Coincidental Storm

“Dan, it’s pouring out here! Can’t this wait?” Deidre yelled over the roaring wind, buckets of rain pouring down their backs. 

“No! It can’t if I can’t get this thing running we might as well have packed up and moved back to the high country,” he said, water pouring down his face as he held the flashlight. Dan hovered over the engine of the sputtering generator that ran the sump pump. 

“Without the generator, we’re sunk, literally! Wait! Here’s the problem, this plug isn’t screwed in all the way. Hand me that pair of pliers, would you, honey?” 

Deidre reached out for the metal pliers inside Dan’s nearly floating toolbox when it seemed as if the world stopped for a brief moment, each of them feeling the hair stand up all over their bodies. About the time Deidre reached for the metal tool, blinding, searing lightning entered her body through her right hand and exited out the bottoms of her feet. The bolt, electrifying every part of her, including her heart. Dan, standing in water, got a shock but not like his girlfriend. 

Dan grabbed the wooden railing of the deck and thrust his aching body toward Deidre who was lying lifeless rain pelting her ashen face. 

“Deid! Honey!” Dan felt for a pulse, none. He reached for the cell phone on his waist, it was fried. 

“I’ve got to DO something!” He screamed. “Think, Dan!” He bent over Deidre, shoving the pliers off the wooden slab, tilted her head slightly and began giving rescue breaths and shoving his hands up and down, heaving her chest. Dan thought to himself, “Who am I kidding. I’ve only ever seen CPR done in PE class and that was over ten years ago!”

“One, two, three, four, five…..breath, breath. Do I repeat it?” Dan continued for what seemed like an eternity then the color began to return to Deidre’s face as she gasped for air, sputtering water from all the rain.

“Honey, I’m going inside to call 9-1-1. Don’t move, I’ll be right back!” Dan said nervously as he rushed inside, grabbing Deidre’s multi-colored rose decorated cell phone. His wet fingers slid all over the glass surface initially, until he dried them off on a paper towel. 

“Emergency services, how may I assist you?” The eerie calm automated voice on the other end gave Dan the creeps. 

“Send an ambulance, my girlfriend’s just been struck by lightning! Hurry!” He yelled. 

“Sir, what is the nature of your emergency? The voice said once again.

“Lady, I need an ambulance. Deidre’s just been struck by lightning! Don’t you understand English!” He shouted in frustration. 

“Sending an ambulance to your location and thank you for calling Emergency Services.” 

“I can’t believe this is what the world’s come to”, he said as he went outside to help Deidre but she was nowhere to be found.

“Deid! Where are you? Deidre!” Dan walked around the side of the house by the garage, saw the open door and walked in to find Deidre in the car with it running.

“Aren’t we going to the hospital? You said you were struck by lightning, didn’t you?” Deidre asked. 

“No, honey.” He reached over to turn the car off. “You were! There’s no way I’m letting you drive. There’s no way I’m driving because I got a shock, too!” 

“So that’s what that light was. It seemed to go on forever, everything was lit so intensely for so long! Are you sure that was lightning?” She asked, clutching her chest. “Ugh, Dan, my chest! It feels like someone’s been pounding on my chest for hours!” 

As the ambulance pulled up, sirens roaring over the din of the pounding rain Dan reached out to help Deidre out of the car, collapsing at her feet. Deidre noticed something strange about Dan’s sneakers. They’d turned this strange shade of brown around the edges. At first, she looked and thought it was because they were wet, but the closer to the ground they were, the darker the shade of dirty brown. 

“Help! Over here!!” She cried, ushering the soaked paramedics to a breathing but incapacitated boyfriend. 

“Sir!” The first paramedic yelled, rubbing the middle of the dragon on Dan’s chest, his favorite tee from the glory days of high school football. 

“Ma’am, what happened?” The other paramedic asked Deidre. 

“I’m not exactly sure. One minute we’re working on fixing the generator, the next I wake to Dan giving me mouth to mouth! The only thing I really remember is right before I passed out, I felt a strange tingling sensation all over, then a sudden burst of heat, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”

The paramedic wrapped Deidre in a blanket, ushering her to the back of the ambulance where Dan was being loaded on a gurney. 

“Ma’am,” the paramedic started, then paused, staring at the profile of her face. “Wait! Are you Deidre Maxim, the Deidre Maxim?” He asked, astonished. 

“Yes,” she replied with a bewildered look on her face. “Do I know you?”

“No, but I know you. You graduated from Ashtyn High School?” He asked, making sure he was talking to the right person.

“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” Deidre replied, starting to feel a bit creeped out. 

“You, it’s really you!” The paramedic said, grabbing her hand and shaking it. “It’s such an honor to meet you. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to meet you!” 

“What on earth are you talking about?” She wondered aloud as the other paramedic hooked Dan,coming around but still groggy,to the heart monitor.

“You’re the girl who saved my fiance's life! The reason why I do what I do today!” He replied with the excitement of a five year old being given carte blanche to a candy store. 

“Then your sister must be….Angelica? Deidre asked, unsure she was remembering the name correctly. 

“YES! You don’t know how grateful my family and I are to you! We’ve been trying to find you for some time now. We knew you went to Ashtyn High but the school, for obvious safety concerns, wouldn’t release even your mailing address. And here you are in my ambulance! Just goes to show you, there are no coincidences!” 

Deidre smiled, reaching out to grasp his hand. “High school can be rough. It was for me. I was just doing what I hoped anyone would do if I were in that situation.” 

“Yes, well, because of you, I have a future with an amazing woman. She told me the whole story, how you acted quickly, getting those sleeping pills away from her, getting medical attention, holding her hand all the way to the hospital, visiting her while she was recovering. It meant the world to her, especially after she’d lost so much that year, her best friend moving and her mom leaving without a word.”

“Isn’t it strange how some life events can alter our lives in such a short time?” Deidre asked, holding Dan’s hand with a stronger grip than before.