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Back The Lightning Catcher Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
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  45. Acknowledgements

Something rushed past me, brushing my arm, prickling my skin.

Something fast. Faster than the wind.

7

Lightning Streak

Whatever it was left a strange smell behind: hot metal, like warm coins held in your hand for too long. And the air felt tight and unbreathable.

My forehead still tingled where the thing had touched it. I pulled the lid again, and this time I got a tiny electric shock – like the ones you get from car door handles. But the lid opened properly at last, on a hinge. Inside, the box was empty, apart from a rubbery sheet at the bottom, a jumble of clips with coiled wires coming off them and something that looked like tinfoil. The walls were metal, with wooden rails halfway up. The wooden parts looked a bit burned. I leaned over to get a better view. A tiny, clear puddle of water glimmered on the sheet.

A clicking noise ticked on and off, like the gas fire in our old house after someone had switched it off.

Tick-tick click.

Too much spit in my mouth now. I closed the cage contraption and fastened everything back the way it had been, as fast as I could, shakily, with jelly fingers. Then I stood up and backed away from the box, looking all around – on the ground, in the air – but there was no sign of whatever had been inside. There was only the cat, still sitting and staring at me. I wiped an itch on my nose – a tingling itch – and looked down at my shaking hands.

The cat twisted her neck round and nibbled an itch on her back. A little breeze blew the long grass into her face. She finished dealing with the itch in three fast licks, then turned to stare at a space above my head. And at the same moment, I felt something again.

Electricity in the air.

Stronger this time, like when you stand next to a pylon. And even the ground felt different: the soles of my feet buzzed.

The cat put one ear back, but the rest of her body was fixed in stiff listening mode. She felt it too. I didn’t like that. What did she know now? Her tongue licked out for no reason I could see, like she was tasting the air.

Then she turned to stare in the direction of the house and seemed to relax completely. A moment later came the sound of car tyres crunching over gravel, and the cat trotted away happily, heading for the house.

The buzzing was gone. But Nathaniel Clemm was back. My breathing went all shattered. Sweat sprouted from lots of places on top of my head all at once. A car door slammed. Footsteps crunched. I shot under the tree-tent, scattering a crowd of tiny flies, then crouched and listened and wished I hadn’t come. How old was he? Could I outrun him?