The Storm God and the Conch Shell

The summer sun seared the pavement, causing waves to rise up from its surface. The temperature on the dash read 96, but the wind roaring through the open car windows and beach sand still sticking to my ankles seemed to say that heat could actually be beat. 

Just a few moments earlier I had been pulling out of Abby’s beach house driveway. All day I'd been with her and a handful of other friends hiding away on her private stretch of beach. Together, we’d played games, waded, sunbathed, and walked, thoroughly enjoying the sun while avoiding it’s heat. As I soared down the interstate back to my own house I glanced down into my passenger seat to take another look at the conch shell I had found. Earlier, as our group of girls walked down the beach, we came upon a huge conch shell. Pink, fully intact, by far the biggest I’d ever seen, and it was just sitting there in the sand, waves battering it as they came in. Excitedly, I called dibs, dug it out of the sand, and carried it back to our towels. The thing was so heavy I had to carry it with both hands! Mom would love it… unique shells always put her in a good mood. 

I tore my eyes away from the shell and put them back on the road. Dad always reminded me to be a responsible driver, and honestly it would be such a bummer if I got in a car wreck today. I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw rows of menacing navy clouds brewing behind me. For a moment I watched as they swirled over the place I’d been moments before, then looked back at the road. Of course it would rain on a day like today. Even though it was hot, the rain would be far less welcome, in my opinion. It would turn the air into a humid stew and make my hair frizz. No thank you. 

A cloud passed over the sun, and I sighed. Apparently the dreaded rain was coming faster than I thought. The sun sank behind another cloud, and didn’t come back out. Once again I looked in my rearview and saw the storm nearing faster and faster. It was close enough that I could see the details of the billowing clouds, and before my eyes lightning jumped between them. I grimaced and pressed the gas harder. My license was only 6 months old and I did not trust myself to drive in a storm like that. 

Thunder rumbled overhead and I cast a nervous look above. The storm was now upon me. A fat raindrop splashed against my windshield and in moments the rain had already started to fall in torrents! So much for outrunning the storm. My windshield wipers were on max speed, and could barely keep up with the sheets of rain. The world around me had taken on a dusk-like hue, my headlights illuminating the rain as it fell. Thunder cracked again and lightning lit up the clouds. I tried to remember if my driver’s ed teacher recommended pulling over during a storm like this or trying to stick it out. 

Another big flash of lightning blinded me in a moment, and the air was suddenly filled with the smell of burning metal! My wheels jerked right, sending me spinning into the side ditch, and my head cracked against the window on impact! For a moment I lay, groaning, as the feeling of warm blood trickled down my temple. My car had been struck by lightning. Oh, my gosh, my car had been struck by lightning! 

I groaned louder and tried sitting up, knowing that staying in the wreckage could be more dangerous than the storm outside. Rain poured in through the shattered windows, and the wind still howled. Weather didn’t stop for me to get in a car wreck. I tried the door handle first. It jostled but something had jammed it stuck. I braced myself against the center console and kicked at the door. It wobbled and shook under my blows but it didn’t budge. My breathing quickened. I was trapped inside the wreckage of my own car. Smoked curling up from the hood caught my eye. Could my car explode? I kicked harder on the door praying that it would open. 

The wind and rain died down, and I lifted my head just a little to see out the window. It seemed as though the eye of the storm was passing over me, and I watched as a man walked out of the storm and into my slice of calm. A lone man walking on the highway. Something was just a little off about him. Maybe it was the way he walked, his body slouching with each step, or maybe it was his hair, his long, tangled, ratty hair, but when he turned and looked at me, his shaded eyes meeting mine, a wave of unease passed over me. 

He walked towards me, in his odd way, and every one of my instincts told me to run. However, that is the downside of being trapped in a car on the verge of explosion… there weren’t very many places to run to. All I had left to do was sit up straighter and face him. 

“Susan Carlos.” 

Any confidence I had wilted, fear fought for control. “Who are you?” 

He chuckled in a way that gurgled in the back of his throat, “People like you always ask me that, and it's never relevant to the situation.” 

I tried to slow my breathing but the smoke under the hood was coming out in plumes, and we’d been perfectly in the center of the storm for longer than we should’ve. “It's very relevant to me.” 

“Listen, you have taken something of mine… something very important.” He said ignoring my statement as he twirled a lock of his hair around his spindly finger, “I would like it back.” 

“I haven’t taken anything.” 

“Oh but you have. I watched you.” he rested his forearms on the rim of my window, not flinching when the shards of glass dug into his skin, “A conch shell. Pink. About this big.” he held his hands shoulder width apart. 

“You mean the one that I found on the beach? That's not yours.” 

“I don’t think you understand who exactly I am, or what exactly that is.” he looked over the tops of his sunglasses and I looked into his eyes, blue as the sea but completely and totally empty. 

The front of my car caught fire and I was dragged back into the moment by the sudden heat that seared my skin. “I have your conch shell. It's right here on the floor, but it seems like we both want it, so I’m willing to strike a deal.” 

The man scoffed and stood straight again. I noticed he didn’t have any marks at all from the glass he had been leaning on. “Preposterous.” 

“Maybe, but all I ask is that you get me out of this car. In just a few seconds my car is going to explode and so will the shell so you don’t really have a lot of wiggle room to figure something else out.” 

The man looked at the fire as though for the first time then back at me. “I want to see the shell.” 

I nodded, eager to hurry this along and grabbed the shell off the floor of the passenger’s side. The flames were spreading, the heat rolled across my body. “It can be yours just-” 

He yanked the door right off its hinges and held out a hand.  “Give it to me.” he said scowling, “I don’t appreciate being toyed with by your kind.” 

I shut my gaping mouth and handed the shell over to the man. With a flick of his hand a miniature rain storm formed over my car and snuffed the flames out. The man’s fingers dissolved into water and he rinsed grains of sand off the shell. 

“Who are you?” I said again, even more astonished than the last time I asked it. 

The man looked over at me, and tucked his shades into his jacket pocket, “It doesn’t matter, but next time you are in a position to make a deal with a god, don’t. Not all of them are as gracious as I.” He looked up at the sky, and from the clouds a chariot pulled by two, sterling white pegasus soared down. He boarded the chariot, set the shell to the side, and flicked the reins before disappearing off into the bank of storm clouds. 

“What on Earth just happened?” I asked  myself as the eye of the storm finally moved onwards and I was now left alone in the rain with only my totaled car for company.