Page 3 of Desert Wind

“Yes. I slipped and fell into the reservoir, but it wasn’t deep where I was. I guess,” said Josie with a confused expression.

No one could seem to explain what happened that day. But then again, no one seemed to care. Josie was alive. As the year began to come to a close, Jenna and Nash talked for hours on end after school about their future plans.

“I bet you’re going to college, aren’t you?” he asked.

“That’s the plan,” she said, smiling. She knew it was a lie. She wasn’t going to be able to afford to go to college. Her parents had already told her that it wasn’t a possibility. “What will you do?”

“I’ve joined the Marines,” he said. “I leave for boot camp the week after graduation.”

“I always knew you were someone special, Nash. The Marines seem like a good place for you,” smiled Jenna.

They’d made promises to stay in touch, and for the most part, they’d tried for a while. He wrote twice while in boot camp, and she wrote back. When he returned after boot camp, her parents told him that she’d already left Arizona. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t seem to get a response from Jenna.

He’d made all these plans in his head about what their lives might look like. But things never quite worked out the way they were supposed to.

The Marines turned out to be a great place for him. For the most part, he could hide his gifts and use them only when necessary. None of his teammates knew about it, and he planned to keep it that way.

As a natural warrior, Nash’s gifts became harder to hide. When he helped to save an Afghan village filled with women and children from a fire, the entire unit was suspicious of him. The insurgents had set fire to the entire village, with the women and children locked inside their huts. He couldn’t just stand there and not do something.

But the questions began to swirl almost immediately. How could a rainstorm suddenly appear in a desert? A desert that saw less than two inches of rain a year.

“What happened out there, Nash?” asked one of the men staring at him. He’d watched him open his palms and raise them to the sky.

“What do you mean? It rained. You saw it.” He just shrugged, trying to blow it off, but he knew it wasn’t going to satisfy the men.

“I saw it, but I don’t believe it was just rain. The sky was perfectly clear, Nash. There wasn’t a cloud to be found for a thousand miles. Then you raised a hand to the sky, and it rained.”

“I was praying. That’s all,” he lied. “All those women and kids were going to die. All I did was pray that something would save them. Maybe there was a plane that dropped water.”

But his unit didn’t believe him, and the bonds that typically were forged between Marines were now strained. Nash was watched closely by the men, rarely able to have a moment alone. It felt like old times with his parents.

It would be five years before he reconnected with his childhood friends and realized that the superheroes all still possessed their superhero powers. Only now, they were adults who understood that something had happened to them.

By the time they figured out what happened, they were being chased by the very people that made them this way. Along the way, they lost Gable and then Griffin. It was devastating, especially for Garrett.

Faced with no choice but to find a new home, their wayward band of misfits traveled hundreds of miles on foot to find a place where they might be accepted by others.

Just when they’d found their new life, a new family, Nash was slammed in the face with the memory of the only woman he’d ever loved. Only now, she was untouchable.

CHAPTER TWO

“Jenna? We need to talk, honey,” said her father.

He had a pained expression, and Jenna knew exactly why. As the oldest of the four girls, she’d taken on a lot of responsibility over the years, often acting as a second mother to the younger girls.

“It’s alright, Dad. I already know. You’ve lost your job, Mom lost her part-time work, and there’s no money left for college.”

Her sisters made sure that she knew what was coming. They’d been scared, crying, and unsure of their futures. With Jenna being the oldest, they prayed she would have an answer for them.

“Jenna, I’m so damn sorry,” said her father, shaking his head with embarrassment. “I should have planned better. We thought we would be able to make a life here and provide for you. Provide for your sisters, but it just hasn’t worked out that way. Honestly. Honestly, I thought there might be something coming this way that would help us.”

“Dad, I’ll figure something out,” she smiled. “There’s more than one way to get a college degree, and I’ll find a way to make it happen.”

She’d prayed on it. Slept on it. Researched it. And then prayed again. When that didn’t work, she went to the church to speak with Father George.

“I’m sorry your family is suffering, Jenna. I’ve spoken to your mother, and I know it’s hard on all of you, but especially on you being the oldest.”

“I’m not sure what to do. I can get a job at the grocery store or the mall, but it won’t allow me to live on my own andfeed myself, plus help Mom and Dad. Without a college degree, I’ve got nothing.”

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