The world wrinkled, sending waves of light across the air like ripples in water. I got knocked to the ground by the force of the push, as did the lantern which immediately turned off. As quickly as it started, the world went back to normal, leaving me lying in the darkness of the now-collapsed tent with my ragged breathing and Rachel’s whimpering.
“What happened? What happened?” she babbled over and over again. “Jen, where are you?”
“Shut your mouth, Rachel, I’m right here,” I snapped in a whisper. Rachel immediately became quiet except for an occasional sniff. I felt along the floor of the tent until I found a flashlight, which I turned on.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight. Everything that we had brought into the tent was dumped on the floor and smeared with chip crumbs and chocolate smears. I shined the flashlight towards Rachel, her tear-streaked face glistening in the yellow light.
“What happened, Jen?” she asked me pathetically.
I didn’t answer. “We’ve gotta get this cleaned up.”
“This was a bad idea.” Rachel smoothed her blanket. “What…what are we going to tell our parents?”
I shook my head. “What would we tell them? We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Rachel nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Come on.” I crawled out of the tent and stood up, reveling in the fresh air. “We can clean up tomorrow.”
She followed after me like a lost puppy dog. As she looked up at the sky, she gasped. “Jen, look!”
“What?” I looked to where her finger was pointing and my mouth dropped. “That…no way.” I rubbed my eyes, but it was still there when I looked again.
There, up in the sky, a little above the Big Dipper in thin glittering letters, were two words: Hi Sis.


