Tomorrow’s Light
Written by Drew Clements
Conceptualized by Drew Clements and Bryan Hester
(Part Two - I)

The small neighborhood of Exeter Oaks boasted four streets of modest one and two-story homes. One, in particular, stood out amongst the others as it was surrounded by a freshly painted white picket fence and an obsessively well-kept garden at the front; two perfectly, and freshly, cut squares of grass lined each side of the concrete pathway to the front gate.

The door to the home opened and a lean figure danced playfully down the front steps to the concrete path. Orange and pink colors lit up her body as the sun escaped behind the peak of the house across the street. Her body seemed to exude relaxing warmth that complimented the late afternoon glow.

Tomorrow Rose Hawthorne stepped off the concrete path and onto the lush, healthy bit of grass to her right; she loved the feeling of the moist blades between her toes. The thought of the looming colder weather irritated her because she knew she would be unable to partake in this post-school afternoon tradition much longer. Living in the south had its advantages of typically short and mild winters, but it still frustrated her that in just a few short weeks this would end.

She placed that bitter thought in the back of her mind and stepped back onto the concrete path. Her long slender legs carried her, somewhat gracefully for a sixteen-year-old, to the gate at the end of the path and to the mailbox just beyond it. A strange feeling tapped at her as she opened the mailbox: paranoia. Was someone watching her?

Turning in a full half circle, her vision panned across the neighborhood. Down the street to her left she could see a couple of kids racing their bicycles at the entrance of the neighborhood; in front of her she saw nothing unusual; to the right she watched as a mother and son carried groceries into their home.

Shaking her head, she turned back to the mailbox and removed four letters. As she removed the contents, a sudden sense of where the watching eyes were located came to her; a putrid smell followed just as suddenly, entering her nostrils. Somehow she knew that its location of origin was behind her; up above, in a window perhaps? How would she know that?

She shut the mailbox and studied, at least it would appear so to those watching eyes, the top letter as she turned completely around to face the direction of the smell. Nonchalantly, she glanced up to the second story windows of the house across the street.

Nothing was there.

Weird; she could have sworn…

She sighed and let her gaze lift higher. Her eyes fell upon a most unlikely object. Oddly enough, and apparently not too long ago since she would have remembered such, her neighbors across the street had decided to decorate the peak of their roof with a rather detailed dragon statue. It was a decidedly traditional depiction, at least via her exposure, of a dragon, only drastically smaller in size than its mythical counterpart, of course. It was almost the size of a medium dog in height, except, she guessed, about five feet long from snout to tail.

“They’re so weird.” Tomorrow spoke softly.

Her neighbors were an eccentric couple who had rather odd habits. Only weeks ago, the wife, Sheila Crawford, had paraded around in a potato sack in protest of a new leather goods store that had opened in the mall. Her husband, Jerry Crawford, on the same day insisted upon protesting in the nude outside the mall’s food court doors.

Tomorrow sighed and slipped her eyes to the right in preparation to return back inside the gate, but at that last instant before her peripheral vision, which included the Crawford’s home across the street was gone, movement from up above stopped her. As her eyes returned back to the peak, she saw, to her amazement, the dragon turn its head to meet her stare. Tomorrow blinked twice, took her line of sight from the peak to the ground below, and then rubbed her eyes.

“Well that can’t be right.”

She lifted her eyes back up and saw that, indeed, it was happening.
Had something she ate earlier in the day affected her? Was she hallucinating? Her mind rushed back to the day’s meals; she had a cookie at lunch that didn’t quite taste right, but other than that. She shook her head again. Maybe she just needed to start getting more sleep. Yeah, that’s it!

She looked back up above, fully expecting the creature to be gone.

The dragon seemed just as surprised that Tomorrow had spotted it. Almost mimicking her, it blinked twice in an unbelieving manner. Even though the thing was across the street and high above in low light, she could, amazingly enough, see very well that its eyelids shut from the bottom of its eye upward to the top. Her sudden sight enhancement didn’t faze her as much as seeing the dragon itself. How could she be seeing something that didn’t exist in the first place?

The cookie at lunch, that had to be it.

Obviously alarmed, the dragon lifted itself up from its perched position to full height. Tomorrow could see its scales reflecting the light from the recently lit electric streetlights and the purple and pink of the sky; it was an odd, but strikingly beautiful mixture of colors. From the dragon’s back two appendages rose slowly and, unfolding, revealed themselves to be wings with an impressive five foot span. Tomorrow, her body shaking, began slowly backing up as the creature moved, unsure of what it had planned. Her knees wobbled under the nervous pressure of her trembling body.

“Calm down; it doesn’t see me. Yeah, it… uh, doesn’t see me.” She mumbled under her breath as she moved backward.

She shook off the absurd idea. It was definitely aware of her presence.

At her lower back she felt the top of the fence gate press in. Slowly she lowered her left hand behind her and fumbled with the latch. Her eyes never left the creature; its eyes never left her. She began to curse under her breath as her fingers slapped almost uselessly at the latch; they had become like rubber bands. Ordinarily she’d be able to do this with zero effort, but today… it wasn’t so easy. The nervous energy caused her entire body to shake.

The creature snorted as it watched intently.

“Come on.” She pressed harder with her back against the gate. Finally the latch gave way and the door swung violently open from the pressure of her body against it. She stumbled back, yet kept herself upright.

The dragon, in one quick movement, leapt from the peak and dove toward the front lawn of the Crawford’s house. Two or three feet above the ground its body arched and its flight path shifted toward Tomorrow.

Shocked, after having just saved herself from falling and at the flying monster coming toward her, she tripped over an area where the concrete was uneven and landed hard on her butt. The letters in her hand fell and scattered across the grass to her left.
The dragon’s body swept overhead only about foot away she guessed. A screech left her mouth as she pushed herself completely on her back onto the concrete so as to put as much space between her and the impossible creature as possible. Her eyes never left the beast as it glided effortlessly across her yard and in between the space between her home and her neighbors’. Instinctively, she jumped to her feet and ran toward the fence separating the two properties; her breath came in gasps. Is it coming back to kill me? Where did it go? She poked her head over the fence and looked down the alley, discarding her horrifying thoughts completely. There was no doubt she was interested.
At the end of the alley stood a small metal storage building and various pieces of lawn equipment that her neighbors used.

“Okay, I must be going crazy.” She turned and let her body collapse on the grass below her; a huge sigh filled her body and left it.

“This is insane! I didn’t just see… a dragon, did I? I really need to lay off the cookies. Mom says they’re not good for me!”

Her hands rubbed her eyes and face, “Cookies? I’m insane!”

“Tomorrow?” Her mother called from the front door.

Upon seeing the front gate open and the letters scattered, haphazardly, across the lawn, she stepped out onto the front porch. A pillar obstructed the view to the left, where Tomorrow sat.

“Tomorrow!” Her mother shouted.

“Over here.” Tomorrow called out.

“Are you okay?” Ms. Hawthorne hurried down the cement steps and across the lawn to her daughter.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Tomorrow brushed her long brown hair from her face and looked up. “I’m just hanging out.”

“Here?” Ms. Hawthorne motioned to the immediate area. “Not too worried about bugs, are you?”

“Spiders, yeah, but otherwise not so much.” She smiled at her mother’s question.

“Well, what are you doing? Are you angry?” She looked at the letters on the lawn.

“Didn’t get your twelve CDs for the price of one today?”

Tomorrow laughed. “Yeah, sorry about the mail. I just decided, randomly, to sit. Here… and leave the mail… there.”

“Sometimes I think you have too much time on your hands.” Her mother extended a hand to help her up.

Tomorrow took it and stood. Brushing the grass from her backside, she looked thoughtfully at her mother.

“You ever see things that aren’t there?”

“Yeah. Remember my last boyfriend? I saw personality there, but obviously…” Ms. Hawthorne smiled.

“Ouch.” Tomorrow wandered over to the mail and picked it up.

“Not much like dad, was he?”

“Not at all. Your father was amazing.” Her mother smiled.

“I wish he were still here. I would have loved to have met him.” A bit of sadness came over Tomorrow’s face.

“I know.” Her mother put a hand on her shoulder. “He would be very proud of you.”

“I hope so.”

“Well, go wash up. Dinner is just about done.” Ms. Hawthorne smiled.

Tomorrow ran up the steps and before entering the house, turned and looked back. Her mother stood, arms crossed, looking up at the sky.

“I wish he were still here, so I could have known him… but I’m glad I have you.” She whispered to herself or no one in particular.
 

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