Absent Chapter One: A Bolt From the Blue

“Back already?” Cora asked. She couldn’t stand still, and her dark curls bobbed about as she moved her knees in time to the music.

“Yeah, I think today went well. They seemed happy with my resume, and the interview wasn’t too drawn out. I don’t know if that’s a good sign or not.” Rowena leaned against the doorframe.

“Sorry I didn’t get to see you off this morning and wish you luck.” Cora sauntered over to her computer and turned her music down a little- but only a little.

“You never wake up before ten when you don’t have to work.” Rowena was only slightly accusatory, and it happened to be true, so Cora let it slide.

“Anyway, your outfit is good. They’d be morons not to hire you.” She shuffled out of her room. Rowena was tempted to comment that Cora hadn’t even changed out of her pyjamas… but she decided against it. Cora’s daytime wardrobe choices were occasionally indistinguishable from sleep apparel, anyways. She seemed to think that Spiderman boxer shorts were an acceptable substitute for actual pants.

“Well, I don’t know. I didn’t meet all the qualifications-” Rowena started, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence before Cora interrupted her with a waving hand gesture.

“Stop right there, Ro. A negative attitude isn’t going to help. Besides, some of their qualifications are more… suggestions. I think.” Cora shrugged, in her typical nonchalant attitude.

“You never worked a day in your life until a month ago.” Rowena started unloading her groceries.

“Yeah, true. And I’m a barista so the qualifications for that are… pretty simple. Make coffee. It was either that or sign up for medical experiments.”

“I’m the one who talked you out of that, remember?” Rowena rolled her eyes, without realising she'd done so. Cora had made a deal with her parents. In order for them to keep paying for her rent and phone bill, she had to at least try to get a job. Naturally, Cora tried to find something as low effort as possible. For a long time she’d looked at signing up to be a lab rat as a viable option. Her rational friend wouldn’t let her, of course. Rowena shook her head and put the new two-litre of milk into the fridge. A cardboard carton, not plastic. Biodegradable. Sensible. Cora silently helped her unload groceries, arranging apples and kiwis into the fruit bowl on the counter while Rowena played Tetris with the fridge contents.

“Hey, I was going to head to the used book store later. Marie is probably working today and I was going to buy another poster because the water damage on the ceiling spread again. Maybe I’ll get that vintage Tron poster this time?” Cora looked ponderously at the orange she was trying to fit in the fruit bowl.

“I’ll come with you.” Rowena smirked, “You just want to see Marie, right?”

“And the other thing!” Cora defensively put her hands on her hips. Rowena looked down at her from her square glasses, and raised her eyebrow.

“At least put some pants on.” Rowena smiled, resuming her struggle to fit a bag of romaine hearts in the fridge among Cora’s leftover pizza and cans of cider.

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The bookstore was populated with the usual suspects. There were 20 year olds with opinions and thick glasses perusing the selection of used records. A handful of students were looking to escape the stresses of college life in a good book they would never finish, because midterms would come far too soon. The regulars also included an old man in excessive tweed who carried a cane and gave unsolicited advice about the lesser-known classics. Cora secretly referred to him as “The Professor” and was only half sure he didn’t actually work there. Cora was a little more preoccupied today, because Marie usually worked afternoons on Thursdays.

“Calm down. Breathe.” Rowena put her hand on her jittery friend’s shoulder. Cora crossed her arms and shifted her weight forward and backward on her feet. Rowena motioned with her head towards the International Cooking shelf where Marie was stocking a few new arrivals. Cora took a deep breath in and out, before striding over.

Rowena shook her head and wandered over to a little shrine dedicated to H. G. Wells, thinking to add to her collection of books short enough to finish in an afternoon. That was her favourite kind, she wasn’t a fan of the epic. She heard Cora’s loud laughter, and decided that all was going well with her. It was, in fact.

They had started talking about school and work, but had moved on to discussing a rivalry between two local bands. There were surprisingly good jokes circulating about that, as it had become a bit of a neighborhood inside joke.

“But really, if Short Boat and Risky Kingdom just got along, they could merge into a super group,” Cora hypothesised.

“The problem with that is… would we call them Risky Boat or Short Kingdom?” Marie said, sorting a few Cajun cookbooks back into their proper places. Cora chuckled, even though it wasn’t that funny.

“Either way, between the two of them they would almost make up a whole band.”

“In numbers or in musical talent? Because I’m pretty sure Short Boat has a new bassist. They say he’s better than the last one.” Marie moved onto the Chinese cookbooks, which someone had disorganised.

“What? No, it's the same one. He just got a haircut, now he can actually see what he’s playing,” Cora smirked. Marie laughed.

“Anyway,” Cora said, “I should probably let you get back to work.”

“All right, it’s always nice talking to you.” Marie gave a little wave, which Cora returned before meandering back to Rowena.

A book on 20th century art had caught Rowena’s eye, and she was browsing it absentmindedly. She decided that she didn’t really get pop art. However, she had discovered that Picasso painted some things that didn’t look like what she generally thought of when someone said 'Picasso'. She kept flipping through with mild interest.

“Ro, guess what? It’s always nice talking to me.” Cora was grinning proudly as she latched onto Rowena’s arm like a leech.

Rowena opened her mouth to ask a question, but there was a flash of light from outside, and a resounding boom like someone had turned on the world’s largest subwoofer. The ground shook a little. Cora shrieked and Rowena dropped her book. Everything was a haze of panic for a moment, but then it stopped. The lights in the store went out, and the unobtrusive background music had stopped. There was an atmosphere of confusion.

People were quiet, looking around for the source of whatever the hell happened. From the record section there was a few shouted profanities, someone knocked over a stack of books in the commotion and someone else had tripped.

Rowena stepped towards the window cautiously. She saw the clear sky, the mostly empty street, and a large black mark on the asphalt, as if it had been… scorched? The mark was about a metre in diameter, smoking slightly, and the air smelled hot.

“Was that lightning?” Cora asked, her voice quieter than usual.

“It’s completely clear out.” Rowena’s eyebrows scrunched together, closely followed by a puzzled expression appearing on the rest of her face. Her heart rate had not yet returned to normal and she could hear Cora breathing shakily.Lightning on a clear day. Strange.