, “There are a lot of trees and limbs down, and the power’s still out here, but the lighthouse is intact. We went out earlier to look around at the damage. Looking around the area, it doesn’t look like the damage that would be caused by a tornado, though. All the buildings are still standing, and it doesn’t look like too much damage to any of them.

That was good news. If it was a tornado, or any kind of circular winds, they had apparently stayed up in the clouds and not touched down. He hung up the phone and informed Joe that apparently if it was a tornado that it hadn’t touched down.

He learned that the man’s name that had showed them the satellite picture was Herb. After talking with him and Joe for a little while longer, he went looking for Dianne and the kids, who had gone on around to more of the exhibits while he stayed at the weather spotter one. After this, they planned on going back out to the lighthouse and doing a few more things around the island for the afternoon. Tomorrow they would be leaving and going back home to Greenville, but today, being Saturday, there was still a lot of activity around the island.

As he rounded the corner, his gaze was immediately drawn to a woman stepping out of the gift shop and walking the other direction down the hall. She had long blonde hair and for an instant brought back a dim memory of the dream from last night.

“Kate!” he whispered to himself, but even as he said it he really didn’t know where that name came from. He didn’t know anyone named Kate, he was sure of that. Still, just seeing this woman walking down the hall brought back certain emotions that he was sure wasn’t just from the dream last night. He stood staring at the woman until she disappeared into the elevator at the far end of the hall. He felt that she wasn’t anyone that he knew, yet just seeing her had awakened a sense of déjà vu in his mind, but from where, and from when?

As he continued down the hall to find Dianne and the kids, he was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice the man that he had seen yesterday. But the man noticed him, and was watching him. And the man was probably the only one there that actually knew who the woman from Dan’s dream was. But he couldn’t tell anyone, at least not yet.